Ron Howard, Anderson .Paak And More Announced For Season 2 Of ‘The Unusual Suspects’ Podcast
The Unusual Suspects podcast hosted by Malcolm Gladwell and Kenya Barris will officially return to Audible for its sophomore season Thursday, Sep. 10 with a mind-blowing roster of talent.
Among the confirmed guests are Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard, nine-time Grammy winner Anderson .Paak, and world-renowned biographer Walter Isaacson, Forbes Entertainment can exclusively confirmed.
“I could not be more pumped to be back at it with my partner-in-podcasting-crime for another season of The Unusual Suspects,” Barris said in a statement. “As a writer, it’s always exciting and interesting getting to really explore someone’s backstory—the obstacles, triumphs, and touchpoints that have shaped their journey and made them who they are today. We have such a great, varied group of guests this season that really allowed us to embrace that endless curiosity, and I can’t wait for listeners to discover these new stories for themselves.”
Added Gladwell: “When you listen to Ron Howard describe transitioning from child actor to Oscar-winning director, or Anderson .Paak talk about building a career outside the traditional music industry machine, you start to see patterns. That’s what fascinates me—how different paths reveal universal principles about persistence, timing, and reinvention.”
All episodes of Season 2 are slated to drop simultaneously, with Gladwell and Barris celebrating the premiere with a live podcast recording at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City with special guest Chelsea Handler (tickets can be purchased here). That episode will drop on Audible sometime in October.
Produced via Barris’s Khalabo Ink Society banner, The Unusual Suspects was created to deliver “raw, unfiltered conversations with some of today’s most influential and fascinating figures,” according to the official synopsis.
“To me, one of the big draws was that I was going to talk to people who I wouldn’t normally think of talking to," Gladwell explained to Deadline at SXSW 2025. “Same, I think, is true of Kenya. It’s a way of vicariously experiencing someone else’s interests.”
The debut season featured such guests as Dr. Dre, Jimmy Kimmel, Ava DuVernay, and David Chang. Head below for the complete Season 2 lineup!
All episodes of The Unusual Suspects Season 2 exclusively premiere on Audible Thursday, Sep. 10.