Audiophile: Our Favorite Road-Trip Albums, Audiobooks and Podcasts of 2024
(Clockwise) Riverhead Books; Garden & Gun; Capitol Records; Graywolf Press; New Hampshire Public Radio; Random House; The New York Times; Reprise
We won't knock driving in silence because silence is golden, but that's for a short grocery store or UPS outing. It's a good time to organize your thoughts, take inventory of impending tasks or bask in gratitude. But road trips, for those, we need to be enveloped in sound. We need to hear brilliant minds tell their stories through song or in narrative form. And in 2024 we racked up a lot of listening hours. Here are our favorite albums, podcasts and audiobooks—both new and classic—for the road.
Podcasts
VARNUMTOWN / EIGHT EPISODES, 2024
Some of us have a sweet spot for Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Atlantic Crossing, etc). Others love shaggy crime tales about small towns. This show is for both.
CAMP MONSTERS / SEASON SIX, FROM SEPT 15
The wildly, spookily entertaining REI show about strange creatures and legendary beasts roams again.
NATURE REVISITED / EPISODE 125: BOYCE UPHOLT (JULY 8, 2024)
A seasoned natural-world interview series sits down with the author of The Great River, an acclaimed investigation of the mighty Mississippi.
OUTSIDE/IN / “YOU CAN MAKE KIDS HIKE, BUT YOU CAN’T MAKE THEM HIKERS” (MARCH 7, 2024)
True, that. This stalwart New Hampshire Public Radio show goes wide and deep on outdoorsy topics. This relatable take on family dynamics is a great trailhead.
ANIMAL / EPISODE 3, MAY 30, 2024
Journalist Sam Anderson took a six-episode ramble through the animal world this spring. His swim with Florida’s sea cows is pick of the litter.
Garden & Gun crafts engaging audio profiles of top-tier fishing, hunting and outdoorsfolk. Yarns upon yarns.
Acclaimed filmmaker David Modigliani and actor Stanley Tucci weave an epic but intimate saga of a family's escape from Italy's Fascist regime. Already a prize-winner at the prestigious Tribeca podcast fest.
TOOTH AND CLAW, "THE WORST FIRST CAMPING TRIP" / APRIL 22, 2024
Three chatty bros dissect true stories of animal attacks—like this gem, of a taekwondo dad versus a rampaging black bear.
The new season of KCRW’s music-history podcast excavates twisty tales and hot songs from the vintage Los Angeles soul scene.
INTO AMERICA: “HARLEM ON MY MIND” / FEBRUARY 2021
NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens a buzzy Harlem Renaissance exhibition in February. Bring the energy to a dashboard near you: This four-episode run dives deep into one enigmatic Jacob Lawrence painting. Atmospheric and smart.
Audiobooks
Mother Nature by Jedidiah Jenkins
Acclaimed memoirist hits the road with his mom, seeks understanding across divided belief systems.
Gives mesmerizing voice to a magical-realist Southern journey.
A couple navigates the cultural divide between their families via Cape Cod and Catskills vacations. Could be worse!
THE SERVICEBERRY by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The acclaimed Indigenous author of Braiding Sweetgrass expounds on generosity and community. “It makes you happy—and it makes you accountable.”
CAHOKIA JAZZ by Francis Spufford
A 1920s noir-style detective story ... set in an alternative timeline's Native American metropolis. We're in.
THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR by Hanif Abdurraqib
The acclaimed author and podcaster reads his own heartfelt ode to basketball.
SEASON OF THE SWAMP by Yuri Herrera
An imaginative leap goes back to 1850s New Orleans and a lost tale from the life of Mexican national hero Benito Juarez.
DOROTHY PARKER IN HOLLYWOOD by Gail Crowther
A biographical tracking shot of sorts follows the sharp-witted literary legend to Tinseltown, and some of the 20th Century’s most vivid controversies.
A WALK IN THE PARK by Kevin Fedarko
The author of The Emerald Mile returns to the Grand Canyon for a brutally beautiful hike in the chasm. He narrates himself, mile by sweaty mile.
THE SEVENTH VEIL OF SALOME by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
In 1950s Hollywood, a Mexican ingenue is cast as Salome, the New Testament's enigmatic vamp. A technicolor drama woven through with Salome's time-jumping perspective.
Albums
ALL SUMMER LONG — THE BEACH BOYS (1964)
“Put on a ragged sweatshirt, I’ll take you anywhere you want me to.” Visualize Cali sun, 60 years back.
PATTERNS IN REPEAT — LAURA MARLING
The Grammy nominee’s chiming “Patterns”: perfect for coffee time at a late-fall campsite.
CRAWFISH FIESTA —PROFESSOR LONGHAIR (1980)
Seeking New Orleans verve for Mardi Gras, but you're not anywhere close? Transport to the psychic heart of Crescent City with this rollicking ride, laid down at legendary Sea-Saint Studios. Dr. John on guitar—you know it.
Party down for 50 years of this funky slab of 1974 New Orleans soul, with Aaron Nev- ille as master of ceremonies.
WOODLAND — GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS
This tandem’s first album of new songs since 2017 hits a loping, ambling country-jam gait on its opener, “Empty Trainload of Sky.”
LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX NEW WEST RECORDS
Fall 2024 brought the 50th anniversary of Austin City Limits, PBS staple and north star for creative and clas- sic-minded country stars. Almost as venerable, this New West Records series puts iconic ACL sessions on wax (and Spotify). Our pick: Dwight Yoakam, 1988: twangy, waltzy and fierce.
Retro-vibe Latin instrumental groove with surf and Cuban notes. This cool, sharp-dressed trio is a.k.a. the Los Angeles League of Musicians.
I AM SHELBY LYNNE - SHELBY LYNNE (1999)
It was her sixth studio album in a decade, but Lynne nabbed a Best New Artist Grammy soon after making it. Its re-release celebrates 25 years of lines like "crickets spreadin' rumors by the shoreline" and Lynne's soulful, genre-bending delivery.
Judging by the pulsing first single, the latest from the don’t-call-us- folk English folk duo* will push you down the highway with vintage energy and fistfuls of melody. (*Down from a trio—one Staveley-Taylor sister dropped out.)
FEARLESS MOVEMENT - KAMASI WASHINGTON
Both throwback and futuristic! This instant classic by the modern jazz star has the windows-down verve of a 1970s double album, but its extended jams aim at the horizon too.
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