For history:
Revolutions by Mike Duncan. You can start with the Haitian and the Mexican revolutions. Then just listen to whichever season you want.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.
The History of Rome by Mike Duncan.
These are absolutely amazing.
Honorable mentions for Behind the Bastards and Lions Lead by Donkeys, if you like some banter along with the story telling.
Edit: someone in here reminded me about Your Undivided Attention. It is, literally and without irony, the most important podcast you could ever listen.
Behind the Bastards is my top recommendation. Just learning how truly awful the world has been for a few thousand years is soul crushingly entertaining.
Fall of Civilizations too
Carlin's podcast (and a lot of popular history podcasts) are generally considered fairly poor by academic historians, in regard to accurately portraying modern historical research. I think those kinds of podcasts are good to engage and stimulate interest in history, as long as the listener understands that they are a kind of "pop" history and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Same goes for a lot of popular books, like Sapiens.
Missing History on Fire by daniele bonelli.
I second all of these. I will also recommend the Pirate History Podcast, Fall of Civilizations, and The Ancient World for history podcasts.
Nobody recommended 99% Invisible yet?
That one is a must-listen about everyday (and not so everyday) design. Absolutely amazing!
As a testament tp their quality, several "interesting" videos made by Tom Scott and Veritasium were also 99pi episodes before they found out those things. For example, Veritasium did the Snake Antibody Facility video, where Snake venom is milked by hand last year. 99pi did it half a decade ago.
Cautionary tales: stories of how things went wrong
Darknet diaries: stories from the dark web
intelligence squared: thought provoking debates about anything and everything
The numberphile podcast: interviews with mathematicians by Brady Haran. If you like the kinds of videos Brady makes, you’ll probably like this too. You know, stuff like sixty symbols, numberphile, perioedic table of videos etc.
You are not so smart: podcast about psychology
your undivided attention: discussion and interviews about social media. What it’s like to work for a social media company. How social media influences your business, or how it affects your life. How different parts of it are intentional and some are unintentional.
Love recommending podcasts!
- Like others have said, Behind the Bastards is great to find out about some of the worst people in history.
- In relation to that Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is the opposite of Behind the Bastards. It's about people who did cool stuff who became cool.
- Also in lieu of that, Bad Gays, it's about bad gays in history. I think they've covered similar folks on BtB, but this is obviously from a queer perspective.
- Fad Camp and Maintenance Phase are great podcasts about dieting and wellness. Fad Camp is more about how damaging some of these diets can be, whereas Maintenance Phase is similar to You're Wrong About (which I also recommend)
- The Weekly Planet are these two Australian guys who talk about movies, tv, comics and video games. They also have a YouTube channel called Me Sunday Movies where they'll upload some of their podcasts. Like they have a running segment called "Caravan of Garbage" which is just sort of talking about a movie, tv show or game. Currently they've started going through the RoboCop movies.
- Also shameless plug, but Checkpoint is on the radio but they take their radio show and put it on a podcast. It's a podcast about giving a 1up to diversity in video games. Most of us are from the LGBTQIA+ community and that's where most of our perspectives come from, but it's also just folks from any marginalised group. Lovely bunch of folks (if I do say so myself).
Uh yeah, I have some more, but like that's politics or it's writing related or spicyness in or out of the bedroom. But these are the ones I always recc.
I mainly listen to things based around or by improv comedy, so if that's not your jam, keep on scrolling -
My Brother, My Brother, and Me (three brothers give often terrible advice to questions sent by listeners)
Hey Riddle Riddle (a riddle podcast by improv comedians who really really hate riddies and puzzies)
Dungeons and Daddies (the best D&D podcast by players who don't really know how to play D&D and it's not even close)
The Worst Idea of All time (originally the concept was two kiwi comedians watch the same film every week for a year and document and review that experience every week. Each season is a new movie and a new year. The films are always awful and they encourage you not to watch them)
Smartless (Will Arnet, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes interviewing other celebrities and famous figures. Only one of them each week know who they will be interviewing before they do so the questions are all improvised on the spot)
Quick Question with Soren Bowie and Daniel O'brien (two ex Cracked writers from the golden age of Internet comedy, who now write for Family Guy and John Oliver respectfully, ask each other questions)
I love MBMBaM but sometimes their episodes are such a hit or miss. I think it's mostly the bits. I don't mind the vampire one, but the perfume guy was too much.
Well, There's Your Problem, a podcast with slides about engineering disasters which is, itself, a disaster.
Less of a disaster now, thanks Devin!
"I am Justin Rozniak I'm the person who is talking right now. My pronouns are he and him."
