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Recommend me some podcasts!
I'm trying to get onto the podcast bandwagon, and so wondered if anyone can recommend any?
Tech podcasts are certainly interesting to me but anything geeky (tech, gadgets, science etc. as opposed to cartoons, comics, pop-culture - have no interest in any of those topics) would be ace.
Thanks!
People reading this thread might be interested in some of these previous discussions:
What are your favourite podcasts?
Let's talk Podcasts. What are some that you like and why?
Podcast Recommendations
Podcasts recommendations for high performance mindset / habits
Recommendations for a great podcast? What are you listening to?
What are your top five favorite podcasts? I'm looking to broaden my podcast horizons
Some good stuff there! Thanks!
The top comment in the third thread in this list mentions In Our Time from the BBC, but it doesn't seem to be listed often.
This is one of my very favorite podcasts. It's 50 minutes of a panel of actual academic experts talking in-depth about topics ranging from the number e, pheromones, the baltic crusades, venus, the long march, the fable of the bees, you name it. The pace and tone varies with the panel, but it's super super good. Plus there's a ginormous evergreen archive to work through.
I listen to/have enjoyed:
Greynoise: https://greynoi.se
Welcome to Night Vale: https://welcometonightvale.com
Dreamboy (NSFW): https://www.nightvalepresents.com/dreamboy/
King Falls AM: https://kingfallsam.com
Alice Isn't Dead: https://www.nightvalepresents.com/aliceisntdead
Wolf 359: https://wolf359.fm
Limetown: https://limetownstories.com
EDIT:
Video Palace: https://radiopublic.com/video-palace-G4wYXN
I have been listening to Sawbones, and I really like it. It's a podcast by a doctor and her husband, going over medical history and the "blunders" of the medical establishment. They cover things like medical cannibalism, strapping a chicken to yourself to cure the Plague, humor theory and patent medicine, and manage to make it funny.
Two more podcasts I have been listening to - fiction ones this time - are Welcome to the Night Vale (you probably heard about this one already), and the now-completed Alice isn't dead (by the same people as Welcome to the Night Vale). The latter follows the peregrinations of a truck driver across America, looking for her missing wife and stumbling across a supernatural conspiracy on the way. It takes a much more serious tone than Welcome to the Night Vale, after the first episodes at least.
I have listened to a few episodes of Radiolab, Hello Internet and Omnibus here and there, but even if they are interesting - they cover a very wide range of topics, the last episode of Omnibus I listened to discussed defenestration - they tend to be too long for me to find the time for them.
Every so often I try to get into Welcome to Nightvale and I just can't. The story is very much in media res, without any establishing context. The writers seem to subscribe to the philosophy that info-dumping is BAD™ and you should never ever ever do it, and as a result I'm left wondering what's going on, lost without much of a clue. This wouldn't be so bad in a written medium, but in a podcast it's really challenging because you can't just slow things down without ruining the medium.
I started it at the beginning, loved it, and then slowly started to turn on it. Part of it was the increased reliance on a metaplot, which just felt like a slog. It was fun when each episode was mostly self-contained, and the continuous stuff just popped in every now and again. A part of the appeal was that it was this strange local radio station with bizarre goings-on being reported, but with the metaplot, you had to try to make some sense of it.
Then again, I also just think it completely lost its charm and started phoning in the writing. What honestly made me quit was when they played the episode, "A Story About You," and I realized how much I adored it... but it also created a stark contrast with the newer episodes, and I realized there was such a huge disparity in how much I enjoyed them.
I feel like when I see posts about this they are all educational podcasts. While those are great, I'm going to suggest some podcasts I love that aren't. Specifically The Black Tapes, Rabbits, The Last Movie, and Tanis. They're all by the same group of people. They're all spooky science fiction docuseries podcasts. So basically the main characters in the fictional stories are podcast hosts. They're all really interesting. Tanis was my favorite but it falls off hard after season 3 (they're on 4th or 5th now), The Black Tapes is insanely good. Rabbits I haven't listened to but have heard good things about from people on the organization's subreddit, and The Last Movie is a short and self-contained series that is pretty interesting. There's some other good ones similar to that, but I just thought I'd throw some creative horror your way.
