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 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.
i think podcasts were one of the first things to enshittify
and it wasn’t corpo interests they did it to themselves
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 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.
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.
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.
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
What are 1 or 2 podcasts that you would recommend to others?
The Romesh Ranganathan Show, The Harry Hill Show, The Weekly Planet and Once We Were Spacemen.
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.
I’ll hear podcasters mention other podcasts or I’ll look up opinion threads on podcasts for specific genres.
- Dark Horse (Use logic and reasoning to talk about politics and also talk about evolutionary biology)
- Matt Beall (similar to Joe Rogan but more often has more interesting guests)
- Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons (bi-weekly tech news and bi-weekly tech people interviews, tends to focus on privacy)
- Informed with Aaron Siri (Lawyer who has focused his career on holding Big Pharma accountable for bad vaccines now interviewing people about their experiences on the subject)
Talk to friends, compare lists, get back to this comment a week from now…
Here are my last 2 discoveries:
Excluing few exceptions, the vast majority of podcasts I’ve discovered have been via the podcasts I already listen to.
Modern Wisdom is the one I’d most recommend giving a shot, though I can’t imagine it to be very popular among the userbase of this platform.
