Ask Lemmy

Blowback - https://blowback.show/

History of US interventions on different places over the last century.

Darknet Diaries - https://darknetdiaries.com/

True stories from the dark side of the Internet

The Dollop: THIS is a bi-weekly American history podcast where labradoodle daddy and wearer of pants Dave Anthony reads a story from American history to his nemesis Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the story is about

Not exactly a new one, but I listened to S-town with great enjoyment. It's a little story about an alleged murder, a truly original American man, and rural Alabama. I was never bored, and I certainly learned something. And you get to hear an amazing Alabama accent.

• The Amber & Lacey, Lacey & Amber Show gets me into a positive mood.
• Countdown with Keith Olbermann is still good when he isn’t bringing up exes.
• Worlds Beyond Number is a neat TTRPG live play from last year.
• Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
• Bonanas for Bonanza because Maria Bamford is an unsung comedy legend
• The Doug Stanhope Podcast
• How Did This Get Made? making fun of bad movies is fun.
• Lovett or Leave It politics with a spoonful of snark
• LeVar Burton Reads reading rainbow will never die!
• SmartLess easy listening
• Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me the sign of a true celebrity is appearing on this show.
• Strike Force Five was kinda neat as an insight into unscripted dialogue with competing professionals, but they seemed to gang up on Jimmy Fallon, who, arguably, has the most prestigious late night show.

Comedy Bang Bang - improv comedy where Scott Aukerman interviews interesting people, and by interesting people i mean comedians playing absurd characters. It's been going for fifteen years, Paul F Tompkins, Jason Mantzoukas, and Ben Schwarz are all regulars, and it's the only podcast I listen to almost every week.

Get Played - a gaming podcast featuring Heather Anne Campbell, Matt Wiger and Nick Apodaca (I've almost definitely misspelled or misremembered at least one of these names). They talk about games whilst being very funny - Heather is a comedy writer, Matt is occasionally on Comedy Bang Bang. It's the only gaming podcast I listen to despite much of their coverage being games I am not interested in.

You're wrong about (until Michael Hobbes left at least)

If books could kill

Maintenance phase

Maybe I just really like Michael Hobbes...

Hell yeah, I love Behind the Bastards, I also reccomend its sister podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, similar podcast I Don't Speak German (antifascists talking about various goings on regarding the far right) and, if you want Something Completely Different, Film Reroll, an actual play podcast in which all the campaigns are based on movies.

Last podcast on the left, their research is great but they lean heavily into their comedy to really make the story entertaining.

youarenotsosmart.com psychology, sociology, & more. Sounds boring but is fascinating. His own description:

The central theme of You Are Not So Smart is that you are unaware of how unaware you are which leads you to becoming the unreliable narrator in the story of your life. You Are Not So Smart is a fun exploration of the ways you and everyone else tends to develop an undeserved confidence in human perception, motivation, and behavior. I hope you’ll rediscover a humility and reconnect with the stumbling, fumbling community of humans trying to make sense of things the best we can.

Dungeons and Daddies (not a BDSM podcast)
A D&D podcast about 4 dads from our world that get tossed into the Forgotten Realms on a quest to find their missing kids. It's fucking hilarious.

Old Gods of Appalachia
Many eons ago, Earth was a prison for things that shouldn't be. Buried under what we now call the Appalachian Mountains, long they waited. But time weathers all things, and what were once gigantic mountains have eroded to mere nubs of what they once were. Then man, in his quest for coal, cracked open that black prison and things started leaking out... Set in "alternate Appalachia" in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A great, dark story.

Scared To Death
Think of all those scary stories you've ever heard... urban legends, ghost stories, monsters, cryptids, aliens... Of course, most of them are just stories right? But what if one of them was true? And, if one of them was true, what does that mean for the rest of them? Each week, they take two stories found on the internet and two-four listener-submitted stories, tell them, and assuming they're true, discuss what that would mean. Take care while listening.

Heavyweight on Spotify.

I've been listening to this series for a few years. People have a regret, encounter, or problem from the past that they wish to follow up but need help. Jonathan Goldstein is a go between in helping these people bury the past or make amends. One particular story is Gregor who lends a CD to a pre-famous Moby. The CD contains the songs that Moby sampled and made him huge but never returned the CD to Gregor. Heavyweight helps Gregor get the CD.

Unfortunately some muppet at Spotify has decided to stop this excellent series so check it out before it goes.

Sean Carroll - mindscape

Fraser Cain - universe today

David Eagleman - inner cosmos

Midnight Burger

F**kface, it's not really about anything, just very funny ramblings, listen a lot when I'm cooking and can't have full attention on something educational.

Beautiful/Anonymous with Chris Gethard. Random people call in and have 1 hour where Chris can’t hang up only the caller.

Omnibus. Hosted by Ken Jennings and John Roderick. They are both funny, enjoy each other's company, and extremely knowledgeable. The show covers a swath of esoteric topics.

Farheed Zakaria - Global Public Square.

Great political and events analysis.

Pivot

Tech news and analysis, but they cover many different things.

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics things. Really well done.

99% invisible

The hidden side of everything. Gosh darn if it the title may seem boring but he covers it extremely well and I've never regretted listening to an episode.

Medical podcasts

This Podcast Will Kill You

Saw Bones

I tend to like history podcasts by academics, so here are three:

History of Egypt Podcast
Emperors of Rome
AskHistorians podcast, but I admit I pick and choose episodes with that one. I do wish they'd come over to the Fediverse, but I kind of get it, as their stated goals are broad outreach and getting warm&fuzzies for their mostly younger academics.

