If you feel like getting even more depressed about the state of the world;

Popular Front is a grassroots war/conflict reporting podcast by british journalist Jake Hanrahan, about different ongoing and developing conflicts around the world.

Kinda depressing, but often times far, far ahead of the large media house news cycles. Also offers a little bit of hope, with reports of why and how people on the ground are going against oppression of various kinds.

P.S. anyone know how one could bold comment/post text in the Jerboa app?

Among The Stars and Bones is a great fiction podcast.

Selected Shorts is best for short stories read live.

This American Life is the OG podcast with such great stories.

Aria Code, it breaks down great opera arias and the plots behind them.

Cocaine and Rhinestones, a crazy look at the history of the country and western greats.

Expanded by To Be Magnetic, it’s an actually helpful self help podcast. Truly. A touch woo but don’t be put off by it.

Every drag queen podcast is worth listening to because you will learn things about sex you never considered possible. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo and her Listerine and Tictacs will blow your mind. (I am not recommending these ideas but it’s hilarious).

Citations Needed, excellent reporting on the way corporate news distorts various issues to shape public opinion, occasionally with historical examples going back to the antebellum period.

• RadioLab: so many great episodes on random topics, some absolute gold here.
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: relatively new, from the author of the best still book of the same name. So far, great!
• Planet Money: US focused but still really interesting. Economics focused, non political.
• The Inquiry: BBC deep dive on current affairs.
• The Forum: BBC deep dive on various topics, some really interesting stuff.
• Critical Role: its critical role…
• The Kākā: NZ focused economics and politics.
• Unexpected Elements: BBC science podcast.
• The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps: very deep dive into the history of philosophy.

I like behind the bastards, you get to learn the history of both living and dead ass holes in some good detail.

If I want a laugh at pop culture, the weekly planet is my go to, it’s funny chat about comic books, movies and comic book movies. Plus the back catalogue is huge so chances are they’ve had an episode about something you’ve liked. I just really like laughing at things I’ve enjoyed.

Also check out debunking a murderer. Remember making a murderer on Netflix? Turns out that doc was bullshit, dude totally did those murders. Hear the prosecutors side and all the evidence the Netflix show left out.

Finally, slow burn. A long format episodic deep dive into recent history. Each season covers some important events, like Nixon, tupac and biggie, Bill Clinton, etc. Ilearned a lot from it.

Search Engine with PJ Vogt. They do deep dives into all kinds of things and it’s full of interesting information.

The Formosa Files. Two history geeks living in Taiwan, giving an incredible look into its past. I am not a history guy, but a friend recommended it. I started listening to give it a quick listen. I can’t put it down. Absolute hidden treasure.

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

https://antennapod.org/deeplink/subscribe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fanchor.fm%2Fs%2F55f4e200%2Fpodcast%2Frss&title=The+Taiwan+History+Podcast%3A+Formosa+Files

I’d recommend The Blindboy Podcast, in which one half of the comedy rap duo the Rubberbandits talks about whatever’s taken his fancy that week. Sometimes it’s an hour about sniffing the crotch of a rented tuxedo, other times it’s a long, rambling conversation with Hollywood actor Chris O’Dowd. Or he could go on a deep dive about the history of a tennis ball.

I used to listen to a lot of podcasts. These days Blindboy’s is the only one I’m guaranteed to listen to every week.

I’ll also heartily recommend The Memory Palace.

It’s not as frequent as it used to be, but it’s always pleasant seeing an episode pop into my feed. They’re usually no longer than 15 minutes, and are a lovely little lens on some previously unknown facet of American history.

A Brief Eulogy for a Commercial Radio Station is the kind of writing that makes me sad, because I know I could never write something so beautiful.

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Pretty much every single episode is the funniest goddamn thing I’ve ever heard

Their story of being at the last tenacious d show is gold standard shit

My favorite podcasts are super geeky:

• The Hackaday podcast: https://hackaday.com/category/podcasts/
• The Pick, Place podcast: https://www.pickplacepodcast.com/

(They’re both available on just about every podcast platform)

Hackaday is catered to a much more general audience than The Pick, Place podcast which is all about the PCB manufacturing/assembly industry. So if you’re a geeky sort you’ll love Hackaday because just about everything they talk about is super interesting (to geeks) and it’s never boring (unlike a lot of other geeky podcasts where the hosts can ramble on for too long about topics that are only mildly interesting).

