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votes
Let's talk podcasts. What are some that you like and why?
I hope it's alright if I reply to myself with a few suggestion separated into individual comments to
more cleanly promote discussion. Do let me know if that comes across as a bit spammy.
The NPR gang
The TAL gang
The Radiolab Gang
History
Crooked gang
Have you checked out Stay Tuned With Preet? IMO, it's the most informative political/news/legal podcast. His interview with Bill Browder is worth your time - it ties together so many threads related to Russia's relationship with the US, the Magnitsky Act, etc.
Opening Arguments and Trump Inc. are a couple others in that same genre you might enjoy.
Cheers, I've heard of it, and heard Bill Browder on a few things, but will take a look!
I second this recommendation for Stay Tuned with Preet. I've really been enjoying that podcast.
I can't wait to hear what Preet has to say about Trump's recent pardon of Dinesh D’Souza, who Preet got convicted of making illegal campaign donations in 2014.
Me either! He's already tweeted about it.
I love how careful he is with his commentary. It's always so well measured and grounded in facts, experience, or law. Having heard him speak for hours upon hours including his appearances in other media, I cannot fathom that his prosecution of D'Souza was motivated by partisanship. I have immense respect for the way he conducts himself as a professional especially as someone involved in the legal system.
For History have you listened to Dan Carlan's Hardcore History? The World War 1 series "Blueprint for Armageddon" I though was incredible, and incredibly long.
Or History on Fire by Daniele Bolelli?
The more the current events stress me out the more I enjoy some good history.
I love History on Fire! Daniele was one of my professors in undergrad and the best I've ever had. I'm so stoked he has a podcast. If feels like being back in his classes, but in a really good way.
Blows my mind he got let go because of budget cuts. He was everyones favorite professor for a reason.
Interesting. That little bit of back story really expands my thinking about him.
He taught in the Native American history department and the I think whole department got cut. Tragic consequence of California deciding higher education wasn't a priority anymore.
I only took a class with him because he was ranked so high on ratemyprofessor. Ended up loving it so much I got a minor in Native American history. He was truly the most amazing teacher. It's a shame kids won't get him anymore. On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have time to do the podcast if he was teaching full time. Now way more people get to learn history from him.
On a personal level, he's an amazing human. Overcome some heavy shit. He talks about it on one of the Joe Rogan podcasts I think (don't listen to that podcast, but he told me he let it all out there on one). I still keep in touch with him and its been way over a decade. I'm not the only former student who does. He's a remarkable person and has a lot of wisdom to impart about life.
Fun fact, he's also fought MMA professionally. Total renaissance man.
YESSS! Hardcore History is my addiction. I think I've listened to Blueprint for Armageddon all the way through at least four times. It's an amazing show.
+1 for Planet Money.
Serial and S-town are just incredible.
S-Town especially, seems to be a new genre of media to me. Not sure what to call it. Incredibly powerful though. I said to a few peopel ti was when podcasts moved into being art.
I would put it under "human interest" or something like that. If anyone has similar podcasts/audiobooks that are explicitly not investigative/true crime, I'd appreciate any recommendations. Especially longer-form like S-Town as opposed to episodic podcasts like TAL, which do similar "human interest" stories.
Try revolutions. Its history but very compelling. Each season is a revolution. First few are English Civil War, American Revolution/War of Independence then French Revolution. The guy is very accessible and rather funny.
I might like that - thanks for the rec!
If you're interested, this thread already exists:
https://tildes.net/~talk/tl/what_are_your_favourite_podcasts
But to chime in on the discussion, I only have a select few I listen to. It's been hard trying to focus on about 10 hours of podcasts a week, especially when I tend to listen to them after an exhausting day of work. I also have the terrible habit of wanting to listen to every minute of every episode of a podcast even if I'm not entirely enjoying it. I've been getting better at stopping episodes early, or skipping them all together though. I do enjoy listening to them the most when doing random work around the house. It's good background noise.
Giant Bombcast
Giant Beastcast
Late Night Linux
Security Now
Hm.
