What podcasts are you listening to?
First off, hello, I'm new here, and I hope this is an okay place to ask...what podcasts are you all into?
Here's some of my favorites:
Dispatches from Myrtle Beach:
Link from Good Mythical Morning has a conversation with his father. It's a strange mix of funny, heartwarming, raunchy, and endearing.
The Newest Olympian:
Mike Shubert from the Potterless podcasts reads the Percy Jackson books (I tried reading along with the podcast because I'd never read them, but couldn't put the books down, so I'm ahead of the podcast now). It's a funny podcast regardless if you've read the books.
RadioLab and the new season of RadioLab's More Perfect podcast
If you've never listened to radio lab, just pick any episode. They're interesting and weird and you'll learn stuff. They're just good. The new hosts are still finding their way, but it's still good, so maybe start with some of the older episodes.
Judge John Hodgman
- He settles stupid disputes between people...e.g., "Is a hotdog a sandwich" (No.)
Song Exploder
- Even if I've never heard of the song I listen. It's about how songs are made, and it's super interesting.
99% Invisible
- it's about recognizing all the fascinating things in the world around us that we pass by every day without noticing. Always read the plaque.
Oh No, Ross and Carrie
- they do non-sciencey things and then discuss from a science perspective. (E.g., joining a religion, going to flat earth meetings, visiting psychics, getting holistic medical treatments, etc)
This American Life
just interesting stories about people and things in life?
The Memory Palace
super cool podcast...usually pretty short that takes things from history and tells the story in just a unique and interesting way.
Science Friday
deep dive into science news for the week
Behind the Bastards
all about the worst people in history.
Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine
Hilarious podcast about medical history
The Adventure Zone
The McElroy family plays dnd and other role play games
The Moth
people tell personal stories to crowds of people.
The Daily
New York Times's podcast
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
news comedy gameshow
60-Second Science
as described
Good Job Brain
pub trivia podcast
A Hotdog is a Sandwich (but it's not)
Good Mythical Kitchen's Josh and Nicole debate food things
Dead Pilots Society:
really interesting. They take scripts from failed TV pilots and hire actors to do table reads of the script. Every other week is an interview with the script's writers too, so you can listen to those if interested or just the table reads if not.
Brainstuff:
just interesting tidbits. Short podcasts.
I'd love to hear your recommendations!
Edit: Thank you all for all the recommendations! I'm still reading all the posts and adding them to my list to give them a shot!
Worth noting this thread from a few days ago with a similar question (Not necessarily suggesting this is a repost - just making others aware of the previous discussion). I am going to move this to ~hobbies however and keep ~music for music!
Ah, thank you. I didn't see that. I saw the hobbies group and almost posted this there, but I saw in the guide that subgroups in the future would be based off popular tags, and I thought music.podcast made a bit more sense than hobbies.podcast
Thanks for the help! I'm still learning the rules.
Knowlege Fight is a podcast where two comedians discuss all of the insane and horrible shit that Alex Jones gets up to. The level of rigor in dissecting Alex’s bullshit is high, and yet it manages to be a lot of fun to listen to. It’s set up as an “expert explains to his friend” show, and the expert, Dan, has become so knowledgeable on Jones that he actually assisted the Sandy Hook parents’ attorney in their recent case in Texas.
Two of your mentions, Oh No Ross and Carrie and Behind the Bastards are also two of my faves.
+1 For Knowledge Fight.
Dan and Jordan have great chemistry and make for a great pair. The dynamic of Dan presenting to Jordan his well researched information and insight into not only Alex Jones and info wars, but conmen who take advantage of conspiracy theories to exploit certain crowds is honestly brilliant.
It can be hard listening at times when Alex goes on some massive homophobic/ transphobic/ racist rant, but the hosts bring both a mostly appropriate amount of upset and humour to the situation to make it a little more digestible.
It's easily my top podcast at the moment.
