Behind the Bastards
fun + informative history podcast on awful people and events with a comedic bent
- The Amber & Lacey, Lacey & Amber Show gets me into a positive mood.
- Countdown with Keith Olbermann is still good when he isn’t bringing up exes.
- Worlds Beyond Number is a neat TTRPG live play from last year.
- Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
- Bonanas for Bonanza because Maria Bamford is an unsung comedy legend
- The Doug Stanhope Podcast
- How Did This Get Made? making fun of bad movies is fun.
- Lovett or Leave It politics with a spoonful of snark
- LeVar Burton Reads reading rainbow will never die!
- SmartLess easy listening
- Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me the sign of a true celebrity is appearing on this show.
- Strike Force Five was kinda neat as an insight into unscripted dialogue with competing professionals, but they seemed to gang up on Jimmy Fallon, who, arguably, has the most prestigious late night show.
Sean Carroll - mindscape
Fraser Cain - universe today
David Eagleman - inner cosmos
Not exactly a new one, but I listened to S-town with great enjoyment. It’s a little story about an alleged murder, a truly original American man, and rural Alabama. I was never bored, and I certainly learned something. And you get to hear an amazing Alabama accent.
The Age of Napoleon. I’m a Patreon supporter because it’s simply an awesome and informative podcast about a hugely interesting and transformative era and person.
You’re wrong about (until Michael Hobbes left at least)
If books could kill
Maintenance phase
Maybe I just really like Michael Hobbes…
I actually really like the woman from you’re wrong about. Her laid back speech pattern is really appealing to me
To me it just seems like the episodes go on for too long without much actual information? I haven’t listened to many old episodes yet, though, so I don’t know if that’s how it’s always been
Medical podcasts
This Podcast Will Kill You
Saw Bones
The Apocalypse Players - A Call of Cthulu TTRPG. Two of my favorite are: Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 and A Christmas Inheritance.
The Duncan Trussell Family Hour - Lot of the guests tend to be Buddhist monks, comedians, spiritual gurus, occultists, etc. Ranges from mundane topics to esoteric ones.
Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman and Data Over Dogma - Both discuss the Bible from an academic view. The cultural context behind the Gospels, the biases in each Gospel, the non-canonical gospels
Hi-Phi Nation - Uses stories to talk about philosophical topics. Recommend: Wishes of the Dead, Moral Exploitation, The Morality of War, and the 2 Part Hackademics.
The Cracked Podcast - Generally it’s comedians and journalists talk about various topics. Really good episodes are: 4 Mind-Blowing Truths About America (Made Clear By Baseball), Why Americans Hate The Poor (with David Wong & John Cheese), and Why A New Civil War Will Be Fought By A Thousand Sides.
Ars Paradoxica
It may be a little older, in podcast terms, but it’s a great time travel journey from 20XX to 1943. Even for being a fictional story, it does get a lot of things right in historical context.
I recommend it because it’s one I started with and still keep coming back to just because it’s such a good story.
Edit: Bonus of being older, it’s complete so you can binge to your heart’s content
Safety third - chaotic chat podcast from sciency/maker youtubers.
Was going to suggest this too.
Beautiful/Anonymous with Chris Gethard. Random people call in and have 1 hour where Chris can’t hang up only the caller.
www.levarburtonpodcast.com. Each episode Levar reads a piece of short fiction.
We Have Ways of Making You Talk, about WWII, now over 600 episodes. Chatty, inspired, incredible guests. Not all about D-Day and Iwo Jima, but dealing with lesser-known stories and personalities. The hosts are Al Murray and James Holland (whose brother Tom does an excellent podcast called “The Rest is History”.
Last podcast on the left, their research is great but they lean heavily into their comedy to really make the story entertaining.
Hell yeah, I love Behind the Bastards, I also reccomend its sister podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, similar podcast I Don’t Speak German (antifascists talking about various goings on regarding the far right) and, if you want Something Completely Different, Film Reroll, an actual play podcast in which all the campaigns are based on movies.
Midnight Burger
