The Great Straight Dope Podcast Recommendation Thread

Cafe Society
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I don’t know if y’all have done one of these recently or at all, but I thought I’d try a thread and see what treasures everybody has to share.

To start us off, I have

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs

I was dubious when I saw the generic clip-art style cover art, but I was blown away by the content!

Not only is his scholarship incredibly thorough, I was impressed by the degree he cares about ensuring current social stuff like incorporating trigger warnings, using preferred pronouns and names, and of course representation, especially when there have been so many overlooked women and people of color that have been written out of so many histories. That’s just a minor detail, but one that he cares about doing right.

The title of the podcast might actually be a little misleading — he doesn’t just talk about the song, but also the history and development of the artists, the period in which it all came about, and any pertinent music education background that comes into play.

For instance, in the recent episode about “Crossroads” by Cream, he bundles in a history lesson about how Black-created Blues music became a distinct genre we now know as “The Blues,” clears up misconceptions modern audiences have had about many classic blues performers, traces the advent of the British Blues scene, the backgrounds of the various band members, and includes a bonus feature on Robert Johnson.

The host, Andrew Hickey, also maintains a website with complete transcripts of each episode, if you’re more of a reader.

There are a few somewhat recent episodes that have run a bit on the long side, but they’re mostly of reasonable length.

If you’re a fan of rock music, you will want to listen to this series, — beginning with Episode 1!

I can’t say enough about this podcast — it never ceases to amaze me.

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I have been hooked on KillTony since I first saw it 2 years ago. Comedians, mostly amateur, some pros.

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Can you tell us a little bit about it?

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Tony Hinchcliff is a comedian. A lot of would be comedians come to the show, formerely at the Vulcan Gas Co. In Austin Texas, now at the Mothership. Comedians come out, do a minute, then get interviewed. Some regulars appear during the show-Hans Kim, David Lucas, William Montgomery. Some of thr. Some are great. wanna bes are so bad its funny

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For those who are interested in role-playing games, I recommend “Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.” It’s a weekly show, hosted by game designers Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws, in which they talk about a range of topics related to RPGs, including interviews with other game designers, world-building, how to run certain kinds of encounters or storylines, and how to draw inspiration for your games from popular culture (movies, TV shows) and from unusual real-world events.

Whenever I listen to one of their shows (typically while on long drives), I nearly always come away with an inspiration or two which I can use in an upcoming game.

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My favorite discovery of the year. I’m only about 20 episodes short of catching up to Hickey’s current one. I read the transcript with a YouTube window open and just C&P the excerpt titles (My only complaint is the volume and quality of his musical excerpts).

For something lighter and less scripted I listen to Last Podcast on the Left which concerns itself with killers, cults, conspiracies, and all manner of UFOs, cryptids, and other weirdness. Well researched but extremely profane and irreverent.

One of the hosts of Last Podcast, Marcus Parks has another show with his wife that is a good companion to Andrew Hickey’s show called No Dogs in Space which does deep dives into Punk bands including Protopunk groups like Velvet Underground and The Stooges.

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I hardly ever listen to podcasts, but I wish I listened to 99% Invisible way more often. It is a “sound-rich, narrative podcast hosted by Roman Mars about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.”

The episodes I’ve heard are extremely well done, and the topics are often fascinating!

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Two other, limited-series podcasts which i found to be very interesting, were done by Rachel Maddow (whom I know may not be everyone’s cup of tea):

  • “Bag Man” is about Spiro Agnew (Nixon’s vice-president), and the investigation into his corrupt behavior (mostly influence-peddling) while an official in Maryland, and as vice-president, which led to his resignation.
  • “Ultra” is about Nazi sympathizers, and far-right insurrectionists, including members of Congress, in the U.S. during the years leading up to the country’s entry into WWII.
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Right now I’m all about Maintenance Phase, a podcast that is like the Reply All** of diet culture. The hosts dive deep into diet and wellness fads by providing interesting historical and sociopolitical context. There’s a lot of debunking of con artists and diet fads, and unpacking of fat shaming, fat phobia, and like issues. The hosts, Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbs, are very funny. I found the Oprah episodes about the Beef debacle pretty enlightening.

And its spinoff, If Books Could Kill hosted by the same Michael Hobbs and another guy, which is basically just eviscerating bad books that were enormously popular. Also very funny. I truly had no idea how bad Rich Dad, Poor Dad is until I listened to this podcast.

