I’m looking to stock up on podcasts, whether in Mandarin, French or English. Don’t worry about my tastes I’ll sort it out later
But share good podcasts in other languages if you know any (it might be useful for other people)
Srsly Wrong
- a leftist utopian podcast made in Canada
Reply All
- it’s done now and is really only good until PJ leaves, but it was excellent for a while
Dungeons and Daddies
- four dads get sent to the forgotten realms while bringing their kids to a soccer game
The What If? Podcast
Turned Out A Punk
Something Rotten
Behind The Bastards
Went looking for Reply All. I found that podcast as my “first” podcast, I’d never gotten into any before. Listened from episode one every day for weeks, and suddenly… They were announcing they were ending… I hadn’t realized they had ended…
Because they hadn’t yet. I somehow timed my listening of the whole show such that I heard the second or third last episode (where they first announced the ending) on the day it was put out… So I had to wait a week each for the last 2 episodes…
Great variety of content, despite the tagline…
Check out “Search Engine” if you liked Reply/All. PJ is the host!
My regular rotation (in order of how many of them I listen to, %):
- Lateral with Tom Scott
- Wait, wait, don’t tell me
- Well there’s your problem
- Behind the Bastards
- It could happen here
My time has come! I have a podcast for everything. What do you like?
I subscribe to over 250 podcasts. -_- I don’t listen to all of them every day, and many aren’t in production anymore.
I love to listen and learn.
Unexplainable - Explainers on scientific mysteries, each episode is less than 30 minutes
What Went Wrong - Behind the scenes movie podcast. It’s a miracle any movie gets made.
Song Exploder - Musicians take apart their songs, layer by layer and talk about how it was made
Hysteria - Politics and News focusing on how the issues affect women
Levar Burton Reads - Levar Burton reads short stories. Not in production anymore, but there are almost 200 episodes worth of stories to hear
Hello From the Magic Tavern - A guy falls to another dimension but still gets WiFi so he started a podcast interviewing fantasy characters in that universe
Welcome to Night Vale - A fictional story told through a bi-monthly community updates radio broadcast. All conspiracies in Night Vale are real.
Hacked - Stories about hacking and internet crime.
Ologies - Science show about ‘-ologies’ careers
404media.co has a really high quality one! They also got a 2024 award from EFF.
“Welcome to the podcast from 404 Media where Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason catch you up on the stories we published this week. 404 Media is a journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world. We bring you unparalleled access to hidden worlds both online and IRL through investigative reporting, smart blogging, and breaking news. At 404 Media you’ll read, and hear, stories you can’t find anywhere else written by journalists who are leading experts on their beats.”
Lions Led By Donkeys! Weird and usually stupid military history, featuring everything from Roman warfare up to Vietnam.
I’ll also toss in Well There’s Your Problem. It’s an engineering disasters podcast. With slides (if you’re watching on YouTube).
If you want more in-universe crossover, Kill James Bond and What a Hell of a Way to Dad are also good. So is Failure to Launch
I like fiction podcasts, and the main one I’m working through currently is The Magnus Archives. Each episode is a short first-person paranormal horror story, and they start out pretty standalone, eventually building more background and connections between the stories and adding more “frame story” about the people collecting these tales. I wouldn’t say it’s an SCP clone, but it’s kind of shaped similarly.
In no particular order, I listen to all of them regularly:
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Omnibus - general obscure history hosted by indie rocker John Roderick and Jeopardy’s golden boy Ken Jennings
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The Dollop - (mostly) American history with a leftist bent. One comedian reads a story the other hasn’t heard before.
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Not Another D&D Podcast - apologies for the first episode, but great world- and character-building. Really shows how great cooperative storytelling can be
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Last Podcast on the Left - comedy/horror. Conspiracies, cults, UFOs, and other weird shit. Their historical deep dives are awesome.
I listen to these regularly, but there’s a limited series podcast I like to recommend called S-Town. It’s excellent, especially if you’re from the southern US or grew up in a rural area. If you aren’t from the south or a rural area, it’ll probably be an extra-wild ride!
My medieval reenactment camp group is basically The Crick after we found a stump at our campsite.
You ever get the feelin’ that sump’n ain’t right at the crick?
Yarp but it cleared up all right
Love NADDPOD, and yeah once you get past the rocky start (they talk about dragon pussy within the first 10 minutes) it’s a creative and hilarious actual play with some very emotional moments. I cried at several points during campaign 1.
