From beloved British humorists and "good hangs" to AI debates and the history of heroism, BBC features journalists pick their favourite podcasts of the year for you to listen to and watch.

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, the remote Javari Valley is rife with illegal mining, environmental crimes and Indigenous communities battling for their own survival. That's what led British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous defender Bruno Pereira there in 2022, when they suddenly disappeared. This excellent investigation into their murders is a true crime podcast in only the literal sense. Avoiding the often-exploitative pitfalls of the genre, it's far more about who they were in life – and why they undertook the risks they did – than how they died. It's sensitively, often emotionally, handled by Guardian journalist Tom Phillips, a friend (but not a relative) of Dom. In just six episodes it manages to concisely explain the wider geopolitical crimes and complications that led them there in the first place – as well as trying to solve the many unanswered questions around their deaths. (Tom Heyden)

Listen on The Guardian

Once shamed and vilified, Monica Lewinsky has since set about rebuilding her life and reclaiming her own narrative. In the first episode of her aptly titled podcast, Lewinsky is her own guest, as she explores arrestingly the aftermath of her 1998 affair with the then US President Bill Clinton, describing how she survived the scandal and her pariah status. In the episodes that follow she is in the host's chair, chatting to guests – including Ronan Farrow, Miley Cyrus and Chelsea Handler – with particular attention to moments of trauma they have experienced. Lewinsky has an engaging, sweary style that makes for a good rapport with her interviewees and some funny and moving moments. (Lindsay Baker)

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Charlie Fitzgerald was the charismatic proprietor of a legendary but now largely forgotten nightclub in the sultry seaside resort of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which through the late-1930s, 40s and 50s attracted every black music luminary from Little Richard and Marvin Gaye to Billie Holliday and Otis Redding. Years before desegregation, Charlie's Place ignored the South's "Jim Crow" laws, providing a space for black and white people to dance together. This five-part series attempts to unlock the mystery of the complex, Gatsbyesque Charlie, speaking to local characters who remember the time, and the events that lead up to the night he is brutally attacked by the Ku Klux Klan. With a rich soundscape and lively narration by film-maker Rhym Guissé, Charlie's Place explores the joyful and terrifying extremes of US history through one man's life. It's a bewitching – and moving – listen. (Rebecca Laurence)

Listen on Pushkin, Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Following the likes of Sweet Bobby and Can I Tell You a Secret?, Stalked offers another disturbing, compelling account of online deception – journeying through one woman's experience of being cyber-stalked, and........

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