If you listen to any podcast(s) you recommend, tell us about it
99 Percent Invisible
Wide variety of topics, all somewhat obvious if a bit niche, but they turn out so much deeper than you thought.
Also Roman Mars has a very pleasant voice.Lateral
Out-of-the-box thinking game show from Tom Scott of (former) YouTube fame.
Blowback.
Season 1 is essential listening. It’s not very long, and takes you through the journey of putting astronauts on the moon with tech far less advanced that what you’re reading this on. It came sooooo close to failure on more than one occasion. When that lander touched down, it had something like 8 seconds of fuel left.
Season 2 is the story in detail of the Apollo 13 mission. If you loved Season 1 and want more, then go right ahead. I liked season 2, but nowhere near as much.
I feel like my regular rotation is slight in comparison to what other folks are posting, but podcasts are an unwinding kind of activity for me, so I don’t really want to be inundated with current events or heavy topics. Accordingly, here’s a bunch of “Arts and Culture” type recommendations.
Bandsplain: Yasi Salek explores bands’ discographies, usually with a guest who is a self-described super fan of the band being discussed. I think it’s a Spotify exclusive, which is a bummer, but they leverage that to actually play relevant songs at certain points in the cast. A good way to remove blindspots in your catalog, or to achieve a greater understanding of artists’ holistic output, rather than just the hits.
Blank Check: A podcast about filmographies. Each “season” covers a different director, and the hosts examine their career chronologically. Fun, and it encourages me to finally tackle movie blindspots. They are doing the first half of Spielberg’s career at the moment, most recently discussing 1987’s Empire of the Sun.
Eye of the Duck: A podcast about movie genres / vibes. Each “season” is a different kind of film, and the hosts select emblematic examples to examine in chronological order, with a mind towards how the genre evolved over time. Examples of past topics include Alien Invasion, 80s Dark Fantasy, Space Movies, and so on. They are typically a little more “film school brain” than most amateur podcasts, which I appreciate, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Three Moves Ahead: Weekly video game podcast, with a heavy emphasis on strategy games. I’m not a regular listener, but I will often check to see if they’ve done an episode on a particular game that I’m playing.
Every F’n FF: Three folks (who I think are involved in the speed running scene) on a quest to complete every Final Fantasy game. This coincided with a replay of FFX that I embarked upon. Sadly I think X-2 may have broke them, as they’ve not uploaded since last October, but it does look like they completed 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, and Dirge of Cerberus.
History podcast from the BBC : You’re dead to me
I enjoy 'This American life, depends on the topic but it can be very interesting.
If you’ve heard of QI from the BBC there is No such thing as a fish when they talk about a couple facts they’ve read. I find it pretty funny too.
Mike Duncan is doing a new seasons of Revolutions about the Mars revolution (fictional of course) but before he did a bunch of others including the Mexican and French revolutions which I particularly enjoyed.
Blowback does seasons about bad US foreign policy. For news about US foreign policy there is also American Prestige.
Also listen to 15 minutes history from the University of Austin Texas. They just did something about the King of Haïti for example. They do new topics each episode.
Also another history one if MartyrMade.
And Trillbilly Workers podcast because I like to have no clue what they’re talking about lol
You’re Dead to Me is a great one. I also really like The Rest is History in a similar niche.
Mike Duncan is fire! I really enjoyed all of it. But his “revolutions” podcast on early modern england was really interesting.
I particularly enjoyed an episode (later on in the French revolution) that talked about the Paris fish wives march on the Bastille.
“Even more news” general news and politics
“Trash taste” anime and japanese centric by 3 people who moved to Japan and are YouTubers
I don’t have as much time to listen to podcasts at the moment. The only one I’ve continued listening to is “Well There’s Your Problem”, it is sooo good. Just my kind of humor!
It’s an engineering disaster podcast with slides, so it’s on YouTube. It’s a good one to listen to while doing chores where you can occasionally glance at your screen to see what they are talking about.
I second this, it’s a great podcast for chores
The fall of civilizations - it tells the story of the rise and fall of different groups of people through history. Often with readings in the original tongue.
From the same creator “vaccine” is the history of the creation of the works first vaccines. Neither podcast has any ads which is awesome.
Lastly factually with Adam conover is great. Comedian discussing often political issues.
What general topic or category are you looking for? There’s a lot out there.
- We Have Ways of Making You Talk
- Battleground
- The Rest is Classified
- The History of English
- Ehrman Podcast (Christianity from an atheist expert in the New Testament)
My response from the last time I saw this question:
- Trillbilly Worker’s Party - Kentucky-centric Marxist jokers hanging out. They always know how to put a smile on my face, even if they’re talking about bleak stuff.
- Fun City - Well produced live role playing of Shadowrun. The game is a few years in and I am just invested.
- ALAB - Lawyers talking shit. They’re funny and I like learning about interesting cases. One of the characters they covered actually sued them and settled for an interview on the show.
- Desert Oracle Radio - Joshua Tree-centric paranormal stuff. Good for an old X-Files head like me.
Everything from the Ranged Touch Network. Basically culture and media studies with good banter. They have:
Just king things (Reading every King Book in publication order)
Game Studies Study Buddies
Shelved By Genre (Units discussing different genre books).
- Swindled - Mostly white-collar true crime with dark humor and disdain aplenty.
- 404 Media - The folks who used to do the Cyber podcast before they left VICE and are doing far better work, indy.
- Better Offline - Another tech podcast by Ed Zitron. He loves tech and can’t stand how fucked up the tech-bros are making the whole thing, at our collective expense.
I’ll have to check out Swindled. +1 for 404 Media and Better Offline.
The Rest is History (history podcast with both mini-series… serieses… series… and one-off episodes)
Clear Eyes Full Hearts (Friday Night Lights rewatch)
The Line (Canadian politics – there are a number of podcasts with this or a similar name, so you’re looking for the one by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney)
Stories Podcast (short stories for children; my kids like this a lot for road trips)
Old Books with Grace (old/very old book talk with a medievalist)
The blindboy podcast!
