What's your favourite podcast at the moment?
What's your favourite podcast at the moment?
I've been looking for more podcasts since I started going on daily walks.
Mine are:
- Conan O'Brien needs a friend
- Wolf and owl
- Off menu
Surprised nobody has mentioned my two favourites:
- Behind The Bastards: Robert Evans (formerly of Cracked fame) talks about the worst people in history for hours.
- Oh No Ross and Carrie: "When they make the claims we show up so you don't have to." Maybe start with the series on scientology, it's some of the best work they've done.
Most of the other stuff I listen to is either industry specific or fandom/hobby specific.
If you're into gaming I would suggest
- NoClip (video game documentarians about modern video games)
- video game history hour (general video game history done by the video game history foundation)
- insert credit ( almost game show style, the hosts have only a few minutes to answer all kinds of questions about games, the gaming industry, or even opinions.)
Otherwise I really enjoy
- behind the bastards ( kind of like deep dives into shitty people of the world and what makes them tick)
- cautionary tales ( true stories about disasters, humon error, and catastrophies )
- 99 percent invisible (weekly episodes on all kinds of deep dives into things that often go without notice in our lives, the most recent episode covers the history of album art for example)
On the humorous side:
- My Brother, My Brother And Me - 3 brothers giving not-so-serious advice to listeners, reacting to questions from Yahoo Answers (when that was a thing), and overall being funny/silly
- My Dad Wrote A Porno - 3 people reacting to an "erotica" book series that one of the guys' dad published (I would say the books are maybe only 5%-20% explicit, depending on the chapter) (some of the characters' voices can be annoying/grating, and the narrator tends to repeat sentences after they react to them which can be annoying as well)
- No Such Thing As A Fish - the behind-the-scenes staff of the show QI bring up interesting facts and tidbits from history/nature/etc. (each episode is split into 4 parts where each member brings up a fact and the others react to it and bring up related facts)
- If I Were You - Jake & Amir from CollegeHumor giving advice to listeners (mostly in a sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek way but sometimes genuinely), mostly about relationships/dating
- SmartLess - Jason Bateman and Will Arnett (Arrested Development) and Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) interview a famous person each episode where only one of the hosts known who it is beforehand (it gets better after the first few episodes, though some conversations are less funny/entertaining than others)
- Office Ladies - Jenna and Angela from The Office (US) reacting to each episode of the show and bringing up behind-the-scenes stuff (some of episodes include interviews with other cast members/staff)
- 99% Invisible
- Well There's Your Problem
- The War On Cars
- The Urbanist Agenda
- The Climate Deniers Playbook
- Underunderstood
- Induction
- Hard Fork
- Drilled
- The Adam Ragusea Podcast
In no particular order.
Last Podcast on the Left: cryptids, cults, and killers. My go to everyweek they just covered Andrew Cunanan.
Something Rotten: Jacob Geller and Blake Hester analyze darker video games. I love Jacob's youtube channel and Blake Hester has some great insights in this series as well. They are currently covering Silent Hill 2 and just had SuperEyePatchWolf guest star.
I love knowledge fight. About Alex Jones and the conspiracy theory of the day.
The Memory Palace - Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, often a little bit of both.
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They'll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser.
I Spy - True stories told by spies who steal secrets, kill adversaries, and turn agents into double agents. Each episode features one spy telling one dramatic story. Unfortunately, this show seems to be defunct. Still an interesting listen, though!
Limetown - A 22 episode fictional story about the mysterious disappearance of over 300 people from a small town in Tennessee.
The Other Half - Two friends watch the same movie—except one only watches the first half, and the other only watches the second half. Then they get together and discuss the film, and try to figure out the context of what they saw.
Hey Riddle Riddle - My favorite podcast at the moment. Three improvisers answer riddles some of the time, and goof off most of the time. They do improvised scenes and have a good time.
Twenty Thousand Hertz - The stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. It's basically 99% Invisible, but for audio.
What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law - Particularly interesting if you live in the U.S., this show takes a look at modern issues and controversies through the lens of constitutional law. You'd think a podcast about legal matters would be dry and obtuse, but the show really is geared for a non-legal-minded audience.
Almost Plausible - My own podcast! A couple of friends and I friends take an ordinary object, such as a pillow, or a ceiling fan, or a toilet brush, and we come up with a movie plot where that object plays a central or critical role. Note: At the time of posting, we have just released our Halloween episode, which breaks from the regular format. So if you go listen to the Pumpkin episode, although it's an entertaining one, it's not representative of the show.
- Co-recursive
- the Haskell Cast
- the Lambda Cast (not that fun to listen to but it taught me a ton)
Permanently Deleted
- Linux Unplugged
- Linux Lads
- Linux After Dark
- Linux Downtime
- Linux Matters
- Linux Userspace
- Linux Actio News
- Linux + Open Source News, by TLE
- Late Night Linux
- Coder Radio
- 2.5 Admins
- Darknet Diaries
- Tech over Tea
- The Homelab Show
- Selfhosted
- The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show
- FriendsPerSecond
And yes, I listen to all of these and more (but these are the English ones), I really like podcasts...
