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Any Interesting (Not Disturbing) Podcasts?

I used to listen to long form essays on Youtube. My favourite ones either break down the history of a conspiracy, teach me something new and cool about the world, or explore a hobby I've never been interested in.

I don't like the ones about killers or heavy drama. I also don't like podcasts that spend half the time reading the latest news from [topic] in verbatim .

What are some podcasts you can recommend me while I chip away at other things?

125 comments

  • General deep dives on random topics:

    • secretly incredibly fascinating
    • stuff you should know

    stuff about the animal world:

    • creature feature

    linguistics and how we communicate:

    • lexicon valley
    • lingthusiasm

  • Idk if it will fit your vibe, but I'll always take the opportunity to shout out Astonishing Legends.

  • I know it's older but recently I've been listening to Ologies by Allie Ward. She explores all the different types of science, she's funny, and she finds people who are really passionate about their field of work.

  • My unmentioned favourite is Jordan Harbinger Show, he invites various guests and comes well prepared for an interview, about topics like psychology, geopolitics, etc. Kinda like Joe Rogan but less stupid, not conspiracy minded and not right wing.

  • Tides of History is a very well-produced history podcast that deals with ancient history. It tells history in an engaging way and is founded in recent scholarship.

    Podcasting is Praxis, a funny politics podcast made by British communists.

    Blowback, all the praise heaped upon it is absolutely justified. Listen to it.

    We Are Not So Different, an entertaining podcast about medieval history. It has a leftist outlook on things and treats medieval people like people and avoids romanticising as well as looking down on them.

    A People's History of Ideas. An amazingly detailed history of the Chinese revolution with offshoots into international Maoism. If you want to listen to an episode about how CPC safehouses worked in Shanghai in the early 1930's, this is a podcast for you.

  • Pendejo Time.

    Jake, a recovering cokehead, trauma dumps about his time as a drug addicted fuck up and his dead father while his friend Thomas grunts out his fever fantasies about talking animals while googling different types of dicks.

    Scratches the same itch as cumtown.

  • A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs - This is one of my favorite podcasts, but I'm going to warn you it's not for everybody. The creator of this show, Andrew Hickey, is THOROUGH. A great example is the most reason episode about Hey Jude. Either you will love the concept of a 3.5-hour episode where 80% of the podcast is not about the song but rather the circumstances and lives of The Beatles, Yoko Ono, and the late 1960s music scene leading up to the creation of Hey Jude, or you will be furious that so much of the episode is about stuff that isn't the song.

  • The History of Rome by Mike Duncan is amazing. It's a decent commitment but once I started I ate it up.

  • Not sure if it would appeal or not, but I've spent a good chunk of this year listening to How Other Dads Dad by Hamish Blake, here in Australia. Just a semi-light-hearted look at dadding in the 21st century.

  • "our fake history" is a pretty good match to what you're describing. It's a relatively light hearted, rigorously researched, history podcast with a focus on misunderstood historical figures and events.

    "The plastic plesiosaur podcast" is a really fun podcast more focused on cryptids and pop science.

    One of the host to plastic plesiosaur has a YouTube channel called "trey the explainer" which is worth a watch.

    And if you like low key, entertaining deep dives into machining or tech, check out "technology connections," "this old Tony," and "tech moan."

  • Go Fact Yourself is my favorite podcast. It's a quiz style podcast where two (usually minor) celebrities come on the show and answer questions about 3 topic they choose for themselves that they are an expert in, but outside their field of work.

    It's very interesting to hear these successful people talk about things they're not really known for, like the music they love, or a movie or sometimes niche topics like marathon running.

    Now the really interesting part is they bring on special guests who are experts in the chosen topic to award the points. The guests that they get for this are the real treat of the show. First, you have someone showing off about how much they love a topic, then they get someone really involved to give great in depth details! For instance, someones topic was the Evil Dead movies, and the special guest was Bruce Campbell! He was so awesome to hear talking about the movies. The experts are almost always awesome, from movie directors to the songwriters for Frozen, to book writers on the topic, they're almost always amazing to listen to.

    There are a couple of other segments of the show that are also well done. There's a "what's the difference" round that always makes me think. Like, what's the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery? Or what's the difference between roasting and baking?

    The hosts are great fun too. J. Keith is the master of punny segues, and Helen Hong is a pretty good co-host. All in all, highly recommended!

  • The Dork Forest, the host invites on somebody to talk about whatever they are really in to. It's ranged from a comedienne talking about comedy, to a pen and paper Marvel/DC super hero RPG history/mechanics, to the Sailor Moon anime series. Its pretty chill and usually a decent listen.

    The Past Times, its by the two hosts of The Dollop. (Sometimes Dave and/or Gareth will get wound up and stuck on a bit that can get cringy as it goes on too long.) Dave gets a newspaper from some point in the past and Gareth and whoever they've invited on just riff on the headlines, the content of the articles/advertisements/classifieds, etc. A bit hit or miss, but its decent for having on in the background where you aren't really trying to pay too much attention to it.

    The Dollop is alright. Dave reads stuff about an historical event or person to Gareth and sometimes a guest. Everybody riffs on it. Sometimes the jokes are a bit gross and go on for too long. I'd recommend their sports episodes as a person who is not interested in the watching or playing of sports but I do find myself amazed about the history behind leagues, games, competitions, players, coaches, owners sometimes. Some of the episodes can get pretty dark due to the subject of the episode though.

    It ended quite a while ago but, The West Wing Thing, is a pretty long series that follows a popular USA TV series "The West Wing" and the slow descent into maddness by the two hosts and their guests as they watch (almost) every episode and discuss what they watched.

125 comments