What's your favourite podcasts?

Cumtown when it was still around

Matt and Shane’s secret podcast before Shane got mega famous and stopped showing up to most shows

Lemon Party

some Radiolab

some This American Life

This is important

The very first Serial

I like crass comedy podcasts for the most part and ones that tell interesting stories; as well as good serialized true dramas like the first Serial but there’s so many that suck ass cuz they try to follow a formula instead of trying their own thing

Here's my top 10 and a suggestion for each

1-5. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

• if you can find it his old podcasts have some phenomenal 24hr behemoths! Id suggest from those; Blueprint for Armageddon, Wrath of the Kahns, Death Throes of the Republic
• otherwise Supernova in the Pacific is were to start

6. Lions Led by Donkey's

• Men Who State at Cats ...

7. Behind the bastards

• The War of the Eggs

8. The Dollop - (history when you need a laugh)

• the NY to Paris Race

9. Fall of Civilization podcast

• the inca

10. The Unknown Soldiers podcast

• The Soviet Afghan War

Search Engine with PJ Vogt is an excellent periodic deep dive into random questions from the internet. It’s always interesting and it always goes somewhere I didn’t expect. 10/10 would dive into attendance filtering philosophy at an underground Berlin club again.

The podcast scene is an absolute haven for incredible journalism, from the deeply humanist short pieces from This American Life to the deeply told longform series like Serial or Scene On Radio, to the focused single-target (and often single-season) shows like Hazard NJ, Empire City, Ghost of a Chance, or Homegrown OKC (or many many others).

There is, lastly, plenty of ground-breaking audio fiction, from genre-bending scripted dramas like Give me Away or The Electric Easy to medium-aware quasi-fourth-wall-breakers like Sherlock &Co. or The Lovecraft Investigations, to the comically weird absurdism of Death By Dying or Midnight Burger. Also Impact Winter and The Bookburners, my two absolute favorites.

Basically podcasts are shit and you should just give up now.

I don't listen to many podcasts these days but right now I am listening start to finish to The Chinese Revolution Podcast (it is about the Chinese revolution if that wasn't clear). The production is not great and there is sometimes bg music which I hate because it makes me tired, but the content is really good with complementary maps on substack etc.

My favorites over time have been:

• Martyr Made. Very in depth history. We are talking 10 episodes of 5 hours each in some cases. My favorite one was about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the history of the region.

• Behind The Bastards. I do not like this pod anymore, it turned into a series of bad jokes imo. The first 150 or so episodes are grwat though. Some of the most interesting and bizarre bastards from history are covered and it is a lot of fun as well as informative.

• Darknet Diaries. Interesting stories from tech, but no need for in depth technical knowledge to listen.

• Hardcore History. Like Martyr Made but with focus on different things.

Honorary mention to Drunk Tank. RIP. Was my favorite podcast before it became super well produced and boring and everyone had a thousand scandals and shit.. The early episodes were a lot of fun at the time, idk if they hold up tho.

Edit: I forgot this one which I actually listen to regularly because I watch the show on YouTube, but it is technically a podcast and the only podcast I still regularly listen to:

• A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein. Honestly amazing, they talk about problemativ people, movements or politics from a pop culture perspective. Anything from stay at home influencers to taylor swift stans to elon musk really. It's really good tho. I don't agree with every thing tvey say but the general analysis and overvies is always amazing.

Another one is:

• Tor's Cabinet Of Curiousities. Odd stories, about anything. As long as it is an odd story it gets an episode. Extremely prolific dude, makes like two videos a week. You can listen like a podcast no problem basically 0 editing anyways.

History of philosophy without any gaps: starting in 2010, and 465 episodes later, we're finally in the early modernity and starting with Descartes. It's also have a parallel podcast of History of [Aficana | Indian | Chinese] philosophy.

Do yourself a favour and find and listen to all the back episodes of Heavyweight

I was crushed when they announced that Spotify cancelled the show but a recent update says they have found a new home and they're working on a new season.

No other show has made me feel so many feelings so strongly.

I like TirarADeguello, Kindred Frequencies, Chili B. Things I can listen to with my eyes closed to relax or go to sleep.

Fall of Civilizations is one of the best history pods out there. Really thorough, in-depth episodes about empires in history.

Behind the Bastards.

Jim Cornette's Drive Thru.

Tell Me A Story With Eddie Lenihan, though I'm pretty sure it's been discontinued.

Old Gods of Appalachia, though I've fallen off of following it.

