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The podcast marketplace is overstuffed with comedians goofing off, insubstantial interview shows, longwinded human interests stories, and current event deep-dives. But there are plenty of podcasts out there that focus on informational or historical content that can provide deep insight, reveal new perspectives on things you thought you knew, or just can shine some factual light on interesting subjects. Here are a few of my favorites: Hardcore History The mother of all history podcasts, Dan Carlin goes in depth in a way that most podcasts don’t even approach. From 20+ hour series on the fall of the Roman republic and the rise of the Mongol Empires to one-off shows on the impact of drugs and alcohol on history and the great lies of our past, Carlin attempts to take a well-rounded look at our collective history. My recommended first episode: It’s gotta be Death Throes of the Roman Republic: Part I. The rest of the series continues on for quite some time, but this really lets you sink your teeth into Carlin’s style.  Stuff You Missed in History Class The people from How Stuff Works tackle a topic each week about the bits of history that have slipped through the cracks including how influential Nikola Tesla actually was, the early wars between rival paleontologists, India’s own Joan of Arc, the actual historical accounts of Spring Heeled Jack, the “Indiana Jones of Botany”, and much, much more. Good research, interesting subjects, and charismatic hosts. My recommended first episode: You really can’t go wrong here, but a recent favorite of mine was the story behind the woman behind Madame Tussad’s wax museum.  In Our Time Actually a BBC Radio 4 broadcast, each week Melvyn Bragg gets together with three expert University professors to discuss a new topic relating to culture, history, philosophy, religion, or science. Dry, but extremely informative. My recommended first episode: Think you know about the Library of Alexandria? You’re probably wrong.  This American Life I’d be remiss to not include This American Life, Ira Glass’s show that tells the true stories of (usually) real people based on a weekly theme. Incredible storytelling and editing, amazing insight into other slices of life. My recommended first episode: Honestly, they’re all incredible. The first one I saw in the archive that jumped out to me was Switcheroo  Skeptoid Brian Dunning turns a skeptical eye on conspiracy theories, popular misconceptions, and historical mysteries. From Bigfoot and Lost Cosmonauts to organic farming and pit bull attacks, Brian systematically breaks down not only the history of these myths and fabrications, but the poor arguments and logical fallacies behind their supporters perspectives. My recommended first episode: His recent episode on The Bermuda Triangle really opened my eyes to the myth in a way I’d never heard anyone approach it before.  History of Rome It’s right there in the name. You can’t get much more straightforward than that: Mike Duncan breaks down the history of Rome in chronological order. A little dry, but in a good way. My recommended first episode: Right at number one.  China History Podcast Similar to the History of Rome podcast, but without the chronological order. My recommended first episode: Can’t go wrong with The Ming Dynasty.  Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir Fantastic discussion of classic film noir without the bad jokes and uneducated perspectives you get with most film podcasts. Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards are actual experts on the subject, and really go in depth when it comes to the films involved. My recommended first episode: Can’t go wrong with everyone’s favorite neo-noir, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Though if you’re in the mood for more classic fare, nobody could object to The Maltese Falcon.  The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith Jeff Goldsmith gets access to some of the most interesting screenwriters in Hollywood and tries to get in depth in the process of how they wrote their scripts, and how the films translated from page to screen. He’s publishing a new iPad magazine these days, so he’s often able to get the screenwriters from very recent big movies. Amazing insight. My recommended first episode: The first one that really blew my mind was the Rise of the Planet of the Apes one.  Radiolab Despite having its own thread, it's worth including: Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich provide short documentary pieces with the sort of kinetic energy and editing that most podcasts lack. Their podcasts tend to focus on science, often with the philosophical implications thereof. My recommended first episode: Again, can’t really go wrong. Talking to Machines is one of my personal favorites off the top of my head, though. e: quote:Zorak wrote: If anyone else want to contribute podcasts and blurbs for the OP, let me know! I'd prefer this to steer away from podcasts with lots of jokes or banter, but if you absolutely love a podcast that has either but is also primarily informative go for it. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Feb 6, 2013 08:56
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Holy poo poo, thanks for the comprehensive OP there. I've been wanting to learn more about China's long history and it never occurred to me for some reason that there might be a podcast that deals with that very thing. I wish I have a recommendation but you've already mentioned that the only one that I knew.
