I'm a big fan of No Such Thing as a Fish.
It's a bunch of researchers for a funny British panel show (QI) talking about their favorite fact they've discovered that week.
The Dollap - comedic American history podcast
Behind the Bastards - Robert Evans’ exposes some real rotten people with guests
Bill Burr - I just really like his weekly podcast even though I have no interest in sports
Knowledge Fight - this has been a hilarious/scary journey of 2 dudes reviewing Alex Jones Infowars since 2016
My three favorite podcasts gotta be,
- Behind the Bastards - They basically pick a "bastard" from history talk about them.
- Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - Explainers about interesting (and often, grim) historical events in great detail.
- A Podcast of Unnecessary Detail - Three fellow nerds talk about nerd stuff.
I never see this mentioned but Darknet Diaries is actually a really informative and entertaining podcast about hacking, the dark web, physical penetration testing (gone wrong), nation-state cyber attacks.
My favorites:
- Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
- Behind the Bastards
- Radiolab
- Stuff you should know
- The Rest is History
- Nature Podcast
DarknetDiaries
It's the podcast I'm listening to right now. If you're interested in It you have to listen to it. The storytelling is just soo good. I really recommend the Episodes "Xbox Underground" and "Operation Bayonet"
Most episodes aren't actually about the dark Web and are instead about Cybersecurity.
I'm a big fan of the following:
Maintenance Phase: discusses health/diet fads and scams
You're Wrong About: debunking the popular (but misinformed) narratives surrounding many well-known events of the past
Underunderstood: going down the rabbit hole of strange "ungoogle-able" questions (this one really fills the void Reply All left behind)
Darknet Diaries: super riveting cybersecurity (or just general security) stories
I haven't seen anybody else suggest it but "99% invisible" is one of my favorites.
Darknetdiaries the name sounds pretty cringe but it is a really good podcast about digital crime.
Rss feed: link
Some I've been listening to lately:
- Hard Fork - podcast about technology and science from the NYTimes that does a pretty good job of being varied and interesting.
- Search Engine - newer podcast by PJ Vogt from Reply All about understanding weird or poorly understood topics.
- Darknet Diaries - IT security stories, hacking, and red vs blue team defense of infrastructure.
- Behind the Bastards - Stories about terrible people and their effect on society. Start with the Dulles Brothers or Kissinger.
- Mother Country Radicals - Limited series about key members of the Weather Underground during the civil rights era.
I love this thread! Many of my favorites have been mentioned. My first first few are acquired tastes, but I have come to really enjoy them.
- Last Podcast on the Left - true crime, aliens, paranormal, horror comedy show
- Timesuck with Dan Cummins - similar to LPotL, but single host
- Knowledge Fight - commentary on Alex Jones and others with humor
- Internet Today - opinion based comedy news for all things tech, gaming, etc.
On the shorter side:
- Everything Everywhere Daily - something new every day on various subjects
- Today in History with the Retrospectors - short daily episodes bringing you curious moments from this day in history
- Atlas Obscura - curious and wondrous travel destinations
And a classic that I don't think has been mentioned:
- Stuff You Should Know - interesting discussion about a wide variety of topics
I have added Chilluminati to try based on this thread.
Lions Led By Donkeys - fun, irreverent military history podcast that is still quite informative
Hardcore History - more like an audio book that comes out once or twice a year. The WWI series is like 20- something hours BY ITSELF
I like video games, goofy stuff, and tech. So lately, it's been:
- My Brother, My Brother, and Me
- Noclip
- Besties
- We Have Concerns
- Search Engine (New podcast from PJ Vogt of Reply All fame - if you haven't listened to Reply All, there are a number of great episodes to enjoy)
- How Did This Get Made
- and occasionally Swindled (my girlfriend likes true crime stuff and this is about as close as I like to get to that)
Ologies by Allie Ward!!
She basically interviews scientists about their job and asks all the dumb questions you wish you could ask. She has a huge number of episodes on everything from black holes and dark matter to squirrels to Emojis. And it's all from the perspective of "the study of".
One of my favorite episodes is "Ferro-equinology". The study of iron horses. Trains. I knew trains were cool, but had no idea how cool they really were until that episode.
Her energy is addictive too. Great personality. If you are a part of her patron (which I am) you'll get a heads up before her interviews and she give an opportunity for you to post questions that she'll ask the Ologist.
I listen to so many, its hard to pick one. My current favourite is probably Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. He does really good podcasts and I've followed him over from his BBC Radio 4 podcast (More or Less) which I also love.
Cautionary Tales is about a major screw up from history and the systemic problems that caused it. It takes away from society's bias to lay blame at the feet of the last known individual involved and looks at the whole causal chain leading up to an event.
It's (Probably) Not Aliens-Podcast debunking Ancient Aliens on the History Channel.
The Magnus Archives- Horror podcast about an institute that investigates paranormal activity.
Knifepoint Horror-Horror anthology podcast.
