Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of posts reflecting on the podcasts people are listening to. Read Bryan Alexander, Alan Levine, Tim Klapdor, Laura Hilliger, Doug Belshaw and John Johnston for example. As is my habit, I am late to the party. However, better late then never.
Inspired by Alan Levine, I pulled by OPML file from AntennaPod and published a full list of the podcasts I follow here . It was interesting making sense of the various podcasts. According to AntennaPod, my top five based on minutes are:
However, I don’t think that always tells the full story. There are some regular daily / weekly podcasts that I dip in and out of and usually having running in the background, while others are only release sporadically, therefore they do not have the same amount of minutes.
To be honest, I have a lot of podcasts in my feed, more than I could ever listen to even at x1.5, unless I stopped listening to books. A part of my intent is to extend my serendipity surface and create a repository of podcasts to search. (Of course, I could search Spotify, but I would just prefer not to.)
Rather than a list dictated by how I listen, such as while running (I actually listen to music) or doing the dishes, I have broken my list into key areas, with a highlight from each.
Ideas
When it comes to new ideas, I have interests in history (Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, The Rest Is History, Dan Snow’s History Hit, Real Dictators), literature (In Our Time, Overdue), technology (Download This Show, Darknet Diaries, Future Tense) and food and health (Eat This Podcast, What’s That Rash?). However, the one podcast that I come back to regularly for new ideas is Late Night Live. I was somewhat late on this one. In the past, I used to rely on other ABC podcasts Nightlife and Conversations, but this year have been listening to a lot of Late Night Live. I really enjoy the breadth of topics explored and David Marr’s youthful enthusiasm as an host, something that he has carried on from Phillip Adams.
Dialogue and Debate
There are a few current affairs podcasts in my feed, such as The Party Room, The Ezra Klein Show and Today in Focus, however the one that I hold out for each week is The Minefield. In it, Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens work with a guest to “negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life.” I am going to assume all involved come each week with their own ideas, but they are also always willing to jettison them if and when required. This podcast is useful reminder that there is always more to life or than can be presented in a social media feed. Not only do I often find myself needing to go back and listen to episodes twice, but I also find myself stopping afterwards, seeing the world differently.
Music
I love music, not only the actual product, but how it was achieved. I subsequently have a number of music podcasts in my feed, such as Song Exploder, Take 5, hanging out with audiophiles, Tape Notes and Switched on Pop. More and more, I find myself just listening to the episodes that stand out. However, the one podcast that I usually turn up for no matter the episode is Kirk Hamilton’s Strong Songs. This podcast unpacks songs and rebuild them. Hamilton has a penchant for going down rabbit holes with such intrigue and excitement that you cannot help be pulled in. Music is never quite the same after listening.
Entertainment
Looking through my feed, one of the interesting things is that it is all so serious. The one podcast that bucks that trend is Tony Martin’s Sizzletown. It is a spoof of a late night talkshow, where Tony takes calls from various characters, even a cat. It is a useful reminder of the artifice within podcasting. Tony also has a deft art of adding commentary to the current moment from the fence.
Thinking about these podcasts, one of the oddities of the medium, compared to blogs or books, is how the voices stick in your head. They become something of a theatre of the mind.
As a side-note, like John Johnston, I too was sad to see HuffDuff-Video die this year. There are several YouTube channels / videos that I would listen to as a podcast. However, I am yet to find a replacement for that workflow.
Podcasts I’m Listening To In Late 2024 by Aaron Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
[…] Laura Hilliger, Alan Levine, James Ravenscroft, John Johnston, JR Dingwall, and Aaron Davis have now also shared their favourite […]