Another 'what podcasts are you listening to?' thread (End times edition)

[Ja'moke]

Anyone got any good recommendations for podcasts about early internet/history of internet/weird internet stories?

I really liked the recent Jon Ronson Things Fell Apart podcast which covered some of that stuff.

And I've started Red Web, which goes into odd internet mysteries and true crime stuff.

But open to other suggestions.

[jonbob]

Darknet Diaries, it's more focused on cyber security and hacking than weirdos from the internet, but there are some strange stories there

[surreal]

I've been trying to get more into podcasts, this is a useful thread - interested to know when people either find the time or the space to actually listen to so much stuff.  I always listen to music while reading but feel that podcasts would require more attention, and while I see they could replace TV time I'm not sure I could just sit there and blankly listen as I do when I watch TV.

[Funcrusher]

Darknet Diaries, it's more focused on cyber security and hacking than weirdos from the internet, but there are some strange stories there

Cheers, that looks really interesting. Will give it a go.

[shagatha crustie]

I've been trying to get more into podcasts, this is a useful thread - interested to know when people either find the time or the space to actually listen to so much stuff.  I always listen to music while reading but feel that podcasts would require more attention, and while I see they could replace TV time I'm not sure I could just sit there and blankly listen as I do when I watch TV.

It took me a while to get into podcasts too. The best time I find is when you're doing tasks which require 'flow' without total mental concentration - cooking, shopping, laundry, cleaning the house, whatever. I still prefer to listen to music when I'm out and about but it's extra satisfying to complete a 'life admin' job and feel like you've listened to something fun or learned something in the process. I don't think I've ever sat and just listened to a podcast without doing anything else, unless stoned.

[Pink Gregory]

Dead easy for me, because I work on my own most of the time and I burn through podcasts to the point where I have a £40 odd a month Patreon bill.

Couldn't do without them though, might unsub from Book Shambles if Robin Ince doesn't do another series of Uncanny Hour, which was really, really good.

[samadriel]

Lately I've been enjoying The Ladies Guide to Dude Cinema for an alternative (ie, two Aussie girls in their late 20s early 30s) take on many 60s-thru-00s films that "dudes" have been insisting they watch since they were in school. Sometimes they're a smidge too ignorant for me to stomach (they admit as much, it's partly the point of the show), but I can't deny that their naive perspective is also often fascinating, and it's great when they unexpectedly love something like Apocalypse Now or Bloodsport. The "did you find this film horny?" section is always a treat, with lots of unexpected crushes coming up (Robert Patrick? Who knew).
 A Kumite to you!

[paruses]

That's my podcast! Glad you enjoy it. I'll look into getting it added onto Podbean. Didn't realise it wasn't on there.

It's a great podcast. Have been meaning to give it a mention especially as I was convinced at least one of you was a CaBber.

Am couple episodes behind but have you changed where you get the milk prices from? They can't be right!

[Icehaven]

I've been trying to get more into podcasts, this is a useful thread - interested to know when people either find the time or the space to actually listen to so much stuff.  I always listen to music while reading but feel that podcasts would require more attention, and while I see they could replace TV time I'm not sure I could just sit there and blankly listen as I do when I watch TV.

Yep I think it'd be pretty impossible to read and listen to a podcast at the same time, and as others have said low concentration tasks like housework or just being out walking suit them best. I also like listening to them while playing very simple, repetitive, ultimately pointless phone games as that provides a visual focus that doesn't require enough attention to distract from what I'm listening to. It's a balancing act.

[Pranet]

Yes, walking, shopping, house work, public transport is when I listen to them. If I really want to listen to one sometimes may play a simple computer game or watch sport on tv.

[Old Nehamkin]

There's barely anything that I keep up with week-by-week these days but here's a few that I've been dipping in and out of lately:

Street Fight Radio - arrived very late to the party with this but I've been enjoying it a lot. For those unfamiliar it's a long-running lefty radio show/podcast that puts out two shows a week (a live listener call-in and a more standard host-only show) and is mostly centred around worker vs. boss stuff, organised labour etc. Pretty laid-back and meandering but frequently very insightful, funny and cathartic.

Still check in on Chapo Trap House occasionally but to be honest I've not really had the stomach to pay very close attention to U.S. governmental politics since the end of the Bernie campaign. I'm most likely to listen if they're just reviewing a movie or a TV show or something (I did listen to their most recent episode on Homeland and really enjoyed it. The Time for my Stories series that Matt and Felix did was also great.)

Michael and Us - another lefty podcast (would you believe it?!), this time with two Canadian guys mostly reviewing and analysing movies which are either explicitly politically-themed or else politically potent in some way or another. They largely focus on the post-Clinton, pre-Trump neoliberal consensus/"End of History" era, but they also step outside that remit quite frequently. I usually find it an interesting, funny listen and I like the two hosts a lot.

Still usually keep up with Cum Town. It is what it is.