Sonic the Comic the Podcast- A podcast reviewing the British Sonic the Hedgehog comic issue by issue. An interesting look back at 90s nostalgia, even if you aren't British.
Defunct, now, but Revolutions by Mike Duncan is an EXCELLENT breakdown of many historical revolutions, including all the major figures and intellectual currents that inspired and led them.
Comedy Bang Bang - batshit crazy improv comedy
Lage der Nation
from Germany. It’s like the weekly newspaper, where a judge and a journalist sum up and talk about what is happening in and around Germany. I like how they put everything in perspective and that not everything is as easy as it seems.
Kill James Bond is brilliant.
This Podcast Will Kill You.
A few I love:
The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong. Host Mark Chrysler tells stores from the distant to not-to-distant past of people being wrong. Wrong science, crockpot ideas, and more. For example, one episode looks at where people thought birds went in the winter, such as flying to the moor or turning into barnacles. There are 2 different episodes on different doctors that thought sewing animal testicles (one ape balls, the other goat balls) bought great health benefits. Another series of episodes looks at how most forensic techniques (at least before DNA) ante based on pure BS.
Our Fake History: Host Sebastian Major tells the truth about historic myths, be it about people, organizations, or places. Did Shakespeare write his plays? Was the story of the Trojan War based on real history? Was their really a black samurai?
I personally like Latteral with Tom Scott
Darknet Diaries, stories from the infosec world that sometimes sound like works of a sci fi movie.
Lateral with Tom Scott - quiz show style with questions that make you think.
Ologies - interviews about science topics with a different anything-ologist for every episode
This is so hard to answer because I have so many I love to listen to - which are basically all Australian comedy podcasts. Here’s 10 that I’ve listened to the longest and most frequently:
- The Little Dum Dum Club
- The Phone Hacks
- Somehow Related with Glenn Robbins and Dave O'Neil
- Mid-flight Brawl
- The Mugg Off
- Big Natural Talents
- Shitting with the Door Open
- Community Noticeboard
- Feed Em Brah
- The Becky & Cam Show
Even with this list (initially it was just 5) I’ve still got some great ones I listen to regularly that I’ve left off!
No Such Thing As A Fish
One more than one occasion I've been crying tears from laughter.
The Greatest Generation: a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. Ben and Adam watch an episode of Star Trek and discuss it with lots of dumb jokes. Worth listening from the start!
On The Media is the best news podcast. It reports on how stories are being reported, hence “on the media”, and in the process ends up being the most informative and deep reporting available. Journalists and academics love it, it’s a legendarily good show that started on NPR radio.
True crime:
-
RedHanded - British true crime podcast
-
Park Predators - Crime in America's National Parks
-
True Crime Bullshit - Series on serial killer Israel Keyes
-
CaseFile - Australian true crime podcast
-
Small Town Murder - comedy true crime in US small towns
Atheism:
- God Awful Movies - Atheist reviews of Christian movies
Debunking:
-
Maintenance Phase - Debunking diet myths and fighting fatphobia
-
If Books Could Kill - Debunking claims from best-selling books
-
You're Wrong About Maintenance Phase Sounds Like A Cult Scarred for Life Pod and the Pendulum
"Homestuck Made This World" is a critical analysis of the webcomic Homestuck that morphs into a discussion about how the culture of the Internet changed immensely from 2008 to 2015.
"Lavar Burton Reads" is as it says, a podcast about an actor reading science fiction pieces.
I listen to quite a few episodes by the Economist. Science Vs, Freakonomics are couple of others that come to mind right now.
Friends at the Table is the best podcast.
It's an actual play podcast run in game systems designed mostly for story generation, operated by people who who know there's no such thing as a monster, and I'd never seen anything like it.
They ran some seasons in a post-fantasy-apocalypse world, some in a Star-Wars-meets-Gundam science fantasy world, and one recently in a Western sort-of-horror setting. I started at the beginning, with Autumn in Heiron, featuring orc archivists who work magic using extremely specific shopping lists, undead pastry chef boyfriends, and an "evil" alignment of "destroy something rather than trying to understand it".
But for the impatient you can start with Marielda. Marielda is a series of heists by a crew of illegal knowledge dealers, in a fantasy city that sounds like New Orleans, patrolled by living statues and ruled by a god who forged the sun, whom our players proceed to fight.
The sci-fi side, which is running its fourth season now, starts with COUNTER/Weight, a game set in the aftermath of a mecha movie never made. It features a character who is "what if Han Solo used to be Beyoncé", psychic hackers, and mechs who might be gods.
By far Completely Arbortrary. A podcast about trees and tree related topics. The host are great, one of them you might recognize from the podcast Ologies if you are into science topics.
The hosts compliment each other well and deliver a funny, educational podcasts with fun series for certain months. Highly highly reccomend
99% invisible.
This Podcast Will Kill You.
And for something light: UnderUmderstood.TrueAnon. I recommend the series about Elon Musk, "The Lamest Show on Earth".
Because that always comes up: Yes, the name is making fun of QAnon because it's not true. They started out talking about Epstein, and that's an actually true pedophile conspiracy.