Sounds similar to Behind the Bastards. Thank you! I'll give it a listen!
The KF hosts have been BTB guests and Robert has referred to KF as his favorite podcast!
Another +1 for Knowledge Fight! The deposition episodes and the deep dive into Sandy Hook are incredibly fascinating. Since there’s an 800+ episode back catalogue, I’m still jumping around and listening to whichever ep catches my fancy.
Hey, this was a fantastic recommendation. Im now obsessed with listening to these. Alex jones has always been fascinating to me and i really like how they break down his conversational/interview tactics and that latest tucker carlson episode was just... *chefs kiss. Thanks
I have mainly been on 2 both of them horror anthologies. And one more normal podcast
No Sleep Podcast. As the name suggests it started by voice-acting some of the top posts from the Reddit nosleep subreddit but pretty quickly they started writing their own stories. They have top tier VAs that you will hear time and time again if you regularly listen to horror podcast. Also the last time I heard their ads (a few years ago now since I have been buying each new season) they were all mini-stories as ads instead of canned script reads. Overall its 2nd thing I will put on for any long car ride
The Wrong Station. Another anthology podcast, but this one is a little more Black Mirror. The stories are told more by a narrator rather than a fully voice-acted story. I love this podcast, it is the only one I will listen to no matter what I am doing as soon as the next episode drops.
Darknet Dires. This one is more in line with normal podcasts, the host presents a topic/story from Cyber Security space and has interviews and the such. I am fascinated by cyber security and Red Teaming so this is the only 'normal' podcast that grabs my attention
Let the record also show that you don’t need to be super technical for Darknet Diaries. Jack, the host, is an incredible storyteller and does a good job of gearing his podcast to a broad audience. Love that podcast!
I will check out The Wrong Station immediately. Thanks for the recommendation, I love a good horror anthology. In that same vein, I've been enjoying Gray Matter a lot even though the releases are kind of infrequent and the limited run series from last Christmas called 12 Ghosts was also really good.
The Last Podcast on the Left, The Always Sunny Podcast, and The Jeselnik & Rosenthal Vanity Project for comedy. Around the NFL for NFL news and discussion. The Daily and Up First for general news. I also like the occasional 2 Bears, 1 Cave and Joe Rogan Experience episode but those are very guest dependant.
Woo! Another LPOTL fan! Always know I'm in the right place when there's a few of us around (I say as though it isn't one of the more popular ones)
It's popular for good reason!
What's LPOTL about?
It's about a lot of things, some major themes being: UFOs, true crime, occult, conspiracy, cryptids, generally like 'macabre' topics. The thing that sets it apart to me are the hosts, whose humor I happen to particularly enjoy. They don't take any of the topics too seriously. Their current series is on the Manhattan Project, their previous was on a serial killer gang, previously I think a UFO crash, and in there they had some one-offs about mass hysteria throughout history and La Llorona. Just to give a sampling of the types of things they cover.
Honestly, even if you don't consider yourself a fan of any of those subjects, it might surprise you. When I started listening I didn't really consume any of that type of content but I started listening because some friends are, and here I am a few years later and I love it. Probably my favorite podcast.
Just to add, while the hosts don't take the subjects overly serious, the research is top notch. Far better than a lot of more 'serious' podcasts I've tried to listen to in the past. Marcus and the research assistants do a phenomenal job, and they, from what I can tell, are very honest about what's known and what's just speculated.
Hail yourself!
I thought it had to do something with leftist politics and stuff
On the same podcast network there's a politics one called Abe Lincoln's Top Hat. I've never been able to get into it though, as much as I love LPOTL.
Ah! No, the name I think is just a play on Last House on the Left, a 70's horror cult classic.
Though if you go into LPOTL expecting something positive about the right, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
Those hosts are good dudes.
