Mine are a bit old hat but here’s my current 3 go to’s …
The rest is history
Americast
History of rock in 500 songs
Podcasts … what’s hot at the mo?
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Those and Strange Brew, Backlisted, Quiet Riot ..
Quite a few, I drive a lot with work!
Backlisted
The rest is politics
Looks unfamiliar
Twilight turntable
Sombero fallout / vinyl maelstrom
Topflight Time Machine
Adam Buxton
Louis Theroux
Chart music (when they do one)
Tomorrows world audit time
The Villa podcast
Frank Skinner Off The Radio is very good.
I like a bunch of BBC comedy pods as well.
I like Chatabix – middle aged amusing men banter. The quiz shows are great.
The Bugle.
The Rest Is Entertainment.
Crikey is the bugle still going? I used to love it with John Oliver
It is. A small group of circulating co-hosts work well. Andy Zaltzman is as funny as ever. It’s the podcast that I have stuck with the longest.
I like Skinner’s poetrycast.
I’m not a big podcast listener, but always make time for The Rockenteurs and The Album Years.
Funnily enough, this afternoon, I listened to the latest Rockenteurs episode with Andy Fairweather Low and really enjoyed it and was thinking about posting something to extol its virtues. Well worth a listen and full of great stories about working with Clapton, Roger Waters and George Harrison.
Added to that, he stated at the beginning that Steve Cropper is one of the greatest ever guitarists – a belief that I have long held ! (to add some context it was regarding the fact he realised he would never be a lead guitarist, but could be a great rhythm guitarist)
AFL is a great raconteur himself
I enjoy most of The Rest Of stable – Politics, Politics USA, Entertainment and History. Also listen to The News Agents every day and listen to their USA edition every week. I still enjoy The Word podcast even after all these years. And sometimes listen to Adam Buxton and James O’Brien’s Full Disclosure if I’m interested in the guest. I also try to find an accompanying podcast if I am watching a serious drama on TV – Succession, Game Of Thrones and my recent rewatch of all of The Sopranos were really enhanced by doing so.
Also check out Smoke Signals, the podcast by English folk/blues duo Smoke Fairies. It’s really engaging, sweet and funny. Their humility and self-deprecation makes it a delight on a dreary dog-walking day.
my recent rewatch of all of The Sopranos were really enhanced by doing so
Was that the podcast that Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa did? I tried with that when I rewatched the whole thing during lockdown and it was brilliant when they had guests from the episodes on, but, God, wish Schirripa would have shut up a bit more.
No it is called The Sopranos Show and is just two guys I had never heard of discussing the show episode by episode. No insider insights, just a summary of what you have just watched.
I did that, rewatch with the pod. Very good but I agree on SS.
Hey, Shirripa Ya Face!
Quite a lot from the goalhanger collection. In particular rest is politics, entertainment, money, occasionally football but that one gets a bit screamy at times.
Frank Skinner off the radio, Word in your ear and New Yorker radio hour.
Newscast and Americast are normally my fall asleep to podcasts of choice (although I can doze off to pretty much anything these days)
My absolute guilty pleasure is All Access Star Trek which is one for the enthusiasts and completists only!
A golden rule for podcasts for me is that two’s company three’s a crowd. More than two people all taking at the same time gets too raucous for my taste. The exception being The Rest is Politics Leading interviews which tend to focus upon the subject rather than Rory and Alastair.
I also object to the subscription model. If I paid out the 6 or 7 quid all these buggers are after I`d be in debt to the tune of £50 per month at least. Flicking through the advertising is (for now) easy enough. It’s often quite amusing listening to presenters attempting to sound sincere trying to flog Nord VPN or some kind of therapy. (You know who you are Hepworth and Ellen)
Plus, forgot..
Page 94, the Eye and obvs, anything featuring the wonderful Helen Lewis..
Three Bean Salad.
I select episodes from RHLSTP, My Time Capsule, the aforementioned Adam Buxton podcast and more recently What Did You Do Yesterday? based on the guests they have on. I turn to podcasts on my commute for a switch off from work before I get home so I’m usually looking for a laugh. Athletico Mince is not as prolific as it used to be but I still enjoy it and probably the one I look forward to most nowadays is Eejits of the World with Andrew Maxwell and Glenn Wool. I like them both as stand ups and it’s inconsistent but it makes me laugh a lot.