On the topic of audio dramas. The ones that I've started listening to recently and liked are:
Another one in this category is S-Town. I remember being really into this. And it has a clear ending, instead of dragging on season after season.
99% Invisible is one of my favourite podcasts, I recommend you start from the beginning to get the best experience from it.
The BBC's podcast "50 Things That Made the Modern Economy" is a great, short podcast that investigates the origin of something that made the modern economy in each episode. You learn the history of the thing and how it's influenced the present day. Many of these are inventions (RADAR) but some are more conceptual (Welfare state). It's concise and well-produced.
I have many more recommendations but none others that fall in the tech/gadget/science categories.
I second 50 things. Although I wish they'd made them a little bit longer. 10 minutes is a little bit too bite-sized for my taste.
The Glass Cannon Podcast is a truly hilarious actual-play podcast of five friends playing the table-top RPG Pathfinder. Each episode is carefully edited down to about an hour and is probably the most entertaining podcast I listen to. Highly recommend even if your not into TTRPG's (yet!).
Wireframe: about design in general. Maybe of interest to you if you find things like 99% Invisible interesting. I did as a designer. It's been six episodes so far, with the latest released on Nov 28, 2018. Haven't heard the latest episode yet, so can't say if they're down or on hiatus.
Here's some of my favourite podcasts.
Hello internet - a podcast by CGP Grey and Dr. Brady Haran(creator of Numberphile, computerphile, objectivity and a whole lot of other educational youtube channels) where they talk about basically everything. The chemistry between the hosts is simply amazing and the really dedicated community(mostly on /r/HelloInternet) makes the podcast so much better
For something considerably less serious than a lot of the other responses, check out Comedy Bang! Bang!. It's loosely structured like a serious interview-style podcast, but most of the guests are fictitious and improvised by comedians. At no point does the show take itself seriously at all.
None of these are specifically Tech or anything, but as more "informative but listenable" style podcasts go, I would recommend:
"Behind the bastards" history of awful people -the host is a journalist and used to write for Cracked, the research is well done and I enjoy the humour!
"Ologies" is fun, they're quick overviews and interviews with specialists in different scientific disciplines.
"This podcast will kill you" two epidemiologists give a history and a current status of an epidemic or disease. They're both named Erin and are quite funny.
Other people brought up sawbones and 99% invisible, both of which I'd second as good podcasts!
I love The Anthropocene Reviewed, in which the host rates various facets of the world (e.g. pennies, Hawaiian pizza, cholera, tetris) on a five-star scale. It is interesting, funny, and sometimes touching.
I also listen to the first third of almost every episode of Futility Closet, in which the host reads a well-researched essay on some interesting historical event. The Boston Molasses Disaster is a favorite. The rest of the show is fine -- letters from the readers, then the hosts challenge each other with lateral thinking puzzles.
I've just discovered The Darknet Diaries, which is very promising so far. Well-presented technical deep-dives into information security topics.
Revolutions - Mike Duncan distills several of history's most influential revolutions into 10 to 30 episode serial narratives, diving deep into the political, social, ideological and international precursors and blazing a trail through the turbulent events which follow.
He covers the English Civil War, American Revolution, French Revolution, Haitian Revolution, 1948, South American Revolution, Mexican Revolution, and a couple others along the way. Next season starts in May and will cover the Russian Revolution.
This is one of my favorite podcasts, and I can binge-listen to it like Netflix. Many of my other favorites were already mentioned in this thread.
I'd also like to give a shout-out to Stay Tuned with Preet, and Lawfare, which both provide unrivaled analysis of the current, uhh, situation in the US.
Hardcore History: My number one history focused podcast. Absolutely fascinating content, and amazing delivery. Each episode almost reads like a short novel. Dan Carlin has his most recent episodes available for free download, but you will have to pay if you want to access the archives.
Talking Code: Podcast focused on the environment that coding and coding projects operate in.