Please outline what each podcast is in terms or subject or genre, it helps narrow down to what people will be interested in and what to take a closer look at
I love Behind the Bastards with Robert Evans which tells the backstories of the awful people and institutions and practices that are evil, psycho/sociopathic, and often of current topical interest.
I also enjoy The Dollop which "tells stories of people and events of American history with Dave Anthony and his repulsive sidekick, Gary Reynolds)
The sheer evil and craziness of the bastards they focus on actually gets me pumped up and focused on the task i set for myself as a condition of treating myself or giving myself permission to listen and hang out :)
Evil people tend to be outsizedly productive so a little bit (the good bit) rubs off on me
About to cook up an 18 egg omelette to cover my breakfast sandwiches for the week
- Darknet Diaries: My Favourite and usual go-to. Gripping true stories from the dark side of the internet, covering hackers, cyberheists, and digital espionage.
- 99% Invisible: A fascinating look into the unnoticed design and invisible architecture shaping our everyday world.
- Behind the Bastards: Meticulously researched deep dives into history’s worst human beings, served with dark comedy.
- Stuff You Should Know: Conversational, easy-listening breakdowns of how everything works, from obscure history to everyday oddities.
- Radiolab: Immersive, sound-rich storytelling at the intersection of science, philosophy, and human curiosity.
Used to love BtB, but the ads kept getting more invasive so I stopped when they got their Netflix deal and started even putting in-track ads on the YT versions.
I have a few that I mildly enjoy:
- ‘Hardcore History,’ ‘Common Sense,’ and basically anything else with Dan Carlin - His style is engaging and fun. He turns mountains of history into climbable hills. He doesn’t have ads, just a post-roll ask for a dollar to keep things going.
- Final Show Films - various TTRPG actual play recordings from their twitch streams. Leans more toward characters and less toward the action hero style most of the time. Lots of systems, settings, etc. Great examples of avoiding meta-gaming. Preroll patreon ask only. Queer friendly, if that matters to you, but usually not focused on it if that sounds like their focus might be in the wrong place. Hours and hours of content you can enjoy whilst doing chores.
- Push the Roll - Call of Cthulhu improv based on patreon suggested titles. Has Ross Bryant, pretty much the best thing ever to hit the TTRPG actual play world since microphones and dice.
- Werewolf Ambulance - Two friends BSing about horror movies and occasionally others. Not deep, but nice. No ads.
- Better Offline - Ed Zitron maligning AI companies endlessly. Fun when he does it with a guest. Mildly informative if not.
I had more at one time but they often die or go bad somehow. These are the only ones I can recommend at the moment.
This American Life is a classic and still putting out great episodes.
I also enjoy Safety Third, which is a podcast of engineering, chemistry, and randomshit.
Behind the Bastards is definitely my go-to for most of my podcast activities.
And because I am a bird nerd, every now and then I’ll dabble into “Extremely Accurate Bird Songs (the podcast)” if I am feeling whimsical.
Otherwise, I listen to WDET 101.9 FM everywhere else, they have great programming and music.
Anything with Robert Evan’s is great. I also like “stuff you should know” very chill podcast.
Also “hp pod craft” I think it’s called strange studies of strange stories now. It’s from witch house media
I really enjoy “You’re Wrong About” while I’m cooking. The episodes are just long enough and I always learn something new!
Behind the Bastards is so good that it’s almost difficult to recommend anything else haha
Right? Its the chillest, most hangout podcast besides The Dollop
If I’m going to be doing housework for a while I usually put on The Dollop
Whats ur fave ep?
I listen to WFAN-AM sports radio. Love Evan & Tiki during the day, Boomer and Gio in the morning is hit or miss, and then Tommy Lugauer on after hours is a generational talent.
What are they about
Sports! Right now the NFL is in full swing, the MLB is wrapping up, and the NHL and NBA are starting up. It’s always on, live, current, and (usually) entertaining.
They’re obnoxious, but The Last Podcast on the Left has some great series. Their longer ones are my faves. The black plague, the Donner party, stuff about Mormonism. All good
Their series on the Tragedy of the Batavia was so good.
Ooh, I haven’t heard that one. Thanks!
Depends on mood, sometimes I’ll do Lateral with Tom Scott or Escape this Podcast if I want more puzzle oriented, sometimes I’ll do Mostly Nitpicking or Movie Struck if I want movie talk, Improv Tabletop if I want a TTRPG actual play, otherwise it’s just music.
Whats Lateral all about?
Im just gonna ask people cuz theres so many reccomendations and i cant possibly look em all up so apologies in advance if you’ll indulge me
No worries, as mentioned Lateral is a puzzle show, each episode he brings on 3 guests and has a handful of questions they ask each other that have some level lateral thinking to get to the correct answer and whoever is reading the question has some clues to help them get to the right answer an example might be like:
A shop has a tray of Lego bricks on the floor, what is it selling?
The first clue being it’s not a toy shop, since that’s obvious, and the second clue it also has trays of gravel, stone, and wood bark.
The answer being shoes, the trays are there so you can see how those shoes feel if you were to step on different objects.
It feels really good when you guess, or know, the answer right away and are following the guests train of thought getting to the right answer.
Latera feels right up my corner. Will listen shortly, not today cuz i need to keep it easy but will do
I’m double dipping to also add in radio plays. Wolf 359, The White Vault, Unwell, Alice Isn’t Dead, Limetown… Lots of choices!
I’m fully in the Nick Weiger podcast universe so I listen Doughboys and Get Played plus their weekly bonus shows. I find I don’t usually go through more than 4 podcasts in a week but if I do then The Film Reroll will usually hold me over until new episodes come out
no, I listen to music
Fair enough
What kind of music do you listen to while you cook?
I like punk for chopping, rock and pop for sautéing, and folk for baking, but it’s a lot of a lot of different things. As long as it matches the tempo of what I’m doing with my hands it’s all good.
That’s a great answer :)