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Feb 6, 2013 21:58
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Jesus christ wow, I was just thinking of asking for reccomendations on this sorta thing! Gonna start subscribing and listening now, thanks!
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Feb 6, 2013 22:39
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Have to chime in for Hardcore History. I started listening about a week ago with the Death Throes of the Roman Republic and I'm most the way through now and it's been really entertaining. Also Carlin's got a nice talk-radio style soothing voice so it makes listening to hours of him describing battles and the ins and outs of ancient political intrigue even better.
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Feb 7, 2013 00:37
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feedmyleg posted:The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith Wow. Listened to a couple of episodes today (Drive & Martha Marcy May Marlene) and it looks like this podcast is going to take up a lot of my time. Thanks! Edit: Having listened to a few more episodes, Jeff Goldsmith is a good interviewer and asks a lot of great questions, however, his 'California dude' tone of voice and phrases are starting to get a little annoying. Constantly referring to the interviewee as 'man' and ending every episode with 'and that's how the Q&A went down'. To contribute, The Memory Palace is a monthly podcast that consists of a short (anywhere from 1min to 15min) interesting story from history. Sometimes it's an unbelievably insane story, sometimes it's beautiful and heartbreaking. Being so short it doesn't take long to sample a few episodes, but Nee Weinberg is one that immediately comes to mind as being particularly good. tnimark fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 7, 2013 01:43
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These are great! I've been listening to Hardcore History, I've already listened Thor's Angels and I'm most of the way through Wrath of the Khans. He seems to repeat himself a lot but it's very interesting.
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Feb 9, 2013 01:23
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Excellent thread idea, thanks for posting it! Writing Excuses My favorite writing podcast is only about 15 minutes an episode, but it comes out like clockwork every Sunday night and the archive is huge. The hosts discuss mainly genre fiction -- probably a given since most of their work falls into fantasy, sci-fi, or horror -- but the myriad topics they cover can be applied to almost any creative writing. Also, their different experiences and methods keep the advice pretty well-rounded, and business concerns are addressed as well as craft. Most writing podcasts I've listened to can hit on concepts that work or don't work in fiction, but Writing Excuses beats them all for depth of insight and how concisely it pins down why things work. It probably helps that several of the hosts have taught creative writing to some degree. Sample episode: Line Editing Self Publishing Podcast Self-publishing and ebooks are changing the face of the creative writing industry. Everyone's sort of learning what fails or succeeds as they go, so it's invaluable when people who know how to make a living from self-publishing share their knowledge with the rest of the world. These guys have all been down that road, and so have their successful guests like Wool's Hugh Howey, for example. The cons: I hesitate to recommend this to some of my more professional friends, because in a lot of the episodes the hosts spend a while throwing around lame sex jokes and "LOL gently caress you!" It can come across as kind of awkward, like they've listened to too many comedy podcasts and are trying to emulate that feel without realizing it's totally okay to just have a straightforward show about business. Also, compared to some other writing podcasts like the one above, their craft episodes can come across as babby's first intro to writing. But once they stop loving around -- which is usually quickly -- they share some hard-earned knowledge about the self-publishing experience and the practicalities you only learn from being on the inside. Crisco Kid fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Feb 19, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 06:28
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Here goes. If you like Skeptoid you should like The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. Homepage: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/skeptics-guide-to-universe/id128859062  Also if you can endure the good natured humour of Brian Cox and Robin Ince... The Infinite Monkey Cage is always an easy 30 minutes of science discussion. Homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/timc iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-infinite-monkey-cage/id343580439 Others I'm too lazy to link atm: On the Media - An excellent look at contemporary media. Naked Astronomy - one of many Astronomy podcasts. Point of Inquiry - Podcast of the Center for Inquiry. Startalk Radio Show with Neil DeGrasse Tyson - usually good but you have to look past the constant breaks and comedians. Cognitive Dissonance - Another atheist and skepticism podcast. Finally, even though its mostly hilarious banter but still educational, can't go past the weekly wrap up from Oliver and Zaltzman at The Bugle.