I thought it almost certainly existed but as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be a search feature so I figured what the hell. Not sure what the best course of action is now, however.
It is. And yeah with as many new users as ~ is getting per day there is no harm in the occasional repeat questions in ~talk so the new people can answer as well.
Oh, I'm sure it's fine. I don't think there is a search feature at the moment. The only reason I knew about that thread was because I was going to make a podcast thread, so I did a quick manual search and found the thread I linked. Stuff like this will happen until a search is implemented, so I'm sure it's fine having multiple threads. New people will be joining all the time as well, so new threads of old topics will probably never die unless some kind of well thought out solution is put into place. Until then, we just enjoy the conversations! =)
Hello Internet - It's a podcast by two educational youtubers, CGP Grey and Brady Haran (numberphile, periodic videos). They talk about random fun stuff, technology, flags, geeky things...
Love hello internet. I was inspired by episode 102 a week ago to finally take the full step in getting off a lot of social media platforms. Deleted the FB app a while ago but since ep 102 I removed Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and even Reddit after getting on here.
Love those guys and their podcast.
My favorite podcasts:
Well produced, high quality podcasts:
Casual podcasts with interesting hosts:
Canceled, but worth binging:
You and I have a good overlap (see my list above).
You have good taste! I've listened to a lot of the ones you have listed like S-Town and Serial, but I'll have to try out the rest. I'm always looking for new podcasts and can't seem to get enough!
I pretty much only listen to gaming podcasts. The two main ones being the Co-optional Podcast which has just taken a break but said they will for sure be back after the passing of TotalBiscuit, I will still listen as I find Jesse Cox and Dodger do a good job.
The other is the Roundtable Podcast with Northernlion and his pals.
Another I just recently started is Dropped Frames with itmeJP, CohhCarnage and ezekiel_III which I like so far
All have pretty much the same format discussing latest gaming news. I usually watch based on the people rather than the content.
I'm not crazy about podcasts but I've been loving Hannibal Buress on the Hansome Rambler. The dude is hilarious, has great guests on, and it's on spotify so it's easy for me to listen to in the car.
I'm a big fan of his, thanks for the recommendation, I'll give it a listen. It's a shame I can't seem to download it though.
I know I'm starting to sound like an ad but if you have Spotify Plus or what ever it's called you can download them.
For giving it a try I'd listen to the one where they have hiatus coyote on (it was one of his first episodes) or any of the ones with Al Jackson.
Revisionist History by Malcom Gladwell! Recently started the new season
What's good about it? I still have doubts about Malcom Gladwell but I know his stuff is interesting
Joe Rogan! Sometimes his episodes can be iffy, but other times he has on super interesting guests. Just gotta sift through them, a couple of guests I could recommend are Paul Stemets or Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
I don't listen to podcasts consistently, but since you mentioned Dr. Rhonda Patrick I suggest her videos (they are pretty much podcasts) at Found My Fitness
Also another guest of Joe Rogan which I believe is worth following is Peter Attia, who is really into studying longevity and has some great insights
They can both get pretty deep into medical stuff that often goes right over my head, but my studies give me a decent base in biology, and I have a general interest in nutrition and fitness
Rogan is great because of the breadth/depth of his guests. Not sure if its market-garnering savvy, or just an interest in learning/hearing different perspectives, but its great more often than not.
Late Night Linux
I think JB's linup such as Linux Unplugged definitely has its place, but I personally found it paradoxically both longwinded and superficial, with all too frequent ads. Late Night Linux on the other hand feels tighter, more down to earth, focused, and isn't afraid of talking shit. Shame we lost Ikey though (granted it was for good reasons).
Late Night Linux isn't the same without Ikey. I don't mind Will Cooke as his replacement though, and Félim is as great as ever.
E: And Will is a Peep Show fan so he's alright in my books :)
No Dumb Questions
Relatively new podcast hosted by Destin from Smarter Every Day on YouTube and Matt from the Ten Minute Bible Hour (also YouTube). Absolutely love this one. Interesting, hilarious but overall just incredibly wholesome. These dudes get it.
