Two questions:
- How do you find new podcasts to listen to, and;
- What are 1 or 2 podcasts that you would recommend to others?
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I use Antennapod to listen to podcasts, but previously had used Google Play Music and Spotify.
Finding new podcasts is usually through recommendation. Friends have recommended several podcasts, podcasters that I like have had collaborations or recommendations for other, similar podcasts, and I’ve picked up a couple from similar discussions as this one. Once a member of a live play podcast was promoting it where I work and I gave that a listen for a while. I don’t typically use a service or discovery tool to find new podcasts, though. Sometimes I’ll search a topic and see if something pops up, but usually I see one I recognize having heard about and pick that one.
Three recommendations of my own are:
Mission to Zyxx - An improvised science fiction sitcom following a team of ambassadors as they attempt to establish diplomatic relations with planets in the remote and chaotic Zyxx Quadrant… better known as the “ass end of space.”
The have five seasons of their original run, and have recently started a new loosely connected series. A friend discovered this one, not sure how they found it, and we all listened to it together. Tons of fun if you have other people you can convince to listen along!
The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong - A podcast about exactly what it says it is: examining the bad ideas, mistakes and accidents that misshaped our world.
This was one of the podcasts I found through a similar discussion as this one. I’m a huge fan of weird and strange history, and Mark delivers. They are usually independent of other episodes, unless numbered, so feel free to hop in anywhere. I started from the beginning, and the quality has noticeably gone up, but I never had an issue with the earlier episodes.
History for Weirdos - A deep dive into the strange obscure and relentlessly entertaining portions of human history. Married couple and armchair historians, Stephanie & Andrew, discuss the often overlooked parts of humanity. Whether the subject is an obscure event that has confused historians for centuries or a historical figure that doesn’t get enough credit, we have you covered.
This is one of the podcasts I discovered by searching “weird history”. They have started taking longer breaks recently, while other things in life have started taking more and more time. They cover wide swaths of history from Ancient Greece to Prohibition. They are (or used to be, haven’t checked recently) fairly active on social media as well, with pictures relevant to podcast episodes, or from trips they take to locations they’ve talked about.
I listen to mostly far left podcasts about various topics.
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Mostly through crossover episodes where hosts of one show appear in one I already listen to.
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“Well There’s Your Problem” a funny podcast about engineering disasters and “Behind the Bastards” a funny podcast about some of the worst people in history.
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I listen to podcasts for minimum 2 hours per day. However, it’s mostly audio dramas, and the only podcast I listen to is Behind the Bastards.
For finding audio dramas, I use The End.
What audio dramas did you like? This is more up my alley than the political stuff.
Oh, I’ve been a constant listener for 10 years, so I’ve listened a lot, but here’s a list of my favourites:
Wolf 359: comedy in a space ship that turns more series after a little while. The story does not properly start until a couple of episodes in.
We’re alive: a zombie-apocalypse in the US. I’ve if the first truly great audio dramas, and there are multiple spinoffs that are equally great.
Victoriocity: British comedy set in a steam punk Even Greater London about two detectives. If you like Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchet, I’d highly recommend this one.
The Program: anthology series about a future where The Program has taken over the world, and it’s all now a gig economy. It’s really good.
Wooden Overcoats: British comedy set on an island about two competing funeral services. Really funny.
The Amelia Project: comedy about a company which provides the service of creating a fake death of a person so they can start a new life. Has multiple “known” people who go to them to explain why, but I don’t want to spoil anything.
The Magnus Archives: horror about supernatural events. If you like horror, then this is a must listen, but be aware: it’s long.
Sherlock & Co: modern Sherlock setting where Watson went to Ukraine, got injured, started a podcast and met Sherlock. My favourite about this is that the there are no “Watson played by” etc, everything in the podcast is “real”.
Incoming: based on the false missile warning in Hawaii in 2018. It’s an anthology where the creators play around with the idea of “what would you do if you got the message about an incoming missile?” and creates both funny and really sad stories.
Dark Air with Terry Carnation: I’m just going to paste it’s description “Rainn Wilson stars in this fictional darkly comedic podcast that explores the on and off-air life of Terry Carnation – a late-night talk-radio show host who deals with bizarre topics, outrageous callers… and gets caught up in a mystery of his own.” It’s… Unique, and right up my alley.
These are the ones that I can think of of the top of my head 🙂
Many of the ones I have listened to were mentioned on other podcasts.
