Asklemmy

Some English-language ones I haven't seen in this thread yet:

We Hate Movies- a comedy movie review show mostly about entertainingly bad movies in the vein of How did This Get Made.

No Such Thing As a Fish- some of the researchers from QI share facts they found while prepping the TV show

Unclear and Present Danger- looks at thrillers of the 90's through an historical and leftist lens

Mortal Podkast- Lore dumps about every fighter in the Mortal Kombat series up through MK11. Now over but I still recommend it if you like Mortal Kombat

Mom Can't Cook: A DCOM Podcast- humorous, tangent-heavy recaps of Disney Channel original movies.

Three Black Halflings- insightful discussions about D&D and race from a black perspective. Also some very good actual play series and one-shots mixed in.

I absolutely love 99% Invisible

For true crime I really like Murder in America

I mostly go for nonfiction stuff related to current events or history. Unfortunately some of these aren’t free.

Slow Burn - Each season goes deep on a particular event in recent (US) history. Quality falls off a bit after the first few seasons.

Fiasco - produced and hosted by the the guy that did the first 2 seasons of Slow Burn. Also US centric.

History on Fire - Haven’t listened to too much of this yet but was suggested the episode on Ötzi the Iceman which made me a fan. Probably the only one on here that isn’t US centric.

Throghline from NPR. Another history-ish podcast but focuses on current issues and the history behind them.

Going to check out some of these suggestions.

• Better Offline: Ed Zitron tearing apart how shitty the tech industry has become
• QAA Podcast: studies conspiratorial thinking (originally devoted to watching Qanon lunatics), typically hilarious
• Accidental Tech Podcast: three third-party Apple developers talking about tech, primarily in the Apple ecosystem
• Chapo Traphouse: Leftist politics, typically pretty funny
• Noble Blood: history podcast retelling stories about members of nobility in short form
• Fall of Civilizations Podcast: history podcast that dives deep into civs like Carthage and the Assyrians, etc
• TrueAnon: Leftist politics, deep dives on topics
• Last Podcast on the Left (name is a horror film reference): true crime with anecdotes, lots of diversions that might not be for everyone
• Alphabet Boys: each season deep dives a taboo action by gov agencies (FBI, ATF, etc)
• Song Exploder: deep dives on the writing and recording of songs with the musicians behind them
• What Went Wrong: deep dives on movie productions
• Behind the Bastards: deep dives on terrible people throughout history, lots of diversions that might not be for everyone
• Grumpy Old Geeks: tech and nerd news (including sci-fi media) from two cynical guys who have been in the biz for years, typically funny

I don't listen to podcasts often. But I like:

• Citations Needed: a podcast about media. Basically goes into how media covers some events and topics from a leftist perspective.

• Cane and Rinse: video game discussions and analyses. Each episode covers a specific game

• Blank Check with Griffin and David. A podcast about film directors. We love da moviesh.
• The Greatest Generation/The Greatest Trek. The best Star Trek podcast.
• Marvel by the Month. Every Marvel comic, one month at a time.
• Spout Lore - side-splittingly funny Dungeon World real-play podcast that will occasionally make you cry.
• Sawbones - Medical history from a real doctor and her loveable idiot. Secretly one of the most leftist podcasts out there, Dr. Sydnee for president. Also relationship goals.

I listen to many, but here's my favorites:

• Chilluminati: Takes a comedy focused look at supernatural, paranormal, and just weird topics. After a few episodes, the hosts really build excellent rapport. When it is at its best, it reminds me of some weird AM radio program you'd catch while night driving across the country.
• The Beef and Dairy Network: The leading podcast about beef animals and dairy herds. Start at episode 1.
• The Climate Denier's Playbook: "Rollie Williams (Climate Town) and Nicole Conlan (The Daily Show) are two comedians with Master's Degrees in Climate Science & Policy and Urban Planning. But don't get too excited, because they're here to examine the pervasive myths and misinformation campaigns that are making it obnoxiously difficult to address the looming climate crisis you've probably heard about."

I'm surprised I didn't see anyone recommend The Adventure Zone, especially the first season. One of the best actual play podcasts out there, especially the first two seasons.

I'll recommend some hidden gems that need more love:

• Mabel: A woman works as a live in nurse for an elderly woman, and the show is voicemails she's leaving to her ward's estranged daughter. It's poetic and beautiful, and then strange events start occurring.

• Dark Ages: a fantasy workplace comedy where an unpopular museum gets a new exhibit, the crown of the Dark Lord, who terrorized the country hundreds of years ago.... Who just recently was resurrected and wants it back. Probably the best produced shows I've listened to with a great intro song.

• The Cryptonaturalist: a very normal nature show that is normal about normal nature. Also has poetry! Actually feel good podcast.