Last Podcast on the Left has been my favorite podcast of all time. I genuinely enjoy the dynamic of Ben being the "normal dude" listening to Henry spout his more conspiracy / fringe / chaotic side and Marcus with his analytical side, with a heavy dose of research. They just all get along so well.
So many running jokes that pop up from time to time. Such a cool community. I saw a fellow LPOTL sticker on someone's water bottle in the wild and we instantly bonded. It was quite cool. :)
Including the other LPOTL cult members! :) @gpl @hexagram
Whispers JRVP
I'm currently going through a backlog of Darknet Diaries episodes. It's a podcast by Jack Rhysider where he talks about and interviews people that have something to do with cyber crime/security. Whether it's about physical penetration testing or hacking into a nuclear facility, he covers it all. Really interesting and fun to listen to. Would recommend to anyone interested in tech!
Just listened to an episode (134: Deviant) yesterday, can also highly recommend! My favourites are the ones with some physical pen test component.
I just made a separate comment with my favourite podcasts, but if you like Darknet Diaries I think you might also like The Lazarus Heist, which is all about the hacking North Korea gets up to. Fascinating and scary.
The Lazarus Heist episode is great, one of the best in the series.
Some of my favorites are
Just FYI there's a whole separate podcast called The Lazarus Heist that's very good. Can highly recommend!
Oh, interesting! I didn't know that. Looks like I've got to listen to it this weekend. Thanks for the recommendation!
Thr physical pen tests are my favorite as well. My favorite episode is 'Jon and Brian's Big adventure' when the guy hops off the shed and breaks both ankles. They're both professional but also super funny. All three of them bounce off each other so well. Jack is a great host.
I remember that one! Just downloaded it, will re-listen to it tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion!
This is one of my favorite shows. I have to pace myself with it, though, because I get way too paranoid about data breaches and getting hacked when I overdo it. This show is actually what made me choose to add a cybersecurity concentration to my degree.
Ooh yeah, I get that! Doesn't that cyber security concentration in your degree help making you less paranoid? I'd assume that when you know how those things happen, you'd be more calm about it, no?
It makes me more confident in how I handle my network, but we do a lot of case studies on breaches that show how easily they can happen. The level of incompetence a lot of organizations show with handling customers information and how effective social engineering is makes me very hesitant to provide any personally identifiable information. Data is such a big business that there's not really any way to avoid it anymore, though.
I totally agree!
Once you learn more about what could happen with your data, you suddenly get semi-paranoid about giving your data to companies. But I also live by the rule "don't give them what you don't want them to know", which helps with the paranoia.
The Liam Anderson shared universe: Lions led by Donkeys, Kill James Bond, Well there's your problem
Behind the Bastards
My favourite podcast of all time: Strange studies of Strange stories (formerly the HP Lovecraft literary podcast)
The MR James podcast
A Scottish podcast (weird fiction audio horror/comedy)
As a fairly new entrant to Well there's your problem, I'm one of those awful fans they hate who wishes they would stick to the disasters, and cut it with the news, and politics.
But I guess that makes me more of a Justin fan, which keeps me from exploring Liam and Alice's sister shows.
I get where you're coming from. I think, though, Alice and Liam still manage to be funny while conveying their political message (caveat I'm not as far left as they are). I used to listen to the Dollop, a similarish comedy/historical disasters podcast but one of the hosts just got too angry and bitter.
For sure. Yay Liam. I would still recommend WTYP to anyone, especially if you cherry pick disasters you're familiar with. Just be ready for a healthy dish of the Russian National Anthem and Anarchy in back to back sentences.
I just started Timesuck, which I've kinda been binge listening to at the gym and during long drives.
I also like UnderUnderstood, which was my replacement for ReplyAll when that went down in flames.
I was so devastated when Reply All went down. It was one of my absolute favorites, and I never really found a replacement.
I loved those little investigative pieces...the russian passenger, and finding the hold music.
