Asklemmy

For history:

Revolutions by Mike Duncan. You can start with the Haitian and the Mexican revolutions. Then just listen to whichever season you want.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

The History of Rome by Mike Duncan.

These are absolutely amazing.

Honorable mentions for Behind the Bastards and Lions Lead by Donkeys, if you like some banter along with the story telling.

Edit: someone in here reminded me about Your Undivided Attention. It is, literally and without irony, the most important podcast you could ever listen.

Cautionary tales: stories of how things went wrong

Darknet diaries: stories from the dark web

intelligence squared: thought provoking debates about anything and everything

The numberphile podcast: interviews with mathematicians by Brady Haran. If you like the kinds of videos Brady makes, you’ll probably like this too. You know, stuff like sixty symbols, numberphile, perioedic table of videos etc.

You are not so smart: podcast about psychology

your undivided attention: discussion and interviews about social media. What it’s like to work for a social media company. How social media influences your business, or how it affects your life. How different parts of it are intentional and some are unintentional.

Nobody recommended 99% Invisible yet?

That one is a must-listen about everyday (and not so everyday) design. Absolutely amazing!

Love recommending podcasts!

• Like others have said, Behind the Bastards is great to find out about some of the worst people in history.
• In relation to that Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is the opposite of Behind the Bastards. It's about people who did cool stuff who became cool.
• Also in lieu of that, Bad Gays, it's about bad gays in history. I think they've covered similar folks on BtB, but this is obviously from a queer perspective.
• Fad Camp and Maintenance Phase are great podcasts about dieting and wellness. Fad Camp is more about how damaging some of these diets can be, whereas Maintenance Phase is similar to You're Wrong About (which I also recommend)
• The Weekly Planet are these two Australian guys who talk about movies, tv, comics and video games. They also have a YouTube channel called Me Sunday Movies where they'll upload some of their podcasts. Like they have a running segment called "Caravan of Garbage" which is just sort of talking about a movie, tv show or game. Currently they've started going through the RoboCop movies.
• Also shameless plug, but Checkpoint is on the radio but they take their radio show and put it on a podcast. It's a podcast about giving a 1up to diversity in video games. Most of us are from the LGBTQIA+ community and that's where most of our perspectives come from, but it's also just folks from any marginalised group. Lovely bunch of folks (if I do say so myself).

Uh yeah, I have some more, but like that's politics or it's writing related or spicyness in or out of the bedroom. But these are the ones I always recc.

I mainly listen to things based around or by improv comedy, so if that's not your jam, keep on scrolling -

My Brother, My Brother, and Me (three brothers give often terrible advice to questions sent by listeners)

Hey Riddle Riddle (a riddle podcast by improv comedians who really really hate riddies and puzzies)

Dungeons and Daddies (the best D&D podcast by players who don't really know how to play D&D and it's not even close)

The Worst Idea of All time (originally the concept was two kiwi comedians watch the same film every week for a year and document and review that experience every week. Each season is a new movie and a new year. The films are always awful and they encourage you not to watch them)

Smartless (Will Arnet, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes interviewing other celebrities and famous figures. Only one of them each week know who they will be interviewing before they do so the questions are all improvised on the spot)

Quick Question with Soren Bowie and Daniel O'brien (two ex Cracked writers from the golden age of Internet comedy, who now write for Family Guy and John Oliver respectfully, ask each other questions)

Well, There's Your Problem, a podcast with slides about engineering disasters which is, itself, a disaster.

• You Are Not So Smart: You’ll marvel at both how flawed our reasoning can be and how well we make up for it by being collaborative creatures
• Behind the Bastards: Everything you don’t know about the worst people in all of history, including people you didn’t even know of
• Twenty Thousand Hertz: Stories of pretty much anything as long as it works well in an audio medium. Best sound design in the game; like candy for your ears
• Cautionary Tales (Tim Harford): Stories of people making huge mistakes or taking insane risks. Fun because sometimes the mistake was trusting their intuition instead of a rigorous process, but just as often it was ignoring their intuition in favor of a rigorous process
• Build for Tomorrow, formerly Pessimists Archive: History of people freaking out about new stuff that is totally benign today but they thought would ruin civilization. Like mirrors, bicycles, teddy bears, pinball machines
• Team Human: Kind of the opposite. All about how “progress” has harmed indigenous people, minorities, women, etc. and talking to people about how to address our modern problems with “anti-human” technology and economics

Edit: I somehow forgot to add Knifepoint Horror, but I just read that someone else recommended it and I’m very disappointed in myself because it’s such a good horror podcast that I literally physically got chills when I read its name. So good. Fuck, I would even put it at the top of this list if it weren’t dependent on being in the mood for spoopy stories.

Recently I've been listening to Well There's You're Problem; it's 30% retrospective on engineering disasters 70% shitpost

Knowledge fight

Behind the bastards

Ear hustle

Ologies by Allie Ward!!

She basically interviews scientists about their job and asks all the dumb questions you wish you could ask. She has a huge number of episodes on everything from black holes and dark matter to squirrels to Emojis. And it's all from the perspective of "the study of".

One of my favorite episodes is "Ferro-equinology". The study of iron horses. Trains. I knew trains were cool, but had no idea how cool they really were until that episode.

