Behind the Bastards
fun + informative history podcast on awful people and events with a comedic bent
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.
Excellent miniseries! Know of other similar podcasts?
I wanna reply with my town I grew up in with a letter-hyphen combo but I’d dox myself at some point in time otherwise 😜
And u all neva gonna get that, neva gonna get that, tra-la-la-la-LA!
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.
You’re wrong about (until Michael Hobbes left at least)
If books could kill
Maintenance phase
Maybe I just really like Michael Hobbes…
I still enjoy some of the new episodes, though agree it was more entertaining before. This is super nitpicky and probably more to do with my misophonia but the way he inhales while reading really made me angry though.
Comedy Bang Bang - improv comedy where Scott Aukerman interviews interesting people, and by interesting people i mean comedians playing absurd characters. It’s been going for fifteen years, Paul F Tompkins, Jason Mantzoukas, and Ben Schwarz are all regulars, and it’s the only podcast I listen to almost every week.
Get Played - a gaming podcast featuring Heather Anne Campbell, Matt Wiger and Nick Apodaca (I’ve almost definitely misspelled or misremembered at least one of these names). They talk about games whilst being very funny - Heather is a comedy writer, Matt is occasionally on Comedy Bang Bang. It’s the only gaming podcast I listen to despite much of their coverage being games I am not interested in.
youarenotsosmart.com psychology, sociology, & more. Sounds boring but is fascinating. His own description:
The central theme of You Are Not So Smart is that you are unaware of how unaware you are which leads you to becoming the unreliable narrator in the story of your life. You Are Not So Smart is a fun exploration of the ways you and everyone else tends to develop an undeserved confidence in human perception, motivation, and behavior. I hope you’ll rediscover a humility and reconnect with the stumbling, fumbling community of humans trying to make sense of things the best we can.
Medical podcasts
This Podcast Will Kill You
Saw Bones
Heavyweight on Spotify.
I’ve been listening to this series for a few years. People have a regret, encounter, or problem from the past that they wish to follow up but need help. Jonathan Goldstein is a go between in helping these people bury the past or make amends. One particular story is Gregor who lends a CD to a pre-famous Moby. The CD contains the songs that Moby sampled and made him huge but never returned the CD to Gregor. Heavyweight helps Gregor get the CD.
Unfortunately some muppet at Spotify has decided to stop this excellent series so check it out before it goes.
Midnight Burger
- 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.
Dungeons and Daddies (not a BDSM podcast)
A D&D podcast about 4 dads from our world that get tossed into the Forgotten Realms on a quest to find their missing kids. It’s fucking hilarious.Old Gods of Appalachia
Many eons ago, Earth was a prison for things that shouldn’t be. Buried under what we now call the Appalachian Mountains, long they waited. But time weathers all things, and what were once gigantic mountains have eroded to mere nubs of what they once were. Then man, in his quest for coal, cracked open that black prison and things started leaking out… Set in “alternate Appalachia” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A great, dark story.Scared To Death
Think of all those scary stories you’ve ever heard… urban legends, ghost stories, monsters, cryptids, aliens… Of course, most of them are just stories right? But what if one of them was true? And, if one of them was true, what does that mean for the rest of them? Each week, they take two stories found on the internet and two-four listener-submitted stories, tell them, and assuming they’re true, discuss what that would mean. Take care while listening.I bounced right off of Scared to Death; I guess I’m not a fan of their dynamic as hosts? Or maybe I just prefer the narrative style of podcast instead of the ‘two zany hosts’ format, idk.
Here are some other spooky ones, as well! :
Camp Monsters Podcast
Incredible audio-storytelling podcast for fans of getting into nature, sitting around the campfire and telling scary stories. The audio design is topnotch, and the host does a wonderful job. I’m usually not a fan of overly-produced sounding podcasts, but this one strikes a really good balance of audio-drama type soundscapes and one host telling you a story. The Dark Watcher episode really got me good and spooked while listening to it in bed.
Ghost Story
This is for fans of true crime and ghosts. Some crazy real-life coincidences occur to bring together a man with a ghost in his teenage bedroom and the woman he marries. Turns out, her murdered great grandmother may be the ghost he was visited by. He then uses his skillset as an investigative journalist to look into her and her brother’s murder from the post WWI era. While predominantly a true crime podcast, the descriptions of the haunting were quite vivid and scared me while I was home alone at night.
Dungeons and Daddies seconded!
Omnibus. Hosted by Ken Jennings and John Roderick. They are both funny, enjoy each other’s company, and extremely knowledgeable. The show covers a swath of esoteric topics.
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
Let’s Learn Everything
There’s three hosts and they discuss science topics each episode, and on the way learn something really new and interesting! It’s really a lot of fun!
Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - “Based on his Netflix comedy special, “Blocks.” Neal Brennan interviews friends and colleagues about the things that make them feel lonely, isolated, and like something’s wrong - and how they are persevering despite these blocks.”
- Welcome To Nightvale
- Wolf 359
- The Adventure Zone