- You Are Not So Smart: You’ll marvel at both how flawed our reasoning can be and how well we make up for it by being collaborative creatures
- Behind the Bastards: Everything you don’t know about the worst people in all of history, including people you didn’t even know of
- Twenty Thousand Hertz: Stories of pretty much anything as long as it works well in an audio medium. Best sound design in the game; like candy for your ears
- Cautionary Tales (Tim Harford): Stories of people making huge mistakes or taking insane risks. Fun because sometimes the mistake was trusting their intuition instead of a rigorous process, but just as often it was ignoring their intuition in favor of a rigorous process
- Build for Tomorrow, formerly Pessimists Archive: History of people freaking out about new stuff that is totally benign today but they thought would ruin civilization. Like mirrors, bicycles, teddy bears, pinball machines
- Team Human: Kind of the opposite. All about how “progress” has harmed indigenous people, minorities, women, etc. and talking to people about how to address our modern problems with “anti-human” technology and economics
Edit: I somehow forgot to add Knifepoint Horror, but I just read that someone else recommended it and I’m very disappointed in myself because it’s such a good horror podcast that I literally physically got chills when I read its name. So good. Fuck, I would even put it at the top of this list if it weren’t dependent on being in the mood for spoopy stories.
Recently I've been listening to Well There's You're Problem; it's 30% retrospective on engineering disasters 70% shitpost
Knowledge fight
Behind the bastards
Ear hustle
Lateral is one of my go to podcasts. Is full of lateral thinking questions, hosted by Tom Scott with a variety of guests. Is really good fun.
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.
The Dollop - a comedy podcast about how messed up American history is.
Last Podcast On The Left - comedy podcast about horror, true crime, aliens and the paranormal.
The Greatest Generation - Star Trek podcast
Behind the Bastards - Podcast about the worst people in history.
Get Played - video game podcast with a comedic bent.
Second Last Podcast on the Left. Quality content consistently for years.
60 songs that explain the 90s.
Sawbones!
A podcast about medical history with a doctor and an idiot (Justin and Sydney Mcelroy. yes, that Justin Mcelroy)
For comedy:
Distractible - very funny guys. Start with the episode Bob’s Fridge
Hamish and Andy - higher profuction value and hilarious. Very much like a radio show because they used to be radio hosts and are also comedians
For hilarious comedians with great chemistry and occasional improved bits: Bad Friends. With Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee.
Mike Duncan's History of Rome and Revolutions podcast series.
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
Knowledge Fight
Nice Games Club
The SGU is the one podcast I have to listen to every week. They have been putting out such great content for so long now.
I'd recommend their show to anyone with an interest in science, technology, or thinking.
The film re roll. "We play through your favourite movies as roll playing games and totally ruin them".
Just an excellent podcast. Can't recommend it enough.
The Friday the 13th campaign is my favorite AP series ever.
For Dutch folks: onbehaarde apen (nrc)
Armchair Expert - interviews with not just actors, musicians, and directors, but also professors, philosophers, authors, etc. The host is very open about his childhood trauma and recovery from addiction. Very interesting intellectual conversations.
Behind the Bastards - really good deep dives into the assholes of our time and prior.
Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet - each episode, the hosts (brother and sister) read real reviews on a certain topic or genre and discuss. The reviews are generally hilarious, ridiculous, and/or crazy.
Christine Schiefer from Beach Too Sandy also has another podcast called And That's Why We Drink. She does it with her friend Em Schulz once a week where they tell a paranormal and a true crime story, then once a month they also do viewer stories. I highly recommend it also!
A lot of my faves have been mentioned (BtB, wtyppod, Bad Gays), so here's a few I haven't seen lited here.
Discussion Podcasts
It's Not Just In Your Head: Therapists talking about the intersection of mental health, capitalism, and treatments (problems with how we go about it and what we could change).
The War on Cars: What it sounds like, urbanists talking about biking, transit, issues with car oriented development.
Tech Won't Save Us: Interviews with people, having critical conversations of different technologies. Discusses issues of tech, capitalism, surveillance, and more.
Total Liberation: Leftist podcast discussing a variety of topics about the decay of capitalism and how we can recreate and liberate ourselves.
Audio Dramas/Story Podcasts
The Punumbra Podcast: I listen to the Juno Steel series, it's about a private detective on Mars. Great story and characters, a bit more humorous but will also destroy you emotionally in the best way. Also very queer!
The Bright Sessions: People with super powers go to therapy. I really loved the world they created and how they relate the super powers and mental health.
Scare You to Sleep: Scary stories read in a calm voice. The stories are really good, I actually like the hosts original stories that she sometimes reads quite a lot.
