After originally trying to sneak podcast suggestions in with your song recommendations, Spotify has come up with a better way to suggest shows tailored to your tastes: curated podcast playlists.
Spotify rolled out its new playlists today, including one geared toward true crime fans. The first three curated lists are Crime Scene, Brain Snacks, and Best Podcasts of the Week. All episodes are handpicked by Spotify editors who assemble the lists and curate them based on location—a playlist in the U.S. will look a little different than one in the U.K. The new playlists are launching first in the U.S., Germany, Sweden, the U.K., Mexico, and Brazil.
The Crime Scene playlist includes episodes from Dateline NBC, The Last Podcast on the Left, Serial Killers, and other new and established podcasts ranging in topics from a 4-month-long exorcism to the adventures of Joe Exotic. (Inexplicably, My Favourite Murder didn’t make the cut.)
If murder and mayhem aren’t your jam, Brain Snacks is a curated list of bite-sized episodes that answer random questions you may or may not have ever wondered about. Currently, you can learn about the history of the exclamation mark, how prehistoric parents fed their children, American feminist and activist Shirley Willer, and other wonderful, random topics you can whip out the next time you’re at a party making small talk with a total stranger. (When will that be allowed? No one knows, but it’s good to be prepared.)
For those looking for a grab-bag of content, there’s the Best Podcasts of the Week, which, as the name suggests, changes on a weekly basis based on what’s currently popular.
“You’ll find our recommendations of the most noteworthy, culturally relevant, and important shows here, updated every Tuesday,” according to Spotify.
The podcasts vary in length, but right now you can listen to episodes from The New York Times’ Rabbit Hole, Latino USA, Next Stop, and others.
To listen to to any of these podcast playlists, open up Spotify on the web or on your desktop and type the name into the search bar. Make sure to note the ‘Spotify’ byline so you know you have the right playlist. (There’s a band called The Next Stop, and while they have some good music, that’s definitely not the playlist you’re looking for.)
Spotify has also added a new functionality for podcasters called playlist notifications, which sends an alert whenever an editor has added an episode from your podcast to one of Spotify’s curated lists.