I don’t really have much I would recommend, but mostly because the quality is inconsistent and I don’t know you. Econtalks has always been mostly good, just with some annoying guests. I haven’t listened as much since October 7th as it has taken up a lot of the host’s attention.
Gzero World can be interesting sometimes. A bit produced but okay.
Here Comes the Guillotine is fun. Scottish comedians joking darkly.
There are some good TTRPG actual play podcasts. I’d highlight Final Show Films, the Apocalypse Players, and Push the Roll. Quality varies but sometimes really fun. Zizek & so on can be interesting if you like Lacanian psychoanalysis and the like.i think podcasts were one of the first things to enshittify
and it wasn’t corpo interests they did it to themselves
I first got into podcasts by looking all through BBC listings. There’s enough there to last a lifetime. After that I’ve found other stuff from YouTube recommendations, other podcast recommendations, suggestions online, etc.
Recently commented in a similar post, so I’ll paste that comment:
Podcasts are my thing. I’ve got you covered.
Depends on what you’re into:
More or Less: Behind the Stats - analysis of some statistic from the news
The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - what science says about how to be happy
The Audio Long Read - long form articles from the Guardian newspaper
You Are Not So Smart - cognitive science related. How we know things, our biases, how our thinking is flawed, etc.
Dan Snow’s History Hit - One of the few history podcasts I really like
Short History Of… - a short history of some specific thing
The Forum - expert panel discussion about some topic
Behind the Bastards - Very well known podcast focusing on some bastard personality
CrowdScience - in depth investigation of a listener science question
Radiolab - in depth investigation of a topic of their interest. Quite broad scope.
Unexpected Elements - a very varied mix of discussions around a science topic from the news
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Tim Harford is the podcast king for me. This show is a deep dive into something that went wrong in news or history, and an investigation of all the systemic failures around it. It tries to show how blame is hardly ever warranted on a single person and the systems are at fault.
The Martin Lewis Podcast - UK consumer advocate and saving guru
Show Me The Meaning! A Wisecrack podcast - a couple of philosophers talk about a movie
The Inquiry - a deep dive into a news story
Revisionist History - Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about a range of different things
The Law Show - UK legal system issues
The Infinite Monkey Cage - comedy science panel show
The Supermassive Podcast - space related podcast
File on 4 investigates - detailed story from deep investigative journalism
Thinking Allowed - light philosophical ramblings
When It Hits the Fan - two public relations experts talk about PR issues from current events
Discovery - science related. Currently mostly doing shows about “a life scientific” I.e. talking to a scientist about their life
Overthink - philosophy made accessible
What It’s Like To Be… - a person from a particular occupation talks about their job
People Fixing the World - people from different parts of the world fixing some local problem in their community in a creative way
Hidden Brain - my absolute favourite. Cognitive science related. Explains how the brain works and how to use the understanding to male your own love better.
Within Reason
Your Parenting Mojo - evidence based parenting. Can be a very dry long-winded research presentation, but this has improved my parenting (and life) immensely
Sideways - different ideas and how to look at things differently
Darknet Diaries - stories from the dark underbelly of the internet
The Reith Lectures - once a year short lecture series, but well worth listening to the backlog
Evil Genius with Russell Kane - comedians discuss how some villains from history weren’t so bad and how some heroes from history were terrible people
Owls at Dawn - ramblings of a couple of philosophers
Sound of Gaming - excellent music show about music soundtracks from videogames
Playing god? - medical ethics discussion
30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog
A History of the World in 100 Objects - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog
I would also recommend the podcast series made to accompany the Chernobyl and Last of Us TV series.
S Town - a nice fiction mini series drama story.
That’s too many podcasts! How can anyone listen to that many?
Listen at x2 speed. A 40 min podcast becomes a 20 min podcast and is clearly comprehensible and enjoyable. It actually gets annoying hearing regular speed for how slow it is.
Set your podcast app to autoskip the first and last 1 to 2 min (depending on the podcast) as these are usually ads and shoutouts to other podcasts. A lot of podcast episodes are less than 10 min in total. Skipping 2 min is 20% of the podcast time.
Delete upcoming podcast episodes that are not of interest. You don’t have to listen to everything.
I listen any time I can give attention. Commuting (40 min x2), chores like cleaning (an hour a day), gym (an hour every other day). I’ll even listen in the shower or while shaving or while I’m sitting in the park watching my kids play on the swings from a distance. I’m effectively listening for 2 hours max (real time) in a day. With double speed this effectively gets through 4 hours of podcast content.