Voice mail dump truck (embrace the chaos), a more civilized age
If you need a laugh:
This Paranormal Life and The Adventure Zone.
This Paranormal Life is a comedy podcast about 2 guys who investigate the paranormal and come down on an answer as to whether they believe the story happened or not. They go into deep detail about the subjects they are talking about in a hilarious but informative way.
The Adventure Zone is a tabletop roleplaying podcast about the McElroy family trying to play roleplaying games and creating amazing stories all in a hilarious way.
Each short episode discusses one amusingly named food or situation (e.g. “ Unopened Carton of Heavy Cream Almost 3 Weeks Past It's Expiration Date”). Hosted by two food safety experts with good banter.
Great Lectures - History of ancient egypt
The Soundtrack Show by David W. Collins! He talks about film scores, how they were made, and many other details. No music knowledge is required. Scroll through the episodes and pick any movie that looks interesting, but EVERY episode is so good!
Hello Internet!
Ah hello, Tim.
Ezra Klein show - it's actually a podcast about US politics which I don't really care about, but they have often very interesting guests and Ezra is a very good interviewer / generally intelligent person with interesting takes.
Lex Fridman - originally about AI, nowadays various intellectual topics with high profile guests. I actually don't really like Lex himself, but fortunately he doesn't speak often.
A bunch of podcasts on Ukraine/Russia - War on the Rocks, The Russia contingency (paid), In Moscow's shadows (Kremlinology). Geopolitics Decanted.
I actually find Ezra and Lex unbearable for different reasons.
Lex is just really not good at interviewing and given his stances, I can't really trust that the "experts" he interviews are respected/knowledgeable in their fields. Also, I got the feeling that he is kind of an idiot.
Ezra is way too much up his own ass in high minded philosophical debates, that don't really mean anything. It sounds smart, but if you actually listen, you realize that he just spent 5min saying almost nothing.
If you're interested in Russia, I've been listening to Sad Oligarchs, which is about the fact that a lot of Oligarchs are "killing themselves" when there's no explanation for it. It's been really interesting so far.
We Might Be Drunk is the podcast I listen to with the most consistency, and definitely worth a listen. Two of my favorite comedians (Mark Norman & Sam Morrill) who are hilarious while also getting into aspects of day to day life.
Distractible is my go-to for a good laugh. Listen to the episode "Bob's Fridge" to make your day better
I'm new to Distractible as of only a few weeks ago. I was working backwards until my brother said "no. Stop what you're doing and listen to 'Bob's Fridge'"
It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Mission To Zyxx
Knifepoint Horror. No other horror podcast has ever come close to being as good for me
Uhh Yeah Dude - comedy. One of the oldest podcasts going since 2006!
Seatbelts
On The Media - a podcast analyzing the media, giving historical and scientific context to news coverage. In the process, it turns out to be the best in depth news shows. Academics and journalists love this show but it doesn’t seem to be as big of a hit with the greater public. I recommend this show very highly.
Also listen to a bunch of nerdy academic podcasts like The Dissenter and New Books in Science, Psychology, Philosophy, etc in the New Books networks.
I recently Discovered the Blowback podcast and it kind of reminds me of Behind the Bastards podcast in subject matter. Revealing more of the happenings behind some of the US (and “western”) actions in various situations that most Americans probably consider cut and dry examples of “we’re the good guys” when it’s more complicated.
Like I didn’t know we, and many western countries, sold chemical weapons to the Iraqis throughout the 80s for them to use on Iran, and then used them as an example of how evil Saddam Hussein is when he invaded Kuwait (something something the us ambassador said we didn’t care about beforehand) and we needed to justify a war. West Germany sold chemical weapons to Iraq and protective gear to the Iranians.
It’s not so much US bad, but illuminating that the government does shitty things and supports shitty people and we should probably make that stop, or at least own it honestly.
Grey 17, a podcast about watching Babylon 5. Repeat viewers along with newbies.
Podcasts I listen to every episode of is a small list nowadays: Five thirty eight and waveform. The first is for political and statistic wonkiness, the second is for consumer tech. They both have good banter between the presenters
The Plastic Pleasiosaur Podcast is a really fun sceptic/science podcast run by an old man and a femboy archeologist.
Saw Bones is a highly entertaining and informative medical history podcast run by a cool, bisexual doctor and her adult-baby husband.
Bizarre Podcast: Dogs Must Die is an once in a lifetime find: a tiny man describes every episode of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to his very smart friend.
Spout Lore!
You don't even have to know the mechanics of Dungeon World to enjoy the crazy, funny episodes of this long running podcast!
Another vote for The Weekly Planet here! Great Aussie banter if you like your comic book movies and tv shows or just current movie reviews.
