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Which podcast is your go-to recommendation to others?
I listen to quite a few, from ones related to my industry to ones related to my hobbies, to some just related to history or storytelling. Most of my choices have been at the recommendation of others, so I'm looking to add some to this week's lineup.
Queued up for my upcoming week:
- Citations Needed
- Darknet Diaries
- Reply All
- Rev Left Radio
If you don't know of a good recommendation, what podcasts do you have queued up for this week?
The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is a weekly science and skepticism podcast. They discuss current events related to science and skepticism. It's often light-hearted and at the same time informative.
Crap from the Past - A music show about music (mostly) from the 70, 80s and 90s. While it is about popular music from the past, it's not quite an "oldies" show. The host, Ron, doesn't play too many big hits. It's a lot of obscure (sometimes really obscure) stuff from those eras with a lot of notes about how different bands or songs are connected. A few times a year he'll also have an interview with someone from that era who's currently touring.
I've been listening to SGU since you last recommended it a few months ago. It's good, I encourage others to give it a go.
Stuff You Should Know is my default podcast when I don’t wanna think about which podcast I should listen. It brings interesting information by two smart researchers in a laid back and approachable tone.
Longtime fan of SYSK. It does feel like Josh & Chuck don't actually like each other all that much, but that could just be my interpretation.
It’s possible that they don’t. I always think of Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters. Adam Savage has spoken extensively about how they were just coworkers. They never hung out outside of work, but they had good chemistry on set.
They sound like longtime buddies to me. But, like many friendships, there are pervasive disagreements and minor annoyances that are bound to surface if you’re forced to meet several times a week (especially in a work environment). I have friends that I love, but I wouldn’t wanna meet them every week or even every month, let alone work with them.
Interesting you say that. I listened a ton in the 2009-2011 timeframe and I always loved their dynamic. I’m curious now to listen to some new ones and see if it’s different than I remember.
What the Math by Anton Petrov. He's a wonderful person who covers brand new astrophysical and cosmological publications. Best take on the Venus news you'll ever find.
Two Minute Papers by Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér. He covers papers and new research in artificial intelligence, deep learning, and neural networks.
Lex Fridman has deep conversations with subject matter experts mostly pertaining to tech, ai, science, and philosophy. Think of him like Joe Rogan without the jock/hollywood aspect.
Yang Speaks has actually been interesting enough to keep. I figured I'd get bored but it's turning out eclectic, amusing, and informed. Wide variety of topics, tech and social media and economics and current events.
Democracy at Work talks a lot about economics and has a socialism-oriented bias, which I find very interesting. Wolff is the best spokesman for socialism I've found yet.
Event Horizon covers science, space, futurism, and current events, usually with a guest who has an informed opinion.
"What the Math" sounds interesting, might give it a shot.
I found Democracy at Work a good introduction to socialist theory generally. I think you'd really enjoy "Revolutionary Left Radio" that talks with experts and activists from different theoretical backgrounds that are all "socialist" (e.g. Marxism-Leninism, Democratic Socialism, Anarchism, etc.) If you like Democracy at Work, but have rejected any specific socialist tendency, it may be worth hearing what their defenders have to say. I believe RLR has had Dr. Wolff on a few times in the past.
I'm sure I'll be adding plenty of the shares in this thread to my subscriptions. <3
For interesting and educational content my favorites are 99% Invisible about the design of things all around us, and Twenty Thousand Hertz about sounds and audio design.
For hearing about life from other people's perspective I like Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People aka Beautiful Anonymous. Anonymous people call in for a one hour conversation with the host, Chris Gethard, about their lives and perspectives.
For light hearted fun I like (warning: contains some explicit content) Penn's Sunday School. Magician Penn Jillette and a couple of his friends chat about various things. Whether you'll like this one or not depends on what your tastes are. The opening catchphrase is "Preaching love" and the current closing catchphrase is "You become naked."
I'll second Penn, I follow that one just for his perspective. An honest con man and self-described carnie trash. His bullshit detector is in its prime.
It really depends who I'm talking to. If I'm talking to someone like you that likes a lot of podcasts, I tend to go with Blocked Party, as I feel it's pretty under appreciated. Each week the hosts Stefan Heck (silo celebrity from twitter) and John Cullen (Canadian stand-up comic) host some body and they talk about social media for a while before getting to the guests tale of how they were blocked by someone. As you can probably guess, it's a silly podcast with no real value outside of entertainment.
