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?
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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.
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”
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.
One of my favorite podcasts
There are a lot of posts about this podcast. I’m listening to it now!
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.
- 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.
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.
Blowback - Deep dives into American imperialism. Each season covers a single topic and goes into the background history, through to the conflict, to the aftermath in about 10 hour long episodes each. The first season was on the Iraq War, the second on Cuba, the third on the Korean War and the fourth into Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan. Extremely well produced with some great soundtracks.
Blowback is fantastic.
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
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!
The Constant, by Mark Chrysler.
Headlined as “a history of getting things wrong”, the host goes into deep dives about what we thought we knew, how we eventually came to figure out we were wrong, the repercussions of both.
It takes a seriously funny and well researched approach to a number of major events in our history, and I absolutely must recommend “the foolkiller” a five episode exploration of a submarine found at the bottom of the Chicago River then lost to history, with a very juicy footnote delivered several episodes later, that I dare not spoil for you.
I agree, it’s brilliant. Early episodes (some of which he re-recorded for better quality) really fit the bill, like the ridiculous ideas about where babies come from and where birds went in the winter.
That said, OP should exercise some caution as there are a few episodes that deal with darker topics.
But, yeah. Fucking Aristotle.
I also would recommend occasional collaborator Our Fake History, which looks at events and characters that have lots of myths about them. Again, there are some darker topics, but many fun ones. Was there a real Troy? Did Shakespeare write his plays? Is there a real inspiration for Atlantis? Could the Chinese treasure ships beat Columbus to the Americas? And just how big of an asshole was Columbus (although that one may be one of those dark topics)?
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…
It’s definitely free to listen, if that’s what you mean. I listen to it on Apple Podcasts without paying a penny.
Alright. On the website it said it was a paid one
You can pay for early access and I think some bonus content but otherwise it’s free.
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.
Hardcore history is a very thorough look into different events. Dan Carlin is great
Very well made and researched. Very engaging. My favourite is the Blueprint for Armageddon as it covers more recent history which I personally find more relatable, and therefore more powerful, than the other topics. I would love a WW2 series. His arguement is that it is already very well documented from other sources, but I think Dan could really do it justice. zooming in on a specific part of the conflict would be great.
He did do one on world war II regarding the history and rise of the Japanese empire. Like all of his podcast, is very well done.
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remember when radiolab was THE PREMIERE PODCAST?
