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Recommend me some podcasts
Klein
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey folks, I need some podcasts to listen to. Currently, I listen to:
Hello Internet: http://www.hellointernet.fm/
Giantbomb
Cracked
I am looking for more podcasts in these styles. A good gaming podcast without annoying personalities, some cool science podcasts, and some interesting podcasts are generally what I am looking for. I am open to other podcasts that are good quality though.
If someone could also recommend me a good free android app that to manage my podcasts I would also enjoy that.
Hello Internet: http://www.hellointernet.fm/
Giantbomb
Cracked
I am looking for more podcasts in these styles. A good gaming podcast without annoying personalities, some cool science podcasts, and some interesting podcasts are generally what I am looking for. I am open to other podcasts that are good quality though.
If someone could also recommend me a good free android app that to manage my podcasts I would also enjoy that.
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Comedy/Film:
Doug Loves Movies - Doug Benson's weekly podcast where he has guests on to talk about movies and play the leonard maltin game, a game in which guests try to guess movie titles using bottomt billed actors. Its about an hour every week and it's usually funny. He has some celebrities on that he's friends with (Jon Hamm, etc) so it's pretty cool.
How Did This Get Made - Every two weeks Paul Scheer picks a "so bad it might be good" movie, and a panel watches it and then discusses it. It's funny and even if you haven't seen the movies it's pretty great. It's breezy and usually about an hour. The earlier episodes are shorter and aren't as good but they've seemed to have found their stride.
Comedy Bang Bang - It's a weird improv based radio show. Scott Aukeman has some guests on, a couple of whom are real, and then he'll usually have someone on doing a character. From there it plays out like a normal morning radio show. Paul F Tompkins is often on doing impressions of Werner Herzog or Gary Marshall. A lot of the Kroll Show sketch characters were Comedy Bang Bang characters first. It's really funny and I usually only listen when I know who the guests are. Worth a shot. Usually 1-2 hours.
The Ricky Gervais Show - It ended many years ago, but you can find it. The content is hilarious and fun and unlike the shitty quality radio show (he has a many year radio show thats around on youtube), the podcast itself is only a half hour long in good quality. It's my favorite of all time but obviously you may not feel the same way. If you subscribe to his podcast I believe you can get free previews of the audio book series they did (The Ricky Gervais Guide to...) and also I believe the Christmas Podcast of their last season is up for free. See what you like.
Dead Authors - A podcast that benefits 826LA. Paul F Tompkins always plays HG Wells (who is a time traveler) and he has a comedian guest play another dead author that he then interviews (for example one of the most recent was John Hodgeman as Ayn Rand). The guests never know much about the authors so it's a lot of guess work and it's really funny. I like it but some of the eps are hit or miss.
Comedy Film Nerds - A more weekly roundup type show where Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini (both standup comedians) do movie reviews and have discussions about movies. They go a little deeper and talk shop so it's more comprehensive than, say, Doug Loves Movies. It's entertaining and I listened to it mostly when I was burning through stuff working overnights and driving. I don't agree with them about a lot of things and if that'd annoy you steer clear. Otherwise it's a good time-waster. I think it's an hour.
The Indoor Kids: Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon talk about videogame news and usually have a guest to discuss a specific topic. Guests have included David Wain and Dan Harmon. It's conversational and 1-2 hours.
Interview Shows:
WTF w/ Marc Maron - WTF is arguably one of the best podcasts in the modern era of podcasting. The problem is that he's largely exhausted his library. If you pay like $10 you get access to his entire 450+ show catalog. Podcasts ~50 - 300 are totally worth the money. He interviews a lot of REALLY interesting comedians (Amy Poehler, Conan, Louis CK, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, etc) and his style is really raw and emotional which makes for some pretty awesome talks. You can also see how far back the free catalog goes, and pick and choose who you want. He's done so many now that his guests are largely unimpressive, and he's started interviewing a lot of musicians. I don't listen to it much anymore, but it's easily provided me with dozens of hours of content as each episode is usually between 1-2 hours.
Duncan Trussell Family Hour/You Made It Weird - These two are the spiritual successors to WTF. Whereas Marc Maron started going after bigger fish and music idols of his, Pete Holmes and Duncan Trussell have both started podcasts where they are now interviewing up and coming and niche comedians (which is what WTF used to do). Their styles are different from Maron but what I've heard of each is interesting and enjoyable.
Kevin Pollack's Chat Show - It's phenomenal. Kevin Pollack (and Samm Levine) interview someone for around two to three hours every episode. I believe it's weekly. It's kind of a hipper version of Inside the Actor's Studio. I graduated from WTF to start listening to this a lot more. It's more formal, less emotional and raw, but it's equally interesting since it's not a PR machine. It's a conversation. But also each ep is incredibly long. A video version is available on youtube.