About the only serious podcast I listened to in ages was Things Fall Apart with Jon Ronson. Kept up the high standards of series 1.
“The butterfly effect” by Ronson was very good but is buried in some paywall thing now unfortunately.
Yes The Butterfly Effect was excellent, if a little depressing. He did a kind of follow-up, also about the porn industry and its malevolence, called The Last Days of August. Not as good, but still worth a listen.
Yes I listened to that one too. Again, interesting and sad.
Rest is History, Politics
New Statesman
Week in Westminster
Political Fix
Rockonteurs
Album Years
Bob Lefsetz
Briefing Room
We Have Ways
amongst others…
The Jazz Podcast – Rob Cope & Tara Minton.
Afropop Worldwide – Georges Collinet et al.
Folk On Foot – Matthew Bannister.
Framework Radio/Framework Afield.
Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast.
Headphone Commute.
Word In Your Ear.
Welcome To Night Vale.
Yes Page 94 is excellent.
Field Musicast is currently doing a track-by-track deconstruction of the latest Field Music album. Helps if you like FM in the first place.
The Andy Kershaw Podcast is now up to 33 episodes. Each costs me a small fortune in music purchases.
Current series of Bed of Lies – collusion between security forces & terrorists in NI
Rockonteurs
Off the Ball – podcast of a BBC Scotland football show – funny nonsense with gentle digs at the Ugly Sisters
The Fozcast – ex GK Ben Foster – v good interviews
We have Ways of Making You Talk
Adam Buxton
Russell Howard’s Wonderbox
RHLSTP
Rosebud with Giles Brandreth – a recent discovery but brilliant interviews
Joan & Jericha – not one for when the kids are in the car!
I second Rosebud. Very high quality of interviews. Another recent discovery is Past Present Future with David Runciman, a bi-weekly history of ideas.
Always, always ‘Chart Music Podcast’
Scarred For Life
Looks Unfamiliar
The Giddy Carousel Of Pop
Scarred for Life is brilliant – bit like a targeted version of Looks Unfamiliar (which is also a great listen).
Nothing much to add to those already mentioned, but I must praise We Have Ways of Making You Talk.
I’m frequently astonished by the depth of James and Al’s knowledge. I know history is James’ day job, but I still don’t understand how they (a) find the time to learn all they do and (b) remember it. One mention of a relatively little known (at least to me) officer or battle and Al, let alone James, can go into extraordinary, and usually quite interesting, detail about the subject. Hats off to them.
Their recent analysis of the Beeb’s SAS Rogue Heroes was a great listen: absolutely scathing about the TV portrayal of these brave men, Paddy Mayne in particular. Their obvious admiration of those heroes no longer here to defend themselves made it really quite moving.
Yes it’s excellent. Al did Modern History at Oxford so he’s no slouch either. Their Walking The Ground channel on YouTube is a good companion to the pods.
I might have to enter the world of podcasts.
James Holland’s books are superb by the way.
This enthusiasm is huge and commendable: do you guys ever sleep, or, for the go to go to sleep ‘casts, sleep with anyone else? They all sound fab, but I don’t think I have ever listened to podcast, ever. Like when? Even in retirement I haven’t a minute.
When walking the dogs mainly.
Waitrose, washing up, gardening, in the car, out for a walk…
I generally listen to them at the gym. I find bursting into fits of giggles helps make the ordeal go quicker and keeps other gym users at arms length. For this I generally have RHLSTP, Elis and John, the bugle, three bean salad or strong message here. Good, fun stuff.
In the car. I have a 40-odd minute commute to work and sometimes need to drive 3-4 hours at a time. You can also listen to these things 10 minutes at a time so I always tend to have one on the go.
Scrum V (inquest into latest Welsh rugby humiliation), 606, Chart Music, The Word, What is Music? (3 somewhat annoying young chaps, but they do a massive deep dive into an artist’s career, currently R.E.M.), Bowie Album by Album (of course!), few Beatles ones and None But the Brave (Springsteen)
Current ones are :
The Rest is Politics/Football/Entertainment
Frank (Skinner) Off the Radio
A good Depeche Mode one from the US that pops up sporadically
News Agents
Page 94
Athletico Mince
Top Flight Time Machine
RHLSTP
The last three have provided lots of entertainment but the constant promotion of the ever-evolving world of turbo/ultra/premium membership has made me move away from them a bit.
