I enjoy the podcast Annotated from BookRiot's suite, which takes deep dives into various aspects of books and reading, both contemporary and historical, that deserve a closer look. It comes in seasons, which can be a little annoying, but they have plenty of really great ones. Some personal favorites have looked at how book donations work in American prisons, how people totally game the NYT Bestseller List, and the life of Freido Lampe, a queer author in Nazi Germany. In general, the BookRiot podcasts are a mainstay of my listening, although many of them are a bit newsy for what sounds like your taste.
And then, this one isn't quite so society-focused, but I love it, and it's introduced me to so much good poetry: The Poetry Exchange. The hosts, who sound like two incredibly gentle people, bring on a seemingly random variety of mostly normal people (but periodically not normal people, which is always a sort of funny surprise) who bring "a poem that's been a friend to them" to read and discuss. It's been anything from Robert Frost to 20-issue chapbook poems in the past, and it's an incredibly tender mix of personal stories and experiences around literature and some really sharp literary criticism. I particularly love how frequently it introduces me to poets in translation, like this one on a poem by Dutchman Han G. Hoekstra, and Greek poet Georgios Seferis. And I had a real moment with this one.
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I also love The Vocal Fries Podcast: The Podcast About Linguistic Discrimination which always has on very interesting people to discuss how language and society interact. Particular favorites include "why do people 'sound American' when they sing pop music?" and this one on gender-neutral endings in Spanish.
And then, this one isn't quite so society-focused, but I love it, and it's introduced me to so much good poetry: The Poetry Exchange. The hosts, who sound like two incredibly gentle people, bring on a seemingly random variety of mostly normal people (but periodically not normal people, which is always a sort of funny surprise) who bring "a poem that's been a friend to them" to read and discuss. It's been anything from Robert Frost to 20-issue chapbook poems in the past, and it's an incredibly tender mix of personal stories and experiences around literature and some really sharp literary criticism. I particularly love how frequently it introduces me to poets in translation, like this one on a poem by Dutchman Han G. Hoekstra, and Greek poet Georgios Seferis. And I had a real moment with this one.