sophia_sol | podcast recs? :D

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podcast recs? :D

Well the other week I got a pair of wireless earbuds and all of a sudden I'm capable of being a podcast person, because I can listen to podcasts in one ear while bicycling places and still hear traffic and stuff for safety.

I started with Maintenance Phase, but I'm rapidly staring down the end of their archive, and I need other things to listen to once I'm done it. Which means now I need to find podcasts I enjoy, like a decade behind everyone else! And I'm hoping you, o beloved flist, might be able to help with recs.

What I'm looking for:

Nonfiction; if it's fiction I'll run into the same issues I get with listening to audiobooks, where it's too stressful because I don't know what's going to happen and I can't skim or skip ahead to check on things like I can with books, plus I'll want to finish the whole thing in one fell swoop

Not true crime or anything adjacent to it, and not about current events/politics; too stressful for me!

Telling me details about something the host(s) find(s) interesting - history, prehistory, dinosaurs, birds, arts and crafts, food, books and fandom, language, other cultures, etc

Some chatter between hosts is fine, but I'd prefer if it stays fairly focused on the topic at hand

If you know of anything good like this, please let me know so I can give it a try!

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I really love Michael-from-MP's other podcast, If Books Could Kill. He and his cohost are just wonderful together. The topics touch on current events, but at a pretty high sociological level.

ooh, good to know, thank you! I love Michael, so I'll definitely be checking this out.

Yesssss! I also love his original podcast You're Wrong About, which he did with Sarah Marshall. I almost cried when he left it, but I have to say that Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill are both so wonderful.

Oh, these are my favorite kind! I will make you a short list. Do you like ones where someone is brought in for an interview every episode, or do you prefer it to be mostly your favorite hosts?

ooh yay! I think I'd prefer mostly my favourite hosts, so I don't need to constantly be getting used to new people.

We overlapped comments! I agree with you on the interview thing (Especially when walking/biking, because it's easier to handle voices/accents I'm already used to) but if you *had* liked them I could have recommended some more great ones on those topics that I quit because I was tired of the interviews. :D

OK anyway here's a list because, Good podcasts!

Lingthusiasm: Two linguists get enthusiastic about linguistics and languages! Different language-related topic every week.

Common Descent: Two palaeontologist/science educators talk about topics in palaeontology and earth history and palaeontology in popular culture every week.

Paleocast: Extremely long-running podcast where a different working palaeontologist is interviewed about there work every week. I always enjoy their topics, but I will note that I don't like it for being out near traffic, because the interviewee often has an accent in English that I need less background noise for.

Paleao After Dark: Three working palaeontologists get together and discuss the palaeontology papers they've read this week (This one assumes a pretty strong background in the science, but you do pick it up as you listen.)

The Field Guides: Two naturalists go for a walk in the park and discuss nature things they're seeing around them.

Astronomy Cast: Two astronomy buffs discuss a different topic in astronomy every week.

Skeptics with a K: Three people who are very interested in questions of science and how to keep science honest discuss "science" claims in the news and how to assess accuracy and truth in science and science reporting. (This one occasionally touches on current events but it's out of the UK and it's mostly stuff like "This is what the UK government recently did regarding funding homeopathy on the NHS" and anti-anti-vaccine advocacy and that sort of thing.)

Saga Thing: Two scholars of Ancient Norse discuss (And rate) all the Sagas of the Icelanders!

Those are the ones I'm currently keeping up with but I can do more!

And a few more now that I'm actually on my phone:

Oh No Ross and Carrie! : Ross and Carrie try out all sorts of things and people making fringe claims about health, wellness, spirituality, psychic powers, etc. and then report back (So far in ten years they've found about half a dozen that actually worked.)

In Research Of: An archaeologist and a friend rewatch the 1970s Leonard Nimoy "In Search Of" TV and update us with the latest research on the topics it covered (Like Ghosts, Hurricanes, and the Loch Ness Monster)

Mathematical Objects: Two math professors discuss a neat math thing (like a mobius strip or a Rubik's cube or a twenty-sided die). Possibly on;y cool if you wee raised by feral mathematicians, but I enjoy it.

This Podcast Will Kill You: Two public health experts tell you all about something that could kill you every episode. (Lightning strikes? Polio? Guinea worm? Take your pick.) They cover both the biology/science and the public health/culture/history aspects.

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men: Two comics nerds explain the entire history of X-Men comics, in order from the beginning. You don't have to know or care about the X-Men to enjoy this (but you will end up knowing and caring if you do.)

Edited 2023-06-16 17:05 (UTC)

yayyyyy thank you so much for all these wonderful recs, I think you're my friend who listens to podcasts the most, and I know we have interests in common, so I was hoping you would stop by!

