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A friend asked me for podcast recommendations, and according to Overcast I've had something like 150-160 podcasts come through my doors at various points. Of those, a lot of the subscriptions are inactive now, and a lot of them are niche or just depressing (538, The Economist, etc...), but there are a lot of podcasts that I regularly recommend to people because they're light, or illuminating in ways that make me not mind that I'm recommending more stuff that'll bum people out, or just good for whatever reason. I'm also trying to hit a few different themes of podcasts that I'm aware of, so if you're like "woah I had no idea people did satirical readings of the scripts of classic movies", well, now you know and you can go looking for more like it. I'll try to call those themes out as we go.
Anyway that's a lot of text. Here are a few of those recommendations in no order that I can explain:
Oh wait - one last thing. I went looking for links to these podcasts, but I'm gonna be honest with you: the best way to find these is to use your podcast app of choice and just search for it. I have no idea how you would subscribe to these podcasts from the links I'm providing - they're just the canonical webpages that I get when I ask Overcast for a URL, which isn't that helpful to be honest (although that being said, Overcast is probably the best app to listen to podcasts and the developer is a cool guy who also hosts at least one podcast).
Conan talks to comedians and they joke about how awkward he is and stuff. V relatable for me. Maybe relatable for others. There are a handful of "famous comedian who made the transition to podcasting successfully", but I think Conan's the most accessible comedian that I can think of.
If there's a comedian you like and you haven't seen what they're up to lately, check around - they might be hosting a podcast (or even a recurring guest sometimes). Shit, Macaulay Culkin has a podcast, so if you want to listen to the guy from Home Alone, there's that. And, honestly? I kinda love his podcast; He interviewed Lizzo because it turns out they're old friends.
- The Adam Buxton Podcast is a good listen if you like Adam Buxton and comedians in the British Isles (very specific niche, I know, but you're here, aren't you?). I think I checked out when they were doing some book club thing, which I was already oversubscribed on.
- Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast isn't really my thing but "rants about relationship advice, sports, and the illuminati" is an apt description he gave his own show.
- Bunny Ears is (or was?) a surprisingly lovely podcast with Macaulay Culkin of Home Alone fame.
- Gossipmongers is weird. If you like bizarre British comedy, and specifically Joe Wilkinson, I think you'll revisit that after spending an hour or two listening to that kind of humor play out. But I like it for that weirdness, mostly.
- Griefcast isn't a comedy podcast per se, which is never a strong start, but Cariad Lloyd is a really funny British comedian (I know, more British stuff? Don't need your judgment right now). She interviews other comedians about grief and death and it's painful and funny and leaves me feeling a little more resilient at the end of each episode.
- Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast might not be active anymore. I think the last episode was from December last year. Now that I think about it, they might not know how (or whether) to run a podcast of the "behind the scenes" of a show that's not currently in production, what with the pandemic. The back catalog is fun though.
These British comedians do a funny reading of a famous movie like The Matrix or Shawshank Redemption or Toy Story. It's extremely re-listenable.
- Improvised Star Trek maybe? I'm not sure I know of a lot of examples of this to be honest.
Normally won't recommend news stuff but I really like the hosts. There are a lot of news podcasts out on the internet (probably ~100 or so of the things I've subscribed to, at least 2/3 of the stuff I'm actively subscribed to), and I'm sure you'll find a groove of commentary and news updates and whatnot that satisfies you. But Even More News feels more like you're listening to a conversation about current events than being told what's going on. Give it a listen.
- I'm not going to list any more. Mostly the news-y podcasts play it serious, and while some have a wry wit to them, they're still predomenantly educational, which isn't the theme of this list.
... Except for the next few.
It's like a panel of experts on the topic of the episode, usually a person in history. If you're into history, I think they do a good job of pulling together 4 or 5 experts on each topic from different places all over the world and across the intellectual landscape without bringing on stupid idiots just for drama.
- In Our Time is a little like The Forum, but if I remember correctly the host kinda badgers his guests and interrupts occasionally, which puts me off because I kinda just want to listen to a few smart people talk about what they wanna talk about.
- Infinite Monkey Cage is more science-y and keeps it funny and light. Again, more panels of British people, often a comedian is involved. I have no idea what the entertainment landscape looks like in the UK, but I imagine it's panels of dry-witted comedians making funny comments.
If you've ever seen the show QI, you might wonder where they get all their quite interesting facts from. If you've never seen the show QI, then forget what I just said.
No Such Thing as a Fish is a british podcast where 3 or 4 people talk about the most interesting facts they've learned over the last week sourcing interesting facts for the TV show they write for.
- ??? I don't know? I'll take recommendations on this if you have any.
There are LOTS of good podcasts recapping tv shows episode by episode, and even several about The Office (and even a podcast hosted by two of the major characters), but I like this more. What I'm about to say is going to be sensitive, because this whole "episodic recap of the show" genre is fairly big, and I'm sure I'm going to say something untactful:
I think that podcasts that have no connection to the production team (actors, producers, etc...) feel more earnest and authentic. To give an example, if you listen to The Greatest Generation's early episodes, they really dunk on some of the episodes they cover. They're kinda cringey and bad episodes, but that's the point - they hold back fewer punches. They're not malicious about it, but they're honest about an episode being bad. It's that brutal honesty that makes their praise really valuable - I know they could say it was crap, or even that it was mediocre, so when they say that they really enjoyed an episode, I know it's earned.
By contrast, I have no idea whether two of the actors on The Office are in any position to dunk on bad writing or performances. And that makes their praise less meaningful. I still enjoy listening to them talk about the behind-the-scenes stuff, but a few really keen fans of The Office with strong positive and negative feelings about various episodes seem to come across as deeply genuine. They hated that one episode everyone hates, making the good episodes feel more earned.
Anyway, that's my treatise.
- The Greatest Generation: Like Star Trek? You'll love this. Two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a podcast about Star Trek have several podcasts about Star Trek. Way to go, guys.
- Office Ladies is the official The Office podcast. It's good, but see the above on my caveats.
Ryan Broderick and a few other guys satirically typify the "N guys talking" playlist that I have in Overcast. Ryan writes a lot about internet culture, so this podcast seems like an outlet for him and some of his friends to talk about what's new in memes and stuff. If you don't have time for a podcast and want to read something instead, I recommend Garbage Day newsletter.
I don't know how I have a private feed link, but I do, and I suspect you'll have to subscribe to the newsletter to get it. Don't worry - it's just a bunch of really weird internet culture stuff delivered to your inbox every Friday.
- Reply All maybe? There's kind of a theme of keeping up with weird internet culture, but Reply All is way more structured. They also take phone calls from the public, although I have no idea how that works.
I'll add suggestions to this as I see fit, but I'm at a point where I have maybe 2 days per week where I'm not digging myself out from a mountain of podcast episodes to listen to. What's most likely to happen is that I'll eventually decide to share more of the things I listen to, rather than finding new podcasts.
Then again, I've already started getting DMs asking me to listen and recommend their podcasts, so we'll see what happens.