Land of the giants is one of my favorites
Only about 1 season a year but each season is about the rise (and sometimes fall) of big tech companies
Unexplainable is cool too, about weird sciencey things that we don't have an explanation for
I listen to way too many to name, but the two I always move to the top of the queue when they drop are Fright Pub (three very funny friends drink and talk about horror movies, to much hilarity) and Film Reroll (a bunch of talented actors and improv folks reenact and rewrite popular movies using tabletop dice mechanics).
Recently the latter did an insane reroll series of Memento that they recorded in chronological order and then re-edited and released in reverse order like the movie. In their E.T. reroll, they succeeded in getting E.T. off the planet and involved in an interstellar war. For Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the GM invented a whole system for randomizing their trips back in time based on their phonepad keypresses, leading to a completely different set of historical figures collected for their final project. Truly nutso levels of craft and effort go into these episodes.
Gastropod easily. They are so informative and it’s generally pretty entertaining if your into food and food history
Been really into hiking/backpacking lately so "Out alive" has been good.
For Spanish speakers I recommend 'Las Hijas de Felipe', about medieval/modern History (herstory?). They usually cover mundane things, rather than battles or empires.
My two favorites are Darknet Diaries and Dark Dice.
Beach too sandy, water too wet.
Brother and sister duo that read mean, outrageous and plain weird product and place reviews. Very funny.
Mysterious Universe
OK buddy this is the podcast that radicalized me. Its also low key turned into a rightwing antivax conspiracy fest, but seasons 1-25 were good. Just stop listening when covid arrives. Moderately funny, good if you like paranormal stuff.
Lets talk about sects
Not funny, actually usually horrifying, but its a great resource for anyone interested in learning about cults around the world and the shit they got up to.
Stuff You Should Know and Conon O'Brien Needs A Friend
Timesuck. The long form, research based style is a refreshing departure from a lot of the content I consume most days. Plus, each week is a different topic, so you get a good mix of history, cults, serial killers, and a little bit of everything in between.
I am a nerd so The Rest Is History
I am not sure how it doesn't seem like these have been listed yet, maybe they are too obvious. But here is my list:
-Radiolab (Amazingly well told stories about every topic)
-Reply All (Hilarious dudes talking about internet trends and memes mostly)
-More Perfect (Essentially RadioLab but specifically focused on interesting supreme court history)
The first season of Good Assassins is incredibly gripping. It tells the story of a Jewish spy after World War 2 who spends months befriending a Nazi who escaped justice known as 'The Butcher' with the goal of killing him. It's a roller coaster
Chilluminati. Jesse Cox who was previously on co-optional with Total Biscuit talks paranormal, internet stories and true crime. Jesse is a skeptic, his stoner co-host is way too into it and the third guy is neutral and just kind of laughs at it all. Better than it should be due to the balance.
- Sci show tangents
- No Dumb Questions
- Lateral
- Lord of Spirits
Hidden Brain, Search Engine, The Knowledge Project
They had me at "Ron Stampler hides in his pants."
The Dollop and Casefile True Crime are my two favorites
Shagged Married Annoyed
I like brittish comedy, but I'm not brittish myself :)
I was a huge fan of The No Sleep Podcast specially during the early seasons. But recently they've been trying so much unnecessary stuff which kind of takes away the whole fun of listening to it. They also started advertising brands after every story. Definitely recommend listening to the first few seasons though if you like horror.
We're Alive is a great story! Top notch production quality also.
If you enjoy HHGTTG, the podcast Star Tripper, has a similar vibe. Good story too.
I have three that I listen to: Distractible, Brain Leak, and Go! My Favorite Sports Team.
CodeSwitch Pop Culture Happy Hour Stuff You Should Know Stuff You missed in History Class Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (more of a radio show but I like it anyway)
Really not much of a podcast person, but my favorite has to be the Stronger by Science podcast.
Three major ones for me: Dudesy, What's It Called, and Never Seen It. All great comedy podcasts!
I really admire these two → Radiolab and 70 over 70
Decoder Ring Theatre, phenomenal audio drama podcast that got better as time went on
- The Unmade Podcast - Podcast about podcasting ideas
- Smashing Security - IT security news
- Eagle Nine: Locked - Story podcast
- World's Greatest Con - Season 1 is about misleading Nazis on DDay, Season 2 is about Game show cheating, Season 3 is about infilitrating research about the paranormal.
Vulgar history
I really like The Lost Drivein if I just want to tune out and laugh, their movie review style is pretty entertaining
The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish
Omnibus, if forced to choose only one.
Dudesy is a new favorite along with Bad Friends
WTF with Marc Maron is a comedy podcast of interviews with comedians, actors, writers, and musicians. They’ve hosted some great guests such as Cillian Murphy of Oppenheimer.
Stuff You Should Know. Also a comedy podcast that is essentially a literature review on a plethora of topics covering everything from whether Mallory summited Everest to how HIV works.
