I did see that In Our Time had been mentioned before, but only as one item in a list.
I added more information and a couple of links to my additional endorsement.
Repeating items on a thread like this can be very useful. If several people all recommend something, it’s more likely to be good.
I’ve been listening to The Dollop and Last Podcast On the Left recently. They both feature a couple of comedians talking about historical events, the former focusing mainly on odd occurrences, events, and people, mostly from the past 200 years or so, and the latter is more horror-based (serial killers, urban legends, creepypasta, etc.).
Because they’re a bunch of comedians there’s a lot of joking and off-topic banter, and The Dollop can get obnoxious if you don’t like listening to a couple of dudes laughing; they are much more amused with themselves than the audience (or me, at least). On LPOTL that sort of thing still happens, but much less so. Neither group seems to have a history expert, in fact most of the time they appear to be reading directly off of Wikipedia, but still, there’s good information to be had and they are usually entertaining.
These are two current events shows that I really enjoy:
PRI’s “The World”
“Midori House”
The Adam and Dr. Drew Show
The Big Podcast with Shaq
Dr. Drew Podcast
Answer Me This!
Ask Me Another (NPR)
TED Radio Hour (NPR)
Lexicon Valley
Reasonable Doubt
A Way with Words
Radiolab
(Also, This American Life and Dan Carlin’s works)
Smartest Man in the World
Love it. For those who don’t know Gilbert and his co-host are both big classic movie and TV buffs and often have on old character actors on to talk about their careers. Some of the younger guests are good too. The recent Patton Oswalt episode was really good.
I obsessively listened to the Dollop and thought it was my new favorite podcast until they started to do topics I actually know a lot about, and that’s when I realized they clearly have no idea what the hell they’re talking about and let their biases cloud the story since a lot of it is second-option bias. They’re like a NetFlix documentary, they’ll leave out key pieces of information to better fit the narratives they like to craft. The worst one was when they tried to make a tenuous link between modern gun control and the American revolution, with their big “revelation” is that the British were right in the American revolution which is an incredible stretch.
I’m on podcast overload right now but here are some of my favorites.
The Roadhouse - The finest blues music you never heard. Good music with a bit of history and analysis thrown in.
Mission Log - Two guys doing watching EVERY episode Star Trek and analyzing it for messages. morals and meaning. Very funny stuff with loads of pop culture references. Just how many cover bands do these guys have anyway. They’ve finished TOS, TNG, most of the movies and just starting with DS9.
Skeptoid - Brief, fifteen minuteish, exploration of pop culture issues through a skeptical, scientific lens.
StarTalk Radio
American History Tellers - Well presented analysis of historical eras including dramatic recreations of real world events.
Beef and Dairy Network - Just …odd. Twilight Zone meets soap opera meets the early morning farm report. These people like their cows a little too much.
Go Fact Yourself, International Waters, Good Job, Brain (just back from hiatus!), No such Thing As A Fish - Funny quiz/trivia shows
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - Short mystery stories, usually funny, sometime touching. If you can remember Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story then you’re right at home with this show.
Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Married couple looks at medical quackery through the ages.
We Have Concerns is a sciencey/comedy podcast with Jeff Cannata and Anthony Carboni.
Sick And Wrong is exactly what you’d guess it is.
The Complete Guide To Everything Duh.
Skeptic’s Guide To The Universe The skeptical podcast.
The Scathing Atheist, Cognitive Dissonance, a few others. Pointing and laughing at the theists.
The /Filmcast (Slash Filmcast) My favorite movie/tv podcast
I’m a big fan of the NPR series, Embedded.
The Dollop is my favorite, though I do listen to both. Dave Anthony appears to be the researcher, and they do post a list of sources on their website, so I assume some research is being done; they’ve mentioned someone who helps with research as well, so somebody’s doing more than just Wikipedia.
On Last Podast, it sounds to me like Marcus Parks is the researcher, although they all do some reading. He reads the “meat” of the story. Ben is kind of the “straight man”, kind of like the Zoo Crew DJ who’s trying to keep everyone together and sane. Henry is the comic who talks about dicks a lot. It’s still a good show, though; I really enjoyed their multi-part series on Jack the Ripper, and I think they have the best theory for who the Ripper actually was: No one. At least, not one person; two of the murders were committed by one person, two by another person, and the fifth by another. They were unrelated. The newspapers blew up the story to make it seem like there was one mad killer on the loose to sell more papers.
Welcome to Night Vale is delightfully weird. Some of the other podcasts from the same writers/producers are worth checking out too…Alice Isn’t Dead and Within the Wires have that same level of weirdness, with a bit more horror.
Pod is My Copilot is one of the funniest podcasts I’ve ever heard…it’s two gay men and a [straight] married woman discussing their lives. They manage to make the most mundane things gut-bustingly funny. Not safe for work (unless you have headphones).
How about some true crime? Already Gone and The Vanished are excellent in their coverage of missing persons cases that otherwise haven’t gotten much attention. True Crime Garage leans more toward multi-part episodes, with a mix of well-known and lesser-known cases. S’laughter focuses on UK crimes, with a bit more of a casual approach to narration than you typically find on these podcasts.
If you’re looking for music, I highly recommend the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. The host – who performs music both as part of a band and as a solo artist – features a wide range of musical styles within this genre, from traditional fiddle and pipe songs to modern rock pieces.
To add a couple I didn’t see listed:
Skeptics with a K: From the Merseyside Skeptics in the UK. I love getting some non-American perspectives on stuff I’m interested in. Plus, people from that part of England seem to all be naturally hilarious. The last two episodes, about going to the Birmingham Flat Earth Convention, have been really interesting, though the level of crazy they found there is a bit exhausting.
Science, Sort Of: Started as a bunch of grad students talking about their research and science news, plus some pop culture stuff and reviews of various drinks. Now most of them have actually got their doctorates, but it still continues.
Someone mentioned this in a previous thread (may well have been you) so I checked it out. I like it. Haven’t listened to every episode in the archive, but it’s very good. They seem to have toned down on the pop culture references since the early shows. Some of the guests have been excellent. And no one can fault their thoroughness; they even covered the animated series.
If you like something that poses serious questions in a humorous way, check out the Mr. Deity series of podcasts.
If you’re into homebrewing beer and over 50, this is definitely for you. If you’re into homebrewing, but not into hosts that turn everything to 11, then this is for you.
Stuff You Should Know is interesting if you like the hosts. It’s rated really high. They are definitely a mile wide and an inch deep. Pretty good if you don’t know much about the topic of the day, but very lightweight if you do know something on the topic.
How the heck did I forget that they had covered TAS? It must be PTSD. I’m glad you like the show. One of the aspects that I really appreciate about MISSION LOG is that it’s recorded in a very professional manner. It’s recorded with good equipment with consistent audio levels. I personally find it very annoying when it keeps going from very soft to very loud so that you have a choice between not hearing a third of the discussion or having the louder bits slap your eardrums together. It’s also edited very tightly. I have no interest in hearing people ‘umm’ their way through a show.
A kinda lightweight one I discovered recently: Go Fact Yourself. It’s a quiz show where they have two (minor celebrity) contestants answer questions about an area of expertise that the contestants themselves have picked. Not super in-depth or anything, but I like the hosts and the contestants I’ve heard.
The Adam Carolla podcast is very funny.
Norman Centuries and 12 Byzantine rulers were great podcasts about history.
I enjoy STUFF YOU MISSED IN HISTORY CLASS. Wide variety of topics, seems to be good research behind the episodes.