My 25 Favorite Podcasts
I thought I’d do a little rundown of my personal, favorite podcasts. These aren’t all necessarily the most popular or the ones with the finest production values, but they are all entertaining to me. I tend to like shows hosted by more than one person and with a loose, improvisational feel. Because of that, fine shows like Leo Lapote’s Tech Guy ended up not keeping my attention.
I’ve also listened to Galactic Watercooler (formerly a BSG show, now a general SciFi show), ScapeCast (Farscape), and The Signal (Firefly) but I found Galactic Watercooler to devote too much time to one subject at a time (no one needed four episodes in a row about Transformers) and the other two lacked the improvisational spirit and banter that I enjoy.
Oh, and I also tried the extremely popular series This American Life, Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, and others. But, I’m 26, not 86.
Note 1: This list, as a general rule, doesn’t include vidcasts.
Note 2: The Ricky Gervais Show, my favorite podcast of all time was left of the list since the show is now released as audiobooks. There is still a Ricky Gervais Show feed on iTunes but aside from one-off podcasts, it is mostly used to promote Ricky’s projects.
The 404 - A fairly casual, generally low brow tech and pop culture show. I like this one because the guys don’t pretend to know what they are talking about if they don’t know. They are very casual, sometimes irreverant and they put their guests at ease. Even when talking about topics like the economy, they manage to be entertaining and informative.
The Adam Carolla Podcast - One of the most popular podcasts. This is Adam Carolla’s daily show where some famous and funny friend joins him just to chat. There is very rarely a set direction but the show is always entertaining and is sometimes hilarious.
The Bugle - Two funny British guys being two funny British guys.
Buzz Out Loud - This might be my favorite tech show. Like The 404, this is a CNet produced show and it is so informative and interesting. They run down the tech news everyday and even though they have an agenda, there is a round-table, chatty feel to the show. A must-listen in my opinion.
Comedy DeathRay Radio - Comedians being funny and occasionally playing funny songs with Jack Black. Guests have included Aziz Ansari, Doug Benson, Aimee Mann, Weird Al, and Kevin Nealon. Look it up. It’s good.
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History - This one is a little hit or miss for me. I love history so some of the topics really grab me and sometimes the show’s discussions are friggin fascinating. But Dan Carlin’s measured cadence occasionally grates on my nerves. Also, without someone to bounce off of, the show occasionally feels like a history lecture. I do enjoy his unique take on various historical topics.
Diggnation - Kevin Rose and his co-host Alex choose interesting stories from Digg and chat and argue about them. They go off on tangents very often but the show is still interesting and occasionally informative.
The Directors Cut Radio Program - Just a nice, in-depth, funny show about movies. It’s a real, syndicated radio show so it has things like call-in listeners and silly contests. But I enjoy the reviews and discussion.
I Love Movies with Doug Benson - This show is filmed before an audience and always includes guests. Doug Benson is very funny (obviously) and his guests are usually fairly high quality. I generally laugh so hard at this show that I can’t listen to it at work. If you like movies and you like funny people, check this show out.
Indie Spotlight - I don’t listen to every episode of this but basically it’s an iTunes produced podcast that highlights new indie music every week. Each show chooses a music genre. I never listen to the hip-hop or electronic shows but I do enjoy the singer-songwriter weeks as well as the rock/alternative weeks.
The Joystiq Podcast - Video games! Just a solid video game review and discussion podcast. Funny guys and a nicely produced show.
Keith and the Girl - This is a funny and crude show. A pair of New Yorkers basically just talk crap about whatever is on their minds. Very entertaining and nicely improvisational.
The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack - This might be my favorite podcast these days. These guys are funny and seem to have a blast dissecting Lost. This show is really helping me fill the long, long wait until season 6.
The Maniacal Rage Podcast - A very random and funny show that doesn’t seem to be about much of anything. In spite of the title of the show, the guys have a very subtle deadpan delivery. My kind of humor.
NPR: All Songs Considered - This show is like college radio. The music is kind of hit or miss but I really enjoy the discussion of whatever aspect of the music industry is the topic of the week.
NPR: Pop Culture Podcast - This show rounds up all the pop culture stories from NPR for each week.
NPR: Science Friday Podcast - I’m a nerd. And this show is awesome.
The Onion Radio News - Just one minute little treats that arrive in my podcaster throughout the day. Typical Onion funny stuff.
Overwhelming Positivity - The creators of Television Without Pity (who have since left the site) put this podcast out very sporadically but it is always funny and is another one I can’t really listen to at work. Tara’s laughter never fails to crack me up. And their recent Twilight episode was so funny.
PRI: The Sound of Young America - This one is a little hit or miss for me too. It’s a basic interview show but I’m generally only interested in about half of the guests. The interviewer really draws me in though and I find the information he gets from his guests to be incredibly interesting. The episode with Jane Lynch in particular was great. I enjoyed hearing about Christopher Guest’s process.
Real Time with Bill Maher - An audio recording of the tv show. Funny stuff if you like Bill Maher.
Slice of SciFi - General scifi discussion. The people are some nerds but so am I. So it works.
SModcast - The crudest of the crude podcasts. But also one of my favorite. This is Kevin Smith’s show with his longtime producer Scott Mosier. Basically they just tell awesome stories and talk to and about their friends for around an hour every week. If you don’t like Kevin Smith’s movies, you won’t like this show. But if you do, this is the show for you. It’s hilarious.
Stuff You Missed in History Class - A great little history show from How Stuff Works. I like this one because they often give a nice lesson on things I don’t know much about. In the last one, they went into detail about the Stonewall Riots. Fascinating.
Stuff You Should Know - This is another How Stuff Works podcast but this one basically just gives info on a variety of topics or myths. They have done shows on Twinkies, Tesla, Ponzi schemes, and deja vu. I love this show.
And that’s why I need a podcast app on my iPhone.
