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birdlord · 7 years

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All the Podcasts I Subscribe to

I’ve been listening to podcasts fairly regularly for about ten years now, and my list of subscriptions has slowly increased over the years to its current epic proportions. The more recent parts (towards the bottom) of this list are in order of subscription (from about The Gist onward) but the older parts aren’t in any particular order.

I’ve been meaning for some time to add podcasts to my yearly Media Diet posts, but I’ve got to start somewhere if I’m going to mention what I’ve added and what I’ve taken away in a given year, so here we are! I’ve given them star ratings roughly reflecting my current opinion (which is obviously subject to change, as I’m forever editing the list).

BTW I listen at 1.5 speed, which is the only way I have any hope of getting through all of these!

** BBC: Great Lives - a half-hour profile of a (sometimes dead) luminary, suggested by another (living) luminary. The host is helped along by an expert in the field, so a three-way conversation ensues.

*** Slate: Lexicon Valley - Great podcast about language. Tends to be more topical than The World in Words, the other language podcast I listen to regularly. And it’s now hosted by a linguist, so has taken on more of the air of an expert explaining things rather than journalists uncovering stuff.

*** All Back No Front - a music critic presents a wide-ranging hour or so of new music. It’s a great way to encounter new stuff if you’re too lazy to dig it up yourself (that’s me).

*** BBC: More or Less - A short podcast about the dismal science by Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist. The team investigates uses of statistics in the news, and (usually) debunks them heartily. I’m very happy that the short version and long version now don’t overlap! Well done folks.

** Monocle: The Urbanist - A show about cities that actually goes some distance to include cities in the global south. The posh pose of the hosts can sometimes be grating, though correspondents do come from more varied backgrounds. They have recently started a short podcast released earlier in the week that covers a single item in a world city, which is quite diverting.

** Radiotopia: The Memory Palace - An extraordinarily gauzy and story-telling-inflected history podcast. This is NOT Just The Facts, Ma’am. Your mileage may vary w/r/t the host’s pause-heavy style of speaking, sometimes I find it grating and other times it suits my mood just fine.

***** Max Fun: Stop Podcasting Yourself - I held off on subscribing to this for a long time, since their old ad way back in the Sound of Young America days was SO off-putting. But now? This is the podcast I save to listen to when I have to do something distasteful (treadmill? cleaning the bathroom?) since it’s so consistently good it’ll make any bad task more tolerable. And Jesse Thorn is now otherwise completely absent from my podcast rolls, so we see who won THIS one!

*** Radiotopia: Love + Radio - With many reportorial podcasts, you can grasp a thread, see a connection between their topics from week to week. Not so with L+R, it’s always new, always interesting, always weird.

*** How Sound - this is some deep shit - a podcast about MAKING PODCASTS :O. On occasion, producers from podcasts I actually listen to show up, which is always interesting to get a peek behind the curtain.

***** Radiotopia: 99% Invisible - This is not like, a list of well-kept secrets, so if you’re a person who has any interest in how design functions in the world you’re probably already listening to this. This will change the way you look at any number of everyday objects, and, if you’re the envious type, cause you to think “why didn’t I think of that?!” at least once per episode.

** CBC: Under The Influence - An adman dishes Secrets of the Advertising Industry! The first incarnation of the show had a historical bent, but now stories come from the 21st and 20th centuries alike. I came up with CBC Radio, so I have some affection for its sometimes-repetitive production elements, but seriously: that music bed is HECK OF TIRED and needs to be replaced!

** The Smartest Man in the World - Comedian Greg Proops takes to stages around the world and combines tales of teenage drug adventures in the 70s, celebrity encounters, and (especially recently!) die-hard liberal (def not radical) Democratic politics. This can get weary after a while, but I like to get his take on the issues of the day.

