The Allusionist a fascinating a humorous look at words and language
West Wing Weekly and episode-by-episode discussion of one of the best shows of its time. They are nearing the end of season 3 right now.
You should check out Jim Norton’s Chip Chipperson’s Pod-A-Cast, particularly the youtubed version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSp-bhJRRxA
I forgot about Gilbert. That’s a great one. I agree about Joe Rogan. He may be the best at this medium when he’s one but he falls down too many rabbit holes. I get it, you like pot. There is nothing more tedious than pot talk. Except maybe conspiracy theories while high which is another one of his low points.
I only listen to podcasts on road trips. My wife is the podcast listener and follows a few others, but when we’re driving somewhere she’ll put on
My brother, my brother and me - a joke advice show that picks absurd questions from Yahoo Answers (or whatever it’s called now) and give very funny answers, when they’re not off on a tangent.
The Adventure Zone - an AD&D campaign with the hosts of the aforementioned show and their father.
I’m in. I only saw the first couple. Chip is much better when you can see his face.
My Favorite Murder!!!
“Stay sexy, don’t get murdered.”
Hard to go wrong with Ira Glass and crew, I find!
Ooooh. Sounds intriguing. I went off Night Vale a while back and it might be nice to dip my toes back into this kind of narrative thing.
He certainly has a radio face but difficult to imagine him having a radio voice. Can I invoice you if I give this a try and end up with hearing loss?
Cooking Issues
Dave Arnold discusses modern cooking techniques, food, or whatever.
Econ Talk
Russ Roberts interviews guests about economics.
Serial – I listened to the second season featuring the story of Bowe Bergdahl. Interesting look at all the angles involved.
Savage Love – Sex, politics, relationship, and current event commentary (but mostly sex) by gay sex advice columnist Dan Savage.
WTF – Mentioned upthread. I was pulled in when Maron took Gallagher to task for his hacky, racist jokes. Maron is great at interviews, very conversational while able to direct the conversation and get to questions he wants to get to.
We Hate the Simpsons/90s Percentile – Two guys who love the Simpsons review and rate the subpar episodes/ Same two guys talk about 90s stuff.
Mission Log – Review and commentary on Star Trek, episode by episode.
Oh yeah, I’ve also recently become a fan of Misandry with Marcia and Rae.
“Get a job, buy your own shit, stay out of the forest.”
I really like My Favorite Murder, and new episodes go to straight to the top of my “Up Next” queue. However, it’s not hard-hitting or super-accurate. The show is mostly two women with a shared interest in true crime talking about real murders like a couple of girlfriends gabbing over coffee. There’s a “stream of consciousness” feel to it sometimes, and they don’t do a lot of intense research. On the other hand, they’re careful to make corrections when it’s pointed out that they’re wrong about something, and they’re also fastidious about never blaming the victim. If you want a good feel for what it’s like, start with episode 18, the one about Mary Vincent, for an amazing story of survival.
I also highly recommend The Dollop. It’s a comedy podcast about American history (unless it’s a live show in Australia or Iceland, in which case it’s about Australian or Icelandic history), usually the little-known and forgotten bits of it. Dave Anthony does the research and reads the story to his friend, Gareth Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic is that week, and usually has never heard of the topic at all. Hilarious and educational. The first episode I heard was a good one, and probably a good place to start: episode 193, “When The Cars Came”. Apparently, when cars started appearing on roads, there was almost a class war about them, since mostly only rich people had cars. There was a huge push for, “Streets are for pedestrians!” with parades and demonstrations and such. Anyway, great podcast. And Episode 200 is a crossover with the ladies from My Favorite Murder!
Another good one is The Moth. The Moth Project puts on open-mics, story slams, and such all over. The idea is basically one person, one spotlight, one microphone, telling a story from their life. Sometimes sad, sometimes uplifting, but there’s always a good variety. Example funny story: the math grad student who told the story of when he decided to reverse-engineer OKCupid’s match algorithm and become the #1 match for something like 20,000 women overnight. Stories are about 10-15 minutes each, usually 3-5 per episode.
Recently I added Sawbones into the mix. It’s a husband and wife team: she’s a medical doctor, he’s her goofy husband. They talk medical stuff, usually historical, but sometimes about modern concerns, medical oddities, or even answering questions like “why do doctors work 24 hour shifts” and such. The first show was about trepannation, the ancient practice of drilling a hole in your head that has picked up some interest among modern crackpots.
Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame has a little podcast called The Way I Heard It that feels like the heir to Paul Harvey’s old “The Rest of the Story” broadcasts. Episodes are maybe 10 minutes usually, so it breaks up the other stuff I listen to.
There are some other little horror movie podcasts I listen to and such that you probably wouldn’t be interested in. If you’re interested in performed horror fiction, I’m still subscribed to The No Sleep Podcast, though I haven’t listened in ages. Knifepoint Horror appears to be making new episodes after a hiatus; the author reads his own stories, and his voice is creepy enough all on its own. And there’s also We’re Alive, a scripted show about surviving after the zombie apocalypse. That one will take hours and hours to get through.
Whew. Hope all that helped.
Vinyl Café Stories - It’s a CBC (Canadian NPR) podcast and sadly, Stuart McLean passed away, but he is amazingly funny, with a heart-warming wit. If anyone wanted to know what a “Canadian” sense of humour sounds like, this is a great example.
Under The Influence - another CBC product, about marketing and advertising. Interesting and very thought-provoking.
You made it Weird- Pete Holmes - I haven’t listened to this yet, but he’s very funny, so I have high hopes!
I only regularly listen to three, and sometimes a fourth. All but one I listen to because I like the people (the fourth I listen to because I like the people and the story). I don’t know if they are your cuppa tea, but I’ll describe them anyways.
Hello Internet: Huge fan of CGP Grey and Brady Haran (who makes Numberphile, Computerphile, Sixty Symbols, and many other channels). I also really just like their dynamic. Grey is kinda straight laced with a view of the world I find interesting, even if I don’t always agree. But he’s there with Brady to challenge him, as he’s more empathic and world knoweldgeable. Both value intellectualism, but they go about things in different ways–sometimes having a sort of Odd Couple vibe. They talk about interesting things, and are often amusing (after the first few episodes and they loosened up a bit).
Cortex - the one I sometimes listen to. Also by Gray, along with another podcaster. This is just sometimes interesting because they get into Gray’s workflow and offer tips on how to work for yourself. And they discuss a lot of the tech they use. Not something I like enough to listen to all the time, but interesting enough at times.
Word Funk - this one is just for the people. They’re just long distance friends who get together and talk once a week, and they record it for us. And it’s fun. They also include listeners by taking questions. Leon Thomas, the writer and performer of the YouTube Channel Renegade Cut, also with his friends from back when he was part of Channel Awesome. There’s no rhyme or reason to why it should be so much fun, but it is. Their humor is just what I love. (Also sometimes has "law corner since one of them is going to law school, and has the others guess what the law would say.) Leon is very curmuggeonly, while Austin is very chatty, and Johnny is very, well, Johnny.
Dice Funk (YouTube S1-S2, S3): started by one of the people in Word Funk named Austin Yorski, and originally had the other cast also involved (and at least one is just on a break due to personal issues). It’s a combination anthology drama/comedy radio play and D&D podcast. It’s very different from most D&D podcasts. To get an idea of whether you’ll like it, go with Season 2 or 3 when they found their footing a little more, and streamlined the role playing a lot better. Though a lot of people do like the first season better where they have a more Lovecraftian campaign with a DM who does a whole lot more prep than improv. Since you like horror, OP, you might like that season better.
It’s amazing how they can be doing something so unplanned and yet create such narratively satisfying content. It really feels more like an old time radio show that just happens to also be them playing D&D. It’s also very strongly shipped and very “gay.”
Honorable mention to some Geekvolutions "commentary podcasts," which I don’t think fit the normal concept. What they are is them watching a movie and commenting on it as they go. You can watch along with them, or you they try to make it where you can also just listen as a podcast–if you’ve seen the movie before.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen 99% Invisible mentioned yet:
Gastropod - food topics with a science and history slant.
I also listen to Radiolab. And I can see I’ll be adding a few more from this thread, soon.
If I could only have one podcast, it would be Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. No contest.
On my list, but not already mentioned:
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - Supreme Court specific shows.
30 for 30 - ESPN’s
How I Built This - business people’s stories
Detective - ~8 part interview/stories with a single retired detective. Three seasons, three subjects.
Dude Soup - video games
Revolutions - history
Explain Things To Me - interviews of an expert in a field
Common Sense - Dan Carlin’s current events show.
The guy is Justin McElroy who is part of the My Brother, My Brother and Me podcast that naita mentioned.