This American Life, Radiolab, pretty much anything from NPR, Adam Carolla's Carcast and Ace on the House, The Dave Ramsey Show, Skeptoid, Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Star Talk, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.
XBL: heavenkils
0
Options
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
Huge recommendations for Radiolab and Idle Thumbs (pretty much the best gaming podcast- the right mix of indepth insight and absurd hilarious tangents- it is very much worth going through their backlog because their discussions about game design are still incredibly timely even if the games they talk about might be a little dated (farcry 2).
Even if you're not a fan of Kevin Smith, he and Scott Mosier are really entertaining. I would start off with some of the earlier episodes, but most are good. If you find you like his thing, he has a bunch of other podcasts that he either shows up in, or are related to him in some way.
The Moth is alway good for a listen-just people telling stories.
Comedy Bang Bang and Doug Loves Movie are fun too.
I've been listening to Lunaticradio for a few years now. It's funny. Not for everyone, though.
0
Options
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
My Brother, My Brother and Me is a ridiculously hilarious "advice" podcast where three brothers "answer" questions from Yahoo! Answers.
You Look Nice Today is one of my all-time favorites. Three dudes on the phone with each other just sort of improv-riffing on each other's topics. I know this setup sounds god-awful, and it usually is, but these three are absolutely hysterical. Has featured Johnathan Coulton and John Hodgman as guests in the past, but it's usually just Adam, Scott and Merlin doing what they do best.
+1
Options
Theodore Flooseveltproud parent of eight beautiful girls and shalmelodorne (which is currently being ruled by a woman (awesome role model for my daughters)) #dornedadRegistered Userregular
Earwolf's roster is all pretty excellent, Comedy Bang! Bang! and Improv4Humans being the standouts for me. Who Charted? is also pretty solid, though I haven't been listening to it every week for a while now.
I used to be big on How Did This Get Made?, but I think The Flop House is a superior bad movies podcast. HDTGM isn't bad, but Flop House has much less incredulity and yelling, and the three co-hosts just seem to have a lot more fun, honestly.
Indoor Kids is pretty cute, being a husband and wife who play video games together, though I find it's generally pretty hit-or-miss depending on the guest.
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
The Nerdist is another great podcast, with pretty amazing interviews. Last couple of great guests included Joan Rivers and Alton Brown, both of which were great to listen to. The Nerdist has a ton of podcasts and youtube shows out now, so you may find even more there to listen to then just the core Nerdist podcast.
Also - if you have a smartphone, I recommend Stitcher, it's a great app for finding NPR shows and podcasts and streaming them without having to worry about downloading them ahead of time.
+1
Options
mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
Thanks everyone! I'll be checking them out for sure. I do have the time to do so
0
Options
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
AstronomyCast if you're in to that kind of thing. The pace of episodes has slowed down, but there is a MASSIVE backlog, spanning back five or six years, and one of the hosts is a Ph.D physicist who actually teaches this stuff...and she's very good at explaining things.
I highly recommend the series about astronomy history and the founders of astronomy. Great stuff.
Guntalk is one of my favorites. It's the podcast download of a weekly radio show that's 3 hours of talking about guns, broke down into 3 podcasts per week.
Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
I'm particularly fond of In Our Time, From Our Own Correspondent, and Analysis. Their one-off series like A Brief History of Mathematics and A History of The World in 100 Objects are very good too.
Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Skeptoid: Skeptical Analysis of Pop Phenomenon - Skeptoid, with Brian Dunning of skeptoid.com is a bite sized look at different things with a skeptical eye. It's entertaining in and of itself. Highly recommend.
Reasonable Doubts - Dave Fletcher, Jeremy Beahan, The Doctor-Professor Luke Galan and recent addition Justin Sheeba present an atheistic podcast - it has a number of segments, God Thinks Like You (wherein the DrProf relates the latest in psychological research relating to religion), Skeptic's Sunday School (wherein Jeremy does counter-apologetics or biblical criticism), Stranger than Fiction (wherein Fletch presents the weird religious story of the week) and other such things which make it the best atheistic podcast that I have found. They view themselves as non-aggressive atheists (i.e. not aggressive as the News are typically described) but they also reject the accomodationist position.
