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Help me with podcasts, GAF. What's the best?

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Radiolab is some Malcolm Gladwell-level hoohockey sometimes, but it's worth listening to.

99% Invisible is aight. Not as good as it thinks it is, but what're you going to do.

This American Life is the GOAT.

I like Econtalk.

How Did This Get Made is often good, occasionally Great. They're on semi-hiatus now, but there's a solid backlog.
 
richardhawk said:
http://uhhyeahdude.com/

America through the eyes of two American Americans.

You need nothing else but this gem of a podcast.
Click to expand...

This Year Collection did a number of "best of 20XX" compilations of Uhh Yeah Dude. While the podcast is good, the compilations condense a ton of great moments together. This Year is a great way to try out podcasts you've never heard of, and listen to best of's of things from the old days (1up Yours comes to mind).

I have 63 podcasts subscribed to (more since reading this thread), but I'll stick to the ones I listen to right away when they come out. +1 for:
-Common Sense with Dan Carlin: a podcast where I always feel like I've listened to something important afterwards, and a perspective not normally seen if you're getting your news from the usual places.
-Garnett on Games: after Weekend Confirmed ended, now we have a podcast without other people interrupting Garnett with their wrongpinions. Though it's starting to get a little call-in heavy.
-The Comedy Button: the continuation of the Gamespy Debriefings. A bunch of video game press guys who have great chemistry together, and barely talk about video games. Lots of nerd talk though. Probably the funniest podcast I listen to, though their ad readings go into "so farcically annoying that it's actually annoying" territory.
-WTF with Marc Maron: the guy has interviewed nearly anyone in comedy that you can think of. Great interviewer who gets a lot out of his interviewees, gets personal and stuff. I'd take him as an interviewer over Stern or anyone else. Interviews are a bit "life story" but get into specifics about what Marc finds interesting.
-Savage Lovecast: Dan Savage's relationship/sex advice call-in show. Good stuff all around, and was helpful in expanding my horizons of what is normal, acceptable, and necessary in a relationship. The recent show with sex workers fielding questions was educational, though not representative of the normal episodes. The only podcast I pay for (for the expanded version).

I just started listening to it, but Kevin Smith's Fatman on Batman podcasts have been pretty cool so far. If you're into Batman, you should probably listen to some.

Oh and while I hear good things about The Champs, their audio mix is so low volume that I can't listen to it. My phone speaker doesn't go high enough for their podcast to be audible while I'm going about my day. Oh well.
 
Seriously, everybody should listen to The Flop House podcast. http://www.flophousepodcast.com/

Two writers for the Daily Show (one recently got promoted to Head Writer) and their equally funny bartender friend talk about recently released movies of dobious quality, and are hillarious at that, but the podcast is mainly a vehicle for their improv skill and brilliant tangents that don't have anything to do with the movie itself.

Few sample bits:

Woody Allen's The Dead Zone
Battlestar Galactica Detective Show
Sean Connery advertises Zardoz

Every episode is full of awesome stuff, but the best are when the movies are really stupid and crazy. I recommendFoodfight episode, any of the Nicolas Cage movies, like Stolen or the critic favourite Old Dogs

Other podcast i can recommend: Nerdist Writers Panel (TV shows/comic writers talk about their work and writing in general), Giant Bombcast (video games! and various topics), Fatman on Batman (Kevin Smith on Batman, especially Greg Capullo episodes), Cracked podcast (it's like Cracked articles, but in radio form).
 
rod-banner.jpg


Each podcast takes the form of a Skype call between Merlin Mann (co-host of the late, great You Look Nice Today, creator of 43folders) and John Roderick (Singer/songwriter/storyteller/supertrain) about anything and everything.
The two are incredibly articulate and witty. Start with the first episode.
 
for science stuff: Skeptics guide to the galaxy, radiolab, sawbones, startalk(with neil degrasse tyson)

for stuff I just enjoy: comedy bang bang, giantbombcast, how did this get made, super best friendcast, who charted.

