The NPR Politics Podcast

The NPR Politics Podcast has been the gold standard for daily political news coverage since 2015, and it is not hard to see why. Every weekday afternoon, a rotating cast of NPR's sharpest political correspondents -- Tamara Keith, Sarah McCammon, Miles Parks, and others -- sit down for a quick, punchy rundown of whatever just happened in Washington. Episodes clock in at around 12 to 27 minutes, which makes them perfect for a commute or a lunch break. What makes this show stand out from the pack is the depth of NPR's reporting bench. You are not getting one person's take recycled five days a week. Instead, the host changes depending on the story, so the White House correspondent covers the president, the voting correspondent covers elections, and the justice reporter handles the courts. That specialization means you are actually getting informed analysis rather than surface-level punditry. The tone stays conversational without being flippant. These are real journalists who have spent years building sources and covering their beats, and that experience shows up in the way they explain not just what happened but why it matters. They rarely get into shouting matches or performative outrage. The show has maintained a 4.4 rating across more than 25,000 reviews, and it earned that reputation by being consistently reliable across two thousand episodes and counting. If you want one politics podcast that gives you the straight story without wasting your time, this is the one.