I even put one earphone in and listened to podcasts while getting a root canal and crown at the dentist. It makes a huge difference if you can keep yourself mentally engaged rather than just staring at the ceiling and thinking about the drill grinding away your tooth. Podcasts can be amazing and much better than doom scrolling brain dead content (just need to avoid brain dead podcasts).
I’m not that starved for content that I need to speedrun it. 1x speed is fine for me.
You don’t have to listen to everything.
I know. The few shows I have are enough for me.
I drive a lot for work, so I listen to a lot of audio books and podcasts. I got to the point that listening at 1.5x sounds normal. It doesn’t feel like speedrunning, I don’t even do it to get through stuff faster, it is just that people talk so … slowly.
1.5x is probably my happy medium where I can still take stuff in. 2x is just to fast for me. Age might have something to do with that as well.
Of course, the reader is a huge variable. I have had to crank up an audiobook to 2.5x-3x for one reader. Of course that is usually way too high to be comfortable. I do 2x quite often but 1.5x really is the best and feels the most natural. I can’t do 1x or it feels like the reader has a speech impediment.
I use the old fashioned radio to find podcasts. I listen to CBC Radio 1 here in Canada which has programs they highlight random podcasts.
I listen to “The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge” daily because I’m a politics nerd. Highly recommend if you want insight on how Canada operates and how the world works.
How do you find new podcasts to listen to,
I honestly have only been selecting ones that come up on my yt feed, e.g by clips or entire episodes, and that has given me enough to chew on.
What are 1 or 2 podcasts that you would recommend to others?
Heh. They’re all boring!!
Well, the only one that’s both high prod value and i can be confident anyone will enjoy is The Rest Is History by 2 british historians, but content warning because it describes horribly violent things sometimes.
I’ve listened to a few about interviewing actors or celebrities, like *inside of you *by Michael Rosenbaum and Rob Brydon’s podcast, but you see those kinds of podcast don’t make you want to tune in for every episode. Because it would be superfluous.
I mostly pay attention to posts asking for recommendations just in case there’s a little gem of a podcast made out of passion.
Once or twice a year I try one of those I hear ads for and end up deleting them soon after.One of these gems if you’re into it is The History in the Bible Podcast. From its website:
…a layman’s guide to a century and more of research into the Biblical texts and the archaeological evidence behind them.
I found it surprisingly interesting and some of Gary’s sarcastic jabs made me chuckle from time to time.
Most of the time I find podcasts by accident.
Hard Core History - (Every series he makes is great but “Blueprint for Armageddon” describes WWI better than I ever heard it described and it is a masterpiece. Unfortunately that particular series is old enough that it is only on Dan Carlin’s website for sale, but his new shows are free.)
Coverville - A very well curated music show that is all cover songs and has been running since 2004. Somewhere around 2005 I was working at the postoffice, and that show got me through the day. It is still the best music show I know of.
Hardcore History is really great, +1 on that recommendation.
Also his Common Sense series is pretty good. Very rare updates, they tend to jumpscare me when they pop up
Going back and listening to common sense when he did it regularly is an interesting history trip in itself. I don’t usually recommend it now, not as an ongoing show anyway, mostly because I keep thinking he might never do another one, but he does do one when something legitimately important happens that isn’t just a partisan scoreboard talking point, and it is always a good listen.
Antennapod.
Head in the Office - political discussion/analysis
Darknet Diaries - stories from hackers and con artists
I rely entirely on what my husband puts on, I don’t really seek out podcasts myself. That being said, I’ve enjoyed Behind the Bastards, Some More News, The Anthropocene Reviewed, and Maintenance Phase. If you like garbage I can also recommend Skin Suit and Dan Savage’s Lovecast. He also wants me to mention Ologies by Alie Ward.
Some More News,
I also recommend Even More News - a more regular, more informal podcast from the same crew. Jonathan is also there.
I follow more than I have time to listen to. Here are a few:
Stuff You Should Know
Hidden Brain
Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me
This American Life
Talk to friends, compare lists, get back to this comment a week from now…
Here are my last 2 discoveries:
I like Last Podcast on the Left. Comedians on true crime, the paranormal, conspiracies, and history. Their humour isn’t for everyone, but it serves to leaven the subject matter.
I mostly like Marcus on that show, and his music history podcast No Dogs in Space is pretty good too. Great to have someone explain stuff like the Stooges without the “you had to have been there” attitude.