Right now I'm listening to The Deprogram. It discusses the problems with capitalism from socialist's perspectives. It's very entertaining
Recently bigned 85 episodes of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. It's released monthly and hosted by two linguists, one of which is Tom Scott's writer and the other is a linguistics professor in New Zealand.
Obviously Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is hands down the greatest podcast of all time. Unfortunately, because he does so much research, his turnaround rate on episodes is one of the slowest in the business. That said, there's always his back catalog to take a deep dive into, which is fucking awesome.
I recently discovered:
- If Books Could Kill from Michael Hobbes (How the worst ideas spread through airport bestsellers)
- Failure To Launch from Fluid Podcasts (How brands fail)
- Lions Led By Donkeys (Military history failures)
Blowback is the most incredible podcast I've listened to. If you like behind the bastards, blowback is better, entire seasons on particular historical events.
I haven't seen The Always Sunny podcast mentioned yet. If you like IASIP, this is a must listen.
A lot of listeners will recommend Darknet Diaries, Reply All, or My Dad Wrote a Porno. But no t many would recommend Star Talk. A science show with comedians.
A very informative show with laughs throughout. Some episodes follow a specific theme such as a show like Doctor Who, and some episodes would answer listeners questions.
Heavyweight
Welcome to Night Vale
Science Vs
The Debaters
You Made it Weird
A Problem Squared
Uhh Yeah Dude They've been doing the podcast since 2006, and coming up on their 1000th episode. Listener supposed and ad free. Just two guys trying to figure it all out.
Beautiful / Anonymous with Chris Gethard is my favourite lately. It's essentially an hour-long phone conversation between the host and an anonymous stranger. The anonymity makes people open up and be vulnerable, and Chris is an amazing conversationalist who manages to bring something interesting out of every caller.
Nextlander, it's some of the OG Giant Bomb guys, I love their video games and industry coverage, and they're such warm comforting guys :-)
- Spout Lore - the best real play RPG podcast
- Last Podcast on the Left - True Crime, aliens, and cryptids.
- Marvel By The Month - every Marvel comic, one month at a time
- Blank Check - The best movie podcast
- The Flop House - the best bad movie podcast
- Depresh Mode - Mental health, also the best named podcast in history
- No Dogs In Space - alternative music history
- Sawbones - Medical history, also relationship goals
- Till Death Do Us Blart - the eternal podcast
- Improvised Star Trek - Sadly ended but still hilarious
If you are into videogames I will definitely hear the video game history foundation podcast
My top 6 according to how podcast addict sorts them:
8-4 Play
The Adventure Zone
Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod
538 Politics
Hardcore Gaming 101
Rude Tales of Magic
I'd probably also give shout outs to Self Hosted, Common Descent, Spacepod, the Nature podcast, and Software Engineering Radio.
It's so gorgeously audio designed and mixed, all about ecological preservation, geology, humans place as a part of nature, and many more and tangentially related topics. Headphones are a must.
The Unmade Podcast (https://unmade.fm/) is probably my GOAT. Brady Haran (from Numberphile, Computerphile, etc.) and his Childhood friend, Tim Hein, come up with wacky ideas for podcasts that they won't actually make. Definitely the funniest podcast I've ever heard.
Hello Internet, also from Brady, with CGP Grey, is also amazing. Though sadly on hiatus.
- Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
- The psychology of your 20s.
- Talks at Google
- What should I read next?
- Lex Fridman
A bit more teckie:
- REWORK
- The Changelog
- Go Time
- Screaming in the cloud
- The New Stack podcast
- Ship it!
Languages learning:
- Tanaka radio (Japanese)
- The Miku real Japanese
- The real Japanese podcast
- The procrastination podcast (English)
I enjoy Adam Ragusea's podcast. It is a bit all over the place sometimes, but it's mostly about cooking related stuff?
French speakers should check out Mike Ward sous écoute. It's just Québec comedians* getting drunk in front of a crowd. I really enjoy it.
Darknet diaries have been named a few times already, but I will also list it, it's just that good haha.
* Google tells me humorist is a word in english but im not sure? It's mostly people doing comedy, not necessarily movies etc.
I dropped the ball a bit on listening to podcasts therefor right now it'd be "This American Life" but normally I also enjoy the Flophouse.
Dear Hank and John (funny John and Hank Green)
Hardcore History with Dan Carlin
The Debaters (Canadian comedy show where two comedians debate whether something (ex: malls, big weddings, etc) is good/bad and get judged by live audience)
- check out the pretzels vs peanuts episode
If you like investigative journalism, Someone Knows Something. David Ridgen is fantastic in all of his shows and the care with which he handles delicate subjects is rare.
Blocked Party, a Canadian podcast about getting blocked.
Office Hours w/ Tim Heidecker. Very funny but he also has great musicians and other interesting folks on.
black box down - it is about airplane incidents and goes into detail on how it happened plus what changed in the industry to avoid the issue in the future.