Point of Inquiry - (This information is now slightly out of date as Dr Price left PoI to start the Bible Geek and was replaced by someone else) This is the once great podcast for the Center For Inquiry (spelled in the American way because they are 'Murcan). Used to be headed up by the DJ Grothe, who was a fantastic host - interviews mosty with people who had written books on the subject of scepticism, atheism, religion and so forth. I fully recommend getting the early podcasts - until around the start of this year, and then making up your mind explanation follows.
Around the time of the Blasphemy Day "controversy" which saw disagreements between Paul Kurtz (founder of CFI) and the CFI executive DJ Grothe left CFI and took up a position as director of the JREF 1 Million Dollar challenge. Since then, it has a three host format, with Chris Mooney (journalist author of The Republican War on Science), Karen Stollznow (from the MonsterTalk podcast) and Robert M. Price (of The Bible Geek podcast).
Mooney does 2 of every 4 podcasts, with the others doing one each. It's very much gone downhill since then. Mooney is really pushing his accomodationist agenda into the shows he does - whereas Grothe, rather less of an accomodationist was pretty much impossible to guage from his interview style. Stollznow's interviews are ok, but rather bland. Robert Price's are either really good (mostly the case) or really bad (like his interview with Thomas JJ Altizer or the one about the Chocolate Jesus). They also each have broad areas that they specialise in - Stollznow mainly does scepticism and athiest community type interviews, Price religion and Mooney politics and so forth.
I am way less excited when there's a new episode nowadays, Mooney is basically unlistenable, it's not that I disagree with him that's the issue, it's that he offers such bad arguments for what is a reasonable position.
The Bible Geek - Robert M. Price (now of the aforementioned Point of Inquiry) answers listener submitted questions about the Bible and theology. Price is a Christ mythicist, member of the Jesus seminar and has taught Biblical Criticism in a huge range of places. It's all quite fascinating, though it sounds really dry, it isn't. The odd wrinkle is that Price is A) a huge geek (he loves comics, pulp barbarian novels, Lovecraft, etc...) and hugely conservative (he HATES Obama, hates the Unitarian Universalists for their liberal agenda and makes the occasional comments about this, he's pro-life and a few other things), which makes for the occasional O_o moments. He is however a charismatic and learned guy so the podcast is really listenable. He also seems to release a new one every other day, so you'll never run out.
The Center for Inquiry then started The Human Bible - which is much like the Bible Geek but pitched at a more educational and introductory level. It is really great.
Anyway Dr Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnick is an Australian media personality who has had a crazily interesting and varied career. Distinguished for his love of science he appears on 4 different podcasts and each of them are fun - Great Moments in Science, Karl talks about something interesting and science related. Science on Mornings with Zan Row, which is a recording of a radio segment for Triple J wherein people call in and ask questions and Karl answers them, Dr Karl's Blogcast, which I haven't listened to yet but hear good things about and a BBC version of the Science on Mornings podcast (which happens at 3AM BBC time O_o).
Read it and Weep - 3 improv comedian types read/watch a bad book/bad movie and then discuss it for half an hour. It's frequently laugh out loud funny, but it isn't what one would except from hearing about the format. They rarely get into specifics about why the things are so terrible and you'll rarely have any idea what the actual story of the books are if you haven't read them despite their summarizing them every episode even. The main downside is that they think improv comedy is a real thing and occasionally this afflicts the podcast.
The Geologic Podcast - George 'Geo' Hrab, atheist, comedian, musician, guy who looks sort of like Moby. What can a man say about him?
It's a long form podcast wherein George does regular skits (usually in the form of phonecalls with himself, doing odd voices), segments such as "Religious Moron of the Week" or "Ask George" and then talking about stuff that he finds interesting and telling stories. I don't like his music, but I like hearing him talk about music, I like the things he edits together but find some of his skits tiresome. Still, the whole thing keeps me entertained and my car radio is broken so it continues. Also, I do like the song he did with the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, it's cool.
I have just recently started listening to Security Now and Linux Outlaws.