Have fun
 
What are the best podcasts in the following categories:

  • Facts, trivia, general knowledge, etc
  • Football/soccer
  • Film/television*
  • Wrestling
  • Nintendo
  • Fiction**
  • Creative writing, fiction

*Not a bunch of guys reviewing new releases or chatting. Something a little different, like facts and trivia, behind the scenes, etc. How Did This Get Made, that sort of thing.

**I'm aware of Night Vale, This American Life and the zombie one I've seen mentioned on GAF, all of which I'm going to check out. Looking for others.
 
Not sure where else to ask this since I can't find the 'Ask' thread


I know a few of you listen to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, so I could do with some help

He sells a compilation of the first 33 episodes for $50 (only episodes 40-53 are free) but there's no mention of how it's delivered. Does it just give you an account from which you can download the seperate mp3 files?

Part 4 of the WW1 series is up btw, in case anyone else was unaware


pls
 
GRW810 said:
  • Facts, trivia, general knowledge, etc
  • Football/soccer
  • Film/television*
  • Wrestling
  • Nintendo
  • Fiction**
  • Creative writing, fiction
Click to expand...

All of my own opinion but I'll offer my picks

Fact/Trivia: Good Job, Brain - Friendly hosts for a mostly PG podcast. The group picks one subject each week (animals, weather, sports, etc) and quizzes or offers trivia to the others about the subject.

Football/Soccer: Can't help you there. Not a fan.

Film/TV: The Dissolve Podcast - A recent one I picked up that fits the criteria of not singly talking about new releases. Gives me vibes of an Idle Thumbs about film. A bunch of smart people who do talk sometimes about new releases but with a different spin; trying to focus on the big picture of the genre. Also have interesting in depth talks about other things film. (Film Only. I don't listen to any TV podcasts).

Wrestling: Again, can't help you.

Nintendo: Hard one. I've got two opinions: Radio Free Nintendo - Probably the only straight up Nintendo related podcast I'm aware of. Goes over everything from the consoles to the handhelds. Mostly current. Other choice: Tinycast - TinyCartrige podcast. Mostly a handheld gaming podcast (Vita and 3DS) but delves into stuff relating to the Wii and Wii U every so often.

Fiction: The Thrilling Adventure Hour - A podcast in the vein of old time radio. Has some recurring fiction segments but not straight focused, continuous tale like Night Vale or We're Alive. Another Choice: EscapePod/PodCastle/PseudoPod - Not serialized stories but short fiction (20 - 40 minutes) of different genres from Sci-Fi to fantasy to horror respectively.

Creative writing/Fiction: Writing Excuses - Working fiction writers tackling different subjects from the creative to business side of fiction writing (mostly the creative). From character creation, to setting, to magic systems, to working with editors. Another choice: The Roundtable Podcast - A podcast that invites writers to pitch stories and have the host panel offer feedback on what works and what doesn't. Good for people who want refining for their brainstorming.
 
GRW810 said:
What are the best podcasts in the following categories:

  • Facts, trivia, general knowledge, etc
  • Football/soccer
  • Film/television*
  • Wrestling
  • Nintendo
  • Fiction**
  • Creative writing, fiction

*Not a bunch of guys reviewing new releases or chatting. Something a little different, like facts and trivia, behind the scenes, etc. How Did This Get Made, that sort of thing.

**I'm aware of Night Vale, This American Life and the zombie one I've seen mentioned on GAF, all of which I'm going to check out. Looking for others.
Click to expand...

For Wrestling it's the Stone Cold Steve Austin Show. Drops tuesday and thursday.
 
Skeptoid is one of my favourites. It looks into conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, myths and legends etc from a skeptical viewpoint.

If you're looking for a good comedy podcast then I'd recommend Fistshark Marketing. It's the minutes of meetings from a fake marketing firm and it gets pretty surreal. Also, it stars Jim Sterling, Caitlin Cook and Conrad Zimmerman who are all awesome.

