History podcast from the BBC : You’re dead to me

I enjoy 'This American life, depends on the topic but it can be very interesting.

If you’ve heard of QI from the BBC there is No such thing as a fish when they talk about a couple facts they’ve read. I find it pretty funny too.

Mike Duncan is doing a new seasons of Revolutions about the Mars revolution (fictional of course) but before he did a bunch of others including the Mexican and French revolutions which I particularly enjoyed.

Blowback does seasons about bad US foreign policy. For news about US foreign policy there is also American Prestige.

Also listen to 15 minutes history from the University of Austin Texas. They just did something about the King of Haïti for example. They do new topics each episode.

Also another history one if MartyrMade.

And Trillbilly Workers podcast because I like to have no clue what they’re talking about lol

Podcasts are my thing. I’ve got you covered.

Depends on what you’re into:

More or Less: Behind the Stats - analysis of some statistic from the news

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - what science says about how to be happy

The Audio Long Read - long form articles from the Guardian newspaper

You Are Not So Smart - cognitive science related. How we know things, our biases, how our thinking is flawed, etc.

Dan Snow’s History Hit - One of the few history podcasts I really like

Short History Of… - a short history of some specific thing

The Forum - expert panel discussion about some topic

Behind the Bastards - Very well known podcast focusing on some bastard personality

CrowdScience - in depth investigation of a listener science question

Radiolab - in depth investigation of a topic of their interest. Quite broad scope.

Unexpected Elements - a very varied mix of discussions around a science topic from the news

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Tim Harford is the podcast king for me. This show is a deep dive into something that went wrong in news or history, and an investigation of all the systemic failures around it. It tries to show how blame is hardly ever warranted on a single person and the systems are at fault.

The Martin Lewis Podcast - UK consumer advocate and saving guru

Show Me The Meaning! A Wisecrack podcast - a couple of philosophers talk about a movie

The Inquiry - a deep dive into a news story

Revisionist History - Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about a range of different things

The Law Show - UK legal system issues

The Infinite Monkey Cage - comedy science panel show

The Supermassive Podcast - space related podcast

File on 4 investigates - detailed story from deep investigative journalism

Thinking Allowed - light philosophical ramblings

When It Hits the Fan - two public relations experts talk about PR issues from current events

Discovery - science related. Currently mostly doing shows about “a life scientific” I.e. talking to a scientist about their life

Overthink - philosophy made accessible

What It’s Like To Be… - a person from a particular occupation talks about their job

People Fixing the World - people from different parts of the world fixing some local problem in their community in a creative way

Hidden Brain - my absolute favourite. Cognitive science related. Explains how the brain works and how to use the understanding to male your own love better.

Within Reason Your Parenting Mojo - evidence based parenting. Can be a very dry long-winded research presentation, but this has improved my parenting (and life) immensely

sideways - different ideas and how to look at things differently

Darknet Diaries - stories from the dark underbelly of the internet

The Reith Lectures - once a year short lecture series, but well worth listening to the backlog

Evil Genius with Russell Kane - comedians discuss how some villains from history weren’t so bad and how some heroes from history were terrible people

Owls at Dawn - ramblings of a couple of philosophers

Sound of Gaming - excellent music show about music soundtracks from videogames

Playing god? - medical ethics discussion

30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

A History of the World in 100 Objects - this series has ended but it is worth listening to the backlog

I would also recommend the podcast series made to accompany the Chernobyl and Last of Us TV series.

S Town - a nice fiction mini series drama story.

Behind the Bastards has already been shouted out a lot. And I’m sure lots of folks on lemmy are big fans of Robert Evans as it is, but I haven’t seen It Could Happen Here or friend of both those pods Knowledge Fight mentioned. Both well worth listening to

13 Minutes to the Moon

Season 1 is essential listening. It’s not very long, and takes you through the journey of putting astronauts on the moon with tech far less advanced that what you’re reading this on. It came sooooo close to failure on more than one occasion. When that lander touched down, it had something like 8 seconds of fuel left.

Season 2 is the story in detail of the Apollo 13 mission. If you loved Season 1 and want more, then go right ahead. I liked season 2, but nowhere near as much.