Asklemmy

Mission To Zyxx

Judge John Hodgman. It's about people with silly disputes, and John and his bailiff Jesse Thorn way in on them. What's great is even though the disputes are silly, they both come at the cases with such thoughtfulness and empathy, listening to the show will make you a better and kinder person. Also sometimes Jean Grae guests bailiff's and she is amazing too.

Knifepoint Horror. No other horror podcast has ever come close to being as good for me

I recently Discovered the Blowback podcast and it kind of reminds me of Behind the Bastards podcast in subject matter. Revealing more of the happenings behind some of the US (and “western”) actions in various situations that most Americans probably consider cut and dry examples of “we’re the good guys” when it’s more complicated.

Like I didn’t know we, and many western countries, sold chemical weapons to the Iraqis throughout the 80s for them to use on Iran, and then used them as an example of how evil Saddam Hussein is when he invaded Kuwait (something something the us ambassador said we didn’t care about beforehand) and we needed to justify a war. West Germany sold chemical weapons to Iraq and protective gear to the Iranians.

It’s not so much US bad, but illuminating that the government does shitty things and supports shitty people and we should probably make that stop, or at least own it honestly.

Grey 17, a podcast about watching Babylon 5. Repeat viewers along with newbies.

Uhh Yeah Dude - comedy. One of the oldest podcasts going since 2006!

American History Tellers. I haven't listened to many other podcasts so I can't compare, but it feels like well researched and well told history. I feel like it is filling in the gaps of what was once my least favorite subject.

Probably should learn more world history, not just America, but I'm easing into the subject and America really has a colorful history for our short time so far.

Another vote for The Weekly Planet here! Great Aussie banter if you like your comic book movies and tv shows or just current movie reviews.

Distractible is my go-to for a good laugh. Listen to the episode "Bob's Fridge" to make your day better

The Plastic Pleasiosaur Podcast is a really fun sceptic/science podcast run by an old man and a femboy archeologist.

Saw Bones is a highly entertaining and informative medical history podcast run by a cool, bisexual doctor and her adult-baby husband.

Bizarre Podcast: Dogs Must Die is an once in a lifetime find: a tiny man describes every episode of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to his very smart friend.

Spout Lore!

You don't even have to know the mechanics of Dungeon World to enjoy the crazy, funny episodes of this long running podcast!

Spout Lore website

Since it hasn't been mentioned, Dudesy.

It's Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen shittin around while an AI named Dudesy (trained by all their personal information, search histories, emails, social media accounts, etc.) produces the show.

Wolf and Owl - Two comedian friends show up completely unprepared and talk about anything, funny and wholesome.

These are my favorites.

Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe

• A fun-filled discussion of the big, mind-blowing, unanswered questions about the Universe. In each episode, Daniel Whiteson (a Physicist who works at CERN) and Jorge Cham (a popular online cartoonist) discuss some of the simple but profound questions that people have been wondering about for thousands of years, explaining the science in a fun, shorts-wearing and jargon-free way.

StarTalk Radio

• Science, pop culture, and comedy collide on StarTalk Radio! Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and Director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, and his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities, and scientific experts explore astronomy, physics, and everything else there is to know about life in the universe. New episodes premiere Tuesdays. Keep Looking Up!

Unexplainable

• Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know ... and then keeps right on going. This Vox podcast explores scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and all the things we learn by diving into the unknown. New episodes every Wednesday.

Fall of Civilizations Podcast

• A history podcast looking at the collapse of a different civilization each episode. What did they have in common? Why did they fall? And what did it feel like to watch it happen?