Thanks to a fellow Doper, I recently added to my list Behind the Bastards, a podcast about villains that casts a very wide net, ranging from Dr. Mengele to Scott Adams, racist blowhard and creator of Dilbert. Some of it is lighthearted and funny. Sometimes, as in the case of the story of the Jews who tried to get revenge on Germans after the Holocaust, it’s just sobering. It often raises complex ethical questions. I really like it.

My only complaint with these wonderful podcasts is that they curse a lot…a lot. I also curse a lot but I have a three year old and I cringe and feel bad whenever I’m listening with him in the car and someone drops a string of f-bombs.

**If you haven’t listened to Reply All, please go listen to that first, starting from the beginning. It’s one of the best podcasts ever done. Journalism about Internet culture with two entertaining and witty hosts, Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt. My favorite episode has to be a tie between that time Alex secretly microdosed with LSD to see if anyone noticed, and the episode where he is called by a scammer and actually flies to India to track the scammer down, finds him, and then things get complicated. But my favorite segment is by far “Yes Yes No” where Alex and PJ explain Internet memes to their clueless producer.

The podcast ended on a sour note, but please do not let that hold you back from the experience. It’s worth it.

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I just started listening to this based on your recommendation. Really excited for this based on the first hour or so…

…and then super alarmed by HOW LONG it’s going to take me to catch up. I may not live long enough to hear this whole thing.

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Lol. It’s because they take an informal poll at the beginning.

“PJ, do you understand this meme?”
“Yes.”
“Alex Goldman, do you understand this meme?”
“Yes.”
“Producer Alex Blumberg, do you understand this meme?”
“No.”

Then they unpack it and hilarity ensues.

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I actually edited that part of my post out because I realized I remembered the USB meme wrong. I was thinking of “No No Yes”. My bad.

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Oh, if it was based on a meme, then Yes Yes No must be a reference to that meme. It’s too perfect. I had no idea there was another level to that joke!

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It will speed things up if you go to 500songs.com and just read the transcripts.You can also get the first 100 episodes in two batches of 50 in Kindle form at Amazon for $5 each.

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Ah thanks. That’s a great option. I suppose I can just sub in the music on my own as needed.

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Anthony Jeselnik’s podcast (with his best friend, an NFL analyst) - the Jeselnik and Rosenthal Vanity Project. Very laid back, very funny, and occasionally dark and very raunchy. If you like Jeselnik’s comedy than you’ll probably like this. It’s basically two funny friends shooting the shit for an hour each week.

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Bananas for Bonanza

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You Are Not So Smart

I’ve tried several podcasts that dig into the subject area of “critical thinking” and I must say this podcast is far and away my favorite.

The thing that this host does so damn well is how approachable and accessible and digestible and conversational he makes science communication. While the subject matter is full-on cognitive psychology, he makes it feel like a chat with a friend over beers.

I sought out this subject matter to help me understand “why some people online seem so stupid” :roll_eyes:, and while I’ve found several resources that help unpack human cognitive peculiarities, this one is by far the best treasure trove I stumbled upon. His work has helped me see just how subject I have been to these very human limitations.

The host, David McRaney has written a few books — his first, the eponymous You Are Not So Smart, and it’s follow up You Are Now Less Dumb, both of which are a showcase describing a list of cognitive fallacies, it’s his most recent book, How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion, that is truly amazing. Highly recommended.

If you are a Doper, you probably love science and love to debate (not necessarily in that order), so I’m confident you will find a lot to like about this podcast.

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Sean Carroll’s Mindscape podcast is very good. He brings on people from all kinds of fields and interviews them, and has lots of AMA-style content where he answers physics/cosmology questions. He doesn’t talk down to the audience, and uses the level of detail appropriate foe the subject. He is also very fair to other ideas and other people.

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/

If you like music, there is a podcast from National Review called 'Political Beats’, which despite the title is not political at all, except that the guests are typically someone from the political or journalistic world.

Anyway, each episode is a 3-hour deep dive into the music of a single artist. They pick a guest who is a superfan of the artist. If it’s an artist you like, you’ll love it.

Examples of artists on episodes I’ve listened to recently include Spoon, Warren Zevon, Prince (3 shows!), David Bowie, Fountains of Wayne, and The Who.

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Thank you, I will have to check this out!