These are all pretty listenable, thought Security Now, Linux Outlaws, Read It and Weep and The Geologic Podcast as are all of either narrow appeal or an acquired taste.
Tales From The Spacepod. thespacepod.blogspot.com/ Irreverent discussion of the paranormal, conspiracies, movies, t.v., music, comics, whatever. Coast to Coast A.M. meets South Park.
I typically recommend The Nerdist, Hollywood Babble-On, Smodcast, and Tell 'em Steve Dave. The last three being part of the Kevin Smith's Smodcast Network.
Car Talk is good. I just recently finished the History of Rome as well, I liked that one a lot, and am looking forward to what he decides to cover next.
0
Options
Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
I like The News From Lake Wobegon but I am always unsure of whether or not to recommend it to people. Every now and then Keillor goes from the silliness to some surprisingly beautiful prose(?)
I'll second most of these. The Nerdist, Radiolab and the Comedy Button especially as of late.
I'm going to throw in Snap Judgement, which is kind of like This American Life, but with shorter segments and much more focus on story-telling. I've been listening to that like crazy.
And if you don't mind paying money, I'll definitely say that Never Not Funny is my favorite podcast ever.
Star Talk Radio is pretty fantastic. And yeah, the co-hosts can hog some of the attention (and Neil sometimes tries to compete with them for jokes, and it can be kinda weird sometimes).
Posts
This American Life, Radiolab, pretty much anything from NPR, Adam Carolla's Carcast and Ace on the House, The Dave Ramsey Show, Skeptoid, Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Star Talk, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7dlmKvpfYs
Even if you're not a fan of Kevin Smith, he and Scott Mosier are really entertaining. I would start off with some of the earlier episodes, but most are good. If you find you like his thing, he has a bunch of other podcasts that he either shows up in, or are related to him in some way.
The Moth is alway good for a listen-just people telling stories.
Comedy Bang Bang and Doug Loves Movie are fun too.
You Look Nice Today is one of my all-time favorites. Three dudes on the phone with each other just sort of improv-riffing on each other's topics. I know this setup sounds god-awful, and it usually is, but these three are absolutely hysterical. Has featured Johnathan Coulton and John Hodgman as guests in the past, but it's usually just Adam, Scott and Merlin doing what they do best.
I used to be big on How Did This Get Made?, but I think The Flop House is a superior bad movies podcast. HDTGM isn't bad, but Flop House has much less incredulity and yelling, and the three co-hosts just seem to have a lot more fun, honestly.
Indoor Kids is pretty cute, being a husband and wife who play video games together, though I find it's generally pretty hit-or-miss depending on the guest.
I also have been listening to The Comedy Button lately.
Also - if you have a smartphone, I recommend Stitcher, it's a great app for finding NPR shows and podcasts and streaming them without having to worry about downloading them ahead of time.
I highly recommend the series about astronomy history and the founders of astronomy. Great stuff.
I'm particularly fond of In Our Time, From Our Own Correspondent, and Analysis. Their one-off series like A Brief History of Mathematics and A History of The World in 100 Objects are very good too.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Also 3rd'd for Skeptoid.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
Reasonable Doubts - Dave Fletcher, Jeremy Beahan, The Doctor-Professor Luke Galan and recent addition Justin Sheeba present an atheistic podcast - it has a number of segments, God Thinks Like You (wherein the DrProf relates the latest in psychological research relating to religion), Skeptic's Sunday School (wherein Jeremy does counter-apologetics or biblical criticism), Stranger than Fiction (wherein Fletch presents the weird religious story of the week) and other such things which make it the best atheistic podcast that I have found. They view themselves as non-aggressive atheists (i.e. not aggressive as the News are typically described) but they also reject the accomodationist position.
Point of Inquiry - (This information is now slightly out of date as Dr Price left PoI to start the Bible Geek and was replaced by someone else) This is the once great podcast for the Center For Inquiry (spelled in the American way because they are 'Murcan). Used to be headed up by the DJ Grothe, who was a fantastic host - interviews mosty with people who had written books on the subject of scepticism, atheism, religion and so forth. I fully recommend getting the early podcasts - until around the start of this year, and then making up your mind explanation follows.
