Citations Needed is the most “intellectual” of them all. Like, it’s still closer to entertainment than academia and that’s absolutely fine because it’s a podcast and not a peer reviewed journal but to set expectations.

They do go into history and they platform excellent guests, usually authors and academics so the quality is there.

I don’t know about any specific episode recommendations but I really enjoyed their most recent episode (188) which gave a good perspective on how substandard products are presented as innovation, eg they explored this recent wave of “mental health apps” that are really just a symptom of the complete failure of the health system but are presented as “providing access”. They then relate this to child labor debates in the past, and to the subtle shift in language from the Dems from “universal healthcare” to the profoundly more capitalist and pro-market “access to healthcare” position.

I wouldn’t say it’s one of their best, in fact I find their quality bar is very consistent so it’s hard to pick a best for me since there is a consistently high quality. But it’s an example of how they wind together a dive into history with media analysis with politics - and this combination is what makes them unique and powerful.

After a quick scan of their episodes I would also highlight ep 154 which describes how the American progressive left get conned and bamboozled into supporting American exceptionalism, and how their critique of liberalism gets disarmed.