The Beef And Dairy Network Podcast. It's the number one podcast for those involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds. https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/beef-and-dairy-network/

Any on the Last Podcast network, they're all great. https://www.lastpodcastontheleft.com/

Timesuck with Dan Cummins. Well researched stories with a hilarious host and a fantastic message of positivity. https://www.badmagicproductions.com/

The Dollop. Great obscure stories from American history with hilarious comedy. https://www.dolloppodcast.com/podcast

All Killa No Filla. Two brilliant comedians who talk about serial killers and constantly go off topic in the best way possible. https://allkillanofilla.libsyn.com/

Dark Net Diaries. Cyber crime interviews. https://darknetdiaries.com/

Essay und Diskurs

I like comedy podcasts, so Distractible is my #1

Everybody is listening to these brainy podcasts and here I am, giving my pathetic little shoutout to Creepcast.

First off, I love these comments more than a typical Reddit thread because back in the day they would create a list and leave it at that. Everyone here has stated either what it is or why they like it. Awesome.

Since most of my podcasts have already been listed, I'll just mention one.

If Books Could Kill - two people reviewing books and typically ripping on them. These are non-fiction books and back in my day a lot of the books were these "intellectual" books that you just "had" to read. I hated a lot of them so this is a lot of confirmation bias for me :P

Recently commented in a similar post, so I'll paste that comment:

Podcasts are my thing. I've got you covered.

Depends on what you're into:

More or Less: Behind the Stats - analysis of some statistic from the news

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - what science says about how to be happy

The Audio Long Read - long form articles from the Guardian newspaper

You Are Not So Smart - cognitive science related. How we know things, our biases, how our thinking is flawed, etc.

Dan Snow's History Hit - One of the few history podcasts I really like

Short History Of... - a short history of some specific thing

The Forum - expert panel discussion about some topic

Behind the Bastards - Very well known podcast focusing on some bastard personality

CrowdScience - in depth investigation of a listener science question

Radiolab - in depth investigation of a topic of their interest. Quite broad scope.

Unexpected Elements - a very varied mix of discussions around a science topic from the news

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Tim Harford is the podcast king for me. This show is a deep dive into something that went wrong in news or history, and an investigation of all the systemic failures around it. It tries to show how blame is hardly ever warranted on a single person and the systems are at fault.

The Martin Lewis Podcast - UK consumer advocate and saving guru

Show Me The Meaning! A Wisecrack podcast - a couple of philosophers talk about a movie

The Inquiry - a deep dive into a news story

Revisionist History - Malcolm Gladwell's podcast about a range of different things

The Law Show - UK legal system issues

The Infinite Monkey Cage - comedy science panel show

The Supermassive Podcast - space related podcast

File on 4 investigates - detailed story from deep investigative journalism

Thinking Allowed - light philosophical ramblings

When It Hits the Fan - two public relations experts talk about PR issues from current events

Discovery - science related. Currently mostly doing shows about "a life scientific" I.e. talking to a scientist about their life

Overthink - philosophy made accessible

What It's Like To Be.. - a person from a particular occupation talks about their job

People Fixing the World - people from different parts of the world fixing some local problem in their community in a creative way

Hidden Brain - my absolute favourite. Cognitive science related. Explains how the brain works and how to use the understanding to male your own love better.

Within Reason

Your Parenting Mojo - evidence based parenting. Can be a very dry long-winded research presentation, but this has improved my parenting (and life) immensely

Sideways - different ideas and how to look at things differently

Darknet Diaries - stories from the dark underbelly of the internet

The Reith Lectures - once a year short lecture series, but well worth listening to the backlog

Evil Genius with Russell Kane - comedians discuss how some villains from history weren't so bad and how some heroes from history were terrible people

Owls at Dawn - ramblings of a couple of philosophers

Sound of Gaming - excellent music show about music soundtracks from videogames

Playing god? - medical ethics discussion

30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

A History of the World in 100 Objects - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

I would also recommend the podcast series made to accompany the Chernobyl and Last of Us TV series.

S Town - a nice fiction mini series drama story.

I don't listen to podcasts as much as I used to but these were the ones I liked

Darknet Diaries - Stories about viruses, hacks, penetration testing and similar stuff. Basically war stories from cyberspace explained in a way dummies like me can understand.

Hardcore History - Long form and in depth look at different eras in human history. The host likes to focus on the human stories and does a great job at keeping things interesting.