Try UnderUndersood. It filled that void for me. It's similar in structure in the sense that they are 4 friends who have a good lighthearted relationship. If you go to their website, they have a list of a few episodes to start with that give you a good feel for the show.
It's not as well-founded, so they're not flying to India to meet with phone scammers or whatever, but they do a good amount of research and are able to perform good interviews.
I just listened to the first underunderstood, and it was great! Definitely scratches that Reply All itch.
Awesome! Glad to hear that you liked it!
Another Underunderstood fan! I wonder if we’re friends over on the Discord. Lol
I actually haven't visited the discord yet. How is it?
It’s quickly become one of my favorite online communities.
I'll have to check it out, thanks!
Recently finished the Revolutions podcast, which covers various revolutions in human history, so decided to check out the History of Rome podcast by the same guy. Both are pretty enjoyable and interesting for anyone who likes history.
ZOE Science & Nutrition
No such thing as fish
I'll second Fish. There aren't many things that make laugh out loud like that podcast. I always learn some interesting (and often ridiculous) facts. The hosts are endearing, funny, and have great great chemistry between them.
My favourite is LeVar Burton Reads, where LeVar Burton (I know, shocking) reads short stories and talks about them a bit. It's fantastically made and has a very very relaxing vibe to it. It's perfect for when you're lying in bed, cooking, doing the laundry or basically any other house chore. I highly recommend it!
I've listened to a few off those and, yes, quite good. It gave me the feel of a Reading Rainbow for adults.
For awhile I was listening to these two grad students talk about diseases, pretty interesting and broken down in layman’s terms.
This Podcast Will Kill You
Thanks for the recommendation! I just added it. Sounds like it might fill the same joy I get from Sawbones.
Here are my favourites, including some British podcasts that might be new to visitors here (nor sure where most tildes users are from):
I’ll give another vote to More or Less. They’re quick episodes which usually focus on 1-3 topics and try to determine “where did that number come from?” and “is that a big number?”
I mostly listen to Small Town Murder, their sense of humor really strikes to me and they are great storytellers. Other one I listen to is Hardcore History which gets like one episode per year but it's really interesting.
Old Gods of Appalachia has been a constant favorite for me pretty much since it started. It’s a horror anthology that takes place in the Appalachia region during the Industrial Revolution with elements of eldritch horror. The characters are really what keep me coming back, and the narrator is just excellent.
With them being between seasons I’ve recently started listening to Hello From the Hallowoods and I’m obsessed! It’s hard to explain, but essentially it’s a podcast about the end of the word told through a series of radio broadcasts.
Lots of great suggestions here that I also listen to, here's some of my favorites I haven't seen mentioned yet:
Very Bad Wizards covers a wide variety of topics from the perspective of the hosts (a psychology professor at Cornell and a philosophy professor at the University of Houston). To me it's a perfect mix of intelligent and funny, the hosts have such amazing chemistry together. One of the perks for supporting them on Patreon right now is they're posting regular bonus episodes they're calling "The Ambulators" which is an episode-by-episode analysis of HBO's Deadwood series, and those episodes on their own are basically my favorite podcast (but I already loved Deadwood to begin with).
Penn's Sunday School is a podcast hosted by Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) which is mostly just him telling funny anecdotes about his life in magic and show business. Of all the podcasts I'm listening to right now this one probably makes me laugh the most. I love Penn.
VORW International. I don't know if I can recommend this for everyone. I think I mostly enjoy it out of a sense of nostalgia for when I used to listen to Coast to Coast AM at night as a kid (while Art Bell was still the host, before George Noory took over and I lost interest). The host of VORW (John Jurasek, a.k.a. Review Brah, a.k.a. The Report of the Week) is mostly known for doing his fast food reviews on YouTube--he's the skinny guy who always wears fancy suits, but that's just to pay the bills for his real passion, which is this old-timey talk radio show that he both puts out as a podcast and broadcasts on various shortwave radio stations all around the world. Probably not for everyone, but I find his personality and the topics he covers pretty interesting.