It got surprisingly heavy in places, and I didn’t realize I had grown so attached to some of those characters!
Campaign 2 was great—I really loved the guest star and secondary plot, and I’m now on C3. Have been binging the hell out of it for the past 6 months or so
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- The Bugle (satire about the news)
- The Deprogram (far left politics, very funny hosts)
- Blowback (documentary style show about US interventions in different places - more interesting than it sounds)
- Radiolab (sciencey stuff)
- Stuff You Should Know -A show that originally came from How Stuff Works. The name is self explanatory
- Radiolab -A science based narrative type show that originally airs on WNYC, a major NPR Affiliate and it used to be my favorite show but it’s gone down in quality in recent years.
- It’s Always Sunny Podcast by the cast of Sunny in Philadelphia talk about their shows and personal lives. It’s arguably the most light-hearted show I listen to
- Philosophize This -a educational podcast that discusses mainstream philosophy and the development of the subject in chronological order. I’m only 29 episodes in and there are currently over 200
- 99 Percent Invisible -A show about the world of design and the stories behind it narrated by the perfect voice for radio, Roman Mars
- The Dollop -An American history dark comedy podcast by comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds
- The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart -The current iteration of Jon Stewart’s podcast where he speaks much more candidly and at length on current events, mostly politics
- NPR’s Marketplace -a daily radio show on the state of the economy as well as markets
- Marketplace presents: The Uncertain Hour -A podcast that does season length stories that take a deep dive into the broken aspects of americas economy, america’s failing regulation & safety nets.
- Behind The Bastards -A Biographical podcast about a lot of historic/prominent people that probably shouldn’t be idolized
- Sawbones -A podcast about the history of medicine.
- The Moth -A collection of personal stories of triumph, change, growth, and inspiration as they were remembered and told live on stage. I first heard it on NPR.
On a more personal level I also listen to various collections of Alan Watts talks in addition to Sam Harris’s Making Sense podcast.
Seconding Behind the Bastards. Great podcast.
I second behind the basters.
I absolutely love these:
- Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg (behavioral psychology)
- The Sloppy Boys (comedy cocktails)
- The Bugle (comedy satire politics)
- Danny Wallace’s Important Broadcast (comedy radio show)
- Heavyweight (comedy mystery)
- HomeAssistant podcast (smarthome tech HomeAssistant)
- Self-Hosted (tech)
- Maintenance Phase (comedy wellness)
- Severance Podcast (tv show Severance)
- Strong Songs (your favorite songs, explained)
- All Consuming (comedy product reviews)
The Severance podcast is a really great behind the scenes extrapolation of each episode by the cast and crew. I recommend this one too! It’s fun to hear how many of them are fans of the show since most of them had no idea what was going on while filling their portion.
I liked “David Tennant does a podcast with…”
The Constant by Mark Chrisler. It covers examples of all the different way people have been wrong throughout history like thinking birds flew to the moon for winter or how homeopathy started. I always find it super interesting and pretty funny too.
It’s the only podcast I subscription to on patron.
I absolutely love 99% Invisible
Knowledge Fight. Dan listens to InfoWars so you don’t have to.
He has immersed himself in the world of Alex Jones, InfoWars, and other right-wing shit-headerry for almost 8 years now, and he brings a depth of research and continuity to the conversation that nobody else really does. He goes beyond the usual “wow, what a hypocrite” criticism and thoroughly eviscerates anything even remotely resembling a valid point that these dicks make. His co-host, Jordan, screeches along in an occasionally hilarious fashion.
They’re about to release their 1,000th episode, and virtually all of them are worth a listen (even going back to 2016-2017). It really shows how often people like Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Trump, Laura Loomer, and so forth have been overlapping and collaborating for years.
- Blank Check with Griffin and David. A podcast about film directors. We love da moviesh.
- The Greatest Generation/The Greatest Trek. The best Star Trek podcast.
- Marvel by the Month. Every Marvel comic, one month at a time.
- Spout Lore - side-splittingly funny Dungeon World real-play podcast that will occasionally make you cry.
- Sawbones - Medical history from a real doctor and her loveable idiot. Secretly one of the most leftist podcasts out there, Dr. Sydnee for president. Also relationship goals.
And if you like Sawbones, check out My Brother, My Brother, and Me.
It’s a comedy advice podcast from the lovable idiot and his two brothers. It’s great fun, and was referenced in the musical Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda is a big fan).