Not a podcast per se, but I've been gradually working my way through The History of Howard Stern over the last few months. It's a 35-part, 150-hour long documentary/clip show produced in the mid-2000s which exhaustively chronicles Stern's radio career from the very beginning (and indeed before the beginning). Obviously only worth exploring if you already find Stern and his show inherently fascinating, but it's certainly the most ambitious, meticulous and well-crafted compilation project of this type that I've ever come across.

This is a pretty obscure one, but a show I was really enjoying last year before it went on indefinite hiatus is The LexG Movie Podcast. LexG is a very funny guy with an incredible twitter account I've been following for 10 years or so who has an entirely original voice and style that I've seen lots of film twitter types try and fail to imitate. He seems friendly with a couple of the Chapo guys and I've definitely heard them quoting his bits on their show a couple of times, but he hadn't done any podcasts up till last year when he put out a run of very funny, thoughtful riffs on various movies he likes. I really enjoyed it and hope he does more some time.

[Jim_MacLaine]

Recently:

Seincast: A Seinfeld Podcast - I've been going through this one to distract myself from the collapse of civil society. Very simple premise: two Seinfeld superfans recap in minute detail every single episode of Seinfeld, including off-camera production notes and a scene-by-scene breakdown of each episode. Maybe not for everyone, but having grown up on Seinfeld in constant syndication, just hearing the episodes discussed is a nice dose of nostalgia. No longer active because they finished the full run of the show back in 2018.

A shame Vinnie was never up for doing a curb follow on.

[chip]

I keep up with everything in the Chapo-verse. Still regularly greatly enjoy Cum Town. The CushVlogs are often a good listen, but I can't keep up with the whole series of episodes that are based on whatever Matt's reading at the minute. I really like And Introducing, helmed by Chapo Producer Chris and his wife, which goes into music career biography and guest material. TrueAnon was great for the Ghislaine trial, but seems to have deservedly fallen off for a bit of late. Does nobody else enjoy Red Scare, even a bit? (I thought there might have been some mention of Dasha in the Succession threads, but I've been avoiding those due to spoilers.)

Beyond that, my new favourite discovery is Report This Post. Two yank dudes find the worst posts and tweets and other comments around the internet on any topic you could imagine. Intensely funny, and they have a muted-joke-delivery/raucous-chuckling interplay that rivals that of Nick & Stav at times. Others I never miss are Tim Heidecker's Office Hours Live and DJ Douggpound's (of OHL's Holy Trinity) The Poundcast, co-hosted with comedian Brent Weinbach. Both are extremely hilarious. I also think The Tim Dillon Show is a comedic joy.

Some more paranormal-type stuff too, like Irish pod Those Conspiracy Guys, which goes in deep to things like true crime, unsolved murders, historical mysteries, cryptids and other general conspiracy, guys. Some episodes push seven hours but to me there's nothing cosier that picking something like Hollow Earth and strapping in. They're funny lads too. Likewise, Last Podcast on the Left continues to be a reliable source of brilliance, as does Mysterious Universe - a pair of Aussies who do meticulously-sourced deep dives into all sorts of esoteric or Fortean phenomena, with lush production values and charming banter that never strays too off-topic. I do also have a habit of bookmarking every new episode thrown up by classic general interest pod Stuff You Should Know. Everything you should know about Sloths? Sure. Beekeeping? Go on then. Littering? Why not eh. So much to get lost in.

[darby o chill]

Knowledge Fight is great if you hate Alex Jones.

Our podcast is nearly impossible to sell to you. We primarily talk a bunch about how Alex Jones is an idiot and intentionally misleads his listeners for fun and profit, but that's not the whole story. We also branch off into the nature of conservative propaganda and the art of the con, breaking down scam artists from the worlds of politics, religion, and of course, outer space.

Archive.

[Menu]

I always go to sleep listening to a podcast. It is the best way to distract from the thoughts circulating round my stupid brain. It is a bit of a tightrope though, finding a podcast that is interesting enough for you to want to listen to, and one you don't mind missing lots of when you fall asleep, and being happy with re-listening to some of it another time

Funny you should say that because it's the exact conundrum I've been meditating on recently. You don't want to be listening to something that is so interesting that it keeps you awake, but also not so boring that you slip back into your own FRIGHTENING CATASTROPHIC THOUGHTS. I've settled, pretty successfully, on Dynasty by Tom Holland. Which isn't even a podcast you idiots.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Been adding a load of these to my feed recently, thanks all - loving Ladies Guide To Dude Cinema

[SpiderChrist]

I popped my Chart Music cherry. No going back now.

"Dave Dee, Creepy, Twat and Cunt"

[sardines]

I've been enjoying Doomsday Watch with Arthur Snell not least for the absurdly dramatic The Day Today-like inappropriate interlude music.
Disappointed therefore to hear him on another podcast discussion Stewart Lee/Chris Morris, meaning most likely there is some self-knowledge and he is not just an absurd caricature.