How do you have that much time? I have 12 podcasts that I listen to (some that overlap with yours) and I'm still falling behind on them!
It helps that I don't commute any more, so that is time saved for me that I used to use listening to podcasts.
But to answer your question, the ones I listen to that aren't on your list:
Oh I'm way behind on a lot of them. I just like having options for whatever mood I'm in. I also like doing road trip vacations and catch up a lot on those, and then some of them, like the Moth, I only listen to if the episode sounds interesting.
Struggle Care. It’s an incredible self help podcast by someone who hates the phrase self-help. It seeks to dissociate self worth and self care. It is female based and the host has adhd, so for me it is especially poignant, but it can help anyone view self care in a positive and constructive light.
10/10
Combination of science and comedy podcasts + some crappy news things when I run out of the others.
notable ones I look forward to: chapo traphouse, "well there's your problem", lil stinkers, omega tau, matt and shane's secret podcast, dan carlin
For my true crime fill, I like listening to True Crime Garage. Nic and The Captain are rather entertaining and Nic writes the stories well.
For comedy, my favorite is definitely Your Kickstarter Sucks. Two schlubby guys talking about their mediocre lives and not liking anything. I’m not selling it well but I think it’s funny. Gives a similar vibe to Doughboys.
If you're interested in video games and entertainment centered around it, there's Castle Super Beast. It's co-run by two Canadians Woolie "WoolieVS" Madden and Pat "PatStaresAt" Boivin, both former members of the Best Friends Zaibatsu on YouTube with a cult following. They both have a lot of industry experience, and were early adopters/creators of what is the current widespread format of YouTube "Let's Plays".
As stated by the lads themselves, if you manage to chuckle at the episode titles, you're a part of their target audience.
My partner and I love “Ruined!”. It’s two comedian friends, one loves horror films and the other is too scared to watch them but needs to know the plots/twists. Halle, who loves horror, explains the plot to Allison in detail and they joke along the way.
It’s perfect for us because that dynamic applies to our relationship as well — I love to watch horror films and my partner is so curious what happens but just can’t bring herself to watch them. This podcast gives us a way to enjoy spooky movies together!
Editing because I forgot to mention Comedy Bang! Bang! I’ve been listening to CBB for close to a decade now. It’s an improv comedy podcast where the host will interview a guest of honor (comedian, musician, actor, author, etc.) for the first half of the show, and then invites 2-3 other guests to join, each one a character being improvised by a comedian, to be interviewed by the host and first guest together. It’s always good for a laugh!
Very excited to try “Ruined!” Thanks for the rec!
(History that doesn't suck) on spotify.
Its a pretty good history podcast that tells a more narrative tale with slight sounds for immersion. They do a good job at setting the tone and taking the culture of the time into account.
Just started listening to Mallwalkin' featuring Matt Gourleys (from Conan's podcast among other things) and Mark McConville and have really been enjoying it. But it's definitely not something I'd recommend to everyone lol. But probably anyone that likes Gourley on Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend would like it
I can’t get enough of Ologies - where each week the host, Allie Ward, chats with an expert (Ologist) from a distinct scientific field - from cells and abandoned buildings, to trees and vampires. Allie is personable and funny, and always ensures interesting conversations by asking all of the questions we’ve always wanted to ask. Can’t recommend it enough!
Oh thanks for the reminder! One of their episodes was featured on radiolab and I meant to subscribe after that but forgot!
I am a huge fan of NADDPOD and TBH-Three Black Halflings
Monsters Among Us. It's set up like an old call in radio show where people share their paranormal experiences. I'm science minded and very skeptical but I've always been intrigued by the paranormal. I appreciate that the host will give a logical explanation for the callers experiences, but will also dig up similar experiences from his archive. Not going to lie - sometimes people describe eerily similar experiences that make you go "huh..." I also just enjoy the overall vibe and atmosphere of the podcast - it has become one of my go to media comforts.
