Favorite Podcasts?

[Zae]

I know a number of people here like podcasts, so I thought it'd be nice to have a place to discuss them and bring attention to ones that really deserve it or find new podcasts to listen to.

 

So, what are your favorite podcasts? And why?

[Eklinaar]

I really like Priority One Podcast, because I'm a big Star Trek nerd.  It's a news podcast about anything Star Trek related, with a focus on conventions and Star Trek video games.  They even have a scientist at JPL come on regularly and talk about the science of Star Trek or recent astronomy news.  I really should listen to Women At Warp, a podcast about the representation and participation of women in Star Trek, which the Priority One hosts strongly recommend.

 

While not strictly a podcast, I'm a huge fan of everything the Auralnauts do.  They do a lot of movie parody stuff, mostly involving really clever video edits and replacing the audio with their own professional-quality audio.  They are the funniest people I've encountered on the internet.  They also do a podcast, largely about their video work, but sometimes totally unrelated.  Their most recent episode was a review of Mortal Kombat: The Album from 1994, just because they wanted to review a 23 year old not-very-good album instead of talk about their video work.

 

The Worst Idea Of All Time is a strange podcast by two Kiwi comedians of questionable judgment who force themselves to watch the same horrible movie once a week for a year and do a podcast about how they slowly lose their grip on reality.  The first year, they did Adam Sandler's Grownups 2, and the second year they did Sex and the City 2, and this year they're doing We Are Your Friends.  The podcast is like a psychological horror.  It's disturbing and hilarious.

 

Acquisitions Incorporated started out as a podcast and has changed formats significantly, focusing on webcasts and live appearances these days.  Initially, it was the creators of the webcomics Penny Arcade and PVP playing Dungeons And Dragons with a Dungeon Master from Wizards of the Coast.  The people involved have changed, but it's still entirely about very funny people playing Dungeons and Dragons.  Their latest series, The C-Team, is hilarious and I often have to stop watching because I'm laughing too hard.  Critical Role is an unrelated D&D webseries, but it's much more dramatic and serious and harder to understand unless you're an enthusiastic D&D player, yourself.  They're both good but I recommend Acq Inc if you were only going to pick one.

 

And, of course, Welcome To Night Vale is amazing and strange, but I'll leave it to other people gush about that.  No spoilers, please, since I'm over a year behind.

[Louis On Air]

My all time favourite is Triforce and it's just 3 guys (Lewis, Sips and Pyrion Flax of the Yogscast) talking about things that annoy them, being parents, video games and situations they've gotten themselves into. It's so hilarious and the way their personalities collide is always a pleasure to listen to. I'd recommend you listen to 13: Portage Killer, 32: Putu, Putu and You, Too, 34: I Don't Care What You Did Last Summer, 43: Alexa: Mother, Sister, Lover. In these they talk about how hard it is to find and kill campers, haggling over such little money in Bali, annoying parents and friends, and Amazon Echo becoming a family member your son says goodnight to every night. Really worth a listen.

[SamwiseLovesLife]

I love The Minimalists podcast. I love their books and blog too (don't forget their videos and documentary) but the podcast is a great 0.5-1.5 hour chunk of easy-listening advice.

I also Like Colin Wright's Podcast 'Let's Know Things' which each week is about a different topic which he intellectually studies (Plus his voice is reeeeeeeeally easy to listen to, like chocolate and cigars)..

[Dodecahedron314]

*bursts into thread* DID SOMEONE SAY PODCASTS?!? Because do I have a podcast list for you. In no particular order:

• Welcome To Night Vale: Duh. It's the podcast gateway drug, and everyone knows it. I like to describe it as "HP Lovecraft plus Monty Python times Salvador Dali to the power of Nietzsche, and also gay". Just trust me on this, it is 100% worth the hype.
• Wolf 359: It starts off as your run-of-the-mill sci-fi story, and then...Things start Happening. There are some truly fantastic character moments sprinkled throughout, and plenty of "OH MY GOD THEY DID NOT JUST DO THAT" to go around.
• The Penumbra Podcast: You need to know exactly three words going into this, and those three words are "gay space noir". You're welcome. There's also a pretty solid fantasy storyline running in a totally different universe, if that's more your speed. Both of these continuities, and a lot of the one-off episodes that crop up occasionally in season 1, are absolutely magnificent at playing up tropes and then subverting them in the most glorious way possible. Also, did I mention canon nonbinary protagonist?!? Because canon. nonbinary. protagonist.  All right, I'll shut up about this podcast now, or else we'll be here all day.
• The Black Tapes/Tanis/Rabbits: I lump all of these into one entry because they're made by the same people, they're all in a very similar format, and if you're into one, you'll probably be into the others as well. Nominally, The Black Tapes is what happens when a journalist investigates a "research institute" offering a cash prize for proof of the paranormal, Tanis is basically the audio equivalent of falling down a really weird 3am Wikipedia rabbit hole involving global conspiracies and mysterious primeval eldritch forces, and Rabbits starts with the narrator searching for her missing friend by delving into the weird game she was looking into when she disappeared--but for all of these, that's only the beginning of a whole mess of intricately interwoven plot threads that come together in the most unexpected, yet satisfying ways.
• Alice Isn't Dead: You know, the podcast made by the Welcome To Night Vale people that isn't Welcome To Night Vale. A trucker goes searching for her missing wife, and gets drawn deeper and deeper into something much bigger than either of them. (Warning: horror/gore in some episodes)
• Our Fair City: Post-apocalyptic Connecticut with mad science and mole people and steampunk and...insurance companies? It's like if Terry Pratchett and George Orwell were the GMs for a Paranoia campaign. Magnificent biting satire, a heck of a lot of worldbuilding, and wonderfully written characters who handle the absurdity and injustice of the world they live in with...maybe not grace, but definitely aplomb, certainly a lot of wisecracks, and sometimes even downright nobility.
• The Bright Sessions: "Therapy for the strange and unusual" is the tagline, and it pretty much does what it says on the tin. Also: character development! A plot that starts off simple enough, but gradually snowballs into something huge! Time travel! Actual positive, sensitive treatment of mental health! A canonically ace main character! All good stuff.
• The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air: Two parts old-timey radio variety show at its finest, one part fairy tale, one part something entirely different but very, very special. It's pretty hard to explain, but just go and listen to it, I promise you won't be disappointed. (This one is also part of the Night Vale Presents network, if that sweetens the deal.)
• The Strange Case of Starship Iris: Firefly deserved more than one season and a movie, and also more queer characters and sophisticated worldbuilding. Thankfully, we have this podcast--it hits all the right notes that Firefly did, but goes about it in a very different but equally awesome way. And it has not one, but two! trans! characters! *throws confetti* There's not much of this one yet (5 episodes, to be exact), but I'm really excited to see where it goes from here.