Do Wait Wait Don’t Tell and Fresh Air? They call themselves podcasts, even though they also air on NPR.
I like that kind of podcast because it tends to be tighter, better edited.
I enjoy Jamie Jeffers’s The British History Podcast, which is about (you guessed it) British history. He starts with pre-historic Britain and the arrival of the earliest Celtic peoples, and from there takes a deep dive into the history and culture of Britain. Very deep: the most recent episode is number 488, and he’s only gotten to the year 1100.
Jamie is a witty and likeable narrator, and he goes into great detail about many of the various Anglo-Saxon kings and rulers that most histories tend to skip over in their eagerness to get to Alfred the Great. Have you ever heard of kings named Penda, Ida, Caedwalla, or Oswy? Neither had I, before this podcast.
Just to note, for the OP: Fresh Air is an interview show; Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is a comedy game show. Both of them originated, decades ago, as NPR radio programs, but are now also offered to listeners in podcast format.
Jeez, I can’t believe you assume that not everyone knows what I happen to know. 
They’re both great shows, just not necessarily traditional podcasts (esp. Wait Wait).
The two hosts have split, and now do Search Engine and Hyperfixed. Neither quite has the magic of Reply All (which I really liked, except for a few episodes which I really hated).
Already mentioned is 99% Invisible which has been tremendously influential in the entire podcast field. It’s about design and architecture; a description which does a huge disservice to all that it covers.
Another already mentioned is Ologies which is deservedly one of the most popular science shows. Each episode is a deep dive on a single topic with (usually) one expert. It does things like have a two part series, over 2 hours, on owls, that leaves you wanting to learn more about owls.
Others:
- Better Offline: smiling, angry man makes you scared about the AI bubble
- Current events, so skip old episodes
- endless thread: public radio show talks about stories on Reddit
- old, new, it doesn’t matter
- Factually with Adam Conover: comedian interviews experts about things
- scan old episodes for interesting guests/topics, but occasionally timely
- Our Fake History: Canadian school teacher examines the myth and truth around historical events
- it’s all historical, so old or new episodes, doesn’t matter
- Reveal: investigative journalism, often on racial issues
- current events, but still relevant even several years later
- This Podcast Will Kill You: deep dive on medical topics
- scan old episodes for interesting guests/topics, but occasionally timely
- World’s Greatest Con: magician does season long stories about historical cons
- generally historical, and recommend going back to old seasons
The podcast I’m really into right now is a relatively new one; Once We Were Spacemen.
It’s hosted by Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk who were on the show Firefly together (and have both been in a ton of other things since then). They talk about their time on the show, their lives in Hollywood outside of the show, and their friendship together. (I like the story about how Nathan got Alan to quit smoking, which partially involved pranks with a hand-zapper.)
They also have other actor friends come on the show, including other costars of Firefly, but also other folks they know. (Like Mark Addy who was in the film A Knight’s Tale with Alan, but also played King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones.)
What really works for me, though, is that Alan and Nathan are just so entertaining to listen to. If you’ve ever seen anything they’ve been in, you pretty much know what to expect. Nathan is charming and clever, and sometimes a massive cheeseball. Alan is a self-deprecating comic and launches into different voices and bits at times. (I mean, it seems like he plays a different character in half of every Disney animated film that has come out in the past decade.)
Anyway, I highly recommend that podcast. Very entertaining and very funny.
I love this one!
Me too, listen every Wednesday… Don’t know why it didn’t leap to my mind.
He’s been in every Disney CG animated film since Frozen, though sometimes he just makes animal noises. He is like John Ratzenberger in Pixar films.
I saw their promo for this on YouTube and wondered if it was as good as I wanted it to be. Glad to hear that it is.
It’s my new favorite thing to listen to on long trips.
I listened to “Factually” on the way to work just now. Pretty good.
It really depends on the guest, but it helps me that Conover generally has a factually informed progressive take on most things.
It’s been interesting to watch some of his views change over time. For example he went from “ban cars” (way simplified take for brevity) to “cars are bad, but wow are they ever tied up in so many other things like housing, and it’s impossible to get rid of them without alternatives already in place.”
Also, as you get more used to listening to podcasts, start pushing up the speed. You can probably go to 1.1× or 1.2× and not even notice. It’s not nearly the commitment to put on an 1.5 hour podcast when you know you’ll be done in 50 minutes.
I’m not as crazy about Behind the Bastards, because it has a very common podcast format that I loathe, which is to say there are two hosts who chit-chat back and forth, filling a lot of air time with meaningless joking around/pointless comments. The BtB hosts aren’t nearly as awful as some, but since I’m predisposed to disliking the two-host format, I only listen to their episodes if I have a pre-existing interest in the bastard they are featuring, like Stockton Rush.
My husband hates that too, whereas I enjoy it. Maybe it’s my ADHD but yes let’s talk about this completely unrelated thing for five minutes. Especially if it’s funny.
Stockton Rush was good.
My favorite was G. Gordon Liddy. What a headcase.
I’ll give that one a try!
My favorite was Clarence Thomas. Took two episodes to cover him.
I haven’t listened to that one yet!
Some of them I can’t. The Nazi ones, for example. Although the one on Hitler’s love life was interesting.
Good god, I hate that. I’ve dumped probably half a dozen podcasts that I tried because it was a couple of guys sitting around giggling at their own stupid jokes. There’s a difference between improvising and just making s**t up with no structure. There has to be some kind of framework.