Podcasts

[Gargamel]

I have about an hour drive to and from work every day, and radio/music gets boring, especially since I play music for the ten hours I'm at work each day, so I prefer to listen to podcasts. 

I prefer science and tech stuff, but also comedy and general making podcasts, but I'm not limited to those genres.   I figured I'd share my favorites and see if anybody would do the same, as my 20 hours a week in the car quickly runs through what I already listen to.   (If you happen to list something that is NSFW or would possibly violate our Community Guidelines, please do no link to it directly, this includes podcasts with nothing more than vulgar language).

RadioLab - Basically a couple reporters go out and investigate interesting stories.   Always a good listen, I don't think I've been disappointed in an episode yet, even the ones I thought I would have no interest in (like the guy who collects elevator buttons), they managed to make it interesting.

Reply All - Similar setup to RadioLab, but Internet focused.  Kinda goofy and quirky too.   But they find interesting stories, or even urban legends on the Internet, and get to the bottom of them. 

StarTalk - Neil Tyson and friends talk everything astrophysics.   Used to be one of my favorites, but NDGT has gotten a bit full of himself of late, and I really don't enjoy listening to him much anymore.   But the Questions (Cosmic Queries) episodes, Guest hosted episodes, and the rare topic are still a good listen. 

Infinite Monkey Cage - Hosted by Dr Brian Cox and Robin Ince, Similar to star talk, but they cover many more topics, and they actually let their guests speak!  And while it's topical, the testing phase for the land speed record car is currently under way, they have an episode where the driver talks about what it's like to drive that fast. 

The Technical Difficulties - The audio podcast that spawned Tom Scott and friends YouTube videos.  I don't think they're producing more podcasts, but they're fun to listen to. 

SciSchow Tangents - From the same crew that makes SciShow (et al) on YouTube, a few of the cast and crew discussing various topics in a pseudo game show format.  Some serious science discussed in a non serious format.

50 Things that Made the Modern Economy - A bunch of mini (~10 minute) podcasts that explore the various inventions that drove the modern world, from fire to the steam engine to wifi.  Sounds boring, but it's actually quite interesting.   But even though I recently discovered this one, I have exhausted all their episodes. 

Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project - Adam Savage of Mythbusters and his crew from Tested talk about various making projects and a variety of topics. 

On occasion, I'll toss on PTI - The ESPN sports talk show. 

And a couple Wood Working podcasts, probably boring as heck to non-woodworkers, but I enjoy them.   Woodtalk and Shoptalk, although Woodtalk is on semi-permanent hiatus. 

And of course, the podcast I've been listening to the longest, Hollywood Babble-on, where Kevin Smith (Clerks) and Ralph Garman discuss modern nerd culture and show business in a comedy show. 

 

What do you guys listen to?

 

 

 

[tater]

Hardcore History. Dan Carlin. best podcast, period. Fantastically good.

[Gargamel]

1 minute ago, tater said:

Hardcore History. Dan Carlin. best podcast, period. Fantastically good.

I've tried that one, it's pretty good, but he seems to drone on, at least for the couple episodes I've listened to, but I've heard enough good reviews of it, I may give it another spin.

[tater]

9 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

I've tried that one, it's pretty good, but he seems to drone on, at least for the couple episodes I've listened to, but I've heard enough good reviews of it, I may give it another spin.

He'll do a 5 part series on something where each episode is 5 hours, lol.

 

[Bill Phil]

Wolf 359 is a good fiction podcast.

Beyond that I haven't actually delved into podcasts much.

[tater]

Good new one is Cautionary Tales

[Gargamel]

On 11/17/2019 at 11:41 PM, tater said:

He'll do a 5 part series on something where each episode is 5 hours, lol.

 

Yeah....   I'm 2 hours into the start of WWI, and nobody has fired a shot yet..... well... one guy did....     But my god... a 20 hour episode?     He's the next Ken Burns. 

[tater]

Blueprint for Armageddon is a great series of his. Lots of grunt’s eye view as well.

[tater]

omega tau - cool science and engineering podcast.

[TheKosanianMethod]

I'm not exactly a podcast guy, but I do really enjoy the Triforce podcast. It's three of the members of the Yogscast talking about random stuff for an hour. I will caution that heavy language is normal, and adult themes are often brought up, so it is most certainly NOT for young listeners. It's easy to listen to, so I like it for driving to class every day, which can take either twenty minutes or an hour.

[Wjolcz]

I really enjoy Isaac Arthur, but I'm not sure if it can be defined as a podcast.