FriendlyJordies.
A locally made one here in Australia - How Other Dads Dad, by Hamish Blake.
The Weekly Planet. Two funny and liberal Aussie guys talk about comics, movies, and TV shows. Mostly the former two. They have a great YouTube channel too.
The Delta Flyers is a great Star Trek podcast about Star Trek: Voyager and more now that they have finished their re-watch of the series.
Mostly industry / work related stuff honestly.
The Kubernetes Podcast from Google
DevOps Paradox
DevOps and Docker Talk
Tooth and Claw! I haven't seen that mentioned. Awesome podcast about animal attacks and animal facts
The Dudesy podcast is an experiment of sorts, with the Dudesy AI learning, evolving and generating data in order to improve the show. Each episode represents a free-flowing, creative exchange between the two human hosts and the AI.
Generation Loss (its a podcast about movies that doesn't take itself too seriously)
I’m really enjoying Working Out Out with Mike Birbiglia and WTF with Marc Maron
I always find myself listening to Distractible on long road trips. The stories are really funny. My top two episodes are Bob's Fridge and Illegal Advice.
All Fantasy Everything is the only podcast that has ever existed. 3 very funny friends/comedians + a guest fantasy draft anything and everything from the world of pop culture.
Some examples of previous draft topics include:
-People named Tom -Words that make you sound stupid -Movie Deaths -Bald People -Power moves -Movie Roles that Nicolas Cage should have had
My top 3:
- The Journal: current events
- Tides of History: history
- ChooseFI: personal finance
sfultra abut scifi by an Irish martyr
Boonta vista nice people from Australia
Aunty donna more nice people from Straya
The Adam Buxton podcast an angry bearded fella
Alzabo soup a Gene Wolfe podcast by two very nice dudes
The Constant It is 'a history of getting things wrong', with deep research and fun way of storytelling.
- Behind the Bastards
- Citations Needed (not the Tom Scott one, the Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi one)
- This Podcast Will Kill You
"If Books Could Kill", they cover the airport books that captured our hearts and ruined our minds.
One of my new favorites.
Permanently Deleted
Star Trek: The Next Conversation
• Old Gods of Appalachia (horror anthology series set in an "alternate Appalachia," where the mountains were never intended for human inhabitants)
• We Die First (horror film review podcast "made for Black horror fans, by Black horror fans," but my white ass enjoys it)
• Just the Zoo of Us (a weekly spotlight on one or two animals, with ratings for effectiveness, enginuity, and aesthetics)
• Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9 (another horror film review podcast, hosted by Jeffrey Cranor and Cecil Baldwin)
Forehead Fables
Those who know, know
A More Civilized Aged - A Star Wars podcast that started with the Clone Wars and are currently playing through KOTOR. Their Andor coverage was hype as hell. The hosts have great chemistry, it's funny and surprisingly insightful.
Unexplainable and Sean Carroll’s Mindscape.
If ur a nerd and like to be reminded how absolutely fucking stupid you are :)
Linux Game Cast
Abroad in Japan
The Security Privacy and OSINT show
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Beautiful Anonymous! One hour phone call with a stranger and the funniest most empathetic host ever, Chris Gethard.
Parenting Hell by a pair of UK comedians, Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe. Started as a lockdown podcast about how hard it is to be a parent during lockdown, but it's continued ever since. They get a different guest, usually a comedian, in every week to talk about parenting.
And they're comedians, so it's always funny. And totally relatable if you have kids.
For a more serious podcast, Free Range Humans is a fantastic podcast about effecting change in educational systems.
Smartless: Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes take turns picking a guest to interview each episode. The other two hosts are unaware of who the guest will be ahead of time
Skatcast: a different show 6 days a week! Tuesday is the original show, Skatcast, marketed as Cartoons For Your Earholes. Wednesday is The Dipshit Files, where the hosts wife delves into true crime, telling the host a different story each week. Thursday is Dave and Angus, a comedy show centered around two characters usually traveling the states, learning about them and inevitably getting kicked out of most places they visit. Friday is Just A Ride, where three hosts discuss a variety of topics while keeping in mind that this life is just a ride and we should enjoy ourselves on it. Monday is a Patreon only show where they go behind the curtain for a "bosses meeting" and discuss what's happening and coming up in the Skatcast world
- Risk
- Criminal
- Heavyweight (no longer Spotify exclusive)
I aim for a (un)healthy mixture of tech and political commentary, far more than I could ever actually listen to.
Based on your current selections, you seem to favor comedy/celebrities/comedians. I don't follow too much stuff like that, but I have maybe two suggestions: Blocked and Reported for Internet bullshit (furry infighting, Adult Baby Diaper Lovers, Twitter drama). It tends towards a sort of moderate liberal/radical centrist politics. Srsly Wrong do kind-hearted goofy skits to explain their politics. Self-identified utopian socialists.
Most of the rest of the stuff I listen to is some variant of interviews with important thinkers or 2+ dudes/chicks/yos shooting the shit about socialism or FLOSS.