You Must Remember This

Karina Longworth has been telling the stories Hollywood tried to bury since 2014, and she does it better than just about anyone. Each season of You Must Remember This picks a theme — the Hollywood blacklist, the romantic entanglements of Howard Hughes, Joan Crawford's complicated legacy — and builds out meticulously researched narrative episodes that read more like audio documentaries than typical podcast fare. Longworth writes, narrates, records, and edits every episode herself, which gives the whole thing a consistent voice that feels deeply personal even when covering larger-than-life subjects. With 275 episodes across 20 seasons and a 4.6-star rating from over 14,000 reviewers, this is the show that most classic film podcasts get measured against. The production quality is genuinely impressive — thoughtful sound design, careful pacing, no filler. Recent episodes have tackled Frank Capra's final years in Hollywood and Fritz Lang's late-career struggles, plus flashback episodes revisiting The African Queen and Peter Bogdanovich's complicated personal history. The show has also spawned a companion series, You Must Remember Manson, focused specifically on the Manson Family's Hollywood connections. If you only listen to one old Hollywood podcast, this is probably the one. Fair warning though: once you start a season, you will absolutely binge the whole thing. The storytelling is that compelling.