I think Frank Skinner’s one is the closest to what I would imagine a fireside chat at the Aspidistra & Hatstand would be like. He said the other day that the sax solo in Baker Street makes him think of Sweep “waxing lyrical”. That caught me off guard.
Very much enjoy Rest Is Politics / Entertainment – the only ones I actually have paid subs to. Occasionally dip into This American Life, The Moth and The Daily.
Hadn’t listened to Word In Your Ear for some time so tried the Francis Rossi one which was deeply underwhelming, with all involved just dialing it in, ironically given what followed. Next up was Hepworth’s rant about AI, something he clearly knows fuck all about (that and music royalties, given he thinks Dylan will still get them despite having sold his rights – quite a feat to have written so much about music and not grasp this).
He pissed all over the Michael Parkinson AI podcasts without any acknowledgment that the makers are open about it being an experiment, with each episode concluded with the makers discussing how well it was going. I know he makes a living from being opinionated but this was risible bordering on Luddite.
On the Michael Patkinson AI thing, I think the fact that the family are deeply involved and are interested in how this works and can be developed makes all the difference. Having said that, do I want to hear AI Parky interviewing AI Marilyn Monroe? No.
i have really enjoyed the Heritage Chart show Show with Sian Pattenden and Pete Paphides with different guests discussing Mike Read’s weird TV chart show, however they don’t seem to have done new episodes for a while sadly
Mike Read’s weird chart. The Heritage Chart is seemingly based Facebook/social media votes rather than sales, airplay, or other metrics. Then again, it does inform popularity (although the range size may only be 50 to 100, plus a few other bots)
Goddamn you all for Backlisted and History of Rock in 1000 songs. Two more rabbit holes to go down.
I’ve downloaded a few sample episodes from each
Isn’t it 500 songs? That’s the one I found and it’s excellent. Presented by Andrew Hickey who talks like a grown up and you don’t feel like he’s smirking the whole time.
Some great recommendations on here thank you, some of which may lead to more purchasing of books/records etc. so my future poorer self curses you!
I listen to quite a few & below are a few of the better ones;
Media Confidential
Alan Rusbridger & Lionel Barber talking all things media. A really great listen
The News Meeting
One of my personal favourites from Tortoise. A twice weekly show where 3 writers argue that their story should lead the news & why. Some really interesting takes & things discussed
Sodajerker On Songwriting
A podcast all about songwriting with a artist featuring each episode. It is dependent on the guest, but some of these have been my favourite podcasts of all time. A lot of Afterword friendly guests (Richard Thompson, Bill Ryder Jones, Stephen Duffy, Damon Albarn etc.)
What Did You Do Yesterday
David O’Doherty is a comedian I really like & this podcase with Max Rushden is a good listen with some very funny moments. Having DO’D as a host stops it being overly dependent on the quality of the guest.
The Smart 7
A daily 7 minute news podcast that I have on when getting ready in the morning – it turns out it takes me 5.8mins to get changed (I listen on x1.2 speed)
More Or Less: Behind The Statistics
A weekly Tim Harford BBC offering which is always very interesting
Music Maps – The Rock n Roll Book Club Podcast
What it says it is, the Nick Banks from Pulp episode was a great listen
Oh! Brother
The brothers Hanley from The Fall discussing all things fall with a special guest every 2 week. The recent episode with Elis James was excellent. (His story about meeting Johnny Marr was a hoot)
Electoral Dysfunction
Beth Rigby, Ruth Davidson & Harriet Harman discussing the week in politics.
Over The Top Under The Radar
Carys Afoko & Gary Younge (both former Guardian columnists) discussing which news stories are over-reported & conversely which ones are under the radar & should have more attention.
Nicky Byrne HQ
Your man out of Westlife interviewing people. He is very personable & gets a lot out of people so it is a good listen each week. (I prefer him to some of the recent Louis Theroux ones &in the case of Jordan who was interviewed by both recently, NB was the better one). The one where he interviews his father in law (a certain Bertie Ahern) is great.
The Price Of Music
Steve Lamacq & Stuart Dredge talking about all things music & money. Always a fascinating listen
Already some love on here for The Rest Is Entertainment/Football/Politics, but these are also heartily enjoyed by me. Especially the Ent one, whoever put Marina Hyde & Richard Osman together was inspired. (They also answer my question re ‘when do actors get paid?’ on their recent Q&A episode. )
Also Rockonteurs & A Word In Your Ear are usually a good one & already covered here
Aside form a couple I’ve mentioned above I still listen to SMERSHPod because it mashes up interesting film analysis while being extremely puerile and is thus very entertaining.
