Podcast picks: The Memorial Day edition

Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer, is upon us. The city's music scene will be buzzing ahead of the Boston Calling music festival. While there will be some raindrops over the weekend, Saturday is looking like a great day to hit the beach.

Of course, if the idea of a good time during a long weekend is a respite from work or school, I got you. As someone who believes in staycations in your own home, there's no better time to cozy up with a podcast playing in the background than a long weekend.

Ahead of the holiday, I asked around the newsroom for some podcast recommendations and they range from true crime and mystery to light-hearted comedies. Here are the top picks:

This series felt familiar and at the same time brand new. As told in Sarah Koenig's narrative style and voice, this story unfolds over years and as cleanly as possible ties together the many loose ends of 9/11, various conflicts in the Middle East, and the U.S. relationship with criminal justice.

—Amy Gorel, senior editor of digital news.

Hosted by Jake Johnson of "New Girl" fame and comedian Gareth Reynolds (co-host of "The Dollop" podcast), the duo helps callers tackle the (often ridiculous) problems in their lives. From the discontinuation of very specific sparkling water flavor to trying to ditch a weird massage therapist, Jake and Gareth propose different ways to solve the issues, mostly in unhinged ways. The podcast started in August last year and comes out bi-weekly.

I find it to be a nice comedic break from the hectic news of the day. My favorite episodes are the ones with follow-ups from previous callers. What would you do if you found out your pet sitter was filming adult content in your house? Or how do you find peace and quiet when living next door to a noisy pickleball court? It's amazing how many people will take advice from strangers, much to my entertainment.

—Dianna Bell, senior editor of arts and culture.

Host Matt Katz is uniquely positioned to tell the story at the center of Inconceivable Truth because, well, he's lived it. What seemingly begins as a journey to understand his biological father turns into a search for his actual biological father.

He finds half siblings along the way, explains the not-widely-known insemination technique of decades past at the center of his biological mix-up, and even pauses to ask whether he should be embarking on this journey at all.

—Amory Sivertson, host and senior producer for podcasts.

After season two of the Spotify podcast (then a Spotify/Gimlet podcast) won both a Pulitzer and Peabody award last year, it was safe to assume that this next season of Stolen would be very, very good. Spoiler alert: it was.

Season 3 takes the listener to the Navajo Nation and focuses on two women who have gone missing and are presumed dead. Host Connie Walker and her team discover the link between these women and shine a light on what has prevented these cases from being solved. The reporting is as thoughtful as it is thorough, which is truly Stolen's specialty.

—Amory Sivertson, host and senior producer for podcasts.

The newest season of Normal Gossip is out now, and it's a great low-stakes listen for a summery weekend.

The first two episodes of the season, "A Beautiful Blood Celebrity with Ronald Young Jr." and "All the World is Rollerblades with Marlena Rodriguez," are both laugh-out-loud hilarious.

—Katie Cole, associate digital producer.

Of course, we recommend some of our own podcasts too.

In Season 4 of Last Seen, "Postmortem," WBUR reporter Ally Jarmanning dives into the stolen bodies of Harvard and the gray market for human remains. Jarmanning takes listeners on a journey to find out what happened at Harvard Medical School and how body parts were stolen and sold across the country.

The five-part narrative series takes listeners across state lines to places like Pennsylvania and New York, but it also delves into the dark history of using human remains to advance research.

True crime, mystery, and a touch of family betrayal.

WBUR's Amory Sivertson takes listeners on an extensive journey to find the real truth to Sophia Johnson's story, a woman who was accused of murdering her mother-in-law but insisted that she didn't commit the crime. It's a he-said-she-said case with a complex web of family secrets only to be unraveled decades later.

This is a 10-part true crime investigation that takes listeners on a path filled with some unexpected twists that eventually end with an answer.

If you're someone who's fascinated by weird internet culture, Endless Thread is the podcast to go. But more specifically, "The Music Man," a two-part podcast episode that dissects an ad by a wild-haired concert pianist who claims he can make any beginner a virtuoso in months.

Endless Thread producer Grace Tatter joins hosts Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson in uncovering what Redditors claimed to be a scam that's really a cover to recruit Scientologists.

Check out the first and second part.