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Feb 10, 2013 08:20
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MostlyLucid posted:Naked Astronomy - one of many Astronomy podcasts. Going to listen to this now after having listened to a bunch of Astronomy Cast. What I like about Astronomy Cast is how wide they cast their net. I particularly enjoyed their five part series on the history of astronomy and them covering interstellar travel, as well as their three part series on Mars which, unlike other astronomy podcasts I've seen, covers things like the colonization of Mars and terraforming Mars. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Mar 4, 2013 |
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Mar 4, 2013 04:26
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There used to be a thread in this forum about Econtalk so I'll recommend it again. I don't imagine the host's politics align too well with the user base here but he doesn't harp on them much at all, is a very good interviewer, and gets a lot of good guests. Most of it is related to social science. This one had an eye-opening discussion about the African American prison population and this one is about the realities of life as an organic farmer, which both seem like good jumping off points to me from what I remember of them. Oh and they just had one about what it's like to work at Valve (sounds awesome).
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Mar 5, 2013 04:14
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I just discovered 99% Invisible yesterday. http://99percentinvisible.org/ It's a podcast devoted to discussions on architecture and design and how they affect real people in the real world. It's as fascinating as RadioLab and as well-produced. The episodes tend to run 10-15 minutes, occasionally longer. The producer, Roman Mars, has a great voice and a great "attitude" as he presents, but most of the meat of the episodes is presented by experts or commentators concerned with whatever the topic is. Recommended 1st Episode: 68 - Built For Speed - http://99percentinvisible.org/post/37800145222/episode-68-built-for-speed - "I want you to conjure an image in your mind of the white stripes that divide the lanes of traffic going the same direction on a major highway. How long are the stripes and the spaces between them? You can spread your arms out to estimate if you want to. Over the course of many years, a psychology researcher named Dennis Schafer at Ohio State asked students from many different parts of the country this question and the most common response was that the white stripes are two feet long. Tom Vanderbilt, author of the brilliant book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), reveals the real answer and some of the other perceptual countermeasures that are designed to make you feel comfortable going way faster than your brain can adequately process."
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Mar 8, 2013 02:43
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Does cooking count? Alton Brown (the guy who does the Good Eats cooking shows) is hinting on his twitter that he's going to start a podcast over at Nerdist.  (yes, he answers tweets by writing on Stick-It notes.) Odd podcast name aside, it should be worth checking out. Good Eats was a great (albeit sometimes corny) "Cooking 101" kind of TV series, and I imagine the podcast will continue the trend.
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Mar 17, 2013 21:18
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That's awesome, Good Eats was/is awesome. Not sure Brown Cast is a great name, however.
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Mar 18, 2013 07:53
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Skeptoid should be right up my alley, but goddamn is Brian Dunning's voice pretty much the definition of smug. It makes the whole affair borderline-unlistenable.
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Mar 20, 2013 02:31
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Just subscribed to In Our Time and Hardcore History. This sounds perfect for my commutes to work everyday. I'm already a big fan of TAL and RadioLab so I'm hoping these will be great additions/complements.
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Mar 21, 2013 02:33
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I like In Our Time but the pace kind of exhausts me. I wish it was a bit longer and the host gave the experts some breathing room to expand on some stuff.
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Mar 21, 2013 15:01
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Drunkboxer posted:I like In Our Time but the pace kind of exhausts me. I wish it was a bit longer and the host gave the experts some breathing room to expand on some stuff. I've always gotten the impression that the host wants to go on longer but the station kind of hurries them out of the studio when their time is up.
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Mar 21, 2013 15:11
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C-Euro posted:I've always gotten the impression that the host wants to go on longer but the station kind of hurries them out of the studio when their time is up. Oh yeah I think that's clearly whats going on. It's most frustrating when its a biographical episode about a historical figure, because the little things about a person are sometimes the most interesting. They'll start to go onto an interesting tangent but ol' taskmaster Bragg whips them back into a discussion of the big picture.
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Mar 21, 2013 15:15
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It's probably also because they try to keep it fairly mainstream (for a British radio show on history, philosophy and science, anyway) and they're worried people will zone out. Also, holy poo poo, I listened to the Talking Machines episode of Radiolab. Not only is the production quality great, but the subject matter itself was a combination of hilarious, creepy and fascinating.