• Wolf 359: science crew is in a remote space station, and picks up a radio signal out of nowhere. Starts off funny, then gets wild.

• Brimstone Valley Mall: three demons disguised as humans, working at a mall in the 90s.

• Cult Or Just Weird: in depth dives into things which could be a cult or are just weird.

• Wooden Overcoats: British comedy podcast about a funeral home in a small village suddenly having to deal with competition

• Everything Is Alive: interviews with inanimate objects

• Uncanny County: Welcome to Nightvale meets Twilight Zone but it's also funny

Also there's podcast versions of books written on the Internet, which I'll plug here!

• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky: What if Harry was not an idiot and knew what science was and was actually supported at home? Fixes a lot of dumb plot holes from the original series and frankly, is better. Also explores rationalist thinking!

• Worm by Wildbow: This is literally my favorite book and will make you never see the superhero genera the same again. Superpowers can happen to anyone seemingly at random. A young woman gets the power to control insects and wants to be a hero, but after meeting some villains the line between hero and villain blurs. There's a chapter that's one short sentence long and I've had conversations over an hour long about what it meant.

-Twig by Wildbow: A world where mad, Frankensteinian science took off instead of the regular kind. Follows a child experiment and his fellow childhood experiment friends on adventures for the definitely evil empire!

Pact by, you guessed it, Wildbow: Guy who just pulled himself out of homelessness who hates his crazy manipulative family gets the inheritance from his grandmother, which he didn't want. Turns out that also involves also inheriting the karma from his family, who were practicing the most hated form of magic possible, diabalism. So now the whole magical community is actively trying to kill him as he's scrambling to survive

Also if you like audio books, check stuff out from your library, too. It helps them out and helps them get funding when people do stuff like that.

I like planet money from NPR

Dungeons and Daddies is one I've been working through recently, its a DND actual play, has some talented people, they had an episode with another podcast hey riddle riddle, not gotten to them yet but they seemed good too.

I loved Stephen Fry's Deadly Sins and Leap Years

The only podcaster I listen to is John Goblikon. And whatever podcaster he is interviewing. And whatever podcaster has him as a guest the next week.

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia-97sBw85g

I use podcasts to escape so I more lean towards comedy podcasts. My top is

Regulation Podcast (PREVIOUSLY F**kFace)

• 4 guys and Andrew (who didn't know what the shift key did) shooting the shit, coming up with zany and dumb ideas and having way too much burger confidence

My Brother My Brother and Me

• 3 brothers doing different bits, talking about fast food news, making jokes about pop culture and bad movies

Clutch my Pearls

• 3 girls started their own smut podcast where one of them who only reads true crime is introduced into the very very weird world of smut novels. With very funny readings from the books

We're Here to Help

• A comedy advice podcast with Jake Johnson from New Girl where they get questions like "my kids got a trampoline and my neighbor likes to walk around naked outside" and "my coworker likes to take their socks off at work" and "I brought muffins every week to work since I started and now they call me the muffin man and excpect muffin deliveries". Quite fun.

Then more seriously

Swindled

• The stories of how the great (and often mainstream) scam artists get found out and topple from power

Nerdland Podcast

• (In Dutch) a podcast about new developments in science and technology. Sadly very often about AI or Musk now but they try to keep that to a minimum.

My time has come! I have a podcast for everything. What do you like?

I subscribe to over 250 podcasts. -_- I don’t listen to all of them every day, and many aren’t in production anymore.

I love to listen and learn.

Unexplainable - Explainers on scientific mysteries, each episode is less than 30 minutes

What Went Wrong - Behind the scenes movie podcast. It’s a miracle any movie gets made.

Song Exploder - Musicians take apart their songs, layer by layer and talk about how it was made

Hysteria - Politics and News focusing on how the issues affect women

Levar Burton Reads - Levar Burton reads short stories. Not in production anymore, but there are almost 200 episodes worth of stories to hear

Hello From the Magic Tavern - A guy falls to another dimension but still gets WiFi so he started a podcast interviewing fantasy characters in that universe

Welcome to Night Vale - A fictional story told through a bi-monthly community updates radio broadcast. All conspiracies in Night Vale are real.

Hacked - Stories about hacking and internet crime.

Ologies - Science show about ‘-ologies’ careers

QAA is best podcast of the times

I enjoy the following rotation:

EconTalk - Interviews about all kinds of stuff with a classical liberal econ professor.

The Greatest Generation & Greatest Trek: Star Trek reviews with dick jokes and production notes

Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson

Love Worth Finding: sermons from Baptist minister Adrian Rogers

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life: Presbyterian sermons

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps: Peter Adamson goes over All. The. Philosophy. Ever. See the sister cast for non-Western philosophical schools.