I relistened to their Long Good Friday one. Excellent. The On The Buses film episode was fun too.
The Rest is History
Most of the HistoryHit portfolio – excluding Dan Snow’s own show
In Our Time
SheDunnit, which is very good on the Golden Age of detective fiction
The BBC History extra shows
16 Sunsets, about the Space Shuttle
Another nod for Shedunnit – must admit I’d forgotten about it, but it’s an enjoyable programme.
Chart Music (Neil Kulkarni is sorely missed)
The Bunker
Oh, God What Now (both the above actually irritatingly “centrist” at times but the discussions are frequently good)
American Friction
I enjoyed Jim Irvin’s “forgotten albums” podcast “You’re Not On The List” but it seems to have been retired.
Smersh Pod (but on headphones in case anyone overhears it)
A new episode of Jim Irvin has popped up this morning!
I’m aware that this has been asked before, but I’ve just updated my main home PC and I want to continue to grab various podcast subs and either listen to them via the PC or by loading them onto my phone from there. In the past I’ve used MediaMonkey5 for this on my old machine, but Windows 11 seems to have it stumped – I can see all of my already grabbed files, but the bloody thing doesn’t seem to be able to refresh itself with newly released episodes.
What do you podcast listeners use to grab and store your subscribed podcasts? Do you have a preferred Windows podcast-playing application, or do you do it all on your phones (an option I do not intend to pursue)?
I use MediaMonkey on Windows 11 for my podcast subscriptions without any problems.
Maybe try un-subscribing and then re-subscribing to your chosen podcasts in MM? Or download and reinstall MM over itself.
I do it on my phone using AntennaPod.
I had previously used several other Android Podcast apps, but they were either somewhat buggy, riddled with adverts, or in the case of Google’s own Podcast app, discontinued.
I use Castbox on my Android phone, and have done for years. It’s the only podcast app I’ve ever tried, so I don’t know if it’s better or worse than any others, but it’s easy to use and does the job.
I switched to Pocket casts a while back (free version), it’s very good
I used to use that, but I had a problem with it having a significant delay after a podcast’s release before it was downloaded. In particular one podcast previewing a particular event didn’t arrive until after the event’s conclusion.
Some good recommendations in the thread, and timely seeing as I was getting a bit bored with my regulars. I have found that my podcast tolerance has diminished greatly in the last few years, with many former favourites being dropped.
Speaking of which, I’m rather ashamed to say that my intake of Word in Your Ear has dropped to virtually zero in the past year or two. I have no interest in the special guest episodes as they are usually just the regular awkward promotional gumph..
I give up on most other episodes after five or 10 minutes, as I cannot stand the way Hepworth and Ellen talk over each other. This is something I used to find endearing, so whether the change is with me or them (hearing issues?) I’m not sure. I tried to listen to an episode this morning and there was a 20 or so second period where there were two entirely seperate conversations going on, both ignoring the content of the other. It’s infuriating. On the rare occasion I make it to the halfway mark I turn off as soon as Alex Gold or a birthday caller comes on because I rarely find them particularly interesting.
This ⬆️ – sad to admit it…
Having said that, I always preferred the podcasts created right here.
Surely someone here has been a birthday caller?
Alex Gold is hardly on it these days
Another hearty endorsement for We Have Ways – easily the cream of the Goalhanger stable IMO.
However, the pod I’d evangelise for in these days of culture wars & collective political madness is Decoding The Gurus , a clear headed analysis of the output & MOs of numerous contemporary figures -by an Australian professor of psychology & a Northern Irish professor of cultural anthropology’. Recent figures include Jordan Peterson, Musk, Andrew Tate, PeterThiel, Russell Brand & Eric & Brett Weinstein. It isn’t remotely dry & the BS detector is turned up to 11, which is handy as the aforementioned are all narcissistic snake oil merchants.
It isn’t exclusively heterodox figures from the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ – they’ve done Chomsky & Richard Dawkins in the past couple of months – but what is quickly established is that a common factor for the success & influence of such types is that some charisma & verbal dexterity is highly successful in getting the unwary onboard the huckster express. The 2 hosts show the techniques such types consistently employ & in doing so provide the listener with the tools to resist being suckered. Highly recommended!