I love Behind The Bastards and It Could Happen Here. They do have significant episode counts. BtB does a great and looooooong series on Henry Kissinger that I think is a prime example of what you are going to get. If you listen to that one and don't enjoy, I would move on from them.
I have exclusuvely been listening to "The History of Rome" by Mike Duncan
still not done with it lol
His follow up Revolutions is even better
That's how I was made aware of "The History of Rome". I listened to the last chapters of "Revolutions" and decided to start from the beginning before listening to the rest.
My current "roadmap" of sorts is to finish "The History of Rome", then "The History of Byzantium* (not made by Duncan) and listen to the rest of "Revolutions" afterwards
I'm gonna give this one a shot. Thank you!
Make sure to follow it up with Robin Pearson's History of Byzantium. He's still centuries away from done, but I like it even better than Mike Duncan's after it gets going.
No Such Thing As A Fish!
From the makers of BBC's "QI," a (nearly) endless collection of useless facts that will not change your life, but will make you more fun to talk to at parties. Not that you go to any parties.
Anna from No Such Thing as a Fish recommended an Australian podcast called Smart Enough to Know Better years ago and I've been thoroughly enjoying both since. And I would say if you get the opportunity to see No Such Thing as a Fish live go for it. They are excellent live.
I've heard about this one before, but I'm downloading an episode now.
The one thing I hate about QI is that I've already seen it all and there aren't any more episodes.
Edit: That was great. It totally scratched the QI itch. Among many other tidbits, I now know how leech treatments were discovered, that there's a specific frequency that is arousing for badgers and sets off car alarms, and that in one year, over 700 American students were arrested for owning pagers.
Edit: Holy shit. The author of Goodnight Moon literally died from an overly-enthusiastic "can-can kick". She did it to prove she was feeling fine... (ironically) but she dislodged a blood clot that instantly killed her.
English:
German:
All in no particular order.
I might add to the German column:
Wochendämmerung
Lage der Nation
Übermedien
Piratensender Powerplay
UKW
Lions lead by donkeys
Well There's Your Problem
Kill James Bond
The Delta Flyers
Decoding The Unknown
P3 Dokumentär
Damn Interesting
P3 Dystopia 👍
It Could Happen Here is often talking about what's going on that week in the world. I wouldn't try to listen to their whole backlog, but I usually catch an episode or two a week.
Behind the Bastards is great. Since I found it (Summer 2020, I'd reckon), I've listened to most of what has come out since.
Cool People who did Cool Stuff is a sort of spin off of btb. Deep dives on people and movements who were resisting the bastards. It's only been going on a couple of years, so the backlog is more manageable if that's your thing.
I listen to Past Times on the Dollop feed most weeks. The Dollop is another deep dive history podcast. On Past Times, they read headlines and articles from different newspaper every week. Usually from the late 19th through early 20th century, but they've gone as far back as the 1600s.
Anything by Jamie Loftus is great. She's mostly done short run things on a single topic. She's on the Bechdel cast, too which I listen to occasionally.
You might enjoy The Deprogram, which has a less daunting backlog.
It could happen here is very hit or miss, unfortunately. For me personally, about 70% is garbage, the rest is pretty good.
Their resident middle east anchor woman (Shirin?) and Andrew are just completely unlistenable to me, simply because of their voices. And there's a lot of USA internal politics, which just isn't all that interesting to me.
I just figured out I can see my own playback stats. For this year, my top ten in order of most played:
I think I like your list better.
Behind the Bastards and Knowledge Fight are my two favorites, and I sprinkle in some Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff and Today Explained
Seconding Knowledge Fight and Behind the Bastards! Hello fellow wonk!
I keep meaning to look into CPWDCS, but my podcast backlog is ridiculous.
•Bear Brook
•We’re Here to Help
•Reveal
•Radiolab
•Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
You might also like:
Search Engine had been my favorite podcast in the last year or so.
I listen to these podcasts at work
I also like to listen to news, video essays, and speeches while working. It helps keep the variety up. Something else to consider is getting a library card to checkout audiobooks on some streaming apps
The Cool Zone people do put out a ton of content, I don't know how they do it. I commute and hour each way to work, and between Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here, that gets me through almost the whole week.
I know they all have other shows now too. I have listened to Margaret Killjoy's Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff a few times now as well. It's like BtB, but more like the BtB Christmas Special where it focuses on people that have tried to make positive changes instead of the villains. It's nice to have the same quality content but with a somewhat positive spin.
If you want to get into it without it taking up all your time, see if Robert's or Margaret's topic is something that really looks good, or if it doesn't you can check out ICHH, which is split up into segments anyway and you can enjoy that in smaller portions.
Besides those, I enjoy Threedom (comedy show with Scott Aukerman of Comedy Bang Bang, Paul F Tompkins who was Mr Peanutbutter on Bojack Horseman, and Lauren Lapkus of Jurassic World, OitnB, and a ton of other things), How I Built This with Guy Raz, and Planet Money from NPR.
