I like behind the bastards, you get to learn the history of both living and dead ass holes in some good detail.

If I want a laugh at pop culture, the weekly planet is my go to, it’s funny chat about comic books, movies and comic book movies. Plus the back catalogue is huge so chances are they’ve had an episode about something you’ve liked. I just really like laughing at things I’ve enjoyed.

Also check out debunking a murderer. Remember making a murderer on Netflix? Turns out that doc was bullshit, dude totally did those murders. Hear the prosecutors side and all the evidence the Netflix show left out.

Finally, slow burn. A long format episodic deep dive into recent history. Each season covers some important events, like Nixon, tupac and biggie, Bill Clinton, etc. I learned a lot from it.

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• RadioLab: so many great episodes on random topics, some absolute gold here.
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: relatively new, from the author of the best still book of the same name. So far, great!
• Planet Money: US focused but still really interesting. Economics focused, non political.
• The Inquiry: BBC deep dive on current affairs.
• The Forum: BBC deep dive on various topics, some really interesting stuff.
• Critical Role: its critical role…
• The Kākā: NZ focused economics and politics.
• Unexpected Elements: BBC science podcast.
• The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps: very deep dive into the history of philosophy.

Dan Carlin’s history podcasts are amazing. No ads or anything so you don’t have to sit through 15 minutes of sponsors

5-4

Lefty lawyers discuss Supreme Court cases and why the Supreme Court sucks. They’ve got a backlog going back years, covering 100+ cases with analysis for every decision, concurrence, and dissent. Also special episodes discussing specific Justices and their jurisprudence, a miniseries about the Federalist Society, and lots of eps about law school in general.

The Darknet Diaries. It covers cyber crime and security and they have a lot of interesting episodes.

The freedom for flash drives is a particularly interesting one.

So many good ones. I’ll just paste the (slightly edited) podcast descriptions of three I enjoy here:

Twenty Thousand Hertz A lovingly crafted podcast that reveals the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.

Under the Influence Under the Influence gives listeners a rare backstage pass into the hallways, boardrooms and recording studios of the ad industry. Fascinating (and humorous) stories that connect the dots between pop culture, marketing and human nature.

Freakonomics Radio Uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior.

I’d like to recommend The Trojan Horse Affair. Its a limited series and a few years old now, but a a really interesting listen

Its about the scandal in the UK in 2013, where an anonymous letter ‘exposed’ an Islamist conspiracy in Birmingham schools to radicalise children.

The investigation in the podcast is helmed by two people; a rookie journalism grad who is muslim, and an experienced white journalist. The contrast in perspectives and emotion between them adds to it

And yeah it’ll probably make you angry, and for those not in the UK it might key you in a bit on the tensions that do and don’t exist with British Muslims, how they’re viewed and treated by lots of parties here (including the Government)

Science VS: They investigate the science behind trends. E.g. ozempic, protein powder, the male g-spot, weed strains etc. With citations for everything

Gastropod: The science and history of various foods

Radiolab: Documentaries on a wide range of subjects. Usually from an angle you wouldn’t expect

Wong Notes: Vulfpeck guitarist Cory Wong interviews other artists from a musician’s pov, which leads to much more interesting conversations than your usual interview

Depends on what you’re looking for. Most generally, I’d suggest Conan O’Bien Needs A Friend. Aside from the excessive ad breaks, the guests and discussions are almost always interesting.

Search Engine with PJ Vogt. They do deep dives into all kinds of things and it’s full of interesting information.

Kinda depends on what you’re looking for. Going through my podcast app:

Dimension 20 is a bunch of CollegeHumor actors doing DND campaigns. I don’t play DND but have enjoyed this so far.

The Dollop is a couple comedians riffing about strange people and events from history. More entertaining than educational but you might expand your knowledge a bit as long as you don’t put too much weight in their research.

Blowback is a history podcast that goes over major historical events that people probably know of but not much about. The production quality is amazing and the research is really good. It’s like listening to a well-made documentary. Plus they got Jon Benjamin as a guest actor for season 1.

Welcome to Nightvale is a surrealist horror/comedy with a fun vibe. Lots of memorable one-liners.

My Dad Wrote a Porno is pretty funny, although I felt like the bit sort of wore out after a few episodes and stopped listening. Seems to have an audience and still be going so maybe it picks up.

Citations needed is a solid critique of news narratives.

Monday Morning podcast is okay if you want to hear Bill burr rant to himself for a while. He’s been doing it for like 13 years so there’s probably gold in there, but I think he’s better when he has someone to riff with. Only listened to a handful of episodes though.

Hidden Brain. It’s a psychology podcast, but it’s aimed at anyone who wants to understand their minds more. I’m not in the field of psychology, but I certainly enjoy it.

Soft Skills Engineering for software engineers, about soft skills. They have fun.

• Trillbilly Worker’s Party - Kentucky-centric Marxist jokers hanging out. They always know how to put a smile on my face, even if they’re talking about bleak stuff.
• Fun City - Well produced live role playing of Shadowrun. The game is a few years in and I am just invested.
• ALAB - Lawyers talking shit. They’re funny and I like learning about interesting cases. One of the characters they covered actually sued them and settled for an interview on the show.
• Desert Oracle Radio - Joshua Tree-centric paranormal stuff. Good for an old X-Files head like me.

These are the ones I listen to the most, I think all of them are weekly

• secretly incredibly fascinating. They talk about a simple topic and expand it with a lot of trivia and the hosts are very funny.
• 99% invisible. Mostly about architecture that you don’t notice but they give a lot of cool info (lately some episodes get off topic or I simply don’t like them but they have a huge archive that I listen to)
• my brother my brother and me: just stupid comedy from 3 brothers giving “advice”
• dear Hank and John: the brothers Green giving science-ish advice