I used to listen to long form essays on Youtube. My favourite ones either break down the history of a conspiracy, teach me something new and cool about the world, or explore a hobby I’ve never been interested in.
I don’t like the ones about killers or heavy drama. I also don’t like podcasts that spend half the time reading the latest news from [topic] in verbatim .
What are some podcasts you can recommend me while I chip away at other things?
Darknet Diaries is always fascinating: it’s all about cybercrime. Sometimes the episodes are breakdowns of particular hacker groups or specific notable hacks; other times, they’re interviews with people in the industry: both cybersecurity professionals and criminals.
There are a lot of posts about this podcast. I’m listening to it now!
One of my favorite podcasts
I don’t know if it has already been said, but “Darknet diaries” is a podcast i love to listen to, it’s basically a history and breakdown of different hacks that happend all around the world, there are also some interviews with pentesters who tell some amazing story’s, so if you’re into computers thats something I’d recommend listening to
Seconded. I like the episodes about pen testers. It’s so interesting how so many business are super easy to hack into or physically break into and gain access to their networks and other sensitive info.
Great podcast. But maybe “disturbing”
There’s “Well there’s your problem”. In each episode, the hosts break down an engineering disaster. The episodes are one to several hours long each, and they are thorough, entertaining, and you learn a ton.
There’s also a video version that contains slides with pictures and graphs.
I would suggest as a starter episode 139, The impossible railroad, which I thought was a fun one. Or 146 on the Mount Everest, that was eye-opening. Those are the recent ones that stand out to me.
My favorite is the Gulf State Vanity Projects episode! Either that or the Costa Concordia one
It’s a fantastic podcast and I point people to the one on the V-22 Osprey frequently just because we live near an airport and Ospreys practice touch and gos before getting lunch nearby.
- If you’re tech and history inclined, “Command Line Heroes” tells stories about people who transformed technology “from the command line up”.
- For stories about really nasty people (interspersed with some good people for the Christmas Episodes), “Behind the Bastards” is a good source. A story is usually split in two episodes, but for long ones it can be five or six.
- For news about science but with intelligent discussion behind it, and several nice fun an intelligent sections, you can’t beat The Skeptic Guide to the Universe. If anything, their only defect is that sometimes they’re a little naive and technophilic.
99 percent invisible is a good one. It’s about the stories behind things we take for granted in the world. It can be anything between ambulances, country borders and the lyrics of who let the dogs out.
Roman Mars has literally the perfect voice for a podcast
Whomst among us has let the dogs out is one of my favorite episodes of theirs. Great stuff.
I like to listed to Darknet Diaries if I am not listenting to WANshow.
Stuff You Should Know
Seconded. A very chill and entertaining informational podcast that benefits greatly from its conversational style.
And episodes can be about nearly anything. Forgiveness, the Cannonball Run, the Loch Ness monster, the sun, beavers, the Equal Rights Act. They’re all great. I’ve been listening since 2012.
Stuff they don’t want you to know was good years ago. I haven’t listened in a while though.
It’s still good as well as Stuff to Blow Your Mind.
Sawbones “A marital tour of Misguided Medicine” from Justin & Sydney McElroy is a great podcast. each episode dives into the history behind some medical quackery. Funny & Informative, I always learn something and have a good time.
If you like Sawbones you might also like “This podcast will kill you”, an epidemiologist and a doctor make cocktails and go into the history and pathophysiology of diseases and conditions throughout human history.
Not as classically funny as the McElroys, but really informative and they do a good job at keeping the “disturbing content” to a minimum even when going into detail on pretty devastating illnesses.
For a much more lightweight podcast “You’re Dead to Me” from the writers of Horrible Histories is fun. A historian quizzes comedians on their knowledge of historical events and figures.
I also like “oh no Ross and carrie” – same network
Heavyweight with Jonathan Goldstein. Jonathan solves human problems, often reconnecting people who lost contact. Jonathan solves serious issues in witty ways. Funny, but serious.
This is a Gimlet Media podcast, bought by Spotify and published for a while exclusively there. As of the latest news, Heavyweight is looking for a new home for next season.
It’s SO good.
Blowback. Very, very good podcast on western imperialism.
A lot of people have been recommending Blowback. I’m listening to it now!
It’s not free though…
Used to love “reply all,” but it sadly concluded last year.
Since then “undermisunderstood” and “search engine” somewhat scratch that same itch.
Both podcasts talk about things not easily explained by an Internet search.
Concluded is a nice way to put it…
Didn’t they have to quit after doing an episode about workplace bullying at bôn appetit (or some other channel) and then getting called out for having behaved in exactly the same way for years? Proper douchebag hypocritical behaviour from memory.
They had some good episodes for sure, but fuck those guys.
I didn’t hear about that, but I’m not exactly on the pulse.
I listened to a couple of episodes about 6 years ago. They weren’t that great.
Underunderstood, right?
Oops. Yeah!
“Tides of History” a mix of scripted episodes and interviews with archeologists and historians.
Since no one else has said it… 80 days podcast:
80 Days is a podcast dedicated to exploring little-known countries, territories settlements and cities around the world. We’re part history podcast, part geography podcast and part ramble. Each episode, we’ll land in a new locale and spend some time discussing the history, geography, culture, sport, religion, industry, pastimes and music of our new location.
Tides of History is a very well-produced history podcast that deals with ancient history. It tells history in an engaging way and is founded in recent scholarship.
Podcasting is Praxis, a funny politics podcast made by British communists.
Blowback, all the praise heaped upon it is absolutely justified. Listen to it.
We Are Not So Different, an entertaining podcast about medieval history. It has a leftist outlook on things and treats medieval people like people and avoids romanticising as well as looking down on them.
A People’s History of Ideas. An amazingly detailed history of the Chinese revolution with offshoots into international Maoism. If you want to listen to an episode about how CPC safehouses worked in Shanghai in the early 1930’s, this is a podcast for you.
remember when radiolab was THE PREMIERE PODCAST?