[Gargamel]

On 11/22/2019 at 10:22 PM, tater said:

Blueprint for Armageddon is a great series of his. Lots of grunt’s eye view as well.

Only a couple hours left to go on this one.    Are we sure I don't get a CEU credit for this?

[YNM]

On 11/18/2019 at 10:41 AM, Gargamel said:

The Technical Difficulties - The audio podcast that spawned Tom Scott and friends YouTube videos.  I don't think they're producing more podcasts, but they're fun to listen to. 

The series on YouTube is about as podcast-y as the old audio series. Here's a playlist.

There's also BBC's The Boring Talks, though I was only interested since Chris Marshall, owner of roads.org.uk, got an episode there about Ringways.

Other than that, I've been listening to podcasts in japanese since I'm interested in the language - some of the examples (also one radio, Fukuyama FM). Either that or Omrop Fryslân.

Edited December 24, 2019 by YNM

[Ogberi]

Daniel and Jorge explain the universe is one of my favorites. Lots of science topics, easy to digest, and it's interesting.

As is the Drunks and dragons podcast. DND fifth edition play. Hilarious, but not safe for work or little kids. I enjoy playing DND, for the story, the combat, doing off the wall stuff that drives the DM nuts, and the fun of hanging out with a bunch of like minded geeks. 

I browse a few others as the mood strikes me, but in all honesty the severe monetization (commercials every few minutes) is pushing me away from podcasts on Spotify. 

[KSK]

Spacepod is pretty good. Astronomy, astrophysics and uncrewed space exploration in general. Not super technical but interesting.

Currently listening to Moonrise aka ‘the real reason we went to the Moon’. Which sounds a bit conspiracy theory but is actually a look at the social history and politics behind the Apollo missions.  Not that far into it but it’s already thrown up a few surprises.

[RizzoTheRat]

Another Infinite Monkey Cage fan here, great podcast.

Other favourites:

The Life Scientific - Jim Al-Khalili chats to scientists about their careers.

No such thing as a fish - 4 of the QI elves each bring along a fact to discuss.

13 minutes to the moon - Detailed description of the 13 minutes of audio up to Apollo 11's landing, surely a must for all KSP players.

More or Less - Looking at the statistics behind stories in the news

Also a few non sciencey ones Iv'e enjoyed recently:

Intrigue - Listened to "Tunnel 29" a while back, about a bunch of students who built a tunnel under the Berlin wall.  Just started listening to "The Ratline" about a high ranking SS officers attempts to evade justice after the war.

Friday Night Comedy from the BBC - Currently on Dead Ringers which I don't like, but I enjoy The News Quiz and The Now Show, however they're very much focused on British news and events so might not be good to non Brits.

 

I've also recently subscribed to Freakanomics Radio, Myths and Legends, NASA Science Casts, TED Radio Hour and TED Science & Medicine, but not listened to any of those yet to know if they're any good.

 

[Gargamel]

Ohhhhh... I like those Rizzo

 

[RizzoTheRat]

I just never get enough time to listen to them all   I used to fly most Friday/Sunday evenings so would get through a few on the plane and trains, but not travelling so much at the moment.  Went though the whole of Tunnel 29 on one drive before Christmas, and we've got another 4 or 5 hours in the car on Sunday to finish The Ratline and give some of the others a go.  

Luckily my wife has similar tastes 

 

 

Oh and I've subscribed to Omega Tau and the Adam Savage one based on the above recommendations.  I really need to listen to more!

 

 

Edited to add:

Finished The Ratline driving back home on Sunday, interesting stuff and very well done, but would have been interesting to have a bit more on the actual ratline, although it does make perfect sense that it was focussed around the one individual.

Edited January 6, 2020 by RizzoTheRat

[Gargamel]

Over the last few weeks I discovered the BBC podcast "13 Minutes to the Moon".    The first season mainly focuses on the descent of the Eagle lander during Apollo 11.   So much so, the last episode of the season is the raw "footage" of the radio communication.  But of course, it covers a variety of tangential topics since a lot of things need covered to explain the details.   They do a lot of great interviews with astronauts and controls alike, getting a lot of comments I haven't heard before.   The do tend to rehash some topics a little bit, but the majority of the show is stuff I may have known but this is from a different perspective.    Really good stuff.     The second season is on Apollo 13, and is equally good, currently in production right now.  

[Regor]

Some older episodes occasionally have a little swearing (according to Spotify, haven’t listened to them yet) but Boom Time with Flula Borg is pretty funny. I appreciate how its not actively trying to be funny but ends up doing so anyway.