Mannequin said:
Given your interest in Mysterious Universe, I'd recommend MonsterTalk, which looks at monsters, myths, legends etc. with a skeptics eye.

http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/
Click to expand...

Hey that sounds right up my alley!
 
GRW810 said:
What are the best podcasts in the following categories:

  • Facts, trivia, general knowledge, etc
  • Football/soccer
  • Film/television*
  • Wrestling
  • Nintendo
  • Fiction**
  • Creative writing, fiction

*Not a bunch of guys reviewing new releases or chatting. Something a little different, like facts and trivia, behind the scenes, etc. How Did This Get Made, that sort of thing.

**I'm aware of Night Vale, This American Life and the zombie one I've seen mentioned on GAF, all of which I'm going to check out. Looking for others.
Click to expand...

Nintendo would be either Radio Free Nintendo or a surprising new option with the IGN Nintendo Voicechat.

Also, for others, Bombcast, EconTalk, some other gaming ones, I don't listen to too many podcasts.
 
I mean I could make some recommendations but I'm just not sure if you're even going to try 'em out.

Radio Lab is good if don't think Malcolm Gladwell is a tool.

99% Invisible is in a similar vein but more about architecture and design and it doesn't reach as hard as Radio Lab does.

This American Life is required reading.

How Did This Get Made? is usually screwball nonsense about bad movies but is always hilarious. Some times they get super incredible guests on who tell fascinating inside baseball stories about movies and Hollywood.

I like Girls in Hoodies from Grantland: some babes do a pod about pop culture stuff and usually walk the line between being Properly Critical and Totally Into Gossip. This one's sort of hard to subscribe to, they have all their pop culture pods rolled up on the same feed: http://grantland.com/podcasts/grantland-pop-culture/.

Alex Blumberg of This American Life / Planet Money just stated a new thing called Start Up which is a podcast about his attempt to start up a business making podcasts. It's... pretty high concept. The Seinfeld of podcasts. There's only two episodes so far but dude is Highly Qualified, interested to see where it goes.

I like Russ Roberts's EconTalk. Roberts himself is pretty libertarian in an annoyingly superior way--I can pretty much anticipate everything he's about to say before he says it--but he has really interesting guests on and covers a broad swath of Economics literature. He does an especially good job of doing kind of "sequel" episodes where one guest will slag hard on someone / something and then a week or two later he'll bring in someone to defend it.

Idle Thumbs is the GOAT video game pod. You can find it at http://phil.fish.

Also I really like Kumail Nanjiani's (Silicon Valley) X Files Files, he's doing a rewatch of the X Files and has had some tremendous guests on. He also goes and digs up old like usenet posts which is a fascinating look into Ye Olde Internet. I've only ever seen one X Files episode through in my life and I still love the podcast.

Patrick Klepek of Giant Bomb and Max Temkin of Cards Against Humanity do a Lost Rewatch podcast in a similar vein, but their schedule is pretty ill-defined and their pace has been slow. Also, I don't like how precious they are about avoiding spoilers but your mileage may vary there.

EDIT lol I didn't even notice this was a bump of a thread I'd already made some of these same recommendations in. Malcolm Gladwell sucks as much today as he did four and a half months ago, likewise Radio Lab.
 
Duncan Trussell's Family Hour,

is one of my favorite podcasts of all time. Duncan is a 40 year old man, a stand-up based in California. The guy is brutally honest, extremely funny and amazingly humane. He has a way with words as he talks about philosophy, self-improvements, the shame of getting a hand job at a message parlor, dealing with having balls cancer, coping with his mother dying of cancer, about states of depression, about doing crazy amounts of psychedelics.
It's not a mainstream podcast, but it's really really good because what you got here is a real character and I really enjoy listening to him. He has a deep knowledge of eastern religions, philosophy and often talks about Ram Dass and other spiritual healers, but it's often in some hilarious connotation as he has a way with words and the most gross descriptions you can imagine.
Like other podcasts that are about a personal and their rambling thoughts, quality across varies, but this is also an appeal. He goes through different stages. You can sense on his humor, content, the way he does commercials that his mood different and it's part of what humanizes him so much.
Stand up guests he have had on is Pendleton Ward, creator of Adventure Time ( http://duncantrussell.com/pendleton-ward-and-jesse-moynihan/ ) ,