Lingthusiasm is fun! I've fallen irretrievably behind, but I always like dipping back in.

I've actually been following Lingthusiasm via reading their transcripts on tumblr since it first began, but I'm excited to try actually listening to it! They always have such fun and interesting things to say.

You know, when I was making this list I somehow had the impression that you already followed lingthusiasm but I was like, well, guess not. That explains it!

I hope you find something you like, as you can tell this is my very specific favorite kind of podcast and I sort of collect them. They do vary a lot in their audio production values and how well they stay on topic, so you should definitely dip in and out and try different ones.

just wanted to come back and tell you HOW MUCH I have been enjoying the Common Descent podcast! I am barely into their extensive archive and already I'm mourning the future when I run out of backlog to listen to. Paleontology!!!!!!

I am also a very picky podcast listener, with similar requirements to yours, and most podcasts don't work for me, but here are three that I really like!

1.) Revolutions. Ten series covering ten historical revolutions, from the English Civil War to the Russian Revolution.

I started with series 3 on the French Revolution and haven't gone back to listen to the earlier ones, and that's a good place to start; the website doesn't let you jump around easily, but there's an index.

Mike Duncan is the sole host, and he's easy to listen to. He has an earlier podcast on the history of Rome, which I haven't listened to but keep meaning to, but that's what his historical training was in. He got interested in the Mexican Revolution and wanted to do a short podcast about that, but he realized that to set up the necessary background he'd have to explain the revolutions of Gran Colombia, and at least three French revolutions, and the American Revolution. So these were researched as he went, but researched very well.

The series get longer and more in-depth as he goes--the Russian Revolution covers more than 100 episodes--and they build on each other; I don't recommend starting later than the French Revolution. He takes a mostly chronological approach which I like; it's very good for giving a sense of what people would have known when and what the lived experience of these times would have been.

2.) If you want to go more in-depth on France, The Siècle is an extremely fine-grained look at French history 1814-1914. Host David Montgomery is a Minnesota Public Radio journalist and has a very public radio voice, quite easy to follow; he also includes full, ANNOTATED transcripts for every episode, with bibliographies, making it an incredible source for researching Les Mis fanfic. (Montgomery was a GoH at Barricades last year.)

He's done about 50 episodes so far, including bonus eps, and only gotten as far as 1829; his approach is generally chronological, but the episodes usually focus on a particular person, event, or movement rather than a stretch of time.

Montgomery is the sole host, but he sometimes does interviews with scholars, usually people who have a book out about the topic--he did one recently with the author of a study of the songwriter Béranger, with samples of his music; there's a good early one he did about the Allied occupation of France post-Waterloo.

3.) Feather Summarizes the Silmarilion. This one isn't history, exactly, but it's sort of history methadone :D. Very in-depth look at the history of Arda. The lens is wholly Watsonian, but takes into account what we know in-universe about the rescension history of the texts that make up the Silm. Feather, the sole host, is very engaged and excited and easy to follow.

There are scripts to most episodes, though they're not exact transcripts. Feather is doing a follow-up now called Feather Unpacks the Hobbit, though on a longer posting schedule, so there's more when you run out of this one.

Edited 2023-06-16 15:03 (UTC)

ooh all three of these sound super interesting, thank you!

I have sooooooo many podcasts. So some of these may be obvious:

99% Invisible - A grandaddy podcast. It is generally about design (good design is 99% invisible), but has been on so long they wander around to different topics. Recent episodes have been on the zoning restrictions that sent LA into a traffic/parking spiral and the call of scrap metal collectors in Mexico City that has become something of a national emblem.

Apocalist Book Club - Currently on hiatus. Book club of apocalypse fiction starting from the origins of the genre in the 19th century and reading EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. in chronological order. If you want to hear lovely discussions of most stultifying fiction, with the occasional gem, this is the listen.

Articles of Interest - Spin off of 99% Invisible, a podcast about clothing/fashion. Recent episodes have been on prison uniforms and ballet pointe shoes.

Backstory - Now defunct podcast on American history. They had historians who specialised in different centuries, and would take one topic (like sugar, or disability) and follow it through different periods of American history. The archives are still around, and I found it eye opening.

If Books Could Kill - From one of the hosts of Maintenance Phase, incredibly snarky podcast on the terrible ideas in airport books (ex., Malcolm Gladwell, The Secret).

Kill James Bond! - Started out as three trans podcasters rewatching and dunking on each Bond movie, but they've now finished that series and are watching other films.

Lexicon Valley - Linguistics podcast by John McWhorter.

Musicalsplaining - Podcast on musicals with one host who loves them and one host who hates them. May exceed your chatter threshold.

Planet Money - NPR spin off economics podcasts. Really great at breaking down economics news and topics for lay people.