I think this is a particularly good pick for this website. Highly recommended.
The LORE podcast!
Really cool, its about the stories that formed common misconceptions and folklore (vampires, werewolves, etc.) And each episode is only about 30 or so minutes long but theres plenty of em!
I love 99pi - Anything that explains why something in the world works the way is does (or doesn't) hooks me right away.
No Such Thing As A Fish, the podcast from the QI people. It's 45 minutes of well-researched facts on all sorts of interesting subjects.
The Allusionist - fifteen minute episodes on single language-related topic. Great for when you only have a little time.
As It Occurs To Me (AIOTM) - the sadly now-defunct comedy podcast from Richard Herring. It's incredibly rude but not at the expense of being insulting. Herring also does the fantastic Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast which is just him sitting and chatting with various comedians. What's nice about RHLSTP is the people he talks to are usually "off" rather than playing the character/persona they use for their comedy. Some interesting and revealing insights.
I would love to quote my post from the other thread in here:
I like listening to podcasts when I am walking or when I have a lot of silent space. For me it is almost like communicating with people, mostly through just listening to their ideologies and point of view, and also as a way to stay up-to-date with new stuff and trends. The podcast that I would love to recommend is Linear Digressions. It is a really fun data science podcast, where two people discuss about the current trends and works related to data science (duh), but in a quite innovative way. The podcast is run by a couple of really good people from Udacity, Katie Malone and Ben Jaffe, and discussions are quite funny to listen to -- while also being really informed and technically sound. I am pretty sure anyone interested in the intricacies of "what is x and how x works?" would love this podcast. And I totally recommend this podcast to anyone who is into data science. I would also like the readers of this post to suggest any related -- funny or technical, or both funny and technical podcasts, because I think this world needs more such intresting podcasts!
One of my favorites (outside of the standards, TAL, 99pi, etc) is The Next Picture Show, which takes a recently released film and compares it to a much older film in two episodes. An excellent example is comparing La La Land (#57) to Umbrellas of Cherbourg (#58)
Episodes / Main Site
David Axelrod gets some excellent guests on The Axe Files with David Axelrod. Mostly political figures, but sometimes he'll get famous directors, entertainers, journalists. It's usually a very down-to-earth conversation; very personable.
I listen to several but one that I am really enjoying lately that needs more attention is Doomed with Matt Binder. I'll steal their tagline: "A leftist politics and culture podcast for our terrible times. Hosted by Matt Binder."
It's pretty new but he's had some great guests and good conversations. He deserves a bigger audience.
http://www.doomedpod.com/
I will give a shout out to The Guardian Long Read. Podcast versions of longform articles, mostly politics, science and culture. For the most part, they shy away from the kind of stuff that occupies the 24 hour news cycle, and instead focus on topics which are interesting and slightly more obscure. They are free and downloadable via RSS as long as you don't mind an irritating mattress advert at the start of each episode.
The Modern Maker - Podcast about making things by hand. From wood, to concrete, to leather.
Reclaimed Audio - Podcast about making with reclaimed materials.
I'd like to find some more woodworking / making podcasts if anybody has suggestions!
Adam Savage has a podcast called "Still Untitled" where they frequently talk about "maker" topics, although not very much in depth.
The Partially Examined Life (PEL) - A pretty interesting philosophy podcast by a few guys who were pursuing careers in philosophy but decided against it. They pick a text and have a discussion about it in an approachable and interesting manner.
I'm only subscribed to three at the moment, one of which has been inactive since October (edit: apparently it's actually been since last June, so it's been a year that they've been inactive), and the other that I'm really listening through the backlog but I'll get caught up to new episodes eventually.
Opening Arguments: A lawyer and a non-lawyer talk about various legal issues, dissecting them to the actual issues rather than what's been reported on. They have a pretty strong liberal bias, but they're upfront about it and try to be as fair as they can. I think they're good at being fair, but I too have a liberal bias, so someone who is more conservative could probably weigh in on whether they think it's fair.
