Hello Internet and Cortex, mostly. Though I have some serious catching up to do on both.

 

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History and Intelligence Squared.

I was a fan of Serial back during Season One, but I haven't gotten around to listening to Season Two.

 

Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids. Exactly what it sounds like and equally hillarious.

 

Limited Resources and the Stone Cold Podcast. Also sometimes the Mark Rosewater Drive To Work podcast when i remember it exists.

 

• Limited Resources
• Judge Cast
• NPR Politics
• Slate's Political Gabfest
• Slate's Whistlestop
• Ken Rudin's Political Junkie
• FiveThirtyEight Elections
• 12 Byzantine Rulers
• Norman Centuries
• This American Life
• Nerd Hurdles
• Hello Internet
• Cortex
• Freakanomics
• Writing Excuses
• Atomic Trivia War 9000
• GeekNights
• Crunchycast
• Anime World Order
• Fast Karate for the Gentleman
• ANNCast
• The Greatest Movie Ever
• Welcome to Nightvale

 

* Hardcore History
* Fareed Zakaria GPS
* In Our Time (BBC)
* Internet History Podcast
* Javascript Jabber
* The Knowledge Project
* Limetown
* Lore
* Mugglecast (first podcast I ever listened to. Still <3 it)
* Planet Money
* Serial
* Software Engineering Radio
* The Tim Ferriss Show
* The Truth
* You are not so Smart

And a lot of others I can't remember atm...

 

The Derivative Literature Podcast is the best, for sure. A podcast about interviewing DLP authors was already a great concept, but that first episode with Joe really set the tone for in-depth and personal looks into the writing process, it was crazy. From there? Been a blast. Shezza talking about how he sold the fourth story in the Denarian series for another meth fix, vlad pretending to be Cormac McLaggen the whole time and not breaking character once, Ryuugi revealing his plans to weaponise Spacebattles in the name of a crossover between communism and Percy Jackson, Silens Cursor's complete breakdown upon hearing "angelofdreams" said aloud, Pers admitting his PHD was really in sociology this whole time, and the latest episode where Taure finally admitted that magical cores totally worked within the realms of HP canon... Glorious.

Then they had Zeelthor on for an episode... Really scraped the bottom of the barrel there; I think the cancellation of the podcast and the hosts committing seppuku shortly thereafter was considered a good thing, all in all.

 

Oh yeah - what happened to that? Jon?


I've been listening to the Hamish and Andy podcast lately. Two Aussie radio presenters, probably the most creative presenters in their particular field. Last month they hosted the show from a blimp over Melbourne. What did they do with this blimp? Used it to check if anyone was swimming in Shane Warne's pool.

Small doses, though, with those blokes.

 

Rooster Teeth Podcast, Serial, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Football Guys Podcast, and Off Topic podcast are the ones I currently listen to.

 

I listen to a lot of podcasts and quite a few of them have already been mentioned above. Of the ones that I like that haven't been mentioned so far I think the ones I enjoy the most are:

• The Fanwankers
• Goodfellas Minute
• Harmontown
• iFanboy.com Pick of the Week Podcast
• The Infinite Monkey Cage
• Radiolab
• Star Wars Minute
• Stuff You Missed in History Class

 

Thinking Sideways: about real life unsolved mysteries including murders, disappearances, and other oddball topics. The amount of episodes this podcast has is insane; just keep scrolling until you find something you like.

The Unresolved Podcast: same thing, but this one is just starting out. Good quality and music, though the topics are usually grim.

Double Toasted: this one I recommend wholeheartedly. Mostly about new movies and current new topics, there are a bunch of different shows here and the hosts are always hilarious. Definitely check this one out.

 

Friends at the Table [weekly, 1.5-2.5 hrs] is my favorite podcast right now, it's an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. The GM is Austin Walker of Giant Bomb (more on him later), and there are 3 or 4 players in most episodes (exceptions being the first set of episodes of Season 1 and the two holiday specials, which have 5, 6, and 6 respectively). Season 1 is in the Dungeon World system, it's a fantasy game that goes really cool/crazy places. Season 2 is a cyberpunk/sci-fi game with mechs and lots of anime-ish stuff, and season 2 uses several different game systems at different times depending on what sort of story is being made by the players.

Friends at the table is frequently funny, and the players/GM are good enough that I've definitely come to care when bad things happen to the characters (and they definitely do)

The Giant Bombcast [weekly Tuesdays ~3 hrs] is from the great guys at Giant Bomb, it's a weekly show wherein the guys at the San Francisco office talk a bit about their weeks, and then discuss the hottest news in the video game industry, and then take a bit to answer some listener/reader emails. This goes up Tuesdays so there's a new episode today.

Here are a few funny clips from the Bombcast

The Giant Beastcast [weekly Fridays, 2-3 hrs] is similar to the Giant Bombcast, but it's run by the GB East guys in New York, hence the name. Austin Walker who runs Friends at the Table is a member of the Giant Bomb East group.