his mom part 2, before her death. Might be the realest podcast I have ever heard. Some profound life advice. If you are feeling down, this is extremely powerful, without feeling forced or tacky. ( http://duncantrussell.com/my-mom-part-2/#/vanilla/discussion/embed/?vanilla_discussion_id=0 ) ,

Danielli Bolelli, a college religion teacher who has his own great podcast, The Drunken Taoist. Has many amazing stories and info about the Tao, and legends from the east. Really really great stuff. Also an author of several books; http://duncantrussell.com/daniele-b...lla/discussion/embed/?vanilla_discussion_id=0

Dan Harmon, recorded not long after the community firing before season 4. Here you really see Harmons mad genius. His mind is like its on speed itself. It makes sense that it is his mind that made rick and morty; http://duncantrussell.com/dan-harmon-2/#/vanilla/discussion/embed/?vanilla_discussion_id=0



This is not a podcast for the easily offended though. He can be extremely grossly descriptive, he has outrageous commercials that are funny but they take it far out there. Really enjoyed this guy.
It's such a random suggestion though. It's not like The Bugle or Bill Burr's Monday morning podcast, but it's something really special. This is a guy who has tapped into something really insane.
 
I really need to branch out cause I've been listening to the same ones for years but they're pretty good if you like comedy podcasts. WTF with Marc Maron is my go to, though it's kind of hit and miss with guests that are just there for PR spots and those that are actually willing to do good discussions on their past, character etc. The two part Louis CK one is one of the best, though you do need a subscription to listen to that one.

I occasionally listen/watch the Rogan experience but I think there's only a handful of guests he really jives with, mostly his buddies like Duncan Trussell (who also has a great one called Duncan Trussell Family Hour), Chris Ryan, Joey Diaz, and Burt Kreischer.

Then there's the Earwolf network that has some good ones if you like improv. Comedy bang bang is pretty good but I'd recommend searching for their year end best of episodes to get a feel if that's something you like. There's also improv 4 humans with Matt Besser, an upright citizens brigade founding member. This show is entirely improv and pretty damn good. My favorite though us U2 talkin to me with Scott Auckerman and Adam Scott (from parks and rec). These two just have a great chemistry and their improv banter is pretty consistently good.

We'll that's all I got. Hope that helped.
 
I'm bumping this one to thank everyone for the recommendations-but also give one:

PodQuiz

Very simple, straightforward 4 round quiz show. Charming British host-I've been listening for over 10 years. I usually let them accumulate and when my wife and I take a road trip, we'll listen to it for hours on end.
 
This American Life and RadioLab got me into podcasts, but I feel like they've dropped off in quality over the past couple years, especially RadioLab. It makes me sad to say that, because it used to be my favorite.

Freakonomics and NPR's Planet Money are good. I love Comedy Bang Bang, but it's hit or miss and it takes a few listens to kind of figure out the usual cadence of the show. At the end of Dec/beginning of Jan they did four episodes with the greatest hits of 2014. That would be a good place to start.

You already mentioned Hardcore History, which is great. For music I like NPR's All Songs Considered. There's a good mix of stuff on there and I've found a few bands I really like because of the show.

I know you didn't ask for input for a podcast app, but I really like Pocket Casts and would highly recommend it.
 
Dig into Earwolf for comedy. Comedy Bang Bang, improv4humans, Hollywood Handbook, U2, Andy Daly, How Did This Get Made and a lot more.

If you like wrestling, the Attitude Era podcast is great, it's a comedic analysis of PPVs.
 
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