Radio/Sports:
ESPN Fantasy Focus - Unfortunately football season is over but Fantasy Focus Football is funny and informative and they have some great segments and updates daily during the season.
The Dan Patrick Show - Currently my favorite. Dan Patrick was the "original" great Sportscenter guy and now he's old and awesome. He has a stable of production staff called the Danettes that are also funny characters in their own right. He lords over them and is kind of a dick to them and it's funny. It feels like the talk radio your dad listened to, and for that reason I like it. It's every day for three hours, and the podcast is available in 3 40 minute episodes every day. They have sports personalities on as well as celebrities (last week's guests included Tony Dungee, Reggie Miller, Russell Wilson, Mark Whalberg and Keanu Reeves). I love it and I think it's great and its like 2 1/2 hours of content daily so it's a bargain.
The Joe Rogan Experience - I only listen to episodes that Dan Carlin is on, but it's a 2-3 hour podcast that is just a radio show. Joe Rogan talks about pop-culture with his engineer and they have on guests. Since he's a weird guy, you get a lot of existential and conspiracy theory-ish discussions which can be fun. Too many dick and fart jokes for my taste though.
Headier Real World Stuff:
Common Sense with Dan Carlin - My favorite podcast of all time. He tries to update bi-weekly but his schedule is all over the place. Dan Carlin is a hardcore progressive independent, and every episode he takes a topic and really dissects it in a compelling way. He cuts through a lot of the partisan blame and bullshit that comes with most pop-culture media outlets, explains what the REAL problems are on both sides of the aisle (and why the fact that we feel like we need to ally with one side of the aisle is really bad), why they are problems, and then muses on ways we could fix them. He's an excellent journalist and he's where I go if I need a politics fix. Can't recommend enough but I understand if you're not looking for something like that.
Hardcore History - Dan Carlin's pet podcast. Usually is a month or so between updates. Carlin takes topics in history he's interested in, does a ton of research, and then presents them in a really fun context and is an excellent storyteller. My favorites are a ~15 hour series about the fall of the roman republic and a twelve hour series about the rise and fall of the mongol empire. His voice is awesome and he always frames the subject in interesting ways (ie: the mongol one is based around the idea that in 100 years we'll look at the nazis as an empire that made lots of advances and we'll be relatively positive feeling about them). Usually the eps end with fun cliffhangers ("...and that senator is Julius Caeser...!!!!!!"). Usually 2-4 hours long.
Weird:
Welcome to Nightvale - A podcast that pretends to be NPR in a world where The Twilight Zone and Lovecraft stories are real life. Funny news bits on monsters, goos, aliens, etc. Just a funny time waster. I don't listen often. I think it's 45 min.
Rebel FM. Really good gaming podcast.
Smodcast- He has his detractors, but Kevin Smith can still bring the funny in his and Scott Mosier's podcast. If you end up listening to the Nerdist and Smodcast and like them, Scott Mosier and Matt Mira have one together called FEAB.
The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - basically old Loveline, though the callers aren't as dumb. Mostly.
Mohr Stories - Jay Mohr interviews people, mainly comedians. Mohr is kind of an underrated guy but he's a lot more deep and entertaining than you would think. He's almost like a more refined Joe Rogan and knows how to question what a guest might say or get them to expound on stuff without kind of overpowering and trying to make them agree to his own line of thought.
Nerdist - Like noir_blood wrote they're hit and miss and the bigger they (and the nerdist brand) have gotten the greater gulf in quality. I like Hardwick but I don't care for Jonah (coattails), and the bigger the names the more fake Hardwick feels. I don't know how to explain it but it almost feels like with some people he's putting on a "nerdface" type appearance as opposed to just having any real identity, as though he just wants to be liked or never goes deep or has an opinion on stuff unless it's about his own experiences with his career. A good interview to gauge the show by was a recent one with Jon Favreau if you're interested.
Monday Morning Podcast - Bill Burr ranting for an hour or two every week about stuff, mainly hockey right now.
Ten Minute Podcast - Bryan Callen, Chris Delia, Will Sasso act like idiots for ten minutes. Better use of ten minutes than your average Adult Swim show.
RadioLab - Requisite random science shit. Mostly short episodes about a particular subject, with some longer episodes here and there. Sort of like the science version of This American Life.
99% Invisible - A show about design. Wait, it's actually not boring! Each taut episode (20-30 minutes) is filled with some compelling insights into the design about the ordinary things in our lives (barcodes and postal stamps), and some things that aren't (number stations). It's about the things beneath what we see and how and why build the world we do.