[paruses]

Started to listen to a BBC Sounds podcast called Fake Psychic. It's about M. Lamar Keene who came out as being a fraudulent medium and wrote a book called The Psychic Mafia. It lead to him not being popular with the other frauds and he went into his own version of witness protection. Only done one episode so far but it's OK if you overlook the dramatisation aspect - none of the American accents sounds like Americans (I always think The Fast Show Unpronouncables accents - "a shmeezer, a schmoozer") something all BBC radio dramas manage.

I am a bit obsessed with these frauds so am predisposed to tolerating it.

[bgmnts]

Is there anything out there that can even come close to filling the hole left by Atletico Mince? Bob's humour just has me belly laughing and I need that fix.

[mattyc]

The Worst Writer in the World, The 80s and 90s Cricket Show and World Cricket Show for me. I'd love to find some podcasts along the lines of the BBC's incredible Lovecraft Investigations, but I can't find anything that grabs me quite as much as that did. Any recommendations?

[Famous Mortimer]

Some episodes push seven hours

Blimey. I don't think there's a single podcast that runs more than...let's say an hour...that couldn't be greatly improved by halving its length. Perhaps that rule isn't extreme enough. How do you do anything else?

[SteveDave]

My current favourites are

The Matt Morgan Podcast- Patreon only but his previous show "Funny How?" is still available (the Big Tom Davis episode of "Funny How?" still makes me laugh like a drain). The Patreon one features Noel Gallagher almost every other week.

The Socially Distant Sports Bar- I don't like sport but it makes up a very small percentage of the stuff they talk about on it. Having abandoned the "Elis and John" podcast mid-way through last year because Robins' has become a parody of himself, I now get my weekly Elis James fix from this show. 

The Rockonteurs- Two old 80s music hags talk to various other old music hags and laugh like their "Train Guy"

General Witchfinders- Three middle-aged men talk about British horror stuff. Includes frequent diversions into petty grievances.

Winter Of Discontent- A very deep dive into The Beatles' January 1969 doings.

Jools And Jim's Joyride- This is VERY dependent on who the guest is. There's been a few rich idiots and Americans who aren't funny. Weirdly my favourite was Tony Pitts from "Emmerdale" as he sounds like a Vic and Bob character. Jools Holland is genuinely a lot funnier than I thought he would be.

None of these are American.

[chip]

Blimey. I don't think there's a single podcast that runs more than...let's say an hour...that couldn't be greatly improved by halving its length. Perhaps that rule isn't extreme enough. How do you do anything else?

I mean I do dip in and out of it. And I listen when I'm out walking, shopping, cooking, editing, doing chores or falling asleep. If it's about something I find interesting then I can just go on indefinitely.

[MojoJojo]

Knowledge Fight is great if you hate Alex Jones.
Archive.

They were on some of Alex Jones episodes of behind the bastards. I liked them, but I can't imagine listening to a whole podcast about Jones - that would be Jujmaniacs crazy level. I might listen to some covering the Sandy Hook result.

Been listening to Conflicted. It covers wars and stuff I should know more about in an easy way. I'm not sure I could recommend it whole heartedly though because
i) very clear us bias at times.
ii) I know of at least one point where he's chosen an arresting image over accuracy - the Mimizuka isn't literally a hill made of noses. This sort of thing really does undermine trust unfortunately.
iii) his prose gets a bit overwrought at times.

[darby o chill]

They were on some of Alex Jones episodes of behind the bastards. I liked them, but I can't imagine listening to a whole podcast about Jones - that would be Jujmaniacs crazy level. I might listen to some covering the Sandy Hook result.

Mark Bankston (lawyer for the Sandy Hook families) has been on recently.
Eps 602 and 618. Some good insights and he's a pretty funny guy too.

You are not so smart is great. This ep about the history of conspiracy theories is a good starter.

[MojoJojo]

I want to mention Wooden Overcoats - the most Radio 4 sitcom not on radio 4 in existence.

[paruses]

I want to mention Wooden Overcoats - the most Radio 4 sitcom not on radio 4 in existence.

I heard a few episodes of this maybe 4 years ago and share your viewpoint 100%.

Do you actually listen to it and is it still going?

[PlanktonSideburns]

Name sounds made up

[gib]

I started listening to podcasts all day at work and it makes the whole thing more than bearable.

Some great recommendations in this thread but a couple that i thought would have been mentioned are Kunt and his mate's Acceptable in the 80s where every month they make a slapdash attempt to remember what was happening that month 40 years ago. Films that came out and the charts. Proper laugh or two most episodes, they seem like thoroughly nice blokes and some of the tales of growing up when i did give me the same thrill i got listening to Bob Mortimer's teenage adventures in 'And Away'.

Brian and Roger. What Radio4 comedy could have evolved into. Pavlovian grin every time i hear 'hello Brian it's Roger here.'

Equally funny and equally well crafted is St Elwick's Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast from Mike Wozniak.