Greatest Generation/Greatest Trek were my goto podcasts back when I was commuting, I'm a huge Star Trek and film/tv production nerd (used to be a broadcast engineer) and Ben and Adam play right into those two interests very well.
Not exactly a podcast, but Wolf 359 was an excellent audio drama that started out goofy and got really intense. I still regularly re-listen to it when I have some free time.
I like to listen to podcasts that don't take my attention away from what I'm doing, like comedy podcasts such as Tigerbelly and Redbar. I used to listen to "Wondery" podcasts a lot, which is more like audio storytelling. I'd definitely recommend listening to the Waco episode
I listen to many of the podcasts you listed and others from the comments (RadioLab, Fish, etc).
Another podcast I listen to weekly is "The Skeptics Guide to the Universe" podcast. They have been podcasting since 2005 and discuss science news and skepticism.
I love Mindscape by Sean Carroll, its part theoretical
physics part philosophy, but also covers some culture and history. I learn a ton from it.
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/
I'm really surprised I haven't seen The Omnibus Project listed. Ken Jennings and John Roderick cover interesting odd subjects. It, along with anything by Dan Carlin, are the only podcasts I'd pay for.
I also listen to the Unnamed Automotive podcast, the Smoking Tire, Myths and Legends, Revolutions, Our Fake History, SOL-Mates (MST3K podcast with hilarious hosts), Pod Save America, It Could Happen Here, Behind the Bastards, The Daily Beans (recent addition for me), the Friendship Onion, Real Friends Fake Doctors, Welcome to Nightvale, and some others. This post has reminded me it's time to do my semi annual purge where I drop the podcasts I haven't listened to in a few weeks/months lol. ( I listen to the top 6 I listed constantly, the rest are on a rotation.)
I have to put in a good word for The Film Reroll, the podcast which plays through your favorite movies as roleplaying games and totally ruins them. The group also consists of thespians and voice actors so it's both compelling drama and hilarious improv at the roll of the dice. Highly recommend them!
Wow, I just learned that Good Job Brain is still making episodes from this post, I used to listen to them years ago! If you want something similar to that, I'd recommend Lateral with Tom Scott, I feel like it kinda scratches the same itch as Good Job Brain
Yeah they went on a long break and then just came back recently!
so much nostalgia, i'll have to go through and listen to them again!
Haven't listened to much in a while, listening to life after MLM as I have a on/off obsession with MLM cults, despite being a male in a country they aren't really prevalent in.
Everything everywhere daily is one of my go to pods. I'm curious by nature and the shortform nature of the show is perfect for piquing my daily quest for knowledge.
Damn how do you have time to listen to so many? I have to be selective as there aren't enough hours of the day to get all I want in.
For myself its mostly the Canada Land series of podcasts, which is mostly a media critique show among other things.
I don't work it anymore, but I used to build cages for medial research and I would listen to 10-15 different podcasts a week and dozens of episodes. Once I caught up on one, I'd be seeking another out and just add the new episode to my rotation.
When you're told "assemble 516 locks today" you will find anything to not let your mind wander.
So for the 40, sometimes with overtime pushing me up to 56 hour weeks, I would listen to podcasts all day.
Currently working through the back catalog of Twenty Thousand Hertz, as well as some Ned's Declassified here and there
I don't know if there are plans to update them, but I really enjoyed listening to The Walk-In with Elle Simone Scott, and Say Yes! with Carla Hall
There was a podcast started sonewhat recently called My Perfect Console where the host Simon Parkin will talk to a guest each episode about the five games they would choose to include in their perfect console. The guests range from game developers like Phil Fish, Tarbell Adams, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi to actors like Danny Pudi and Alice Birch. I have learned so much about these people as they talk about formative gaming experiences that don’t usually come up in other interviews.