*** CBC: Ideas - This long-running nightly show podcasts not every episode, but just the highlights. For those who’ve never listened, this is a serious-minded (with some exceptions) documentary series which includes some one-offs, some several-episode series, and some regular features (Ideas from the Trenches talks to PhD students, Wachtel on the Arts, Munk Debates). Wachtel tends to be a couple of steps too “public radio” for me, but the rest is generally listenable with occasional moments of brilliance.

*** NPR: Pop Culture Happy Hour - a weekly chat amongst a slightly rotating cast of NPR folks located in DC. Mostly concentrates on middlebrow TV and movies, with occasional forays into music and books/comics. Sometimes showcases shorter conversations during the week that respond to particular events (awards shows, sport things, interviews with pop culture figures) but the main shows usually cover two topics plus a “What’s Making Us Happy” recommendation section. Gives the impression of being more “loose” than the usual NPR fare but keep in mind that’s a low bar to clear.

** BBC: Food Programme - hosts travel around Britain interviewing food producers and cooks of various kinds, generally investigating one topic per show. Tends to be showcase a non-controversial, posi take on food, focusing on things like new food scenes developing in smaller towns, the revival of old techniques, and immigrant contributions to food diversity. Can sometimes tend towards the dull.

***** Too Beautiful To Live - TBTL used to be a radio show, so it’s the rare podcast that actually gets it together to put out an episode every single weekday. Success depends on perfect alchemy between the hosts, and their ability to riff amusingly on the topics of the day and their own lives. Don’t be put off by the inside jokes; let them marinate for a couple of weeks and you’ll find yourself drawn in.

**** Answer Me This! - It is a great and powerful tragedy that this hilarious Q&A podcast has, in its eleventh year, gone down to a monthly schedule. Understandable given the hosts new gigs, but still, these are people I like to spend time with! I miss ‘em!

**** Radiotopia: The Bugle - Oddly enough, The Bugle is hosted by the brother of one of the Answer Me This! trio, and was also formerly cohosted by John Oliver, who is clearly now too busy holding American feet to the fire on HBO to muddle about in the podcasting pool. The conceit of the show is that it’s an “audio newspaper” and so most of the content is a comedic take on the news of the day. The non-Zaltzman co-hosts join from a variety of parts of the world, which is helping move the focus away from strictly the US and Britain.

**** WBEZ: This American Life - The old faithful of podcasts, helped not a little by unnaturally passionate-yet-calm host Ira Glass.

*** BBC: Thinking Allowed - A wry sociologist brings in guests to discuss their papers and/or books on various topics of sociological interest. Feels like a brief & interesting class each week, sans homework! The host’s wry personality mainly comes through in his interstitial responses to emails and letters.

*** NPR: Fresh Air - Your classic NPR interview show, plus short review segments telling you about the latest in jazz records, oscar-bait films or Complicated Novels. The interviews I find the most enlightening are the political ones, I distinctly remember listening and re-listening to the episodes about the initial rise of the Tea Party. Over the past few years, the number of ads during the show has been ratcheting up, slowly but surely; I sincerely hope by this point that Terry Gross has a solid-gold toaster.

*** BBC: In Our Time - a stimulating academic panel show with host Melvyn Bragg discuss the “history of ideas” which in practice usually means an overview of a particular person’s intellectual output, a scientific discovery, or a historical event. Not overly combative in tone, though genteel disagreements do happen. I’m always a bit surprised, given that this is a BBC product that also goes out on the radio, at how uneven the production is - lots of sticky-voiced talkers too close to the mic, and a veritable epidemic of shuffling papers.

**** WNYC: Radiolab - Radiolab has drifted from science somewhat in recent years, but is still producing solid stories full of new insights.

*** Tiny Spark - A relatively rare totally independent podcast, intended to hold charities and non-profits to account. Really helpful to anyone who is wondering how best to spend money in a way that might help people in a meaningful way.

**** WNYC: On the Media - All week long, I know that if I’m reading something about American politics and I’m not quite getting the nuances, I can count on On The Media to help me out. Don’t think you have to be in the media industry to find this enlightening - it’s really for all news CONSUMERS.

