Hi,
I’m a big fan of podcasts and I’ve been enjoying “Against the Rules” and “Darknet Diaries” lately.
Now, I want to hear your recommendations! What podcasts do you love and why? Let’s build an epic list of must-listen podcasts together.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Behind the Bastards, a deep dive into the various shit people of history. Episode one is Saddam Hussein: Erotic Novelist.
There’s nearly 700 episodes, and I’ve yet to run tio a dud. Loads of great guests. My only gripe is that it’s a touch Amerocentric, but other than that I’d recommend it to basically anyone. Not kid friendly, in case that wasn’t obvious.
I think it’s only fair to add that this podcast has a very left leaning bias. I’m not saying that that is bad, just being objective.
Yeah, it does. That’s a fair thing to say.
This is a fair assessment, but I would add that the host mentions that he’s a gun owner with a carry permit, and does from time to time point out the failures of the US political left. There is a bias, but I wouldn’t put him in the realm of Democracy Now!
That said, some of the episodes are great. I recently listened to the Jack Welch ones and loved them.
+1 for Behind the Bastards. Robert Evans is great!
I like listening to historical podcasts, and my favorites are “The History of Rome” (which has finished) and its followup “The History of Byzantium” and “Hardcore History” . I’ve heard good things about “Revolutions” by the creator of “The History of Rome” but I haven’t checked it out yet.
Also I’ve been enjoying “Fall of Civilizations” a lot, but so far have only listened to a few of the episodes.
The Fall of Civilizations is one of my favorite podcasts right now! I highly recommend it if you like to think about history from a sort of different point of view. The host is really invested in trying to contextualize what things may have looked and felt like from the common person’s point of view.
Fall of Civilizations is the best podcast I’ve listened to. Every episode is amazing.
I’ve listened to all of these podcasts besides Hardcore history, and I can highly recommend all of them. It’s hard to pick a favourite but it might be Revolutions, which I found the most eye-opening, especially season 3 on the french revolution. I’m currently working my way through Wittenberg to Westphalia, the Wars of the Reformation, which is meant to be on the 30 years way, but takes a very deep dive into the life, economy, history and culture of the middle ages and early modern period.
Behind the bastards, Self explanatory.
Ear hustle, A podcast about prison made by prisoners in prison.
Knowledge Fight, a couple of dudes who like to sit around and talk about Alex Jones. Essentially deconstructing his bullshit.
Massively depends on what you’re into.
That said, I follow these podcasts:
News related comedy:
- Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me from NPR
- Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
- The Bugle
- Breaking The News from BBC Scotland
DnD:
- Dicefunk (I recommend seasons 3 & 4 in particular)
Puns:
- Punwatch
- (also The Bugle sometimes)
Science communication:
- The Infinite Monkey Cage
- Daniel And Jorge Explain The Universe
- The Curious Cases Of Rutherford & Fry
- Supermassive
- A Problem Squared
- Creature Feature
- My Favourite Theorem
About Media:
- Failure To Launch, about TV pilots that failed to become full series
- Get Played, originally called “How Did This Get Played?” and focused on the worst games ever made, now about games in general
- Dream Factory, about plots of non-existing movies
Security/Hacking:
- Malicious Life
- Darknet Diaries
- Human Factor Security
History:
- You’re Dead To Me
Big fan of Darknet Diaries.
Hello Internet - I love the hosts, though the show is over (or, on hiatus if you truly believe)
Cortex- I listen to this mostly because CGP Grey is on it (who also was one of the hosts on Hello Internet). It’s also nice for tech news/ productivity information, though sometimes I get a bit frustrated at the show
Dear Hank and John (or Dear John and Hank) - John and Hank Green answer listener questions. I’m really a sucker for this “two guys talk at the mic” format lmao
Dungeons and Daddies- a DnD podcast with Freddie Wong that I find immensely entertaining
Well There’s Your Problem - an engineering disasters podcast. I really enjoy listening to the hosts, though they do tend to ramble. I like it, but might not be for everyone
Edit: Almost forgot, Wizards of Waverly Place Podcast. David Deloise and Jen Stone (The dad and Harper from the show) watch old Wizards of Waverly Place episodes and talks about them as well as has guests from the show on. This one can get a bit frustrating for me as the podcast feels a bit rushed, and their social media presence is very click baity. But I find it interesting none the less
We probably have very similar YouTube viewing habits lol
I like; 99% Invisible & Radio Lab, those are my main 2, i also listen to Malicious Life & some others I can’t think of right now.
Not another D&D podcast. Very entertaining and funny.
- Ologies with Ali Ward - really fun if you like interviews with experts on their areas of expertise (lots of biological/sociological topics)
- Normal Gossip - recommended with the caveat that I have not really enjoyed season 3, but seasons 1 and 2 were great and I’m hopeful for future seasons. Just silly gossip stories about people you don’t know.
- 60 Songs That Explain the 90s
- Hit Parade - Music History
- 30 for 30 - I don’t really follow sports, but I really like this podcast anyway
- Star Trek: The Pod Directive - Probably doesn’t need a lot of explanation
Mostly 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 hilariously 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)
- 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)
- 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)
Trashfuture is a great podcast. It is, ostensibly, a tech-pessimist podcast, but every now and then there are some great UK-centric politics that bleed through since they are based in the UK. All of the host are kind of leftist weirdo Marxists and they really take the piss out of “technology companies” that are nothing more than shell games of moving things around that have been around forever and calling it a tech company. One of my favorites.
Throughline has been my favorite since it launched a few years ago. The hosts take a deep dive into the historical events leading up to topical events of the present weaving a thread through them, hence the name.
Some of the examples are the history of policing in the US and how capitalism became the dominant economic system.
I cannot recommend this podcast enough!- History on Fire (Italian Prof talks about interesting events and people)
- The Deprogramm (An iraqi, a slav and a american rant about things)
- Duncan Trussell Family Hour (Classical “guy invites interesting people to talk to”)
- Blowback (Historic events regarding american imperialism)
- Hidden brain for psychology
- 99 percent invisible for interesting stories of stuff.
-Last Podcast on The Left - crime and comedy is a perfect mix for me.
-Bow and Blade and The Medieval Podcast - I love medieval history
-Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History -general history (waiting for another episode is like waiting for Christmas)
-Unsolved Misteries Podcast- I love the TV show and that podcast is great too :)