Her energy is addictive too. Great personality. If you are a part of her patron (which I am) you'll get a heads up before her interviews and she give an opportunity for you to post questions that she'll ask the Ologist.

Lateral is one of my go to podcasts. Is full of lateral thinking questions, hosted by Tom Scott with a variety of guests. Is really good fun.

60 songs that explain the 90s.

For comedy:

Distractible - very funny guys. Start with the episode Bob’s Fridge

Hamish and Andy - higher profuction value and hilarious. Very much like a radio show because they used to be radio hosts and are also comedians

Sawbones!

A podcast about medical history with a doctor and an idiot (Justin and Sydney Mcelroy. yes, that Justin Mcelroy)

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Knowledge Fight

Nice Games Club

The film re roll. "We play through your favourite movies as roll playing games and totally ruin them".

Just an excellent podcast. Can't recommend it enough.

Ezra Klein show - it's actually a podcast about US politics which I don't really care about, but they have often very interesting guests and Ezra is a very good interviewer / generally intelligent person with interesting takes.

Lex Fridman - originally about AI, nowadays various intellectual topics with high profile guests. I actually don't really like Lex himself, but fortunately he doesn't speak often.

A bunch of podcasts on Ukraine/Russia - War on the Rocks, The Russia contingency (paid), In Moscow's shadows (Kremlinology). Geopolitics Decanted.

Game design round table

Dan Carlin's hardcore history

Manager tools

Software engineering radio

Freakonomics

For Dutch folks: onbehaarde apen (nrc)

On The Media - a podcast analyzing the media, giving historical and scientific context to news coverage. In the process, it turns out to be the best in depth news shows. Academics and journalists love this show but it doesn’t seem to be as big of a hit with the greater public. I recommend this show very highly.

Also listen to a bunch of nerdy academic podcasts like The Dissenter and New Books in Science, Psychology, Philosophy, etc in the New Books networks.

Hello Internet!

Armchair Expert - interviews with not just actors, musicians, and directors, but also professors, philosophers, authors, etc. The host is very open about his childhood trauma and recovery from addiction. Very interesting intellectual conversations.

Behind the Bastards - really good deep dives into the assholes of our time and prior.

Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet - each episode, the hosts (brother and sister) read real reviews on a certain topic or genre and discuss. The reviews are generally hilarious, ridiculous, and/or crazy.

The Soundtrack Show by David W. Collins! He talks about film scores, how they were made, and many other details. No music knowledge is required. Scroll through the episodes and pick any movie that looks interesting, but EVERY episode is so good!

Risky or Not?

Each short episode discusses one amusingly named food or situation (e.g. “ Unopened Carton of Heavy Cream Almost 3 Weeks Past It's Expiration Date”). Hosted by two food safety experts with good banter.

If you need a laugh:

This Paranormal Life and The Adventure Zone.

This Paranormal Life is a comedy podcast about 2 guys who investigate the paranormal and come down on an answer as to whether they believe the story happened or not. They go into deep detail about the subjects they are talking about in a hilarious but informative way.

The Adventure Zone is a tabletop roleplaying podcast about the McElroy family trying to play roleplaying games and creating amazing stories all in a hilarious way.

Dead Rabbit Radio if you like the paranormal or conspiracy theories without any of the shitty right-wing connotations that come with that community. Jason Carpenter is one of the best podcasters I've listened to and deserved 10x the views he gets.

I'm not affiliated with the show in any way but here's a link to the shows YouTube channel

https://m.youtube.com/@DeadRabbitRadio

A lot of my faves have been mentioned (BtB, wtyppod, Bad Gays), so here's a few I haven't seen lited here.

Discussion Podcasts

It's Not Just In Your Head: Therapists talking about the intersection of mental health, capitalism, and treatments (problems with how we go about it and what we could change).

The War on Cars: What it sounds like, urbanists talking about biking, transit, issues with car oriented development.

Tech Won't Save Us: Interviews with people, having critical conversations of different technologies. Discusses issues of tech, capitalism, surveillance, and more.

Total Liberation: Leftist podcast discussing a variety of topics about the decay of capitalism and how we can recreate and liberate ourselves.

Audio Dramas/Story Podcasts

The Punumbra Podcast: I listen to the Juno Steel series, it's about a private detective on Mars. Great story and characters, a bit more humorous but will also destroy you emotionally in the best way. Also very queer!

The Bright Sessions: People with super powers go to therapy. I really loved the world they created and how they relate the super powers and mental health.

Scare You to Sleep: Scary stories read in a calm voice. The stories are really good, I actually like the hosts original stories that she sometimes reads quite a lot.

Great Lectures - History of ancient egypt

We Might Be Drunk is the podcast I listen to with the most consistency, and definitely worth a listen. Two of my favorite comedians (Mark Norman & Sam Morrill) who are hilarious while also getting into aspects of day to day life.

American History Tellers. I haven't listened to many other podcasts so I can't compare, but it feels like well researched and well told history. I feel like it is filling in the gaps of what was once my least favorite subject.

Probably should learn more world history, not just America, but I'm easing into the subject and America really has a colorful history for our short time so far.

Mission To Zyxx