I’m getting close to the bottom of my backlog on a few podcasts, so I’m looking to get something new in there.
Personally, it’s been, in no particular order:
- If Books Could Kill
- Darknet Diaries
- Hard Fork
- 99% Invisible
- The War on Cars
- The Urbanist Agenda
- The Climate Denier’s Playbook
- Well There’s Your Problem
I’m mildly considering getting into Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here, but I’m a little bit skeptical on account of how damn much there is to be listened to in their feed.
I love Behind The Bastards and It Could Happen Here. They do have significant episode counts. BtB does a great and looooooong series on Henry Kissinger that I think is a prime example of what you are going to get. If you listen to that one and don’t enjoy, I would move on from them.
I have exclusuvely been listening to “The History of Rome” by Mike Duncan
still not done with it lol
His follow up Revolutions is even better
That’s how I was made aware of “The History of Rome”. I listened to the last chapters of “Revolutions” and decided to start from the beginning before listening to the rest.
My current “roadmap” of sorts is to finish “The History of Rome”, then "The History of Byzantium* (not made by Duncan) and listen to the rest of “Revolutions” afterwards
Make sure to follow it up with Robin Pearson’s History of Byzantium. He’s still centuries away from done, but I like it even better than Mike Duncan’s after it gets going.
I’m gonna give this one a shot. Thank you!
No Such Thing As A Fish!
From the makers of BBC’s “QI,” a (nearly) endless collection of useless facts that will not change your life, but will make you more fun to talk to at parties. Not that you go to any parties.
Anna from No Such Thing as a Fish recommended an Australian podcast called Smart Enough to Know Better years ago and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying both since. And I would say if you get the opportunity to see No Such Thing as a Fish live go for it. They are excellent live.
I’ve heard about this one before, but I’m downloading an episode now.
The one thing I hate about QI is that I’ve already seen it all and there aren’t any more episodes.
Edit: That was great. It totally scratched the QI itch. Among many other tidbits, I now know how leech treatments were discovered, that there’s a specific frequency that is arousing for badgers and sets off car alarms, and that in one year, over 700 American students were arrested for owning pagers.
Edit: Holy shit. The author of Goodnight Moon literally died from an overly-enthusiastic “can-can kick”. She did it to prove she was feeling fine… (ironically) but she dislodged a blood clot that instantly killed her.
Well now I know you’re the type of person who starts a podcast newest to oldest instead of the other way around lol
English:
- Lateral
- Darknet Diaries
- Artifexian
- Exolore
- The White Vault (caught up on old episodes)
- World’s Greatest Con
German:
- Geschichten aus der Geschichte
- Geschichten aus dem Altbau
- Darwin gefällt das
- Mord auf Ex
- Bayern 3 True Crime
- Weird Crimes
All in no particular order.
I might add to the German column:
Wochendämmerung
Lage der Nation
Übermedien
Piratensender Powerplay
UKW
Logbuch Netzpolitik Das Universum Sternengeschichten Besser Wissen AstroGeo Hoaxilla CosmicLatte Future Histories OmegaTau (RIP)
Lions lead by donkeys
Well There’s Your Problem
Kill James Bond
The Delta Flyers
Decoding The Unknown
P3 Dokumentär
Damn Interesting
P3 Dystopia 👍
It Could Happen Here is often talking about what’s going on that week in the world. I wouldn’t try to listen to their whole backlog, but I usually catch an episode or two a week.
Behind the Bastards is great. Since I found it (Summer 2020, I’d reckon), I’ve listened to most of what has come out since.
Cool People who did Cool Stuff is a sort of spin off of btb. Deep dives on people and movements who were resisting the bastards. It’s only been going on a couple of years, so the backlog is more manageable if that’s your thing.
I listen to Past Times on the Dollop feed most weeks. The Dollop is another deep dive history podcast. On Past Times, they read headlines and articles from different newspaper every week. Usually from the late 19th through early 20th century, but they’ve gone as far back as the 1600s.
Anything by Jamie Loftus is great. She’s mostly done short run things on a single topic. She’s on the Bechdel cast, too which I listen to occasionally.
You might enjoy The Deprogram, which has a less daunting backlog.
It could happen here is very hit or miss, unfortunately. For me personally, about 70% is garbage, the rest is pretty good.
Their resident middle east anchor woman (Shirin?) and Andrew are just completely unlistenable to me, simply because of their voices. And there’s a lot of USA internal politics, which just isn’t all that interesting to me.
I want to like Cool People who did Cool stuff, but the way information is presented by Margaret almost reads (listens?) like fiction storytelling. I appreciate the source quotes and media critiques of BtB which the few episodes of CPWDCS I’ve listened to didn’t really have.
You might also like:
- Search Engine
- Tech Won’t Save Us
- Moderated Content
- Mystery AI Hype Theater
Search Engine had been my favorite podcast in the last year or so.
Curious if anyone who has search engine has paid for incognito mode?
I’m sure people have but my guess is they’re more likely to be bluesky people instead of lemmy people.
Behind the Bastards and Knowledge Fight are my two favorites, and I sprinkle in some Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff and Today Explained
I keep meaning to look into CPWDCS, but my podcast backlog is ridiculous.
Seconding Knowledge Fight and Behind the Bastards! Hello fellow wonk!
I just figured out I can see my own playback stats. For this year, my top ten in order of most played:
- Last Podcast on the Left
- Behind the Bastards
- Harmontown
- Hardcore History
- Wizard and the Bruiser
- That Happens
- The Bugle
- State of the World, NPR
- Hood Politics with Prop
- The Rest is Politics
I think I like your list better.
- Behind the Bastards
- Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
- A Podcast of Unnecessary Detail
- Cozy History
- Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons
- Surveillance Report
- 2.5 Admins
- Self-Hosted
- Philosophize This
- Frequent Miler
•Bear Brook
•We’re Here to Help
•Reveal
•Radiolab
•Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
I listen to these podcasts at work
- Unfuck the Republic (unftr)
- Behind the Bastards
- The Deprogram
I also like to listen to news, video essays, and speeches while working. It helps keep the variety up. Something else to consider is getting a library card to checkout audiobooks on some streaming apps
I was never a podcast person until I listened to Otherworld. It gives a platform to people to tell their paranormal stories without sensationalism or judgement. They cover a wide range of topics from hauntings to cryptids to aliens. Really cool stuff even if you’re a skeptic
The Cool Zone people do put out a ton of content, I don’t know how they do it. I commute and hour each way to work, and between Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here, that gets me through almost the whole week.
I know they all have other shows now too. I have listened to Margaret Killjoy’s Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff a few times now as well. It’s like BtB, but more like the BtB Christmas Special where it focuses on people that have tried to make positive changes instead of the villains. It’s nice to have the same quality content but with a somewhat positive spin.
If you want to get into it without it taking up all your time, see if Robert’s or Margaret’s topic is something that really looks good, or if it doesn’t you can check out ICHH, which is split up into segments anyway and you can enjoy that in smaller portions.
Besides those, I enjoy Threedom (comedy show with Scott Aukerman of Comedy Bang Bang, Paul F Tompkins who was Mr Peanutbutter on Bojack Horseman, and Lauren Lapkus of Jurassic World, OitnB, and a ton of other things), How I Built This with Guy Raz, and Planet Money from NPR.