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Mar 21, 2013 15:30
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Drunkboxer posted:Oh yeah I think that's clearly whats going on. It's most frustrating when its a biographical episode about a historical figure, because the little things about a person are sometimes the most interesting. They'll start to go onto an interesting tangent but ol' taskmaster Bragg whips them back into a discussion of the big picture. I really wish they would do an Internet only extension of the show. Kind of like the Daily Show always cuts interviews short and then may decide to throw the rest of it up on the web. I know they have to fight for studio time, but who knows.
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Mar 21, 2013 15:42
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I'm a big fan of Ideas from CBC Radio. Some of the recent episodes that I've really liked were a three part series on the Knights Templar, a discussion on public parking spaces and the history of plans for a British warship built from an iceberg during WW2. Also from CBC is Under the Influence (formerly called The Age of Persuasion), about advertising and marketing. Every week, Terry O'Reilly takes a topic like marketing during a crisis or marketing to women and brings up three examples of companies that have done something noteworthy. Last one that I haven't seen mentioned is Planet Money from NPR. It's an informative look at economics without being dry. They look at topics ranging from the European Debt Crisis to the decreasing amount of competition in the beer industry. They had a fun couple of episodes where they bought shell companies and talked about all of the things that they could do with them last year. Planet Money manages to take imposing aspects of global economics and make them accessible and entertaining.
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Mar 24, 2013 04:40
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Rockzilla posted:Also from CBC is Under the Influence (formerly called The Age of Persuasion), about advertising and marketing. Every week, Terry O'Reilly takes a topic like marketing during a crisis or marketing to women and brings up three examples of companies that have done something noteworthy. Nice, I didn't realize this show was still on! Yeah it's a great look at advertising, especially when O'Reilly breaks down campaigns he worked on. The older episodes with Mike Tennant are worth checking out, too.
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Mar 24, 2013 16:22
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I've been a fan of Hardcore History since a goon turned me onto it a few years ago. The 4 part "Ghosts of the Ostfront" episodes which covers the WW2 Eastern Front (GER vs. RUS) is a loving masterwork as far as long form podcasts go. The episodes are riveting/horrifying and at 4 parts I feel the length is just right. I've listened to the Ostfront series probably 5 times over the last couple years. I subscribe to lots of podcasts of all different genres but nothing makes me happier than when a new Hardcore History shows up in the feed. That being said I'm much more a fan of (relatively) modern history vs. the ancient stuff so I'm happy that he is done with the Khan series. Outside of the stellar Ostfront 4 parter (it's available as a single audio book now) I'd recommend other WW2 buffs to purchase the "back issues" titled - "The Organization of Peace" - Details the joke that was the League of Nations and how it lead to WW2 "Scars of the Great War" - Looks at the horror of WW1 and the effect it had on the world's psyche, which lead to the wacky interwar period and ultimately WW2 "Desperate Times" - A detailed look at the people who are known as "The Greatest Generation" and analyzes how WW1 and the Great Depression may or may not have toughened people up "Nazi Tidbits" - Musings about Hitler and why people find the Nazi story so fascinating "Bubonic Nukes" - A look back at the Black Death and imagining what it must have been like to live through seemingly apocalyptic conditions. Not World War related but still great.
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Mar 27, 2013 20:12
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Yeah Hardcore History owns, the recent Mongol series was very informative.
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Mar 27, 2013 20:16
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Eltoasto posted:Yeah Hardcore History owns, the recent Mongol series was very informative. I like how it was basically a take down of Jack Weatherford's book and he never mentioned the name of it throughout the whole thing.
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Mar 27, 2013 20:22
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:I've been a fan of Hardcore History since a goon turned me onto it a few years ago. The 4 part "Ghosts of the Ostfront" episodes which covers the WW2 Eastern Front (GER vs. RUS) is a loving masterwork as far as long form podcasts go. The episodes are riveting/horrifying and at 4 parts I feel the length is just right. I've listened to the Ostfront series probably 5 times over the last couple years. I'm the exact opposite. I didn't discover that I loved history until my mid 20s because 90% of my exposure to it was WWII which I find quite boring. Either that or Civil War and American Revolution in school, which I find equally dreadful. I've heard that the Ostfront episodes are really well done, but I just can't get into post-medieval history; it just doesn't set my imagination running. Military History Podcast seems like it has a nice mix of the two, though.
