There are so many great podcasts out there! I never seem to have enough time to listen to all the podcasts I really want to, and I’m always excited to recommend my favorites. So, here’s a list of my faves, grouped loosely by subject.

History

• Behind the Bastards – a journalist and his friends talk about “the very worst people in all of history.” They’re often pretty funny but it’s very dark humor.
• The Dollop – one comedian tells a story from history to his friend, another comedian, who doesn’t know what the story will be.

Fandom

• Fansplaining – “The podcast by, for, and about fandom” is their tagline. The hosts talk about fandom culture, events, etc., often with expert guests of one sort or another.
• – One of my friends cohosts this! It’s a podcast discussing the television show Hannibal, one episode at a time. Publishes very irregularly but fun if you love the show.

Debunking

• If Books Could Kill – Taking on popular nonfiction books, almost always unfavorably.
• Maintenance Phase – Debunking the wellness industry! Very, very good. Sometimes irregular posting schedule, but very good. Hosted by Aubrey Gordon of “Your Fat Friend” fame and Michael Hobbes, a journalist.

Horror – Nonfiction

• Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number Nine – The opening blurb explains it best: “I’m Jeffrey Cranor and my friend Cecil Baldwin loves horror movies. He’s making the genre more accessible to me, and hopefully to you too, one film at a time, in a random order.” Started as a pandemic project but has kept going!
• Arguably, Behind the Bastards belongs here.

News But From Comedians

• The Bugle – the original and very best! John Oliver was a cohost until he got his own tv show and got too busy. Comedian Andy Zaltzman and guests discuss the news.
• The Gargle – sister podcast to the Bugle, “all the news but none of the politics” – Comedian Alice Frasier and guests discuss pop culture news, mostly.
• Yo, Is This Racist? – Andrew Ti started this as a blog a million years ago. He did the podcast alone for a long time, then brought in Tawny Newsome to cohost. They’re both comedy writers, and Tawny acts as well. They’re very funny about some very unfunny stuff. They also take calls for racism advice.

Fiction

• The Magnus Archives – Wrapped up. Starts out as anthology horror, winds up as one massive cosmic horror story. I really love it.
• Welcome to Night Vale – Ongoing! Think NPR but hosted by HP Lovecraft (only without the racism).  Hard to explain, better to just dive in. You don’t have to listen from the beginning to enjoy it as long as you can roll with sometimes not knowing wtf they’re talking about.
• Wolf 359 – Wrapped up. Sci-fi semi-horror about a distant space station orbiting the titular star.