Bananas: A comedy writer and a comedian talking about articles that are bananas. A couple of funny dudes who just want to laugh and tell stories, using crazy headlines as a jumping off point. They often have guests who identify as female or non-binary.
The Unmade Podcast: A couple childhood buds who think of podcast ideas that they'll never make, but then they do make a few into special episodes. Listen from the beginning because there are a lot of in-jokes that are worth it.
Matt and Shane's secret podcast. They're funny if you have 15 year old boy humor like me.
Judge John Hodgman. It's about people with silly disputes, and John and his bailiff Jesse Thorn way in on them. What's great is even though the disputes are silly, they both come at the cases with such thoughtfulness and empathy, listening to the show will make you a better and kinder person. Also sometimes Jean Grae guests bailiff's and she is amazing too.
2.5admins, for tech stuff
Self-Hosted, for self hosted and tech stuff
Smashing security, for security and tech stuff (this one can be very funny too)
Security Now, for more security related tech stuff.
Lots of interviews with a varied list of guests.
Smith and Sniff.
Film sack
Dr Karl
Star wars minute
Mr Ballen
All around science
The morning stream
These I listen to regularly. I have subs to many limited series around true crime (the teachers pet, shandees story, liar liar, the night driver) and other subs to podcasts listed here eg behind the bastards and some podcasts centered around pink bands and punk music but I rarely have time to listen to these regularly.
Wolf and Owl - Two comedian friends show up completely unprepared and talk about anything, funny and wholesome.
Both my recommendations are over now, but I love the niche of conversational history podcasts, or, as someone once put it, people talking about history like other podcasts talk about bad movies:
American History Tellers. I haven't listened to many other podcasts so I can't compare, but it feels like well researched and well told history. I feel like it is filling in the gaps of what was once my least favorite subject.
Probably should learn more world history, not just America, but I'm easing into the subject and America really has a colorful history for our short time so far.
Since it hasn't been mentioned, Dudesy.
It's Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen shittin around while an AI named Dudesy (trained by all their personal information, search histories, emails, social media accounts, etc.) produces the show.
Ooh! And Chad's other podcast Games of Roses is great too! Completely changed at how I look at the bachelor.
These are my favorites.
Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe
- A fun-filled discussion of the big, mind-blowing, unanswered questions about the Universe. In each episode, Daniel Whiteson (a Physicist who works at CERN) and Jorge Cham (a popular online cartoonist) discuss some of the simple but profound questions that people have been wondering about for thousands of years, explaining the science in a fun, shorts-wearing and jargon-free way.
- Science, pop culture, and comedy collide on StarTalk Radio! Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and Director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, and his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities, and scientific experts explore astronomy, physics, and everything else there is to know about life in the universe. New episodes premiere Tuesdays. Keep Looking Up!
- Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know ... and then keeps right on going. This Vox podcast explores scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and all the things we learn by diving into the unknown. New episodes every Wednesday.
- A history podcast looking at the collapse of a different civilization each episode. What did they have in common? Why did they fall? And what did it feel like to watch it happen?
- With millions of downloads, hundreds of hours of soundtracked content, and an overall emphasis on the cultural history behind famous works of literature, Literature and History is one of the most popular independent podcasts on its subject. Starting with Sumerian cuneiform in 3,100 BCE, Literature and History moves forward in chronological order through Assyriology, Egyptology, the Old Testament, Ancient Greece and Rome, and the birth of Christianity. The show's current season is on Late Antiquity (or 200-700 CE) and the dawn of the Middle Ages. A typical episode (they average about two hours) features a general introduction to a work of literature, then a full summary of that work that expects no prior knowledge, and finally, an analysis of the cultural, biographical, and historical forces that gave rise to the work in question. Original symphonic and ambient background music is woven throughout each show, and all episodes offer free full, illustrated, footnoted transcriptions as well as quizzes for purposes of review. The show has no advertisements, and its host takes pride in a professional approach that avoids chitchat and ephemera and gets straight to the educational content. You can listen to the episodes in any order, although most listeners begin at the beginning and proceed from there, as the podcast itself is chronologically organized. Doug Metzger finished his Ph.D. in literature in 2011. His chief scholarly interest, following his dissertation work, continues to be 19th-century realism and postbellum American philosophy.
Astonishing Legends - Two guys discussing all the weird stories of history - but not just discussing, they have a team of volunteer researchers and they discuss the justified in depth to see what progress or conclusions can be made. Very unique approach.
Paleocast. They interview guests to discuss all kinds of life that existed throughout the Earth's history. There's a lot of coverage of dinosaurs in pop culture but there's a huge diversity out there to explore.