I'll be honest that it is slightly hit or miss, but they seem to be hitting more as they go. The most recent episode with Jack Allison (former TV writer and another twitter celebrity of sorts) is probably one of their best episodes and I would highly recommend it.
whoa! What a treat to see Blocked Party posted! John is such a sweetheart.
He plays a very good straight man to Stefan. I really should give some of his actual stand-up listen after taking in like 100 episodes of his podcast.
yeah, he's got another album coming out soon if it isn't already. I had no idea his podcast was doing so well!
Smartless is hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes (Will & Grace), & Will Arnett. It's a hilarious podcast where one of them surprises the other two with a guest -- and so far the guests have been amazing.
Wow, that looks like a supergroup band, guests included. Thanks, just started listening.
right! they have such a great chemistry. I really hope they keep it up in ten years after we're out of this pandemic :)
I have a bit of podcasts, but the Daily Tech News Show is my most regular listen if you want to keep up with Tech News on the Daily.
Edit: Common Sense with Dan Carlin just dropped a new episode after forever as well.
What I recommend honestly depends on what a person is into. Most of what I listen to are technology or movie related shows.
Some of my favorites are:
My go-to is definitely Behind the Bastards. It is insightful, well-researched, and pretty consistently entertaining. Also you get two episodes a week like clockwork, which makes it even easier to love.
If you can get down with the Doughboys, I can get down with you.
For a more serious podcast, I'd recommend Open Source with Christopher Lydon (note: not about open source software). Hidden Brain is also very good, and veers more towards that "well-produced" (i.e., music and editing and not just people talking to each other) style of podcast that seems to be more engaging to some people.
I’ve been loving a pretty new one, No Stupid Questions, a spin-off of the freakanomics podcast where Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth, author of Grit, each ask each other smart questions about human behavior.
I just love it. Honestly Angela Duckworth steals the show; she’s crazily knowledgeable and really approachable in how she describes things.
One I really loved recently was entitled, “How do we get more virtue and less virtue signaling?”
In no particular order I usually recommend:
Out of these I probably listen to LPOTL the most.
I have a hard time with info-podcasts. When its something I am really interested in either they are repeating stuff I know since forever OR they are doing deep dives in to things I don't care about. Also if the subject matter (art, design, illustration, technology, roleplaying games, fantasy/scifi) is something I care about, the hosts talking and any focus on them is really just annoying.
So I tend to focus on news or entertainment when it comes to my podcasts.
For Funsies: The Dollop and Flashback Forever.
The Dollop mostly because Garreth is a damn dream boat. Very US-lefty-liberal at times (Preachy left with a clear connection to Puritanism and a sometimes with a focus on personal morals as the foundation for everything in society) - but stupid-fun most of the times. One of the few podcasts I've laughed along with alone.
Flashback Forever is just for Swedes, as its in Swedish, but also cover the very specific internet site Flashback which is a hard subject matter to grasp if you're non-nordic and the comedy is also kinda tricky to explain as its dark, and distancing while still being human and so getting all the different layers of sarcasm can be annoying.
(I tried to explain it to a friend from the US who lives here and speaks the language enough to understand what they are saying and the idea of them siding with a woman who calls herself Liebenstraum (ok just the nick alone <chefkiss>), loves Hitler and hates Jews and other women and who also wrote basically erotic fiction about Hitler - without for that matter agreeing with her, without saying that you didn't... its tricky)
The Dollop and Flashback Forever
Horror Stories: Pseudopod and Knifepoint Horror
The first one is so old it started before "podcasts" was a thing. It has this wonderful basement feel to it and its extremely welcoming. The second one is more of a craft exercise. It's run by one person who is a very very very good writer and the stories are brilliant. But they only come out when they have something new.
Pseudopod and Knifepoint Horror
Linuxy stuff: Linux Unplugged, Late Night Linux and Linux Action News
So I tend to listen through if its something I've missed the last couple of days. LAN and LU are from Jupiter Broadcasting, LNL is one of the hosts side project and its a tad more gritty, talky and laid back. All three share the core thing that they try to keep episodes sort of focused (which in many Linux/FOSS podcasts is a massive issue)
LAN & LU and LNL
"Making Sense" with Sam Harris is always interesting specially when it's about something a little different than todays most talked about topics. "You must remember this" about 30-40-50s Hollywood is very well made and entertaining. Great storytelling and succeeds in making people I didn't really know interesting.
You may find this recent thread relevant. I will quote my answer from there:
The WFPI has since resumed (I believe it's now on a different schedule), and a few dedicated fans had even put together an archive in the interim.