Morgan McNaught

There’s no real discussion of the year’s best podcasts so far without addressing the apocalyptic elephant in the room: Many series were compelled to pivot their content to coronavirus-related storytelling beginning in March, while others bent over backwards to explain themselves as they released non-COVID-related episodes they had obviously batch-recorded weeks earlier.

SmartLess Brad Paisley Will Arnett, Sean Hayes, and Jason Bateman have come together to host SmartLess, a podcast in which they each take turns bringing in a surprise guest only revealed to the other two once the recording starts. As a trio, the actors’ conversation is natural, funny, and refreshingly casual, and that continues on in this episode: Arnett is responsible this time around for bringing in the mystery guest, who just so happens to be country superstar Brad Paisley.

How Did This Get Made? Zack Snyder’s Justice League (w/Griffin Newman, David Sims) HDTGM is the go-to podcast for going deep on mediocre movies. And what film is more arguably mediocre than the storied Snyder Cut? Hosts Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas (June Diane Raphael was absent this episode) are joined by Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims to discuss the polarizing behemoth that is Zack Snyder’s Justice League.