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Mar 28, 2013 00:49
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feedmyleg posted:
This is a really interesting show, if for no other reason than its breadth of material, but drat does the host need to stop mouthbreathing into his mic. It is super distracting. Hardcore History is really amazing, though.
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Mar 28, 2013 16:30
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Yeah, thanks for the Hardcore History recommendation. It's quickly becoming my favorite non-comedy podcast.
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Mar 29, 2013 03:54
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12 Byzantine Rulers As someone who knew almost nothing about them before listening to the podcast, it seems to offer a pretty decent account of their rise from the ashes of the Roman Empire through their fall that I found pretty informative.
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Mar 29, 2013 04:53
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Dan Carlin via his message board posted:
I hope he winds up releasing it! I wonder what the subject will be?
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Apr 4, 2013 17:45
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I really do like Skeptoid a lot, though sometimes I wish it was longer. His Jack the Ripper episode I think could've done with being double the length because there's a lot of interesting things to go through there. He does pack a surprising amount of information into 15 minutes though.
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Apr 5, 2013 23:16
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:I hope he winds up releasing it! I wonder what the subject will be? How long was the 'old' Hardcore History, anyway? Was it shorter (less than 1 hour) in the past? Hardcore History is so long I was kind of surprised when an episode of 12 Byzantine Rulers was just so incredibly short.
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Apr 8, 2013 09:12
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toanoradian posted:How long was the 'old' Hardcore History, anyway? Was it shorter (less than 1 hour) in the past? Most of the older episodes were less than an hour. After he started doing multipart episodes (with Ostfront) most clocked in from 1 to 2 1/2 hours. The only reason he did that mammoth 5 or 6 hour podcast was to finally wrap up the Rome series. He has said over and over that he wants to start just doing stand alone episodes but he gets wrapped up in a subject and it must be turned into a series.
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Apr 9, 2013 20:04
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I really want to like Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Startalk, but I can't stand the format. I wish he would just post the interviews, rather than playing clips of them and then discussing them with other people. It is too choppy. The live shows are good though.
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Apr 12, 2013 17:15
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Yeah, I just stumbled across Startalk and I thought the exact same thing. They'd start getting into an interesting topic and then pow, another break! Maybe it's formatted to fit onto terrestrial radio but it's a bummer that they assume the listener has such a short attention span.
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Apr 13, 2013 10:26
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Startalk's format completely ruins it for me. Which is disappointing because I love Neil Degrasse Tyson. Hardcore History and The History of Rome are amazing though. I highly recommend listening to every episode.
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Apr 15, 2013 02:12
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Homeless Wonder posted:Startalk's format completely ruins it for me. Which is disappointing because I love Neil Degrasse Tyson. This is how I feel about the majority of talk podcasts. It's really unfortunate. That being said, my new favorite podcast is The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show. The concept is that the host interviews people who have had interesting jobs outside of the mainstream. Want to learn about what it's like to be the designer for a billion people on Facebook? Or host and be involved in the technical aspects of a 90s gameshow in Legends of the Hidden Temple? Or learn about what it's like to be a roller coaster designer? Or direct high quality porn parodies? Or run High Times magazine? Or create Settles of Catan? Or write Perry Bible Fellowship? Or be the top commenter on Reddit? Or run The Alamo Drafthouse? Or dozens of other fascinating positions? It's pretty incredible not only the scope of guests he tends to get, but also how in-depth he tends to be able to dive as an interviewer. This isn't just some fluff interview podcast, it's all about what it's like to have a fascinating, amazing job - both the ups and downs, seeing it for what it is realistically from their point of view. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 08:48 on Apr 18, 2013 |
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Apr 15, 2013 04:57
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The Jeff Rubin show sounds really interesting, I'm going to download a few episodes now.
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Apr 16, 2013 07:25
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feedmyleg posted:This is how I feel about the majority of talk podcasts. It's really unfortunate. I just listened to the Legends of the Hidden Temple episode and this is a loving awesome podcast! I'm subscribed and will be burning through a ton of these. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Apr 16, 2013 15:10
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feedmyleg posted:The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show
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Apr 18, 2013 08:47
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