Mooney does 2 of every 4 podcasts, with the others doing one each. It's very much gone downhill since then. Mooney is really pushing his accomodationist agenda into the shows he does - whereas Grothe, rather less of an accomodationist was pretty much impossible to guage from his interview style. Stollznow's interviews are ok, but rather bland. Robert Price's are either really good (mostly the case) or really bad (like his interview with Thomas JJ Altizer or the one about the Chocolate Jesus). They also each have broad areas that they specialise in - Stollznow mainly does scepticism and athiest community type interviews, Price religion and Mooney politics and so forth.
I am way less excited when there's a new episode nowadays, Mooney is basically unlistenable, it's not that I disagree with him that's the issue, it's that he offers such bad arguments for what is a reasonable position.
The Bible Geek - Robert M. Price (now of the aforementioned Point of Inquiry) answers listener submitted questions about the Bible and theology. Price is a Christ mythicist, member of the Jesus seminar and has taught Biblical Criticism in a huge range of places. It's all quite fascinating, though it sounds really dry, it isn't. The odd wrinkle is that Price is A) a huge geek (he loves comics, pulp barbarian novels, Lovecraft, etc...) and hugely conservative (he HATES Obama, hates the Unitarian Universalists for their liberal agenda and makes the occasional comments about this, he's pro-life and a few other things), which makes for the occasional O_o moments. He is however a charismatic and learned guy so the podcast is really listenable. He also seems to release a new one every other day, so you'll never run out.
The Center for Inquiry then started The Human Bible - which is much like the Bible Geek but pitched at a more educational and introductory level. It is really great.
Dr Karl's Podcasts - there are actually 4 podcasts http://www.drkarl.com/media-centre/podcasts
Anyway Dr Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnick is an Australian media personality who has had a crazily interesting and varied career. Distinguished for his love of science he appears on 4 different podcasts and each of them are fun - Great Moments in Science, Karl talks about something interesting and science related. Science on Mornings with Zan Row, which is a recording of a radio segment for Triple J wherein people call in and ask questions and Karl answers them, Dr Karl's Blogcast, which I haven't listened to yet but hear good things about and a BBC version of the Science on Mornings podcast (which happens at 3AM BBC time O_o).
Read it and Weep - 3 improv comedian types read/watch a bad book/bad movie and then discuss it for half an hour. It's frequently laugh out loud funny, but it isn't what one would except from hearing about the format. They rarely get into specifics about why the things are so terrible and you'll rarely have any idea what the actual story of the books are if you haven't read them despite their summarizing them every episode even. The main downside is that they think improv comedy is a real thing and occasionally this afflicts the podcast.
The Geologic Podcast - George 'Geo' Hrab, atheist, comedian, musician, guy who looks sort of like Moby. What can a man say about him?
It's a long form podcast wherein George does regular skits (usually in the form of phonecalls with himself, doing odd voices), segments such as "Religious Moron of the Week" or "Ask George" and then talking about stuff that he finds interesting and telling stories. I don't like his music, but I like hearing him talk about music, I like the things he edits together but find some of his skits tiresome. Still, the whole thing keeps me entertained and my car radio is broken so it continues. Also, I do like the song he did with the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, it's cool.
I have just recently started listening to Security Now and Linux Outlaws.
These are all pretty listenable, thought Security Now, Linux Outlaws, Read It and Weep and The Geologic Podcast as are all of either narrow appeal or an acquired taste.
I mean, do you really like history?
To the tune of nearly 200 episodes about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire?
Then it is hard to go wrong with the appropriately titled History of Rome
I'm going to throw in Snap Judgement, which is kind of like This American Life, but with shorter segments and much more focus on story-telling. I've been listening to that like crazy.
And if you don't mind paying money, I'll definitely say that Never Not Funny is my favorite podcast ever.
The Giantbomb Bombcast is pretty damn funny, about games and the game industry but it gets hilariously offtopic.
http://www.startalkradio.net/ is Neil deGrasse-Tysons show, which is great for astronomy/science although his cohosts can be a bit iffy.
History of Rome is incredibly indepth and very educational.