You could spend yet another evening deciding what to watch...or you could let Ina Garten make you a drink. This month's podcast lineup includes an invitation to her New York apartment, a few awkward dates with Amelia Dimoldenberg, and ghost stories from Spooked for anyone ready to get into the Halloween spirit.
Whether you want a mystery to follow, strangers’ gossip to get invested in, or a conversation to keep you company while making dinner, there’s plenty to queue up. Here are eight podcasts and internet shows to watch and listen to this month.
The Woman in the Woods
For morning walks when you want a reported mystery to dig your teeth into, The Woman in the Woods offers a six-part investigation from 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty into the death of Mindi Kassotis. Here's the story: Kassotis’s friends were told she had died in a hospital. Later, they were told her husband had died, too. But the discovery of a woman’s remains outside Savannah, Georgia, raised questions about those accounts. The series follows investigators’ efforts to uncover what happened, combining reporting with interviews.
Launched Sept. 16, it also has a video edition featuring previously unseen footage and photographs. Start at the beginning and make room for the full investigation.
How to watch/listen: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other listening platforms.
Chicken Shop Date
Cuffing season is approaching, but Amelia Dimoldenberg is preparing to leave the dating scene. Her celebrity interview series Chicken Shop Date begins its final run on Oct. 2, bringing its famously awkward flirtations and chicken-shop encounters toward a close after 12 years. Dimoldenberg’s deadpan questions have a way of making even practiced interview subjects lose their footing, which is half the pleasure of watching. If you’ve somehow avoided her date with Andrew Garfield, start there before joining the farewell tour. Autumn already makes us a little sentimental; this won't help.
How to watch: YouTube
Happy Hour with Ina Garten
Sweater weather practically demands an invitation to Ina Garten’s apartment. Her new weekly interview show, which launched Sept. 16, brings guests from food, entertainment, sports, and the arts to her New York City home for drinks and conversation. The appeal is familiar to anyone who has watched Barefoot Contessa: Garten knows how to make having people over feel both special and entirely manageable. Kate McKinnon joins her in the first episode, making it an easy place to start. Put this on while preparing for your own fall dinner party, even if the guest list is just you.
How to watch/listen: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Ominous Thrill
If your Halloween viewing plans already include slashers, ghosts, and body horror, Ominous Thrill can extend the program to your headphones. The fiction anthology uses full casts and immersive sound to bring its dark stories to life. Its newest season, "Her Horrorween," launched Oct. 1 with a collection of 15 stories celebrating horror written by women, spanning psychological, folk, supernatural, and other forms of terror. Start with the season’s introduction and choose a story that suits your appetite for scares. Those increasingly dark evenings should provide plenty of atmosphere.
How to listen: Apple Podcasts and Ominous Thrill’s website.
Normal Gossip
A long drive through the foliage is way better with gossip, even when you don’t know anyone involved. Normal Gossip turns listener-submitted stories about everyday people into funny, winding conversations, with host Rachelle Hampton and a guest unpacking strangers' questionable decisions. The show has been running since 2022, so there’s a substantial archive to explore. For an October starting point, try "Paranormal Activity" with Amber Singletary, featuring a blended family, a spectral presence, and a late-night witch hotline. Come for the seasonal intrigue; stay because you suddenly need to know how someone else’s business ends.
How to listen: Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
ICYMI
Your screen time may creep up as the evenings get darker, but keeping up with the internet shouldn’t require spending all night scrolling. Slate’s ICYMI, hosted by Kate Lindsay, unpacks online trends, controversies, and the ways technology shapes everyday life twice a week. Recent discussions have covered vertical microdramas, AI doomsday predictions, and what happens when someone actually swaps their smartphone for a dumbphone. That last conversation, "No Phones? No Problem," is a good starting point if your fall reset includes putting your phone down more often. You can still be informed while taking a long walk with your hands in your coat pockets.
How to listen: Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Spooked
The leaves are changing, the Halloween decorations are going up, and Spooked is returning with more reasons to keep a light on. Hosted by Glynn Washington, the series features people recounting experiences they believe were supernatural, putting the person who lived through each encounter at the center of the story. Its 11th season, "The Spooked Field Guide to the Shadow," begins Oct. 2, with new episodes scheduled weekly throughout the month. If you want to get acquainted before then, the archive has plenty of haunted homes, strange encounters, and unsettling journeys to choose from. Perhaps save the solitary evening walk for another show.
How to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeart.
Gerbil
October is urban-legend season, and Gerbil examines one that has followed a Hollywood star for decades. The new series from The Hollywood Reporter follows investigative journalist Allen Salkin as he traces the notorious, unsubstantiated Richard Gere rumor through documents and interviews, asking how it spread and why it endured. Launched Sept. 17, it offers an internet-culture angle on the stories people repeat because someone, somewhere, insists they know someone who was there. Queue it up for a rainy autumn afternoon when you have time to follow a rabbit hole — or, in this case, a different rodent entirely.
How to listen: Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