The Allusionist - Another linguistics podcast by Helen Zaltzman. She often focuses on gay and trans topics (like doing a series on why people change names (not just trans people) and how they choose new names, or an episode on the struggle over non-binary terms in Icelandic, an extremely gendered language). She also does "The Tranquilusionist," where she reads things like old recipe books in an extremely soothing voice. Can attest that this does help with insomnia.

The Anthropocene Reviewed - Currently on hiatus/potentially defunct. How you feel about this will depend entirely on how you feel about author/youtuber John Green. Extremely sincere essays combining historical research and personal introspection on which he rates parts of the human world on a five-star scale, with topics from Dr. Pepper to googling yourself to the smallpox vaccine. This is also a book and an audiobook, containing many of the same essays.

This American Life - I mean. How can I not put this on here. Though I have to myself be REAL careful to screen out the politics/current events episodes. I appreciate the importance of the reporting, I do, but sometimes I do not have the bandwidth.

Well There's Your Problem - An engineering podcast. With slides. This is a podcast about engineering disasters that will either be exactly your jam or you'll hate (for any given value of "you"). Extremely snarky lefty podcasters with very black senses of humor who will start an episode on the Byford Dolphin disaster (DON'T GOOGLE IT) with two hours of history on industrial diving. Episodes run over three hours usually, are only lightly edited so pauses for bathroom breaks, burps, and mic issues are included, and often have censored out "actionable threats" against corrupt politicians. They often discuss the inadequate settlements for survivors and victims families in units of Playstations. So--either you roll with this humor, or this podcast is NOT FOR YOU.

You Must Remember This - The best goddamn film history podcast out there. Karina Longworth has done a lot of series, all of which I recommend (for example, a season on Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, a season on gossip columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper). She's currently in an ongoing series on the evolution of erotic movies, and is up to 1993, so this is the--hello, welcome to my id series.

You're Wrong About - Now solo hosted by Sarah Marshall, but founded by her and Maintenance Phase's Michael Hobbes. The quintessential millennial reclaiming the tabloid stories of the past with empathy podcast. Some of the subjects are true crime (like Tonya Harding), but it is not following the conventions of true crime podcasts. But definitely screen the episode subjects.

Those are all ones I either listen to every episode or most of the episodes right now. There are so many more I have gone in and out of listening to over the years. I've been a podcast listener since before podcasts--I used to listen to This American Life and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me in their flash players on the NPR site. The technology only caught up to what I already wanted to be doing.

ooh thank you so much for this extensive list, there are so many on here that look worth trying out!

I just discovered The Allusionist and I can't believe it took me so long to find it. I think it popped up on my feed because Aubrey Gordon just guested, for which I am thankful!

You Must Remember This is so good that I judge every other history podcast by its quality.

Also Sarah Marshall is my bff.

Maintenance Phase is freakin' awesome! If you aren't a Patreon supporter, I strongly recommend it because the bonus episodes are just as golden.

• The Dream: S1 is about multi-level-marketing, S2 is about wellness scams.

• American Hysteria might skirt your comfort zone but I still recommend you take a look. A lot of interesting and sometimes batshit crazy things people lose their cool about. The host has some annoying mannerisms and she talks way too slowly, but that's easily fixed with speeding up.

• Radiotopia Presents has some series that might interest you. I liked Ways of hearing and The Polybius conspiracy but the latter might not fit your specs

• The Feast tells about historical meals and feasts and sometimes recreates them. I enjoyed this a Bunch!

• Tides of History explores history and concentrates on the bigger picture.

• Twenty Thousand Hertz is about the stories behind famous sounds.

• This Is Love is a collection of things that people either love or have a passion about. Anything and everything from swimming to cats to opera.

Edited (typoes...) 2023-06-16 15:32 (UTC)

thank you so much, I'm definitely adding some of these to my to-try list!

Lex Friedman - long interviews with interesting guests.

The Economist - one of the better podcasts from a traditional magazine.

Popular Front - a niche podcast about underreported conflicts.

Privacy, security and OSINT - you are not paranoid if they’re after you.

This Week in Tech - predates Twitter.

I don't think any of these will end up being my kind of thing, but thank you for the suggestions!

ologies - hosted by Alie Ward - experts talking about their specialties - searchable and also with a topics page

In Defense of Plants - more science! All plants (and closely related business) all the time.

ooh excellent, thank you so much! Both sound great.

Here's a short list!

Poetry Unbound -- a poetry podcast doesn't quite feel like a nonfiction podcast, but it's definitely not fiction either! It comes out weekly, and the single host (the delightfully Irish-accented and calm Pádraig Ó Tuama) selects a single poem to read aloud, analyze, and then read aloud again. He has wonderful perspectives and is a very enjoyable reader to listen to. The episodes are usually in the 10-15 minute zone.

