a16z: long and sometimes overwhelming but in a positive way, with great guests from the tech industry
FT Alphachat: my favorite finance-focused podcast with the least buzz, covering one topic in-depth each time
Global News Podcast: daily from the BBC, great for educating yourself on world issues that you otherwise wouldn't hear about, with lots of primary sources and interviews
Stuff You Should Know: two super easy-to-listen-to geeks, geeking out about various topics from ancient history to dyslexia to how things work :)
Y Combinator: solid tech podcast with top-notch guests, and more focused on practicalities and experiences than a16z's abstract, macro-level ideas
Close are Deutschlandfunk Hintergrund, Planet Money, Reply All, SRF Digital, Echo der Zeit, Reply All, Revisionist History and The New Yorker Radio Hour.
If I have time to catch up or need to fill some time, The Moth, Making Sense, Radiolab, Fresh Air, Ask me Another and Hello from the Magic Tavern.
Are you me? As an add-on to this, you might be interested in Martyrmade. Same style/appeal as Hardcore History, and the latest series is shaping up to be the best one yet.
Clojure/Functional Programming etc.
Hosts: Vijay Kiran, Ray McDermott
https://defn.io
On the other hand Entitles Opinions (about Life and Literature) is one of its kind.
Host: Robert Harrison, professor of Italian Literature at Stanford.
The podcast is aired from KZSU.
https://entitledopinions.stanford.edu
Other personal favorites: The Life Scientific and In Our Time by BBC, also Intelligence Squared.
I'm down to two a week and often will re-listen to them throughout the week and pick out different topics.
[0] The Giant Bombcast
[1] The Giant Beastcast
I use to listen to more, but I feel like their quality dropped and many have since they jumped the Patreon Shark. I already subscribe to Giant Bomb, so I'm not looking to pay for yet another service either. Especially when the quality is less.
Where Should Ee Begin? with Esther Perel. Each episode is a real, one-shot couples therapy session. The therapist has a deep understanding of human behavior and a way of making the couples (and the listener!) pay careful attention. This American Life played one as a guest episode and I immediately sought out the rest of them.
Different opinion - I have some interest in the topics he covers but I cannot listen to someone speak with such indifference in their voice for long periods of time. I've tried to listen to his podcast a few times and have never been able to get past the monotone delivery.
Mindscape with Sean Carroll. Interview format with a wide range of accomplished guests and interesting topics -- including physics from time to time, as the host is a physicist.
Making Sense with Sam Harris (formerly called Waking Up). He has some really great episodes with intellectually stimulating content and guests, but occasionally he misses the mark or gets caught up in some unnecessary controversy. The episode summaries are very helpful for choosing which episodes are valuable to listen to.
Meta note: I'm a huge fan of the long-interview format which gives a unique opportunity to have these expansive discussions on complex and interesting in the public space. I'd love to find more like the above.
- Dan Carlin's Hardcode History - hardly been regular lately
- Casefile True Crime
- Darknet Diaries - surprised I haven't seen this one mentioned more here
- Intrigue: The Ratline - it's only a set number of episode but I just finished it. Philippe Sands, who sounds like Alan Rickman, investigates this senior Nazi who disappears after the war.
FT Alphachat: my favorite finance-focused podcast with the least buzz, covering one topic in-depth each time
Global News Podcast: daily from the BBC, great for educating yourself on world issues that you otherwise wouldn't hear about, with lots of primary sources and interviews
Stuff You Should Know: two super easy-to-listen-to geeks, geeking out about various topics from ancient history to dyslexia to how things work :)
Y Combinator: solid tech podcast with top-notch guests, and more focused on practicalities and experiences than a16z's abstract, macro-level ideas