About the Pick, Place podcast: Never in a million years would did I think I could enjoy such a podcast. They go over the steps and equipment used to make the circuit boards that live inside all the electronics we use every day and it’s way more interesting than you’d think! Like, did you know that most professionally-made circuit boards go through the equivalent of a dishwasher? As in, they’re washed… With (denatured/deionized) water! Furthermore, these washing machines only need their water changed out like once a month (or sometimes after several months) then they take the little bits of metal it collects over time and they sell them to companies that deal with precious metals (because they’ll have multiple pounds of tiny balls of tin, silver, gold, etc).

Oh man I learned so much interesting obscure shit from that podcast! I love it 👍

I’m a huge fan of Small Town Murder. 2 comedians discussing a different murder (even the odd serial killer) each week.

I enjoy a podcast or two, and i only see a few here i know, so heres a few favourites that i didn’t see yet,

Battleground: Ukraine, podcast that was being started about historical battles at the same time as the march on Kyiv happened. They pivoted and have kept abrest of events weekly since then. Its been very valuable during times the rest of the media aren’t covering it.

Age of Napoleon, an all time favourite, Everett Rummage is a well researched unassuming host. His excursion into the history of Haiti and its ties to the Napoleonic era is some of the best podcast hours i’ve ever spent.

Philosophize This, Stephen West is the happiest podcaster in a state that most philosophers would refer to as alive. He has gone through so many philosophers from all ages and gives them all a fair go.

Capitalisn’t, Bethany Mclean and Luigi Zingales take an issue with the capital system today, interview an expert, and discuss.

Debunking Economics, Welcome to the mind of economist Steve Keen. The most heterodox economist kicking goals today. Slightly MMT but has some disagreements, and shines a new lense over the field of economics.

Dot Social, Interview Podcast for the fediverse curious. Don’t know if anybody here would be interested in that kind of thing though…

Rest is Politics UK/US, both UK and US ones are great. These political current affairs podcasts are hosted by former political insiders. Their insights are valuable, even if you disagree with them. The podcasts motto is “disagree agreeably”. Rory Stewart and Allastair Campbell’s discussion on the Iraq War was an extremely poignant and honest moment and is well worth listening.

Climate Deniers Playbook, Same guy from Climate Town on YouTube, but even more annoying because he’s right there in your ear holes telling you about all the ways Big Oil is going out of its way to fuck you, and specifically you, over.

The Tally Room, Ben Raue interviews a guest or two on Australasian elections. He analyses and discusses the electoral possibilities in upcoming elections, and historical electoral practices. This is not a politics podcast, its an election analysis podcast. Therefore he generally only strays into the policies of a certain party as it impacts on the electoral outcomes of the government area in question.

I hope theres some podcasts in there that interest people.

A few from my list:

• Darknet Diaries - Interviews with interesting people around hacking and cybersecurity. This includes a lot of the actual criminals themselves and you get to hear their motivations and how they did what they did. Really neat for understanding the minds of folks who do bad things.
• FiveThirtyEight Politics - This one is good for staying abreast of US politics, polling. While the political bias of the hosts is pretty obvious, this is less punditry and more about the numbers.
• Risky Business with Nate Silver Maria Konnikova - A neat podcast covering risk, poker and politics. Just a good listen for thinking about risk and probabilities in life.
• The Lawfare Podcast - Lawyers talking about the law, and how it shapes and is shaped by whats in the news. Great for getting a legalistic view of the world.

Darknet Diaries - interesting (and mostly first hand) stories about hacking, the dark web, etc. it’s so crazy how some of these hackers (good and bad) get access to data/companies.

History podcasts I like:

Revolutions. Well known; Mike Duncan goes through various revolutions through history in an excellent, detailed narrative.

American History Too!: two academics from the university of Glasgow have various guests on to discuss different topics from American history. They know their stuff and are really charismatic.

In Our Time: BBC podcast that’s been going since the early 2000s. A panel of academics are interviewed and discuss a topic on which they are all experts. Incredibly well researched and interesting, though not especially humorous.