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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)
Valley Heat. Great writing, hilarious.
the yard
. Mad At The Internet
Almost Plausible is a show where three friends take ordinary objects (for example, a paperclip, a ceiling fan, or a toilet brush) and create movie plots based on those objects.
Full disclaimer: This is my podcast.
On a more personal level I also listen to various collections of Alan Watts talks in addition to Sam Harris's Making Sense podcast.
I second behind the basters.
Seconding Behind the Bastards. Great podcast.
For anyone with the slightest interest in meditation, I second Sam Harris’s Waking Up app! His podcast Making Sense is great too
The eastern border https://theeasternborder.lv/
A podcast about history and current events in the post Soviet sphere geared towards a western audience by a Latvian journalist. Unfortunately one current topic dominates for the last 3 years. Please take a guess, which it might be.
These are some of my favorites, I'm sure I'm missing some though.
There is only one podcast truly worth your valuable time, and it's the Get Skrek'd Podcast - "A shot-by-shot analysis of the award-winning film, Shrek 2 by your tour guide and host, Logan Flinders."
No other podcasts compare. No other podcasts matter.
Get Shrek'd is love. Get Shrek'd is life.
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned "if books could kill".
They basically tear all their top seller self help books to shreds. It's very entertaining and actually really smart too.
I looked through a number of comments and am surprised not to see Let's Learn Everything.
Every two weeks the hosts cover two topics in a lot of depth, anything from quantum mechanics to swear words.
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
Darknet diaries is one of my all time favorites.
If you like music analysis then Strong Songs is also interesting
And for a non serious listen I like to listen to Sherlock & Co, which is an amazing audioplay where Watson becomes a podcaster to deal with his PTSD. The adventures are self contained, so you can hop on any you like.
I'll second Darknet Diaries! Hell of a podcast!
I don't listen to podcasts that much, but I am a big fan of the Lingthusiasm podcast. I was actually introduced to it by none other than Tom Scott (although he doesn't really host it himself).
Srsly Wrong
Reply All
Dungeons and Daddies
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...
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).
Behind the Basards, History of Rome and Revolutions by Mike Duncan, Hardcore History.
Well there’s your problem podcast. A podcast about engineering disasters; with slides.
Lateral with Tom Scott It's a great non-political podcast.
My regular rotation (in order of how many of them I listen to, %):
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."
I’ve enjoyed Blowback.
Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast (especially series 3 covering the French Revolution) and his The History of Rome series.
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.
I listen to many, but here's my favorites:
If you like The Beef and Dairy Network, you may like 3 Bean Salad. It’s Ben Partridge with two other comedians, Henry Packer and Mike Wozniak. Starting at episode 1 helps with the in-jokes, but otherwise it’s all standalone episodes.
Thanks, I'll check it out!
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 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.
I see a bunch of other Cool Zone Media shows, but not Molly Conger's Weird Little Guys.
Her calm cadence and thorough exploration of specific American wingnuts is fun. And as far as I've seen, most of the stories end with the guy dead or in prison, so happy endings.
In no particular order, I listen to all of them regularly:
Omnibus - general obscure history hosted by indie rocker John Roderick and Jeopardy's golden boy Ken Jennings
The Dollop - (mostly) American history with a leftist bent. One comedian reads a story the other hasn't heard before.
Not Another D&D Podcast - apologies for the first episode, but great world- and character-building. Really shows how great cooperative storytelling can be
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!
I don't listen to podcasts often. But I like:
Citations Needed: a podcast about media. Basically goes into how media covers some events and topics from a leftist perspective.
Cane and Rinse: video game discussions and analyses. Each episode covers a specific game
A podcast I like to listen to that hasn't been mentioned yet: Opt Out
Opt Out is a podcast where I sit down with passionate people to learn why privacy matters to them, the tools and techniques they’ve found and leveraged, and where we encourage and inspire others towards personal privacy and data-sovereignty.
I absolutely love these:
I like planet money from NPR