Podcasts about Phoenix, Arizona

More Phoenix podcasting is about the Suns than about anything else. On this page that argument comes from PHNX Suns Podcast, whose clips deal with a short-handed team, a string of close losses and whether playoff experience counts for anything against a younger opponent. The rest of the listening is mostly civic. The Phoenix Police Department explains lighting, landscaping and locks. The Greater Phoenix Chamber gets Doug Ducey talking about school choice and TSMC. A local explainer asks why Route 66 doesn't go through Phoenix. Further out are a cold-case documentary about a 17-year-old last seen in the city and a vampire serial that passes through Papago Park.

What Phoenix is

Phoenix is the capital and largest city of Arizona. It sits at the center of a sprawling Sonoran Desert metro area known locally as the Valley, or the Valley of the Sun. The city is known for extreme summer heat and decades of rapid growth, and it is home to the NBA's Suns and the WNBA's Mercury.

The Suns, argued out loud

Erik Ruby, Gil McGregor, Stephen PridGeon-Garner and Espo share the table on PHNX Suns Podcast. It sounds like a panel of invested basketball people reacting in real time, with enough tactical knowledge to keep it from turning into pure venting. Fan phrases like "kick the door in" and "you did what you were supposed to do" sit right next to talk of blow-by rate, switching schemes and closing lineups. In one clip a host asks Tim Legler about a losing stretch. Legler says there is something to take from close, short-handed losses, though he adds, "I'm not a guy that believes in moral victories". In another clip from the same episode, he argues that the young Spurs' inexperience could give the Suns a house-money feeling in a series. The run of episode titles stays on the play-in: the matchup with Portland, "Why Devin Booker vs. Deni Avdija will DECIDE Suns-Trail Blazers Play-In Game", and whether Kawhi Leonard would be too much for Phoenix.

The team also comes up in business talk. A clip from the Let's Talk Business Phoenix episode "Season 4 Episode 14: Building a Global Sports Empire in Phoenix with the Suns & Mercury" explains that the Suns group wanted Phoenix to act like a $4 billion company and saw the city as an untapped market.

Growth, asked about two ways

Valley 101 and Let's Talk Business Phoenix both deal with how the metro is changing, and both get to TSMC. Valley 101 is the curious one. Its titles are questions ("Why is there a pool at Chase Field?", "How many people live in Phoenix?", "What time is it actually in Arizona?"). It sounds like a smart local explainer: conversational, often built around an interview, moving from a concrete hook out to the larger explanation. A clip from "What are the upcoming projects in the Valley for 2026?" says TSMC's North Phoenix campus could reach three square miles, with Halo Vista and North Park around it. Other clips range across the state. One pairs the Smithsonian's figure that one in four cowboys were Black with Tricia Martineau Wagner's explanation of why so few of their stories were recorded. It also lays out a career ladder that ran from wrangler up to trail boss and ranch owner. Another follows Joan Miners, who survived a 22-mile-per-hour crash and then crossed Arizona on a mountain bike carrying camping gear.

Let's Talk Business Phoenix, from the Greater Phoenix Chamber, questions the people running things. It is a measured conversation between two voices, polished rather than hard-edged, with broad, practical questions meant to draw out usable lessons. In his episode, Doug Ducey calls recruiting TSMC the biggest deal he was involved in, with Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper on calls. He says Arizona cut about 3,000 regulations, which he frames as an estimated $183 million annual tax cut. He also argues that leading means persuading, with school choice as his example: "It seemed like a pipe dream in 2014." The run of titles names Banner Health CEO Amy Perry, Honeywell Aerospace and Columbia Bank, alongside "Candidate Conversations" episodes with Governor Katie Hobbs, Congressman David Schweikert and Congressman Andy Biggs.

The police department's own show

The Phoenix Police Department produces The Call Box Podcast. Its episode titles are only dates, so the clips show what it covers. In one, a father named Matthew is asked what he would want the average officer to know when speaking with his autistic son, Simon. He says a parent in his position has to decide, "am I going to parent to the behavior or to the state of mind first?" His point for officers is that on a stressful call, they should address the state of mind before correcting the behavior. In other clips, Phoenix police sergeants explain the three L's of crime prevention through environmental design (lighting, landscaping and locks), and Chief Matt Giordano says he wants every employee to lead, engage and feel empowered at every level.

A cold case and a vampire serial

These two Phoenix shows are older, and both carry content warnings.

The cold case belongs to Alissa Turney, who was 17 when she was last seen in Phoenix. Missing Alissa is a documentary about it, and its clips come from Update episodes of 2018 that deal with abuse. One clip, from "Update 7: Secrets of a family", moves from Donna Russell's own account of sexual abuse when she was 14 to James Turney beating her and shooting her three times with hollow-point bullets. Another concerns a letter in which he wrote her that true love can turn into true hate and self-destruction. In "Update 6: Cycle of Abuse", Jamie recalls Michael Turney coming to her bedroom doorway and asking if she wanted a back rub.

Lilith's Love is narrated vampire fiction from 2010, set in Phoenix. Donovan moves back home from Los Angeles, and vampire hunters find Lilith in New Orleans. In the clips, Malcolm, who is more than 500 years old, admits that a nameless Master controls him through fear. When a stake fails to kill the ancient Master, Michael brings Lilith a wood axe, and the Master reveals that Alexander has been reincarnated again and again over three hundred years. In one scene, Lilith compares how Malcolm looks in Michael's office with how he looked at Papago Park. The language is explicit.

Where to start

• Basketball: PHNX Suns Podcast, and the Tim Legler clip on close losses and the young Spurs.
• How the Valley got this way: Valley 101, especially the Black cowboys clip and the one on TSMC's North Phoenix campus.
• Civic Phoenix: Let's Talk Business Phoenix for Doug Ducey on persuasion and TSMC, or The Call Box Podcast for Matthew on autism and police calls.
• True crime: Missing Alissa, with the warnings above.

The Phoenix feed on this page plays clips from these shows.