The Age of Napoleon. I'm a Patreon supporter because it's simply an awesome and informative podcast about a hugely interesting and transformative era and person.

Comedy Bang Bang

Great improve podcast. Lots of funny people.

The Apocalypse Players - A Call of Cthulu TTRPG. Two of my favorite are: Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 and A Christmas Inheritance.

The Duncan Trussell Family Hour - Lot of the guests tend to be Buddhist monks, comedians, spiritual gurus, occultists, etc. Ranges from mundane topics to esoteric ones.

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman and Data Over Dogma - Both discuss the Bible from an academic view. The cultural context behind the Gospels, the biases in each Gospel, the non-canonical gospels

Hi-Phi Nation - Uses stories to talk about philosophical topics. Recommend: Wishes of the Dead, Moral Exploitation, The Morality of War, and the 2 Part Hackademics.

The Cracked Podcast - Generally it's comedians and journalists talk about various topics. Really good episodes are: 4 Mind-Blowing Truths About America (Made Clear By Baseball), Why Americans Hate The Poor (with David Wong & John Cheese), and Why A New Civil War Will Be Fought By A Thousand Sides.

Strict Scrutiny

A breakdown of the inside politics of the Supreme Court and the cases before them.

Smart Enough to Know Better - Australian podcast where two guys discuss things that interest then in a humorous way. Could be the latest astrophysics news, could be the location of stomachs and diet of a centaur.

These will probably have a British/English slant to them.

• Off Menu: Over 200 episodes, and two live tour runs, and it's still a great and simple format. It's hosted by comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster, who ask guests to pick their dream meal.

• Second Tier: If, like me, you follow a football club outside of the Premier League, you'll know just how hard it is to make a show about the Championship. While I don't always agree with them, they're trying their best, and have managed to consistently put out content that tries to cover every team.

• Fozcast (The Ben Foster Podcast): Great to listen to if you're a football fan, as Ben puts out a lot of amazing insight into the world of football.

• The Happy Hour Podcast: I've no idea who JaackMaate is, but he puts out a solid podcast with some great guests.

Time Suck with Dan Cummins. He covers a variety of topics with lots of irreverent humor and inside jokes. His most recent topics include: the Riverside killer, cult of the twin flames universe, Colonel Sanders, and the protocol's of the elders of Zion.

Join the Cult of the Curious and listen to our Lord Suckmaster today! 3/5 stars, wouldn't change a thing! Go team meatsack!

Safety third - chaotic chat podcast from sciency/maker youtubers.

Well, there's your problem. It's a podcast about engineering disasters. With slides.

Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - "Based on his Netflix comedy special, "Blocks." Neal Brennan interviews friends and colleagues about the things that make them feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how they are persevering despite these blocks."

Late to the party here. Love many of the podcasts already shared, but I'd like to reccomend a couple.

The Weekly Planet: if you're somewhat interested in keeping up with movies. Two aussie blokes, James and Maseau, have great banter keeping up with the entertainment industry. They originally kept up with comic book movies and adjacent content, but they do all kinds of movies. Doesn't take itself seriously, but never devolves into repeating every click bait headline you read. Been keeping up for 8 years now.

Filthy Casuals: three aussie comedians, Tommy Dassalo, Ben Vernel, and Adam Knox, keep up with the video game industry. Similar to my last recommendation, but if you're interested in video games.

National Park After Dark: hosted by two lovely ladies, Danielle and Cassie, and covers many different topics. Topics covered have included true crime, cryptids, and folklore but the two hosts try to keep a focus on outdoor experiences. They want to encourage people to get out and visit the many parks across the US, but to do so safely and respectfully.

• Welcome To Nightvale
• Wolf 359
• The Adventure Zone

The Blindboy Podcast

Blindboy Boatclub, famous as one half of The Irish duo The Rubber bandits, shares intimate and interesting "hot takes" on various subjects, interviews with interesting artists, and original short fiction all against the backdrop of an original soothing ambient piano track. This is my comfort podcast.

Please Stop Talking A bunch of youtubers (SirMeowMusic, Noodle, Mandalore Gaming, Brendaniel, etc) get together and tell hilarious stories. There has yet to be an episode I've listened to where I didn't leave laughing. They even do other types of shows beyond PST. They talk about watching horror movies (and also Bob's Burgers) in Pondering Spooky Tapes, they just aired a pilot for a new gaming podcast called Press Turbo Start, and they're about to start up a new DnD campaign in Perilous Storytelling.

I highly recommend this podcast. They're so funny. https://www.youtube.com/@PleaseStopTalkingPodcast/featured

Let's Learn Everything

There's three hosts and they discuss science topics each episode, and on the way learn something really new and interesting! It's really a lot of fun!

Crime in Sports and Small Town Murder, same hosts and very funny. You don't need to know about sports (more about the crime)

Dead Rabbit Radio, been shamelessly shilling it (not my podcast and I'm not affiliated with it any any way) for the better part of five years. Daily paranormal and weird news episodes and Jason Carpenter doesn't have all the cringey seriousness that most high strangeness podcasts have.

Imposters on Spotify is another gripping show following people who lived off huge whopping lies and upset people along the way.

The episodes about Wayne Simmons who passed himself off as a deep cover spy for the CIA and managed to lie his way to be a regular Fox News "expert" and Whitehouse access. Amazing example of how far you can get with balls of steel and being an arrogant loud mouth.