your periodic podcast rec request post

[lirazel]

I do a lot of work where my hands are occupied but my mind is not (hello, rehousing!!!) and may main exercise is walking so I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I am always looking for more.

My favorite ongoing podcasts are In Bed With the Right, Know Your Enemy, If Books Could Kill, Maintenance Phase, Panic World, and A Bit Fruity. These are the shows I listen to every episode of and (most of them) support on Patreon so I get extra episodes. Oh, and On the Nose from Jewish Currents.

There are a number I also like but don't listen to every episode of, just dipping in and out as they interest me. These include Behind the Bastards, Hoax!, HyperFixed, Search Engine, Straight White American Jesus, Culture Study, Decoder Ring, American Hysteria, Strongwilled, 5-4, and The Dream.

Then there are my classic favorites that I haven't listened to in a while but loved madly: You Must Remember This, You're Wrong About, and You Are Good.

One limited run I listened to lately was What Happened in Nashville, about the unregulated fertility treatment industry through the lens of a big scandal that happened in my hometown and found it interesting.


Things I like in a podcast:

+ Culture and/or history and/or current events through a leftist/feminist lens. It's really important to me that these are serious thinkers or deeply insightful people, even if what they're talking about is lighter fare
+ People who take culture and internet culture seriously but want to deeply critique it
+ Stuff about religion--not in the sense of being religious but in the sense of talking about how religion works in the world
+ Stuff that is well-researched
+ Stuff about moral panics
+ I tend to be drawn to podcasts that are created by people who are first and foremost either writers/journalists or scholars (with the exception of A Bit Fruity, all my favorite current podcasts are created by people in those categories)
+ Anything Michael Hobbes is involved with lol
+ Oh and my guilty pleasure is anything about cults (other people listen to true crime stuff, I listen to cult stuff)

Things I don't like in a podcast:
+ Humor podcasts (a lot of these people are very funny, but none of these podcasts are comedy podcasts)
+ Generic culture/pop culture stuff (by which I mean the sort of overviews of just what's going on in the world of pop culture)
+ Fiction (I'm sorry, but Welcome to Night Vale is the only one that ever truly worked for me)
+ Pure news podcasts
+ Interview podcasts that focus on celebs
+ Honestly anything about celebrities, I just don't care
+ Self-help stuff

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I have no useful information about podcasts but I just have to shout-out to my fellow cult fan. Is fan the right word? Fellow cult rubbernecker? Always interested in cults and attempts at intentional community. I did a project in college about 19th century intentional communities (the Shakers, Brook Farm, Fruitlands, Oneida Community, etc) and it's just fascinating stuff.

This reminds me that there was a recent TV show on Netflix about the assassination of James Garfield which apparently featured scenes in the Oneida Community (the assassin lived there sometime prior to committing the assassination). Really have to see it.

[lirazel]

I'm so fascinated by them, probably because they're the dark side of community? And I have such a strong hunger for that? I really think that anyone could be susceptible to joining a cult if the right cult finds you at the right time in your life. (Except maybe for people who don't have the ability to feel empathy, but often those people are the ones starting the cults.)

I have heard that that show is very good! It's definitely on my to-watch list!

[deird1]

Allison after NXIVM – about Allison Mack and the NXIVM cult.
Religion on the Mind – the main guy is a very deconstructed Christian, who tends to have interesting dicussions.

Also, not necessarily up your alley, but maybe might work… Digging Up The Duggers. The first half of each episode is a recap and discussion of an episode of "19 Kids and Counting" (reality tv show about the Dugger family), and the second half is an in-depth look at something pertaining to fundamentalist Christianity, or Mike Huckabee, or the IBLP cult, or so on. The second half is incredibly well researched, and often involves "how religion works in the world", cults, and political stuff. If the episode recap doesn't interest you, you could try skipping directly to the second half and listening to a few of those.

[seekingferret]

A few ideas

Belief in The Future, David Zvi Kalman's podcast about religion and its confrontation with technology

Responsa Radio, Rabbi Ethan Tucker and Rabbi Avi Killip of Hadar talking about modern questions in halacha from the seemingly trivial to the deeply controversial

The Big Dig
A WGBH podcast about new england government and infrastructure. First season is about the Big Dig construction project, second season is about the Massachusetts lottery, third season is about the fishing industry in New Bedford.

[genarti]

I love Stuff You Missed in History Class and Ologies! Also it is incumbent upon me to point out Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, if that's of interest.