Time Suck - Comedian talks about history, true crime, cults, myths, legends and other interesting stories. A lighter take on some darker subjects

99 Percent Invisible - A podcast about design that people see or use all the time but rarely give a second thought. Trains, buildings, kids books, movie theaters, bikes and more

The big two for me are

1. "Behind The Bastards" - lots of episodes and it covers some really interesting stuff. They did a whole bunch on the ideological fathers of the current US administration which makes the current situation really well.
2. "Mystery Quest" - an TTRPG podcast run by AngoryTom from the Yogscast. I can't stand a few of the people he often gets on (Yogscast regulars I don't enjoy), but his DM style is so fun it's easy to lose a few hours to.

1. Reply all (I miss it dearly)
2. Casefile (esoecially the episodes on Silk Road and the zodiac killer are amazing)
3. Dan carlins hardcore history (particularly the ones about World War One or imperial Japan in world war 2)

I enjoy the Rest Is Politics podcast (the original UK version) for a civilised, nuanced discussion by two highly experienced and eloquent political frenemies about current events.

I'm still tuning into 'My brother my brother and me', and for some more McElroy fun with a game slant I really like 'The Besties'. Those two and 'Regulation Podcast' which came from the fallout of rooster teeth collapsing are my 3 very regular podcasts.

5-4, Blank Check,Hiw Did This Get Made

Stuff you should know, but I haven't really tried many other podcasts.

I believe it's finished for now, but 'From Rewatch With Love' is a James Bond rewatch podcast with the two hosts talking about the movies in order and ranking them in a few categories.

I don't like James Bond movies. But I like listening to people that do, and I like the music in the movies. The podcast war made by Loading Ready Run.

I like the ones that involve Michael Hobbes. None of these have commercials which is important to me because I listen to podcasts when I'm doing other things and don't want to have to skip past annoying commercials. It also keeps advertisers from having an influence.

Maintenance Phase - criticism of diet and wellness fads.

You're Wrong About - revisiting popular cultural narratives from disco to the DC snipers.

If Books Could Kill - criticism of popular non fiction, e.g. Freakanomics, The Game, Rich Dad Poor Dad

Digital Foundry Direct Weekly. I hardly play games anymore but enjoy passionate people being passionate.

Wiser than me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - she interviews a lot of senior famous ladies and talk about all the knowledge they gathered during their lives. I really like it. It is full of knowledge, humor, feelings, it is a privilege to learn from these women with such vast experiences.

Retronauts and Hardcore History.

Retronauts gives perspectives on old games. They try to be informative, but sometimes it's more casual too. It's good, nostalgic stuff. And it's a small thing, but the way they intersperse samples of game soundtracks really sets the mood well.

As for Hardcore History, Carlin is just such a good host. Sounds so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about whatever the topic. It's history, in particular military history, though so it obviously gets pretty dark and depressing sometimes.

@CheeseToastie

Let me preface this by saying... I am not really into podcasts and lesser interested in d&d. I just have a hard time locking into some things...

The Unexpectables.

It's from some of the team four star alumni, so it's well voiced and well written. They're on the second campaign and it's just so good. It's as funny as it is deep in lore.

Fear the Boot, an unfortunately infrequent but excellent RPG discussion podcast. Don't let the absurd name put you off, the discussions are top notch.

Origin Story, a really great podcast going in to the history of things. Mostly political ideologies (a recent episode was entitled "the myth of cultural Marxism — anatomy of a conspiracy theory", for example, but their episodes on Neoliberalism and Centrism were also excellent), but also often political figures (the scathing review of Ayn Rand was very amusing, and the more recent Elon Musk episodes were rather enlightening), and the occasional lighter one (like the origin of Super Heroes and more recently Doctor Who). It's a podcast with few enough episodes and a slow enough release schedule (they do a few episodes one per week, then take a long season break) that it's really worth going back through the archives to listen to older episodes.

The delta flyers

Behind the bastards

Adventure rider radio

Lately its been The Economics of Everyday Things because they are super short but interesting.

However, True Crime: In the Dark Healthcare Policy: What the Health Other Interesting: If Books Can Kill

Conversations with Tyler. An academic asks interesting people (often prolific academics in other fields) personal and professional questions. One that I keep going back to is Professor Dunlap's explanation of Chinese cuisine while a panel of foodies ask her questions at the dinner table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onWbXaRFge0

National Geographic overheard

TrueAnon. The only political… thing I can tolerate. It’s extremely good.

I think the Glass Cannon Podcast might be the best actual play TTRPG podcast, and since adding video for campaign two it's also very entertaining to watch.