One problem with an abundance of choice is that, sometimes, the noise can drown out the signal—there’s something seemingly tailor-made for everyone, but that means it’s that much harder to sift through and discover your own goldilocks preference, even among the best podcasts.

In the same way that it’s difficult to find local musicians that fit your taste without a mixtape from a friend or a showcase at a neighborhood bar, with over nine hundred thousand podcasts and thirty million episodes available on streaming services today (which means, assuming an average length per episode of forty-three minutes, twenty-one and a half million hours of podcast content), it's nearly impossible to know where to begin.

If the wide world of podcasts is a haystack full of elusive needles, Start Hear is your friendly neighborhood pin cushion, offering up a motley selection of sharp picks from the best podcasts every week so you can be wise to the best podcasts on offer from your city and nationwide and NPR podcasts from member stations in cities across the country.

Hosted by WVXU’s own Tripp Eldredge, Start Hear always keeps you guessing with a Russian roulette randomness that promises suggestions of the trendy and up-and-coming from all corners of the internet—popular NPR podcasts mixed in with top picks from independent producers nationwide as well as hometown favorites.

One episode might (and almost always does) include such disparate topics as unsolved murders and Chippendale Dancers, medical history and the restaurant industry, Hollywood behind the scenes and blood banking, funeral homes and country music (and yes, each pairing of subjects here appears together in a single episode from our archives). Whether you want to hear more about a particular topic or find local musicians, Start Hear will point you in the right direction with weekly episodes and a deep back catalog of featured podcasts.

You can listen to Start Hear wherever NPR podcasts are found—on streaming services, the NPR One app, or on a variety of smart speakers and devices.

Plus, don't miss the Start Hear Collections for more Cincinnati Public Radio podcasts, curated recommendations from Tripp, the staff and listeners of WVXU. You can make a recommendation too!