Two science type ones that I no longer subscribe to due to lack of time and too many other podcasts are
- Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk Radio show which is basically just his weekly radio show with the ads taken out of it so it is kind of choppy and cut into segments which can be annoying if you're not really invested in the topic.
- How Stuff Works - started out as 10-15 minute blurbs on topics from their site but lengthened out over time to go more in depth and cover other segments. Can be a good, informative time depending on how interested in the topic you are. This is the original but it also spun off into a bunch of other history/tech podcasts that I've never listened to.
Steam Me
If you're not listening to Idle Thumbs, you are fucking missing out. Tone Control, the sister "interviews with video game developers" show is also good.
I'd also like to recommend a bad movie podcast not mentioned yet, The Flop House, which consistently makes me laugh out loud at something on my headphones and look like a total crazy person.
History: The History of Rome, Revolutions, The British History Podcast, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Video games and other nerdy things: The Geekbox, Giant Bombcast, Podcast Beyond, Game Scoop
General hilarity: Ten Minute Podcast, The Comedy Button
Health: The Fat Burning Man
Conspiracies theories/alternative media: The Unexplained with Howard Hughes, The Alex Jones Show
Old-style radio drama: We're Alive
If you're into storytelling, The Moth distributes short 10 - 20 minute recordings of people telling stories about their life.
Radiolab
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Common Sense with Dan Carlin
How Did this Get Made
Freaknomics Radio
This American Life
NPR's Planet Money - Short shows about 20 minutes long about business and economic issues, spun off from This American Life
Revolutions - Successor podcast to The History of Rome, he does 10-12 30 minute episodes on famous revolutions in world history.
Comedy Bang Bang
BBC Drama of the Week - Weekly Radio Dramas, kinda hit or miss, but some are really good. Almost no back catalogue.
We're Alive - Radio Drama set in a zombie apocolypse
Welcome to Nightvale
APM: Marketplace - daily 30 minute show with economic and business news
The Adam Carolla Show
StarTalk Radio
Hamish and Andy - Australian morning radio, funny guys
I will second all of these, but especially The History of Rome, Hardcore History and the Bombcast.
Hardcore History did a segment on Rome, but The History of Rome spans hundreds of thirty minute episodes that takes you from the beginning of Rome all the way through to where it finally splits. Amazing listening, I listened to it on an off over the course of the year and it absolutely fascinating.
Stuff I listen to:
Politics: The Bugle, Left Right and Centre, Slate Political Gabfest
Gaming: Idle Thumbs, Giant Bombcast, Scoops and the Wolf in the AM, Bonfireside Chat (Dark Souls)
Movies/TV: F this Movie, Boars, Gore & Swords (Game of Thrones from two non-book readers)
Probably some others I've forgotten, I'll have a think and add any I missed.
Whiskycast seems promising, I'm just a few episodes in.
Do you use the smart playist feature? It makes that program much better if you're not.
I like Keith and The Girl, but I put it down for weeks every now and then. They tend to often dig deeper than their guests want to go on certain topics, which can make things fairly uncomfortable in some episodes. They are daily, and you get a lot of their lives, and it can be a bit gossipy. Sometimes they go on too long on something and I just skip ahead. I'm not sure that is a glowing recommendation, but the show has had some pretty amazing episodes.
Welcome to Nightvale
Imagine A Prairie home companion meets the X-Files. That's WTNV in a nutshell. Every week, our humble radio narrator Cecil shares the going-on's of the quaint little town called Night Vale. A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
Harmontown
If you're one of the handful of people to be taken in by the wit and awesomeness of Community or Rick and Morty, you probably already know who Dan Harmon is. But what you might not know is that he has a really funny Podcast called Harmontown. Basically, Dan gets a group of funny people together in front of a studio audiance and talks about Race, philosophy, art, writing, poop jokes, and manages to squeeze in some free-style rapping. Then the gang gets together and plays Dungeons & Dragons. It's easily my favorite podcast, and worth a listen.
HAWPcast
Do you like Hey Ash, whatcha playing? If so, then you should check out there podcast as well! It really scratches that Video game itch for me in a way that's both witty and funny. They also often veer into movies, tv, and other pop culture. Definitely worth a listen.
We're Alive: A story of Survival
We're Alive is basically a modern take on the old Radio-serial of olden times. It's the story of a National Guard soldier, struggling for survival in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. It's kind of slow at times, but very well done with multiple voice actors, good special effects, and excellent production values.
This American Life
If you're not into NPR, you can pass on this one. Basically Ira Glass takes a story, sometimes big, sometimes small, and examines the unexamined. It's pretty good stuff, but the biggest downside for me is I never want to stop in the middle of a podcast. Ira's interviewing and narrative skills are just too top notch.