Sticky Notes -- a Western classical music podcast hosted by a real symphony orchestra conductor that does a mix of interviews, personal insights by the conductor, and (mainly) single-piece explorations. It's meant to be accessible for newbies and for musical experts alike, and I have learned a lot from it. I always appreciate that they interpolate actual clips of the music so you can hear what the host is talking about.

Overinvested -- a podcast hosted by two fandomites and film critics, Morgan and Gavia about a huge range of different kinds of films, from obscure Eastern European documentaries to Marvel blockbusters to Golden Age screwball comedies. The hosts are very cheerful and opinionated and have a fun mix of real expertise on technical and philosophical film stuff with fannish delight… or loathing. This one is less produced than the first two, but quite competently run and edited. (The first episodes, from many years ago, have distinctly poorer sound quality than they do now, but such is life.)

ooh I love the sound of all of these, thank you!

I've only listened to two podcasts in my life: The Pineapple Project which is about budgets and managing money if you don't have a lot of it; and Stuff The British Stole, which is fascinating, and ended up being made into a TV series. Both are from downunder. :)

I just started listening to Stuff the British Stole and it truly is fascinating, thank you for linking me!

Lots of great recs here!

We've been listening to a lot of The Ezra Klein Show (lefty liberal interviews; we mostly avoid the US politics ones).

My friend recced me Stuff the British Stole, about the history of various stolen artifacts, and it's very good.

And if you're interested in language learning at all, I really enjoy You Can Learn Chinese, which is about language acquisition generally, using Chinese as their example. I find it pretty useful and inspiring for my Korean study.

ooh thank you! I just started listening to Stuff the British Stole and it is excellent. And I'm adding You Can Learn Chinese to my list of podcasts I want to check out!

Let me second The Ezra Klein Show--a lot of it is about US politics, but you could easily skip those and instead listen to the ones about psychology, writing, art, etc. Ezra is such a thoughtful and interesting interview, I absolutely adore him. (I have a bit of a crush, and you know me, I don't develop crushes easily!) Even when I think, "Eh, that topic doesn't sound like something I'd be interested in," I always find that I somehow am very much interested in it.

Some 2023 episodes that might be to your liking: "What Communes and Other Radical Experiments in Living Together Reveal," "If You're Reading This, You're Probably WEIRD," "Inside the Minds of Spiders, Octopuses, and Artificial Intelligence," "This Book Changed My Relationship to Pain," "The Tao of Rick Rubin," "Sabbath and the Art of Rest," etc. He's also interviewed people like Ted Chiang and N.K. Jemisin. There's a very large backlog, and I can imagine you skipping through it and finding stuff that's not political.

ok, you've convinced me!!

Haha, I'm glad! There was just one on the homelessness problem in the US that was super interesting. It may be too closely related to politics for you, but if it's not, I learned a lot!

It's so fun to read everyone's recs! I love Maintenance Phase.

I'm here to recommend two fandomish podcasts:

Slash Report: It is a bit dated now, audio quality can be iffy. I suggest trying episodes for fandoms you enjoy. They talk about fic, trends in fandoms, and transformative works in general. This podcast made me so nostalgic for different eras of fic.

Ride or Die. Two fic writers/fandom participants do a close read of Supernatural, episode by episode. One of the co-hosts is from Slash Report. Audio quality is pretty good. They make recommendations at the end of each podcast, which is fun. I think Slash Report used to always rec fic at the end of each one, as well.

Finally, a non-fannish podcast: Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Easy to listen to- they review current media like books, tv, music. They skew progressive and try to be representative/inclusive with mixed results. Similar to my earlier recs, they also make recommendations of "what's making us happy" at the end of the podcast, recommending all manner of things.

Happy listening!

thanks so much, I'm adding these to my list to check out!

So many of my favorites have already been mentioned: the Michael Hobbes/Sarah Marshall universe (You're Wrong About, Maintenance Phase, You Are Good, If Books Could Kill), the Ezra Klein Show, You Must Remember This,

If you like Michael Lewis's writing, Against the Rules is great.

Decoder Ring is a fun and thoughtful look at pop cultural-y things.

Hi-Phi Nation is a philosophy podcast that's really accessible.

The History Extra podcast interviews a new historian every week on whatever their topic of interest is--it's usually based around someone who has a book coming out, and it's the number one way I find history books to read.

Mobituaries!!! One of the most underrated podcasts on the internet. It's just so fun to hang out with Mo Rocca and hear him talk about interesting people with empathy and humor.

And you might enjoy the back catalogue of the now-defunct Reply All, which is a show about the internet. Oh, and Radiolab, of course.

thank you so much, I will take a look at these!

No pressure, of course! Just ones I love!

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podcast recs? :D

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