**** Greg Proops Film Club - Every once in a long while, Greg Proops shows an old movie in a theatre with an audience, and this podcast consists of his comedic introductions (which are sometimes heavily connected to the films, and other times largely weird anecdotes about his life). Used to include a bit after the film wherein they discuss its particulars and take audience Qs, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

***** Previously.tv: Extra Hot Great - The greatest asset of this long-running TV podcast is its tight group of hosts, who have been working together since the dark-ass past of internet-based pop-culture criticism. This long experience gives them an unmatched rapport, even though the hosts now live in vastly divergent time zones across the US. I miss Joe Reid’s contributions, but that doesn’t stop this from being one of my favourite listens each week.

**** Slate: The Gist - I found Mike Pesca’s former NPR show, The Bryant Park Project (which Luke from TBTL was also involved with) shortly before it ended forever in around 2007. So I was delighted to find him with a daily show that covers politics, science and culture in a snappy 20 or so minutes.

**** Feral Audio: The X Files Files - Sadly defunct at the moment, but hey, this podcast seems to have had something to do with the fact that the X Files returned for a few eps (and certainly for the host Kumail Nanjiani’s appearance in a new episode!) so that’s quite a legacy.

**** Men in Blazers - Yes, I came to be interested in football originally because my partner is a die-hard watcher of the English Premier League. But it was these guys who gave me my own entry into this particular world of sports fandom. They made a great, funny series of videos about each national team for the men’s World Cup in 2014, and then I was totally hooked. I’m a big fan of the fact that Rog and Davo are supporters of women’s football as well, which I’m sure has a great deal to do with them being located in the US, the powerhouse of ladies-kicking-soccer-balls-with-great-aplomb.

*** BBC: Short Cuts - Josie Long hosts a charming show that seems inspired by the explosion of US-based storytelling podcasts. Sadly the show’s season is short, and a few months’ silence usually passes between each one.

**** WBEZ: Serial - The podcast that broke podcasts as a genre to the wider world! So far two seasons, each covering one story, have come to pass. It was unusual, when this podcast began, to cover a single story, ahem, serially, but the experiment worked; not only did Serial become wildly popular, other podcasts covering single stories (true, or no) have since abounded.

*** PRI: The World in Words - an offshoot of the PRI show The World, concentrating specifically on languages. It has a broader scope than the english-linguistics-focused Lexicon Valley, but tries hard to not fall back on the public radio trope of sadly looking on, shaking one’s head slowly while lamenting endangered languages.

*** No Such Thing as a Fish - a podcast offshoot of the Brit game show QI. The conceit is that the four hosts, all researchers for the show, each present the most interesting fact they came across at work over the course of the week. And each fact is discussed and riffed-upon by their colleagues.

*** David Cayley podcast - Cayley was a long-time radio producer for CBC’s Ideas, and this irregular-delivered podcast presents his various series as originally-presented on the radio. Each series is delivered all at once, allowing for serious bingeing. He does provide some context from the perspective of the present day, but only in text form on the podcast description, not in audio on the podcasts themselves. I greatly enjoy the nostalgia value of former Ideas host Lister Sinclair’s mellifluous tones. My favourite series of his is Origins of the Modern Public, available in the show’s archive.

**** Radiotopia: The Allusionist - Helen Zaltzman of Answer Me This has her own short podcast about english words and their origins. It’s on Radiotopia and has a great deal in common (plus has had some crossover eps) with that network’s 99% Invisible. Where Roman Mars investigates buildings and other objects, Zaltzman investigates words.

**** Gimlet: Reply All - I loved this little show about internet culture back when it was called TLDR and I love it still. This podcast has really broken the mould lately, with an episode covering 48 hours of the hosts answering a phone line of listeners’ questions, and one in which they secretly micro dosed with LSD to see how it affected their creativity.

**** NPR: Invisibilia - I used to listen to quite a bit more ‘hard science’ podcasts, and for one reason or another, most of those have fallen off my feed. This is one that has stepped into the breach, combining science reporting with more of the storytelling focus that we’re used to in other podcasts.