The West Wing Weekly: Episode by episode discussion of The West Wing. One of the hosts was part of the main cast from season 4 on (Joshua Malina), and they're able to get some pretty stellar guests because of it. I'm only on episode 8 so far, and I'm also watching the show for the first time, just starting season 6. So far they're very good about keeping spoilers out, so if you're new to the show, you could basically treat the podcast as a "book club" sort of thing, watch an episode then listen to the discussion.
The Hindsight: Book by book discussion of the Animorphs series. They do some very good analysis and whatnot. They've been inactive for a while, though, due to their personal lives. I'm hoping they come back and finish the series soon, I keep hearing rumblings about it but no new episodes.
S-Town, and season one of Serial , both by NPR. Both had me completely engrossed by the storytelling.
Most of mine were covered, but I'll add these:
Skeptics Guide to the Universe (general science literacy)
538 politics - I assume most people know of this, but I didn't see it mentioned yet.
Vox's The Weeds - pretty left-leaning. they do a great job of explaining public policy issues, with some politics thrown in.
Democracy Now - (far) left-leaning daily news
I'm having a really tough time with the SGU lately. Don't get me wrong I've been listening for nearly a decade and it's been really formative for me over that period but this past year or two I've been having trouble.
I think Steve and Cara are fantastic but the rest of the panel can be difficult to listen to, mainly due to the lack of research done on topics. Whenever it's something I'm even just a little familiar with I am floored by the amount of basic mistakes made, to the point (the recent discussion about Falcon 9 Block V comes to mind) that the majority of factual statements are just plain wrong.
That aside the constant references to "geek" culture can be tiring, and now that I think of it I think I'm just jaded towards "skeptic" news. Yes there's quacks, there always will be, I don't really feel I need to pay constant attention to them past knowing how to spot said quakery.
So yeah, I like the scientific aspect of the podcast and the expertise Steve and Cara bring to it but the rest isn't really for me anymore I guess.
Oh, and 5$ per month as the minimum donation to get access to the discord channel? Come on buddy.
/rant
I've really been enjoying Danny in the Valley. His interview style is great, and he manages to get interesting people from the tech world on. I also enjoy Kermode and Mayo's Film Review.
First Mondays is really excellent if you're at all interested in the Supreme Court. Both of the regular hosts are former clerks to Supreme Court justices and are current law professors who have a ton of interesting insights on the cases. They do a great job of keeping things understandable for people who haven't dedicated their lives to law as well (although it certainly isn't a basic introduction to the topic).
General interest:
By WAMU and NPR.
Specific Topics:
I'm a big fan of Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast. It's basically just him sitting there and rambling for an hour, and is usually pretty funny. Not for everyone though, he basically has no filter.
I highly recommend The Adventure Zone. It's three brothers and their dad playing D&D. It's a great mix of story, comedy, gameplay, and them goofing around. They've fairly recently started a new campaign using a different tabletop game instead of D&D proper, but it's still a lot of fun to listen to. Definitely start at the beginning of the first campaign if you decide to give it a listen, though.
The same brothers also have a hilarious comedy advice show called My Brother, My Brother, and Me where they answer questions from listeners or from Yahoo Answers.
I use Sleep with Me Podcast most nights. It's a bedtime story that lulls you to sleep.
I love "Reply All" most of all. Reporters get to the bottom of stories involving the internet. So for example, one of them got called by a phone scammer from India. He spent months calling the scammer back and digging up info about the company and eventually got one of the managers of the company to invite him over, and they flew to India to interview him and see what was up.
Imaginary Worlds - it's a podcast about fictional worlds, why they're good, and why people make them.
Flash forward - It starts with a jump forward in time and explore some kind of scenario, then jump back to our current time and interview professionals in a related field and ask them about whether the scenario is plausible or not.
My current favorite podcast is one called "You're So Brave" hosted to two trans YouTubers. They talk a lot about topics that are related to the community but will also break those up with more lighthearted episodes about things like weird conspiracy theories.
http://mhtseminary.libsyn.com/
http://traditionalcatholicsermons.org/