im looking for new podcasts to listen to, here's some that ive found interesting and not awful.
sawbones: dr sydnee mcelroy and her husband justin mcelroy talk about the history of medicine and all the wild shit we tried before we learned what a germ is, also some current quackery
the dirt: anthropologists Anna Goldfield and Amber Zambelli talk about anthropology in a fun and accessible way
a lot of the mcelroy podcasts like adventurezone obvs
i like David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles for talky bits, and the Random Movement podcast and the Hospital Records podcast for tunes. actually i used to do a tunes podcast myself but vocal dysphoria is a thing and also it turns out it's a lot of work to get 2 hours of fresh beats a week when you have a day job
If you like The Adventure Zone, you owe it to yourself to check out Dames & Dragons. It takes a while for it to get really going, but once it does it's even better than TAZ imo.
these are some things friends of mine have been doing:
They Did What Now? - "They Did What Now is a show that celebrates history's ballsiest moves, most spectacular loophole abuses, hold-my-beer-moments and extreme examples of extra"
Not Trans Trans Movies - "a show about movies that aren't trans (but also, definitely are)."
Things by people I don't know:
The Magnus Archives - A horror podcast that starts as mostly an anthology show about a guy who just took over as head archivist of an institute that gathers stories about spooky shit as he reads stories and complains about how shit the previous archivists were at organising things and being annoyed at how none of the stories seem to record properly when he tries to digitise them. It develops much more of an overarching plot as it goes in. Probably best not to look up much about it right now as a big finale just happened and there will be spoilers everywhere.
I Don't Speak German - Podcast about the online activities of the alt right.
Motherfoclóir - A podcast about the Irish language (in English).
history of rome is a classic and very good! it's a narrative history of Rome from the kingdom of rome to the fall of ravenna & the collapse of the western empire. The narrator is fantastic and entertaining and soothing, and it's real neato.
our fake history is my vote for currently updating podcasts. another history one! it's about historical myths and urban legends, so it'll look at, say, Robin Hood or Lady Pirates, and see where the stories started, how they crept into the modern consciousness, and if there's any historical evidence to suggest there's any truth to the tales. V entertaining storyteller. The more recent seasons are generally more "exploration of a broad topic" rather than "analysis of a single myth" but I don't mind.
Honorary mentions:
Offtopic suggestions:
The Dream is a twelve part (I think) podcast series about multi level marketing schemes I really enjoyed
Important if True was a podcast about basically anything the creators wanted to talk about and it was good and taken from us too soon
Reply All is pretty good, a little overrated, but does tell interesting stories about the internet.
Here's a weird one: Gimlet Media, the publishers of Reply All, did a podcast called The Motherhood Sessions which was basically a psychologist doing therapy with a bunch of mothers. It felt a little voyeuristic but there was something impactful about hearing psychological concepts explored with other people where you can easily make the same rational judgements as the host does, and also something very real in the stories these women would tell about their lives and how hard it is to raise their kids.
Revolutions by Mike Duncan has the good stuff
hmmm what else. i go back and listen to Mic Dicta and just ponder how they kept it going until somebody destroyed their joint Twitter randomly. best most disorganized podcast
*Behind the Bastards is good as well, a little heavy on inane humor but whatever helps I guess
hollyhoppet wrote (edited )
Friends at the table!!! I'd say the cream of the crop for actual play podcasts. Great world building, representation, stories, and humor. They also play a lot of really good games you don't usually see in the mainstream. All the people that play in it are wonderful. I'd recommend starting with Marielda as it's a bite size campaign if you look into it. From there either jump back to Autumn (some say start at ep 5 if the quality is too tough for you to handle before) or move on to Winter, or maybe even Twilight Mirage.
The empty bowl (which I've already repped here) is great and relaxing
Edict Zero: FIS is a sci fi detective audio drama that takes really interesting turns and has a great world. CW for an fairly ablist character though.
Waypoint radio is a video games podcast by folks at Waypoint (Vice games) that talks about games with a progressive bent, and also about respresentation, the state of labor in the industry, and other such things. Their sign-off slogan is "fuck capitalism, go home" to give you an idea of where they stand.
Mission to Zyxx is a humorous improvised audio drama about some nobodies trying to make their way through a space opera.
Hello from the Magic Tavern is a similar idea to Mission to Zyxx, but about a guy who steps into a portal into a magical fantasy world. It's kind of cis-hetty sometimes but generally good.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast (that's the name lol) is an extremely well contextualized reading of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The host manages to keep it both fun and interesting, and provides cultural context most westerners probably wouldn't understand when needed.
Lastly, Haha Yeah is a comedy podcast by two very funny self-identified twinks on Mastodon. You don't need to be a member of the Mastodon community to enjoy their japes. Here's a clip someone did an animation for.