I mostly listen to them on MMA and the occasional history one.
Ones I listen to
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- Morning Kombat
- Fighter & The Kid
- Below The Belt
- Dan Carlin Hardcore History
Dan Carlin Hardcore History is without a doubt one of the best out there on any platform, period. He is absolutely stellar at history story telling. His episodes on WWI are thoroughly engrossing. Note on these podcast episodes though, they are
very long format. Two plus hours on the short end, and upwards of almost five hours on the long end. His episodes are so dense, and rich information that it does take a couple, or more months to put out a new episode. This is one of the very few, if not the only Podcast that I would actually pay for.
Joe Rogan Experience is a bit of a mixed bag. If you're an MMA fan, this is a great podcast for you, but not every episode is about MMA, he has specific MMA episodes, and then specific guest episodes. Some of his criticisms, which I think are entirely valid, is that he is a bit too affable, for the most part. Either with certain guests, or when some guests say certain things, he doesn't really push the issue. Which isn't a huge deal, but can be dangerous, or just disingenuous (from the guest's part, not Joe's necessarily) when incorrect information, or hate filled information is being pushed, and Joe
sometimes doesn't engage in with more conviction.
Although this might be because, he very openly admits, he's not a smart guy, and has so many different types of guests, that he can't possible be educated enough to properly debate them. Which is part of the issue people have. I like his show, but I don't listen to every episode, and I don't take certain guests as being all knowing experts. For me personally, he also seems to fall victim to pseudoscience too much, I don't think because he's necessarily gullible and believes everything. Although he does admit he used to believe the moon landing was fake. But he's just very open minded, very curious, and likes to question things. Which I think leads him down the part of falling victim to pseudoscience nonsense. He recently took, or is taking a lot of heat for the Bernie endorsement, and for having made "transphobic statements" in the past.
I put those in
air quotes, because he is not transphobic (from the show), he's a comedian and a lot of comedians joke about everything, but
most importantly he made trans related comments
specifically regarding people born biologically male, then transitioning to female, while competing in combat sports (and I think he has also taken a similar stance regarding just trans women sports competing against biological women as well) against people born biologically female. Which he said is ridiculous, and shouldn't be allowed. Which if anyone knows anything about competitive sports, or MMA, is 100% true. Despite a transgender woman being able to reduce testosterone levels, and take other hormones to make the changes, there's only so much that can be done. Bone structure, bone density, chromosomes, musculature, and other physiological aspects just cannot be changed, or cannot be changed enough to completely eliminate the advantage men have over women in terms of physicality. To add to that, Joe has ever said for one second he does not support transgender people to live their life the way they want to, in fact Joe is very open about everyone being able to live their life the way they want to, with whom they so choose, as long as they aren't hurting anyone.
Some other great podcasts to listen to are:
This American Life - An absolute staple, can be a bit of a downer at times but it has some absolutely fantastic episodes, and often covers content before it develops into mainstream popular culture, such at
The Informant with Matt Damon. Other great episodes I can remember include The Numi Plant, and The Great Island of Plastic.
Serial - from TAL, really took off and set new records for subscription and downloads. It was set up in a season story telling format, and season one is fantastic. Season two less so and it lost me during. I know there is a season three, but have not checked it out.
WTF with Marc Maron - Sort of like Rogan, he can rub people the wrong way, but he has some fantastic guests. He had Obama on towards the end of his presidency, and that episode was massive. He's closer to the start of when podcasts were in their infancy like Rogan, so he has a large following. His episode that probably put him on the map was an interview with Robin Williams circa 2010, in which Williams discussed suicide, and seemed to be pretty open, unguarded, and less the crazy man chaotic performer we all know, and more just himself. Being a standup comedian like Rogan, he does have a lot of comedians that most people probably won't know, but he has a lot of very popular guests that people do know. He shares similar criticism like Rogan, in that he's a bit too friendly, and has had guests from time to time say things, that he probably should call them out for.
How Did This Get Made? - Hilarious podcast about utterly ridiculous movies. Hosted by, june diane raphael, Paul Scheer, and Jason Mantzoukas. Just listen, you will not regret it.
S-Town - Also by TAL, is a limited series, but also absolutely fascinating, imho.
Radiolab - For a while I thought was possibly the best podcast show out there, overall it is fantastic, and has some really great episodes; such as discussion of color and how it can be view with the human eye, and some animals ability to see a much large range, Joe DiMaggio's 57 game hit streak and the statistical analysis of it, and how measurement of a kilogram works.
The Rewatchables - This is a podcast from Bill Simmons' company The Ringer, and they basically discuss movies they love to rewatch/are movies deemed highly rewatchable. There isn't a specific formula, per se. But movies that are usually highly entertaining, show up on tv/cable often, and seem to resonate with a lot of people. They have a section called "half assed internet research" regarding things along the lines of what actors turned down this role, etc. But the entire show is sort of half assed research, it's fun, highly entertaining, but like with everything BS does, don't take it too seriously at all.
Stuff You Should Know - Pretty self explanatory from How Stuff Works. They cover a wide range of topics, and it is just fascinating. Very highly recommended.
Lore - A show somewhat about urban legends, but also about very real indigents that have happened. The shows host Aaron Mahnke really is fantastic at this type of story telling.
Science Vs - A show about, well science that takes on topics to see what the science has to say. While informational, it's not heavy handed in the way it approaches it, very informative and well done.
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Double Toasted