Here's a couple fun clips from the Beastcast!

The Super Best Friendcast is from the 4 members of the Let's Play channel on Youtube thesw1tcher, they run shows under the titles Two Best Friends Play and Super Best Friends Play, and they're my favorite Let's Play group by far. While they have a similar format to the Bombcast, the Super Best Friends aren't journalists, and are also definitely more out there in personality. They spend more time on their weeks, talk about more speculative or insular pieces of news, and take weirder letters than the Bombcast. Despite the similarities/differences this is a great show and it has its own unique flavor (visible in such episode titles as: 125: MIRACLE GIRLS FESTIVAL: LET ME BURY YOUR CHILD: STOP ME FROM BEARING YOUR CHILD, 121: BLACK PANTHER’S DEBUT WAS RUNNING FROM COPS, 119: WELCOME TO PATSCHWITZ and many more)

A great animated portrayal of a Friendcast discussion

Lore is a great shorter show, about 25-30 minutes per episodes currently, and it only updates every other week. Aaron Mahnke is the one man show, and each episode he explores various creepy and usually supernatural stories from around the world, often tying into folktales or exploring their sources.

Welcome to Night Vale is a bizarre public access radio show from the fictional town of Night Vale, it's very creepy and frequently hilarious, and it embraces both of those.

 

This thread was made for me; I work a boring office job but the upside is 8 hours a day to listen to podcasts and music. I have way to many to list so I'll just stick to history podcasts for now.

History

Hardcore History

The one history podcast that everyone recommends and for good reason. There's not much point going into too much depth for an almost universally adored podcast but it's well liked for a reason. His background in radio is very evident, the production values are about as good as you can reasonably get, and his radio voice and persona are well suited to what might otherwise be considered dry topics. The worst you can say is that he fudges his history a bit, usually by overstating less conventional theories or overemphasizing certain aspects, but overall it's an excellent use of time.

Mike Duncan's History of Rome and Revolutions

Both of Duncan's series are solid overviews of historical events. If you don't like history his podcasts probably won't change your mind in the way that Hardcore History might, but even a passing interest should be enough to get some enjoyment out of them. His revolution series is particularly good; starting with the English revolution (the 1640–1660 one) he also surveys the French and American revolutions and is currently working on the Haitian one. His surveys are well detailed; he spends considerable time setting up the context around each historical event and tends to emphasis the themes and parallels that connect subsequent revolutions in history. His Roman series starts fairly roughly, he has poor equipment and doesn't really hit his stride and develop his style until a good 20-25 episodes into the series. Additionally, a lot of the early episodes are more mythology than history but that's the nature of the sources. They get a lot better, I'd listen to the Revolutions series first, so you know the quality he eventually reaches. Still, there's over 150+ Roman episodes and 100+ Revolution ones (20-30 mins each) so if you like his content there's plenty of it.

History of Byzantium

Duncan's Roman series ends with the fall of the Western Civilization. This series independently picks up where Duncan left it and continues on with the Eastern Empire. If you like History of Rome, this podcasts is very similar. 20-30 minute episodes and structurally it tends to follow the actions of each emperor in the same way that the History of Rome did. I'd highly recommend it even if you didn't listen to History of Rome, the history of Byzantium is often less known and its more modern history has a lot of interesting sources that Duncan's more classical history lacked.

12 Byzantine Emperors

Done by a historian, likely to promote his book or at least his scholarship, this podcast quickly surveys the lives and actions of 12 interesting Byzantine emperors. The research behind it is of a higher than average quality, although the presentation is a bit rougher than you might expect these days from most podcasts. Still, it's a very quick and interesting look at some slightly obscure history. Obviously overlaps with History of Byzantium a fair bit, not sure how big of a problem that would be be. I listened to them 2-3 years apart without trouble.

BBC In our Time

A very professionally done radio show ported as a podcast. A panel of 2-4 professional historians are interviewed on a historical topic. The host keeps the pace very quick, sometimes too quick as the historians are cut off a lot, but it keeps the story moving nicely. At times I'd wish the historians had more time to debate and discuss the topics or go into tangentially related side details that can often be more interesting than the main topic anyways, but it's not really that style of show. It feels a bit per-rehearsed, the host has a path or a narrative and uses his questions to direct the historians down it. A lot of the time the host is fishing for answers he already knows or is forced to give the answer if the historians fails to bring it up. Regardless, it keeps the show flowing and hitting the major points. The quality depends on the guests and topic but in general it's very good.

Last Stop to Nowhere

A very interesting podcast about Australian history. I didn't know practically anything about Australian history going in, and maybe that helped, but the topics covered some really interesting events. From Australian fascists movements to the infamous Emu War, there's a lot of cool history you might have never otherwise known about. The podcast is produced well and the presenters keep things interesting. Highly recommend.