In no particular order, I listen to all of them regularly:

• Omnibus - general obscure history hosted by indie rocker John Roderick and Jeopardy's golden boy Ken Jennings

• The Dollop - (mostly) American history with a leftist bent. One comedian reads a story the other hasn't heard before.

• Not Another D&D Podcast - apologies for the first episode, but great world- and character-building. Really shows how great cooperative storytelling can be

• Last Podcast on the Left - comedy/horror. Conspiracies, cults, UFOs, and other weird shit. Their historical deep dives are awesome.

I listen to these regularly, but there's a limited series podcast I like to recommend called S-Town. It's excellent, especially if you're from the southern US or grew up in a rural area. If you aren't from the south or a rural area, it'll probably be an extra-wild ride!

• Behind the Bastards
• The Dollop
• Live Like The World is Dying
• Some More News
• It Could Happen Here
• Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff
• Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness
• The Film Reroll
• How Did This Get Made?
• Twenty Thousand Hertz
• The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

These are some of my favorites, I'm sure I'm missing some though.

The Constant by Mark Chrisler. It covers examples of all the different way people have been wrong throughout history like thinking birds flew to the moon for winter or how homeopathy started. I always find it super interesting and pretty funny too.

It's the only podcast I subscription to on patron.

Lions Led By Donkeys! Weird and usually stupid military history, featuring everything from Roman warfare up to Vietnam.

I'll also toss in Well There's Your Problem. It's an engineering disasters podcast. With slides (if you're watching on YouTube).

I like fiction podcasts, and the main one I'm working through currently is The Magnus Archives. Each episode is a short first-person paranormal horror story, and they start out pretty standalone, eventually building more background and connections between the stories and adding more "frame story" about the people collecting these tales. I wouldn't say it's an SCP clone, but it's kind of shaped similarly.

I see a bunch of other Cool Zone Media shows, but not Molly Conger's Weird Little Guys.

Her calm cadence and thorough exploration of specific American wingnuts is fun. And as far as I've seen, most of the stories end with the guy dead or in prison, so happy endings.

Behind the Basards, History of Rome and Revolutions by Mike Duncan, Hardcore History.

Darknet diaries is one of my all time favorites.

If you like music analysis then Strong Songs is also interesting

And for a non serious listen I like to listen to Sherlock & Co, which is an amazing audioplay where Watson becomes a podcaster to deal with his PTSD. The adventures are self contained, so you can hop on any you like.

Srsly Wrong

• a leftist utopian podcast made in Canada

Reply All

• it's done now and is really only good until PJ leaves, but it was excellent for a while

Dungeons and Daddies

• four dads get sent to the forgotten realms while bringing their kids to a soccer game

The What If? Podcast

Turned Out A Punk

Something Rotten

Behind The Bastards

404media.co has a really high quality one! They also got a 2024 award from EFF.

"Welcome to the podcast from 404 Media where Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason catch you up on the stories we published this week. 404 Media is a journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world. We bring you unparalleled access to hidden worlds both online and IRL through investigative reporting, smart blogging, and breaking news. At 404 Media you’ll read, and hear, stories you can’t find anywhere else written by journalists who are leading experts on their beats."

My regular rotation (in order of how many of them I listen to, %):

• Lateral with Tom Scott
• Wait, wait, don't tell me
• Well there's your problem
• Behind the Bastards
• It could happen here

Knowledge Fight. Dan listens to InfoWars so you don't have to.

He has immersed himself in the world of Alex Jones, InfoWars, and other right-wing shit-headerry for almost 8 years now, and he brings a depth of research and continuity to the conversation that nobody else really does. He goes beyond the usual "wow, what a hypocrite" criticism and thoroughly eviscerates anything even remotely resembling a valid point that these dicks make. His co-host, Jordan, screeches along in an occasionally hilarious fashion.

They're about to release their 1,000th episode, and virtually all of them are worth a listen (even going back to 2016-2017). It really shows how often people like Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Trump, Laura Loomer, and so forth have been overlapping and collaborating for years.

I absolutely love these:

• Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg (behavioral psychology)
• The Sloppy Boys (comedy cocktails)
• The Bugle (comedy satire politics)
• Danny Wallace’s Important Broadcast (comedy radio show)
• Heavyweight (comedy mystery)
• HomeAssistant podcast (smarthome tech HomeAssistant)
• Self-Hosted (tech)
• Maintenance Phase (comedy wellness)
• Severance Podcast (tv show Severance)
• Strong Songs (your favorite songs, explained)
• All Consuming (comedy product reviews)

Bigfeets.

It's a watch along podcast for quite possibly the lowest depths of US reality TV, Mountain Monsters.

Their other podcast The Dogg Zzone 9000 is at least as funny, though it is dependent upon which cursed media artifact from the wrong dimension which they're reviewing.