So this is a not-quite-complete rundown of what’s in my podcast app on the playlists I use regularly. I don’t listen to all of it all the time – I do what I’m in the mood for, and that changes often. I can’t recommend all of these, but I’ve left off the ones where I hit skip more often than not… and really I need to just delete those. However, rather than taking the time I don’t have to cover full reviews, this is it, in all it’s weird glory.
| Podcast Playlist | Topic | Notes |
| History Unplugged | ||
| Savage Mythology Podcast | Comedy and Myths | |
| True Crime Historian | Old timey crimes | Narrator has a dry but dramatic delivery |
| Esoteric Oddities | Weird stuff | |
| Stuff to Blow Your Mind | A show about all the things that might not be quite true | |
| Espionage | History of spying | |
| Ben Franklin’s World |
Can be a bit progressive and biased. Sadly, still worth picking through the episodes.
|
|
| Hardcore History | The king of history podcasts | Long, but so worth it. |
| Hardcore History Addendum | Odd cuts from the long form | Shorter, odder, I love this one. |
| Spycast | History of spying and interviews | |
| Stuff You Should Know | Random facts and incidents | |
| 99% Invisible | The design you never think about |
Fascinating connections and underpinning of the world around us
|
| Stuff You Missed in History Class | Unknown, or at least obscure, history | |
| Science, Heck Yeah! | ||
| TWIV | This Week in Virology |
a deep dive into viruses, pathogens, and as you might imagine, a treasure trove for all things Covid.
|
| TWiM | This Week in Microbiology | Same, but for microbes. |
| Freakonomics Radio | Economics, through the lens of the real world. | |
| Double Loop Podcast | Fingerprint analysis |
Ok, this one might just be me, but I enjoy the narrators and the topic is seriously niche
|
| TWiP | This week in Parasitism | Don’t listen if you get grossed out. |
| Puscast | An infectious disease podcast |
This came to an end this last year, but the archives are great.
|
| Chemistry in it’s Element | All about a specific molecule or compound | |
| Undiscovered | History of science | |
| Thoughtful | ||
| Cynical Theories | Philosophy, the modern world, and what it’s coming to |
I enjoy this, and it goes deep, very deep.
|
| Lexicon Valley | Linguistics, etymology, and the human tongue |
Simply the best for language, but also music, and a gleeful narrator makes it so fun
|
| Quillette | Current Events |
I’m not big in politics, but you can’t avoid them, and this is at least thoughtful and not screamy.
|
| The Other Half | Women in history | |
| The Glenn Show | Glenn Loury on economics, race, and everything | I enjoy his enthusiasm and rants. |
| Real Coffee with Scott Adams | Current Events | A soft voiced commentator. |
| Conversations with Coleman | An emerging philosopher |
A young man, but the interviews are fascinating and his insights worth listening to.
|
| The American Story | History and current events | Short, but punchy |
| The Way I Heard It | Mike Rowe’s homage to Paul Harvey |
You don’t have to listen to the long form rambles, the short story at the beginning is awesome.
|
| The Saad Truth | Gad Saad, evolutionary biologist and satirist |
Funny, science, sarcasm you have to wade through
|
| Cautionary Tales | Lessons drawn from history | |
| Jordan B Peterson | Philosophy, interviews, and more |
Simply brilliant to listen to. I don’t always agree but he gets me thinking
|
| The Rubin Report | Current Events and politics |
I can skip this on days I’m not feeling like I want real life, but his cheerfulness is enjoyable.
|
| True Crime | ||
| Casefile | ||
| Graveyard Tales | spooky stories, not necessarily crimes | Love the heavy Texas accents |
| Small Town Dicks | May be partly fictional | |
| Best Case Worst Case | Hosts are mostly law enforcement | |
| Cults | Weird and wild religion | Not criminals, all the time. |
| All Crime, No Cattle | Whimsical take on crimes |
I enjoy their ending bit with the good news section
|
| FBI Retired Case File Review | Interviews with former FBI on their cases | |
| Our True Crime Podcast | Two ladies discussing murder | |
| Criminal Broads | Women and Crime |
Not always profiling a criminal, but often a law-adjacent female
|
| True Crime Guys | murder and silliness |
Covers more well-known crimes, fast forward through the singing.
|
| Female Criminals | another one focused on the ‘weaker sex’ | |
| Crimelines | More dry and timeline based | |
| Southern Fried True Crime | focused on crime in the US South |
narrator gets quite dramatic and invested
|
| They Walk Among Us | Uk based crimes | |
| The Murder Squad | another with LEO professionals | |
| Sword and Scale | In-depth case and aftermath |
This one uses a lot of existing audio, and dramatic re-creations
|
| Morbid | crimes and humor |
The narrators’ banter strongly reminds me of my daughters’ conversations
|
| Evidence Locker | Global crimes | |
| Australian True Crime | Ok, I listen for the accents | |
| Criminology | a more professional discussion | |
| Trace Evidence | crimes and the evidence | |
| True Crime Island | Crimes down under | Narrator is funny and passionate |
| True Crime Finland | Crime in Finland | Narrator’s voice is disturbingly childlike |
And I’m always looking for recommendations!
Comments
5 responses to “Podcast Playlists”
Mine are mostly home improvement– they’ve got feed update problems right now, but PARR Lumber’s Weekend Warrior podcast is good, as is On The House with the Carey Brothers.
History/theology I have Open Line Wednesday subscribed to, because that priest is a *hoot* and just such a geek about history and culture.
I think you’d enjoy Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World, too; they go over all kinds of nifty things, tell the story, tell a couple of variables on what folks say, and then do their best to work it out from their via “Faith and Reason.”
My most recent add is Phil Vischer’s “Holy Post,” which blows my mind with the intellectual approach to Christian life and theology. I wish I’d found it YEARS ago. Phil Vischer, BTW, is the creative mind behind “Veggie Tales.”
I’ve also loved “You’re Wrong About,” which debunks popular myths about famous events/people, with what REALLY happened; the DC Sniper series was particularly mind-blowing.
I put myself to sleep most nights with “Case Closed,” “The Great Detectives,” and “Down These Mean Streets,” which are all rebroadcasts of radio programs from (mostly) 1904s-1950s. I rarely get to hear the end of the episodes, because I fall asleep!
Similar to “Cautionary Tales” is “Against the Rules.” The same parent company (Pushkin) is behind them both.
If it ever cranks up again, “Revisionist History” with Malcolm Gladwell is worth the listen.
I had Revisionist History on the list, I’m not sure how I lost track of it!
The radio shows are great, but take more attention than I can give, usually. Same reason I don’t do audiobooks. Too much immersion and I have to stay in touch with work!
“Pioneering today with Melissa k Norris” though maybe this will be torture for you when you’re house-less. Gardening, animal husbandry galore.
“Bear Grease” hunting historical podcast of sorts. Newly launched and I love it already. Episode 4 was interesting glimpse at early 19th century ozarks which is where I live now.
“Cal’s Week in Review” short amusing look at conservation news of the week and science discoveries of that nature.
I’m gonna second the Hardcore History series by Dan Carlin. Dunno if it’s technically a podcast. but every Sunday night, Canadian lawyer Dave “Viva Frei” and US lawyer Robert Barnes do a show on YouTube covering the legal aspects of current events, such as the COVID lockdowns and the (un)constitutionality of the same. Makes the dull as dishwater legal boilerplate interesting.