podcast recs? :D

[sophia_sol]

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:

1. 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


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


3. 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


4. 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!

Comments

[ivyfic]

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.

[sophia_sol]

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

[lirazel]

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.