The China History Podcast

A bit of a mixed bag, the presentation values are not the best and the host gets pretty dry but there's a lot of interesting history you might not have learned in a general education. I personally enjoyed the 10 part series on Tea, there was a lot about its historical cultivation, usages, cultural importance and existence as an export that I didn't know or appreciate. Similarly, the series on Hong Kong felt relevant given the relatively recent strife going on there. Understanding the history gives a useful context for modern events.

When Diplomacy Fails

Similar to the China History Podcast, the presentation and host isn't the best but the subjects are novel enough to look past it, at least in small bursts. It feels a bit like you're being read a Wikipedia article about a historical event but honestly that's not the worst thing in the world. His long series on the 30 years war felt fairly novel, being a very important historical event that I hadn't studied seriously before.

My History can beat up your Politics

This podcasts focuses primarily on American politics and typically involves giving a historical context to modern events or beliefs. Recently, for example, it examined the history of the New Hampshire primary and how it developed into what it is today. He did a 3 part series on Neville Chamberlain that was good too, contextualizing his decisions around contemporary politics and Geo-poltical realities. Personally, I really enjoyed learning about the historical context of modern politics. History is invoked a lot in politics and its interesting to evaluate its usage.

You Must Remember This

This podcasts focuses on the history of Hollywood, particularly its unsavory elements. I started it because of a 10 or so part series on Charles Manson but any given episode is fairly interesting. I knew next to nothing about Hollywood history going in but as might be obvious in retrospect, there's some really interesting stories there: Failed actors, insane directors, criminal producers, etc. Not something I thought I'd enjoy, I don't follow Hollywood news and most of the time I don't know the old actors or movies referenced on the podcast, but the stories themselves are interesting on their own merits.

Yale Lecture Series

Yale University hosts full course lectures on a variety of subjects on its website. You can download the audio alone and so far I haven't felt like I was missing anything without the visuals. I'd recommend the History of France since 1871, a good survey of French history and somewhat relevant given recent events there. Your enjoyment will naturally depends on the topic and lecturer but that's the university experience. The lectures themselves are just taped regular ones, which is good and bad. It does mean that the first episodes are often especially boring, as they tend to go over the course structure and syllabus. Still, it's probably the best way to learn about a sizeable variety of subjects; there's probably at least one course that's interesting to you.

 

I don't listen to a lot of podcasts, the only two that I actively seek out are the Rooster Teeth podcast, and the Off Topic podcast which is also from Rooster Teeth. Of the two I really like the Off Topic podcast because there's no structure, it's just a group of friends sitting around a table talking about whatever they want for however long they want. It's good white noise, and can often get a small laugh from me. The atmosphere between them are good and aside from the host, Michael Jones, the rest of the cast shift out so it's not the same people every week. I feel like having watched some of their stuff on their youtube channel gives some context to them, otherwise they're just a group of random people talking about random stuff and that's usually a turn off for me.

 

Alice Isn't Dead A horror/mystery podcast focusing on a trucker that's looking for her wife and her encounters with the supernatural. Made by the creators of Welcome to Night Vale.

Wolf 359 A soft sci fi podcast about a crew of three and an AI on a space station orbiting Wolf 359.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour A completed comedy podcast that was originally a stage-show. It's styled like old time radio and has multiple stories.

 

I listen to WTF with Marc Maron (comedian interviews comedians) and Nightvale (fake radio show about a supernaturaly fucked up town).

 

+ Rob Has A Podcast (RHAP) - Yes, it's a reality tv-based podcast, but when it won People's Choice at the Podcast Awards and Best Entertainment podcast, I had to check it out. Lo and behold, it has a veritable smorgasbord of podcasts covering The Genius, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother US, Big Brother Canada, Game of Thrones, Seinfeld, Mr. Robot, and a bunch of other scripted shows. It's a lot of fun if you follow reality television or GOT/ASOIAF.

+ Cast of Thrones - They emasculated D&D over the Dorne storyline, but man, it's a fun podcast where they discuss everything from R+L=J to more esoteric theories like HR=HS. Also, this podcast does a decent job on talking about the episodes and weighing the good against the bad.

+ Anna Faris is Unqualified - My favourite relationship/comedy podcast. Hosted by the star of Mom and Chris Pratt's wife, this podcast takes calls from the audience asking for relationship advice (while cracking jokes), but Anna is accompanied by a guest. And boy, she has a huge back-catalogue of guests, including but not limited to: Ellen Page, Shaq, Chris Evans, Adam Carolla, Lisa Kudrow, Aubrey Plaza, Jennifer Lawrence, Jason Matzoukas, and Justin Long.

+Hamish & Andy - Something light and breezy. It's a comedy podcast which covers an interesting range of topics. Don't listen if you cannot stand Australians (but seriously, Australians are the best).

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Any idea on where to find the Derivative Literature Podcast? Palindrome

 

My Brother, My Brother, and Me is a really good comedic advice podcast. Aside from that, I also listen the the Game of Thrones and Survivor podcasts on Rob Has A Podcast.