Literature and History

• With millions of downloads, hundreds of hours of soundtracked content, and an overall emphasis on the cultural history behind famous works of literature, Literature and History is one of the most popular independent podcasts on its subject. Starting with Sumerian cuneiform in 3,100 BCE, Literature and History moves forward in chronological order through Assyriology, Egyptology, the Old Testament, Ancient Greece and Rome, and the birth of Christianity. The show's current season is on Late Antiquity (or 200-700 CE) and the dawn of the Middle Ages. A typical episode (they average about two hours) features a general introduction to a work of literature, then a full summary of that work that expects no prior knowledge, and finally, an analysis of the cultural, biographical, and historical forces that gave rise to the work in question. Original symphonic and ambient background music is woven throughout each show, and all episodes offer free full, illustrated, footnoted transcriptions as well as quizzes for purposes of review. The show has no advertisements, and its host takes pride in a professional approach that avoids chitchat and ephemera and gets straight to the educational content. You can listen to the episodes in any order, although most listeners begin at the beginning and proceed from there, as the podcast itself is chronologically organized. Doug Metzger finished his Ph.D. in literature in 2011. His chief scholarly interest, following his dissertation work, continues to be 19th-century realism and postbellum American philosophy.

Astonishing Legends - Two guys discussing all the weird stories of history - but not just discussing, they have a team of volunteer researchers and they discuss the justified in depth to see what progress or conclusions can be made. Very unique approach.

Paleocast. They interview guests to discuss all kinds of life that existed throughout the Earth's history. There's a lot of coverage of dinosaurs in pop culture but there's a huge diversity out there to explore.

Both my recommendations are over now, but I love the niche of conversational history podcasts, or, as someone once put it, people talking about history like other podcasts talk about bad movies:

The Lesser Bonapartes

Dead Ideas

Podcasts I listen to every episode of is a small list nowadays: Five thirty eight and waveform. The first is for political and statistic wonkiness, the second is for consumer tech. They both have good banter between the presenters

Smith and Sniff.

Film sack

Dr Karl

Star wars minute

Mr Ballen

All around science

The morning stream

These I listen to regularly. I have subs to many limited series around true crime (the teachers pet, shandees story, liar liar, the night driver) and other subs to podcasts listed here eg behind the bastards and some podcasts centered around pink bands and punk music but I rarely have time to listen to these regularly.

Mike Duncan's History of Rome and Revolutions podcast series.

The Jordan Harbinger Show

Lots of interviews with a varied list of guests.

Overall my favorite is ABetterWay2A. It's a podcast about gun culture, with an aim (ha!) towards making it more inclusive for people that are not right wing, christian, etc. Most guests are left-leaning, the remainder are fairly far left. In the same vein, the Guns Guide to Liberals is a good podcast about gun owners trying to bridge the gap with traditional liberals ("liberals" in the US sense) that don't believe in an individual 2A right. It ended after two seasons, because the owners got too busy with their business to continue. The Tiger Bloc is an irregular podcast by Yellow Peril Tactical; yes, they know what Yellow Peril means, because they're all Asian. They're also definitely leftists. Practical Shooting After Dark is about getting better at shooting; it's largely a podcast about how to practice. It's mostly a-political from what I've heard so far. It's put on by Ben Stoeger who was a USPSA Grand Master

Mormon Stories. It's about deconstructing religion in general, and leaving the Mormon cult specifically. It's one of the longest-running podcasts; it's currently sitting at 1800 episodes, with most being in the 2.5-3 hour range.

FiveThirtyEight Politics. It's non-partisan politics; news, analysis, and polling.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Deep dives on subjects. Supposedly he's not always accurate, but I also haven't heard specific criticisms. The podcast is wildly irregular - 6-11 month gaps between episodes - since episodes are pretty heavily researched, and typically run 5+ hours each.

Behind the Bastards. Do you want to be depressed about how the world is, and always will be shitty, and yet entertained at the same time? This is your podcast. I will say that the episode on Dr. Mengele was considerably less awful than I expected it to be; apparently some of the worst stories about Mengele were fabrications.

The Friendly Atheist. News and commentary about church-state separation. You'll either love Jess--the co-host--or hate her, there is no in-between. Hemant Mehta generally has pretty good critiques, and is usually very reasonable and measured in his approach. The ads are getting really jarring though.