I was never a podcast person until I listened to Otherworld. It gives a platform to people to tell their paranormal stories without sensationalism or judgement. They cover a wide range of topics from hauntings to cryptids to aliens. Really cool stuff even if you're a skeptic
Recently I've started listening to Off Menu
I wanted to finish Wheel of Time, but couldn't slog my way through all the books again, so I listened to the Dragon Re-Read. A ton of fun conversation and saved me so much time and reading.
Castle Super Beast is what I put on for grinding in video games. Woolie Madden & Patrick Boivin from SBFP made their own podcast after dissolving the channel, and it's now been going on for about as long as their old podcast. It's about a bunch of nerd bullshit like video games, but with a slight veneer of a focus on industry news.
My pocket cast stats: You've listened for 115 days 14 hours
Honorable mentions not yet seem in this thread (English only):
Global public square by Fareed Zakaria.
Pivot by Kara swisher and Scott Galloway
On Point.
Freakonimics.
99% invisible.
Fall of Civilizations podcast.
Great insight it a number of civilisations that have collapsed throughout human history. Explains their rise, peak and of course collapse in great detail.
https://www.theblindboypodcast.ie
Hosted by Blindboyboatclub, who is an artist and author. An eclectic podcast containing short fiction, interviews and comedy.
The Indicator by Planet Money from NPR: they talk about what they feel are important indicators for the current economy, and expand on various economic topics in ways that I think anybody can understand, and are rather short.
The 1A from NPR: they talk about various topics that are affecting the US. They like to get people to chime in with their views, and have some experts on the topics to discuss context and how certain groups are or aren't pushing for changes. Its usually close to an hour long, and not all topics interest me, but they do talk about fake news, presidential elections, housing, mental health etc.
Planet Money from NPR: longer form discussions of economics, somewhat similar to the Indicator, but not as short form and they really expand on economic stories that I think are really interesting. Some topics include how, many, random people, can relatively accurately determine the weight of a cow (and how this defines the economy), the real estate trail that recently occurred and its background.
Been going through Behind the Bastards and I enjoy it a lot. I started from the beginning which was excellent for understanding some of the memes and ongoing jokes.
I skip the “It Could Happen Here” episodes personally because they are very long and tend to bring me down, but they’re also really good and they really highlight the vulnerabilities of contemporary systems of government.
I'm fully in the Nick Weiger podcast universe so I listen to:
Which are all comedy podcasts with similar people appearing. They're about chain restaurants, random side bullshit, Video Games, and Anime respectively. Then I also listen to:
Which is a podcast by 2 former cracked writers which is the only reason people listen to them and a podcast about playing through movies as role playing games
Film Reroll is a top-tier AP podcast.
If you like them, check out Dungeons and Daddies; it has a similar energy. I wish they'd guest on each other's shows!
The only reason I listen to Film Reroll is because it's about movies. I don't even listen to all of them, just movies I know will be fun/I've seen. Fifth Element, Mighty Ducks, Aliens, Last Action Hero, and Memento (which was incredibly cool how they did it) are the ones I've listened to since 2020.
Something about actual play just irritates me, especially for D&D. I'd just rather play myself
Oh sure, I just think there's some overlap because the cast on Dungeons & Daddies are all filmmakers themselves so they go for more of a cinematic presentation than any other D&D podcast I've heard.
Personally I wouldn't play D&D again because it's not my kind of system, but they don't waste your time like other AP podcasts I've tried.
But hey if it's not your thing, no big deal; it's kind of a nice thing to know about yourself.
Sometimes listen to
The only podcasts I listen to are the unexpectables ones. I don't even really like DND but MontyGlu is an amazing voice actor and role player... Like you can tell she genuinely cares for her NPCs and can tell the differences in characters from the nuisance of her characters and the candor in which they speak. I haven't had much luck finding that else where. And that's ignoring the fantastic world she has built for her players.
WARK.
Behind the bastards is great, but don't bother subscribing to ICHH, those get out into the feed weekly. I'm not a fan of the daily series (too hit and miss for me, and I have too many as it is), but the original season or two were good.
Other than that, I've been working on catching up to current on the dollop (us history) and staying current on Some More News (news/current events), Beau of the Fifth column (current events/analysis) and knowledge fight (mainly Alex Jones/InfoWars analysis and deconstruction). I'll listen to In Retrospect (pop culture nostalgia analysis) or Security Now (tech news/concept breakdowns) or Risky Business (tech news) as I have time.
Any recommendations for podcasts in Spanish? Preferably where people speak in turn (not where 3+ people are speaking at the same time).
I listen to a lot of podcasts. Lately it has been
English:
Swedish:
And probably a dozen more
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