** Home of the Brave - You may recognize Scott Carrier’s distinctive voice and style of presentation from his appearances on This American Life, and now he’s off on his own, reporting on things that interest him. He goes into each topic with a remarkably open mind, and seems quite adept at getting people to speak with him who might otherwise be suspicious of a public radio-type interviewer.

*** Earwolf: I Was There Too - One of a galaxy of podcasts that depends on moderately famous LA people knowing other moderately famous LA people, and interviewing each other on their podcasts. The conceit here is more interesting than most, though: Gourley interviews (usually minor but not always) actors from very well-known films, to get their perspective on the both the production and the movies’ reputations. Quality varies a lot depending on interviewee.

*** WNYC: The Sporkful - a light and breezy food podcast, usually consisting of quick and concise interviews. They do occasionally handle larger topics (eating disorders, cultural appropriation) in several-episode arcs, but usually each show stands alone.

*** Max Fun: Baby Geniuses - Lisa Hanawalt and Emily Heller gab together for the first 20 minutes or so, about their lives & careers, and Martha Stewart’s pony Ban Chunch, then invite on a guest with whom they get into a wikipedia article suggested by a listener. Then we get into what, on a normal celebrity guest podcast, would be an interview about their latest project. But not here! Here they get to talk about some esoteric interest of theirs, unrelated to what they do for a living. Weird hobbies and so on! I find the last segment, an improv interview with a fake expert in something, to be totally unlistenable, thus the middling rating.

** ARRVLS - Documentary storytelling, but with a focus on stories about change and transformation. This is a broad theme, of course! And really encompasses most types of stories - why tell a story if it hasn’t changed you? I do admit that this blends in with the other doc storytelling podcasts I listen to, it doesn’t stand out a ton.

**** WNYC: Death, Sex & Money - Anna Sayle talks to guests about topics that are usually left out of polite society. Style is a former producer on TAL, so this is all part of the TAL-galaxy of podcasts, so it has a similar slick-yet-heartfelt quality about it. Style went on (terrifyingly short! poor Americans) maternity leave a few months ago and had former guests host the show in her absence - cute idea!

*** Call Your Girlfriend - two pals who live in different states get together over the internet and talk about whatever has interested them in the past week. Like many things, this ‘cast has taken a hard turn towards activism lately, which is great and I love it! They take a light hand with editing, but do use music breaks and sometimes ads to smooth over changes in topic.

*** Buzzfeed: Another Round - Of all of the “two people gabbing” podcasts that I listen to, this is the only one that features two black women. Given that radio (and podcasts too, maybe even more since you choose to listen at specific times?) is such an intimate medium, it’s important to hear voices that have a different background and perspective than your own. These ladies are a big deal! They met the president (not the terrible one).

*** The Weekly Planet - My friend Ryan recommended this podcast about comic book movies (mostly) by some dudes in Australia. Comic book movies are not my Main Jam, but these guys are really entertaining and I enjoy listening to ‘em gab while I’m washing dishes or walking somewhere. I HATE the theme song?!

** KCRW: Here be Monsters - documentary that sometimes edges over into the disturbing.

** America’s Test Kitchen Radio - this is the most practical food podcast I listen to, since it includes equipment testing, and recipe suggestions. The main attraction is the call-ins, wherein the hosts answer listener’s food questions - really useful! Hasn’t updated in a few months though, so not sure what’s up with that?

*** NPR: Planet Money - I listened to a few episodes of this back when it started, when the financial crisis first went down (for real: the Giant Pile of Money episode of TAL was listened and re-listened, by me) but for some reason I didn’t ever subscribe. I finally got around to it recently, and have no regrets (except for all the time I missed i guess??).

*** WNYC: The New Yorker Radio Hour - a weekly hour based on what’s appearing in the magazine on any given week. The only thing I find really unlistenable are the dramatized versions of comedy sketches, which never work for me.