I definitely recommend looking through the list to find someone you are interested in, but if you need a suggestion the Henk Rogers (the guy who licensed Tetris outside of the Soviet Union) episode is really fantastic.
Seems like quite a few people enjoy Behind the Bastards. If you do, try out Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff. It is basically the reverse BtB, on the same network with a lot of the same folks.
Science Vs can be really great when it hits.
If you have kids, I think Dear Old Dads is pretty great. It is Thomas, formerly of OpenArgs before that whole debacle, and two guys from Scathing Atheist / Citation Needed. It is really funny and they offer a much different flavor of parenting talk than most.
Dude Cinema is two Australian women comedians talking about movies dudes made them watch. I found it randomly through The Dollop, it is great.
Scamanda. Really good.
I'm a big fan of long form Sci Fi audio dramas.
Currently listening to Marsfall-- A colony ship lands on Mars to begin colonization and the mystery of what happened to them while in stasis.
Other favorites that I have finished
Wolf359 -- Searching for alien life from a space station orbiting the star Wolf 359.
Ars Paradoxica -- The discovery of time travel, leads to a new cold war type thing while trying to exploit the technology.
Wolf 359 was so damn good
Not too many these days. Hardcore History, The History of Rome, and good old Knifepoint Horror for the most part.
Lots of great suggestions already, I'll add three lesser known podcasts I really like.
Unspoiled - Dresden Files - this podcast reads a book or series where one person has read it before and another is new. They go in multiple chapter blocks and breakdown the story and usually go off on some tangents along the way. It's been fun to reread the series and listen to the podcast along the way.
Dads on a Map - this is a boardgame podcast family with some of the family focused on highly interactive boardgames like 18xx, cube rails, trick takers and war games. The main show covers broader topics. The community around the podcast is wonderful.
Hidden Gems - another board game podcast that covers lesser known or poorly rated games. They do a great job breaking down the gameplay, and reviewing their experience.
Astonishing Legends, Belief Hole and Spooked. I love a good scary story and some good paranormal stuff. Lots of good stuff listed here. Thank you everyone.
Swindled
A great podcast covering con artists and corporate misbehavior and greed(usually leading to disasters). He does about one a month and they are usually pretty in depth. Even covering details that I missed on events I thought I knew everything about.
While I'll always plug my own podcast on roguelike games, I've been having a blast listening to the Super Marcato Brothers videogame music podcast of late.
The two host brothers are very knowledgeable about music theory and composition, so hearing the nuances and skill involved with even NES era music is really eye (ear?) opening.
I was listening to their Metroid Revisited episode and had my mind blown about how musically similar the Super Metroid theme for Ridley is to the Mission Impossible theme. Great stuff!
As a huge Conan-head I've been listening a lot to "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" recently and I really like it. Conan, Sona and Matt are naturally funny, but the interviews with the guests are actually really intimate and often absolutely great. You can really feel that the guests are a lot calmer and less "I need to represent something here" so you get a lot of insight into creative processes and background info on certain TV shows, movies or songs / bands. Of course there's the odd sales pitch here and there but all in all it's a very easy going podcast.
On the opposite of easy-going is "Serial Killers" by Parcast. It's a weekly telling of a serial killers life-story, psyche and eventual downfall. It doesn't "endorse" or glorify the serial killers, it's a very neutral portrayal with a lot of insight into the psyche of the killers and oftentimes it shows the blatant failures by the police or FBI which could've shortened a lot of sprees.
'Let Me Tell You About...' is one I fell in love with several months ago. 'The Hot Air Balloon North Pole Expedition' is my favorite episode partly because I had already researched the topic and knew all of the parts of it; so it was extra funny to hear the other host take in the finer points of the story.
I love the casting style where one host is extremely knowledgeable about a niche topic/event and the other host has to sit there and hear it for a over an hour and have their mind blown over and over.
Here's a link for my fellow Spotify respecters:
Spotify is cool
Podcast about list has been the only podcast I can listen to