5 podcasts you may have missed this spring

Spring was another bountiful season for podcast listeners, with several new binge-worthy shows and the return of a true crime podcast OG. From poignant advice about the wonders of old age to an emotional look at connecting with lost family, these five podcasts from spring are worth (re)visiting before summer arrives.

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Lemonada)

Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast "where she talks to older (and wiser) women" is back for its second season, said The Guardian. Her guest list is jam-packed with legends like Billie Jean King, Patti Smith and Sally Field, among other "sensational subjects offering pure inspiration." If you are looking for an unabashed look at the ups and downs of getting older, this podcast is a gem. Louis-Dreyfus said the podcast has "unbrainwashed" her thoughts on aging. "I can't tell you how many people have come up to me to tell me that our conversations with older women have truly made them look forward to getting older," she said. "You can see why," said The Guardian's Hannah Verdier. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.

Serial (The New York Times)

The team, probably best known for producing the podcast that led to Adnan Syed's release, is back with their fourth season, this time telling the infamous history of Guantánamo Bay told to people who have experienced its evolution firsthand. Host Sarah Koenig notes that this season is a culmination of work the team has been doing for nearly as long as their podcast has been around. "Even as Guantánamo faded as a topic of national discussion, we kept thinking about it," she said. 

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The latest season is built around short stories that draw from the direct testimony of detainees and staff, using a similar unserialized format as their third season. This time, "Serial" is not setting out to solve a mystery but to "piece together the sense experience of a place," Vulture said. The team's focus on this topic is "perfectly aligned" with what they have built in the past: "Dust off the machinery of power and render its parts visible." Listen on Apple Music, Spotify, or The New York Times. 

Truth Be Told Presents: She Has a Name (American Public Media) 

Radio show co-host of "Fresh Air" Tonya Mosley joins forces with her nephew to fill in the blanks about a family mystery thirty years in the making. The story begins with Mosley learning that she had a sister named Anita, who she never knew about growing up in Detroit. Wiley, who happens to be Anita's son, reaches out to his aunt after a DNA test verified that the unidentified remains left in a building 30 years prior were his long-lost mother. The pair team up to recover what they can of Anita's life story, which "refracts into a parallel history of a city ravaged by the '80s drug epidemic," Vulture said. The show delivers a "fascinating and heartfelt work of memory and memorializing." Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.

Fur & Loathing (Brazen)

British journalist and host Nicky Woolf turns her investigative eye toward a 2014 attack at a furry gathering that hospitalized 19 people and has yet to be solved. Woolf looks into the chlorine gas attack on the Midwest FurFest convention, where guests gathered dressed in anthropomorphic animal costumes, and the short-lived FBI investigation that led to a decade-old cold case. Despite being one of the largest domestic terror attacks on U.S. soil, the incident was mocked by much of the media. Woolf shares some of the reports from 2014, and "suffice to say, there is a lot of sniggering," said the Financial Times. By contrast, he "makes a point of taking the furry fandom seriously", which is apparent in the respect he pays his subjects. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.

The Price of Paradise (Wondery)

Another cold case investigative podcast that launched in the spring, "The Price of Paradise" tells the story of ex-Playboy Bunny Jayne Gaskin, who bought a private island off the coast of Nicaragua. What follows is a tale of how her family left their life in England and became "embroiled in controversy, corruption and kidnap," The Guardian said. Host Alice Levine's "humorous delivery and script tweaks are a highlight," The Guardian's Miranda Sawyer said in a review. The series is "simply a madly freaky roller-coaster tale, made even more fun by Levine's genuinely 'they did whaaaat?' commentary." Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.