*** After These Messages - I’m not a person who is exposed to much in the way of advertising, given my lack of television, but I do still like this podcast about TV ads. The hosts rant about commercials they hate, and even occasionally tip the hat to those they enjoy.

** Fashion Hags - three friends from fashion school get together and chat about the fashion world in general and their own forays into clothes-making as a career or avocation.

**** The Next Picture Show - rather than reviewing a new release on its own, the four movie critics look at a new movie each week by comparing it to a similar (or related) classic film.

*** NPR: Hidden Brain - Though the focus here is brain science rather than money/economics, the formula here feels pretty similar to Planet Money: draw listeners in with an interesting proposition, back that up with a couple of interviews and/or host talk, tidy conclusion.

*** Worst Idea of All Time - two comedians in New Zealand have a terrible idea: they commit to watch Grown Ups 2 every week for a year, and podcast about it! Since then, they’ve gone through two more terrible years, and have gained a loyal worldwide following (but lost…SO MANY HOURS OF THEIR PRECIOUS YOUNG LIVES).

** Making the Sausage - from the Previously.TV folks, this is an occasional, behind the scenes of TV podcast. As opposed to the other LA entertainment-scene podcasts, this one is strictly talking to people like PAs, writers, and directors instead of the front-of-camera folks. Has some persistent audio issues, but it’s an interesting perspective.

**** Radiotopia: The West Wing Weekly - Apparently everyone loves to podcast about long-finished television shows?! This one is terribly charming, hosted by podcast guy Hrishikesh Airway and former West Wing cast member Josh Malina. Since they have such a solid connection to the show, they’re able to get bigwigs like other cast members, directors and musicians to come on & chat about specific episodes.

*** You Must Remember This - episodic but connected seasons of stories about 20th Century Hollywood. The stories themselves are universally fascinating, but the delivery can be patchy - the host sometimes acts out quotes from her subjects, which is almost always some combination of embarrassing and irritating; and the production itself can be heavy-handed.

**** Our Debut Album - the Stop Podcasting Yourself boys are making an album, at the rate of one song a month. We get to listen to the song-writing process, as well as hear about how the producer actually puts the song together, element by element. A good idea and a fun one!

*** Guardian: Token - A black woman and a trans man talk about issues of race and gender. My favourite episodes so far involve Leah and Freddy being confronted with elements of the other’s world, and giving one another permission to ask potentially-awkward questions.

*** Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs - A sort-of offshoot of Extra Hot Great, involving one of the regular hosts and one of their frequent guests, talking about songs (usually one per ep but not always). If you want a great episode to start with, go for the one wherein they rank all of the songs in Madonna’s Immaculate Collection.

**** WNYC: More Perfect - A Radiolab offshoot, about the machinations of the US Supreme Court. It’s been forever since they released and episode, so hopefully it’s not dead & gone for good since I find it so fascinating.

*** Filmspotting - A long-standing film podcast that I’ve only come to recently, so it feels like jumping into a fast-moving stream. It’s mostly concerned with the higher-brow of filmmaking, with occasional exceptions. Keeping track of things like this makes me feel like at least I will be less likely to miss those movies that film critics are watching, or at least I’ll have some idea of which ones I can definitely afford to skip.

***** Election Profit Makers - Dearly departed! This was a pre-election betting podcast by David Rees and his childhood friend, produced by podcast impresario Starlee Kine, and oh GOSH it was good! It was exactly what everyone needed in the nervy pre-election days, and their single post-election episode was cathartic and emotional and very very real. Going back and listening again would be like time-travel, you should try it.

*** Radiotopia: Criminal - preternaturally soft-voiced Phoebe Judge tells complicated short tales of criminals of many kinds.

** WNYC: Sooo Many White Guys - This is a weird one for me. I really enjoy the interview part, which is the bulk of the show, but I can’t stand the host joshing around with her producer - putting a weird “sound-booth” effect on the producer’s voice is a strange and affected choice, but aside from the sound reasons I’m just not into the conversations they’re having; perhaps I’m just not interested in seeing behind this particular curtain? Interviews are still worth it, though!

