Astronomy Cast
A weekly podcast of all things astronomical. The hosts work well together with Dr. Pamela Gay (SIU) providing the expertise and Frasier Cain acting as host/everyman.
Dan Carlin’s Hardore History
I only discovered this one a couple of months ago but it’s absolutely fantastic. Dan’s the history teacher we all should have had in school. Only downside is the month or so between episodes. On the plus side, you have fifty-some episodes to explore in the archives.
Freakonomics Radio
The hidden side of everything. If you think economics is just charts and graphs, you’re in for a surprise. Informative, fascinating and entertaining.
Mission Log
Their fifteen year mission: to review every single episode of Star Trek including its spinoffs and movies, once every week. Very funny and informative. The episode recaps are a hoot. A creation of Gene Roddenberry’s son.
Science Friday
The Friday NPR show hosted by Ira Flatow. I like that it’s broken up by topics/guest so I can pick and choose.
WTF with Marc Maron
Marc’s a great host and these interviews are long and detailed so I usually only tune in when I find guest complellng. This week it’s Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top so that was an automatic download for me. It was great, btw.
Since so many people are recommending Freakonomics, I’ll also throw out BBC Radio’s “More or Less”, which examines statistical claims made in the media to see if they hold up to scrutiny. Or, more often, how the people using the numbers fudged them to support their point of view. It’s far more entertaining than “a podcast about statistics” sounds.
i listen to alton brown’s browncast, i listen to bill burr’s monday morning podcast, and i listen to a few other random food related podcasts.
i cannot stand marc maron anymore though. i used to listen to him religiously, but now he keeps coming off as some sort of depressed loser trying to pound out his “wisdom” on his listeners. i just dont need that sort of thing in my life right now.
I was just going to recommend this! Some episodes aren’t quite as interesting but some are brilliant. And my brother was on it once (Brandon Sanderson’s assistant)… shameless plug!
I would recommend Ross Tucker Football podcast… Ross is a big nerdy (princeton) offensive lineman who does a solid podcast on the nuts and bolts of football. They get into contracts… systems…etc…
If you are into NBA Sekou Smith does a nice podcast… and this dude who goes by Coach Nick does one called Bballbreakdown on youtube. He highlights nuts and bolts type stuff… play breakdown… why Mario Chalmers sucks… etc…
I’ve been listening to this series and they are amazing. Up up to episode #27 about Ray Horsch - and if half of the stuff he claims is true, he’s one of the rare real life evil geniuses. #21 about Helga Sven is also fascinating - she survived a childhood is Berlin at the very end of WWII, winds up married to a mobster and is the owner of record of Circus Circus - all before she did a porn movie! The most depressing one has to be #26 about Jeff Stryker, who is rich, unlovable and utterly soulless - it was the first one where I wish I knew nothing about this person. Horsch comes across as more pleasant company and he is a monumental creep.
There’s a podcast I like called Futility Closet. It’s done by a husband and wife team, and each episode focuses on some lesser-known historical event. There were recent eps about an Allied raid on a Norwegian heavy water plant during World War II, and a Frenchman in the 1870s who had a neurological compulsion to travel, often with no memory that he had done it.
And since you like games, each episode ends with a lateral thinking puzzle; one of them describes an odd situation, and the other has to explain it and can only ask yes-or-no questions. And sometimes the puzzles take too long to put in a standard episode, so they compile them a few of them into an episode that’s just puzzles.
I’ve been listening to that since someone, probably you, mentioned it in a previous thread. I’ve been going through the archive and listening to episodes that I particularly remember. They’ve had some very good guests, and their pop-culture knowledge lines up remarkably well with my own.