I wanted to keep with the theme of Recently Read and Recently Watched, but since podcasts are different beast than books or movies, this will be a list of podcasts in no particular order that I like and listen to regularly.
Planet Money
This is one of the biggest podcasts in the business and has been running since 2008, so if you’re into podcasts you’ve likely heard of this one. But in case you haven’t, no shame, this is a short (15-20 minute episodes) NPR podcast about economics and how it interacts with the world around us. They’ll do stories about current trends and events in economic world, deep dives into unexpected topics through the lens of focused human stories, but my favourite are when they learn about a particular industry by joining it. They made a t-shirt and over the course of a few episodes followed production from the cotton fields, to the yarn spinners, to factories where it was sewn, across the Pacific on a container ship, and ultimately with the distribution and shipping companies that brought them to customer’s doors. They wanted to learn about copyright and merchandising in the comics industry, so they acquired the rights to an out-of-print superhero, commissioned a new story with that hero, and produced merch based on it. They founded a music studio solely to publish a single song written and recorded in the 70s about inflation, but was never released. It’s a fun, insightful look at how the economic world works.
99% Invisible
Another one of the giants of the podcast industry, this look at the designed world always has me learning new things and being amazed at how much thought goes into the everyday things you frequently don’t even notice. With episodes ranging from architecture to lubrication to language, there’s sure to be something for everything in their more than 500 episode history.
Science Vs
A podcast looking at something in the popular consciousness, whether abortions, fad diets, or drugs, and dives into the scientific literature to get to the truth of issue, telling the story via interviews with researchers and plenty of bad puns. This one, unfortunately, is a quasi Spotify exclusive. The said they were going to only distribute on Spotify fall 2022, but more than half a year later, I can still download new episodes on my regular podcast app (because fuck Spotify and their attempts to monopolize the podcast industry and platforming racists). The back catalog doesn’t appear to be available off Spotify, but if you can subscribe to new episodes elsewhere, it’s highly encouraged listening.
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman tells interesting stories and does insightful interviews with experts about language and etymology. Always entertaining, I’ve learned about attempts to resurrect or preserve endangered languages, the lexicon of words chosen by trans parents to describe themselves, eponyms, the Tiffany problem, and so much more.
The Secret Life of Canada
Their tagline is “a podcast about the country you know and the stories you don’t”. They’ll tell fun quirky stories about Canadian culture, like the history of the Halifax donair and Alberta’s rat-free policy. At the same time, they aren’t afraid to discuss the darker side of Canadian history with discussions of eugenics, indigenous relations, and discriminatory immigration policies.
What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law
Started life as What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law, each episode is a conversation between Roman Mars (of 99% Invisible) and Elizabeth Joh (his neighbour and a constitutional law professor) about recent high profile US Supreme Court cases. It’s an engaging and accessible way to learn more about the intricacies of the US legal system and constitution beyond the two amendments everyone knows.
Articles of Interest
I’m not someone that’s particularly into fashion or the culture surrounding it, but 99pi alum, Avery Truffelman’s podcast about fashion hits that enjoying hearing someone talk about their passions part of my brain. Whether it’s a story about the history of mannequins or a 7-part series on Ivy League style, the stories are always fascinating and shine light on a part of our society I don’t normally spend much time thinking about.
Defunct Shows
These are podcasts that are no longer actively producing new episodes, but in my opinion are well worth going back and listening to the back catalogs.
Unjustly Maligned
Each episode has a guest come on and defend some piece of media that they feel has been unjustly maligned and explain why they love it. Their passion is infectious and I usually walked away with my mind changed about things from the Twilight franchise to Garfield comics to the board game Monopoly.
Reply All
This was described as a podcast about technology, but in reality it told stories about the intersection of technology and humanity with two charming hosts and collection of talented journalists. These were always deeply human stories that just happened to also be about cryptocurrency, 4chan, or robocallers.
The Anthropocene Reviewed
The hilarious John Green writes meandering essays reviewing various elements of our human-centred world, ending each one with a rating of that element on a 5-point scale. He reviews everything from air conditioning and hot dog eating contests to gingko trees and sunsets in a way that frequently had be laughing out loud on the train.