--- description: Find out why "Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People" is on TIME's list of the 100 best podcasts of all time. title: 'Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People' Is on The 100 Best Podcasts of All Time image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf94d3dbb9df76fbe/6998c86e93610c01ccc2fd46/Best-Podcasts-2025-Beautiful-Anonymous-008.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jul 23, 2025 # Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People Where strangers tell all by [Shannon Carlin](/author/shannon-carlin/) ## Shannon Carlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Carlin is a contributor for TIME.  **_Society_** The taglineof _Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People_ is simple enough: “One phone call. One hour. No names. No holds barred.” Since 2016, the podcast’s host, comedian and author Chris Gethard, has been opening up the phone lines to anyone who wants to anonymously get something off their chest. Sometimes people call in to chat about escaping a cult, what it’s like dating while disabled, orhow an [injury they suffered during sex](https://www.earwolf.com/episode/sex-injury/ "undefined") changed their perspective on aging. Other times the caller is [a Las Vegas shooting survivor](https://www.earwolf.com/episode/i-survived-a-mass-shooting/ "undefined") looking to help herself by helping others or an astrophysics researcher working through the grief of [losing both her husband and son](https://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-whirlpool-galaxy/ "undefined"). Gethard just lets them talk. He has to; the one rule of the intimate weekly show, which has recorded more than 500 episodes, is that he can’t hang up first. Whether these random callers leave listeners laughing or crying (often it’s both), Gethard’s objective is to have the most honest interaction possible. He’s always striving for absolute truth in all of his work, which has earned him a rapturous cult following, from his 2017 HBO special [_Career Suicide_](https://time.com/4767866/chris-gethard-career-suicide-hbo/ "undefined") to his pioneering live variety show, [_The Chris Gethard Show_](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfWTNhVnrYRGEDH06XUzdu5%5F-irFqzDKX "undefined") (2011-2018), a stroke of unfiltered comic genius that felt ahead of its time. With _Beautiful/Anonymous,_ complete strangers are given a safe space to be as open as humanly possible. But this seemingly basic format only works because of Gethard, a self-deprecating, punk-rock-loving New Jersey native who offers a master class in empathy, compassion, and kindness every time he picks up the phone. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-podcasts/7303047/beautiful-stories-from-anonymous-people/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-podcasts/7303047/beautiful-stories-from-anonymous-people/"},"headline":"Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People","datePublished":"2025-07-23T11:04:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:51:46.951Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-podcasts/7303047/beautiful-stories-from-anonymous-people/","keywords":["podcasts","list","Podcast","Special Project"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf94d3dbb9df76fbe/6998c86e93610c01ccc2fd46/Best-Podcasts-2025-Beautiful-Anonymous-008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shannon Carlin","jobTitle":"Carlin is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/shannon-carlin/"}],"creator":"Shannon Carlin","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf94d3dbb9df76fbe/6998c86e93610c01ccc2fd46/Best-Podcasts-2025-Beautiful-Anonymous-008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/podcasts/","name":"podcasts"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-podcasts/7303047/beautiful-stories-from-anonymous-people/","name":"Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People"}}]}] ```