Darknet Diaries is nothing like every other podcast I've ever listened to. Listened to every episode 2-3x. It's a podcast mostly about social engineering, hacking and cyber security.
Start with episode:
Surprised nobody has mentioned my two favourites:
Most of the other stuff I listen to is either industry specific or fandom/hobby specific.
If you're into gaming I would suggest
Otherwise I really enjoy
On the humorous side:
In no particular order.
Those are the ones I've stuck with. Also:
Stuff You Should Know
Last Podcast on the Left: cryptids, cults, and killers. My go to everyweek they just covered Andrew Cunanan.
Something Rotten: Jacob Geller and Blake Hester analyze darker video games. I love Jacob's youtube channel and Blake Hester has some great insights in this series as well. They are currently covering Silent Hill 2 and just had SuperEyePatchWolf guest star.
I love knowledge fight. About Alex Jones and the conspiracy theory of the day.
The Memory Palace - Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, often a little bit of both.
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They'll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser.
I Spy - True stories told by spies who steal secrets, kill adversaries, and turn agents into double agents. Each episode features one spy telling one dramatic story. Unfortunately, this show seems to be defunct. Still an interesting listen, though!
Limetown - A 22 episode fictional story about the mysterious disappearance of over 300 people from a small town in Tennessee.
The Other Half - Two friends watch the same movieβexcept one only watches the first half, and the other only watches the second half. Then they get together and discuss the film, and try to figure out the context of what they saw.
Hey Riddle Riddle - My favorite podcast at the moment. Three improvisers answer riddles some of the time, and goof off most of the time. They do improvised scenes and have a good time.
Twenty Thousand Hertz - The stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. It's basically 99% Invisible, but for audio.
What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law - Particularly interesting if you live in the U.S., this show takes a look at modern issues and controversies through the lens of constitutional law. You'd think a podcast about legal matters would be dry and obtuse, but the show really is geared for a non-legal-minded audience.
Almost Plausible - My own podcast! A couple of friends and I friends take an ordinary object, such as a pillow, or a ceiling fan, or a toilet brush, and we come up with a movie plot where that object plays a central or critical role. Note: At the time of posting, we have just released our Halloween episode, which breaks from the regular format. So if you go listen to the Pumpkin episode, although it's an entertaining one, it's not representative of the show.
And yes, I listen to all of these and more (but these are the English ones), I really like podcasts...
Recently bigned 85 episodes of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. It's released monthly and hosted by two linguists, one of which is Tom Scott's writer and the other is a linguistics professor in New Zealand.
Darknet Diaries
Intelligence Squared
Sean Carroll's Mindscape
I'm a history buff, so :
-The Age of Napoleon: brilliant podcast that covers the entire Napoleonic era from different angles, currently about halfway, one episode per month
-The history of Rome: finished podcast that goes over every era and emperor in Roman history
Well There's Your Problem - leftist hosted industrial disaster podcast
This Podcast Will Kill You - history of infectious diseases, well-cited and funny
Cinema of Meaning - film nerds think way too much about stuff
Obviously Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is hands down the greatest podcast of all time. Unfortunately, because he does so much research, his turnaround rate on episodes is one of the slowest in the business. That said, there's always his back catalog to take a deep dive into, which is fucking awesome.
I recently discovered:
A toss-up between Philosophise This and the BBC's In Our Time for me. Thinking Allowed is also in the mix and I've recently started Mike Duncan's Revolutions which is proving entertaining too.
Uhh Yeah Dude They've been doing the podcast since 2006, and coming up on their 1000th episode. Listener supposed and ad free. Just two guys trying to figure it all out.
That would be Startalk, with Neil Degrasse Tyson. The only podcast I really follow.
I haven't seen The Always Sunny podcast mentioned yet. If you like IASIP, this is a must listen.
Beautiful / Anonymous with Chris Gethard is my favourite lately. It's essentially an hour-long phone conversation between the host and an anonymous stranger. The anonymity makes people open up and be vulnerable, and Chris is an amazing conversationalist who manages to bring something interesting out of every caller.
Right now I'm listening to The Deprogram. It discusses the problems with capitalism from socialist's perspectives. It's very entertaining
A lot of listeners will recommend Darknet Diaries, Reply All, or My Dad Wrote a Porno. But no t many would recommend Star Talk. A science show with comedians.
A very informative show with laughs throughout. Some episodes follow a specific theme such as a show like Doctor Who, and some episodes would answer listeners questions.
Heavyweight
Welcome to Night Vale
Science Vs
The Debaters
You Made it Weird
A Problem Squared
I dropped the ball a bit on listening to podcasts therefor right now it'd be "This American Life" but normally I also enjoy the Flophouse.
Nextlander, it's some of the OG Giant Bomb guys, I love their video games and industry coverage, and they're such warm comforting guys :-)
If you are into videogames I will definitely hear the video game history foundation podcast
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