*** Gimlet: Heavyweight - I have had a checkered past with Jonathan Goldstein - I enjoy his contributions to other people’s audio properties, but I’ve never been able to get into his CBC show. I was uncertain about this show (in which he tags along with someone to solve a problem from their past) but I’m finding it just Goldstein-y enough?

*** Revisionist History - Malcolm Gladwell takes his typical style of making complicated ideas seem simple. As with his books, there’s some great stuff and some eye-rolly stuff.

*** Radiotopia: Theory of Everything - Benjamen Walker’s been internetting around for a long-ass time, and this is the latest incarnation of his work. His most recent series has been on surveillance and the panopticon, which is obviously super in my wheelhouse. He will go at things in a different way than you expect, which is hugely admirable (and entertaining!).

*** Gimlet: Undone - Gimlet has done a great job of coming up with interesting concepts for their podcasts, such that the finished work can feel familiar to podcast listeners (soothing voices, great production values, good music, solid interviews) but they have a hook to catch new listeners. This one’s about old news stories that has had long repercussions, don’t you want to listen? Well you should. It’s been cancelled though, so this will move to my UNSUBSCRIBED list shortly.

*** NYT: Still Processing - I missed the sound of Wesley Morris’ voice since the demise of Grantland, and thankfully Tim https://twitter.com/doingitwrong tipped me off that he has a new podcast! I particularly enjoyed the episode in which Morris and co-host Jenna Wortham go to the new Smithsonian Museum of African-American History & Culture (or more succinctly, the Blacksonian).

*** Hello Internet - My friend Jenn https://twitter.com/jennipoos is a fan of CGP Grey’s Youtube videos, and a while back she posted one, and I fell into such a CGP Grey hole that I wasn’t satisfied watching every single video, I had to ferret out his podcast, which he does with another Youtuber, Brady Haran. Both are expats living in Britain, and (particularly Grey!) don’t pay much attention to the news, so it’s rare that they discuss any of the tire-fire things that are happening in the world today. A nerdy break from the news.

*** Guardian: Football Weekly - When I was looking for the Guardian Brexit podcast, I discovered that their #1 podcast is this one, which updates twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. It’s a bit more serious and analytical than Men in Blazers, and also covers european leagues, so it’s not too much overlap. This is the podcast that will make a lengthy Shakespeare reference about Leicester City’s sacking of Claudio Ranieri, so that will probably tell you if you will find it to your taste.

** Guardian: Brexit Means… - This is an occasional podcast about Brexit and related issues. Sometimes you need serious information!

** Book Shambles - Another Josie Long joint, this time featuring a co-host (Robin Ince) and regular guests. The chat is nominally centered around books, but in fact is quite wide-ranging and usually takes as its beginning point whatever the expertise of the guest happens to be.

*** Gimlet: Twice Removed - Every once in a while, marketing really hits on something that works. With all of these new (& older) podcast networks, most have one or two high-profile podcasts and some smaller ones. In this case, Gimlet ran almost an entire Twice Removed episode on Reply All, and I was intrigued enough to subscribe. It wooooorked!

** BBC: The Compass - I found this one due to its series (now archived) about creating a hypothetical ideal country made up of things other places are doing well (gun control in Japan, maths education in Shanghai). Not 100% sure I’ll keep it!

** The Royal Canadian Movie Podcast - found this one thanks to its review of New Waterford Girl, and yeah I’m inclined to at least consider the Canadian film industry, if not consume that much of it. This one is also potentially on the bubble, since I find one of the hosts a little on the JAZZ HANDS side of things.

NPR: Code Switch - covering NPR’s racism beat, this is a newish podcast that I’ve just managed to remember to subscribe to, since one of the regular contributors used to do a podcast I liked called PostBourgie. No star rating yet as I haven’t been listening long enough!

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