I tend to go for story-telling podcasts, and within those I gravitate towards Twilight Zone-style weird anthologies. I don’t know how under-appreciated they are, but I rarely see the genre represented in discussions much.
Right now I’m finding a lot of great stuff in:
- The Other Stories (all kinds of stuff, they have a different theme every month or so)
- The Wrong Station (similar, but less likely to stick to a theme for a while)
- Gray Matter (lots of modern adaptations of older horror/sci-fi, like Lovecraft)
- The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings (higher ratio of dumb stuff, but still some gems)
- The Program (Black Mirror-esque)
- The Truth (various radio plays. Many aren’t sci-fi, but still weird in some way. Kind of reminds me of the bits of Inside No. 9 I’ve seen.)–
How would one go about finding other story-telling podcasts?
Podcasting as a concept sort of slipped me by and I wouldn’t even know where to start.
The app I use, Podcast Addict, has given me some pretty decent recommendations from the ones I’ve subscribed to. I’ve also had some decent luck search for the keyword “anthology”.
I can give you a few more recommendations that are less tipped toward weird, as jumping off points:
- LeVar Burton Reads (Exactly what is says on the tin. Reading Rainbow for adults. Be prepared to hear Geordi say “fuck” once in a while.)
- Myths and Legends (Snarky narrator retelling classic mythology in an accessible modern tone)
- Fictional (Same guy as above, but for classic lit like Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Frankenstein)
- Short History Of… (Various bits of interesting history told in narrative form)
If anyone else is into stories like these, I do also have to mention “Welcome to Nightvale” and “Alice isn’t dead”.
My two favorites are:
Darknet Diaries - a podcast about hackers, cybercrime and hacktivism.
Well There’s Your Problem -
a truecrime podcast about social murderA podcast about engineering disasters, with slides!Underunderstood - Favorite one but on hiatus because they all had kids; side project of some journalists trying to help people
Hyperfixed - New problem solving one from Alex Goldman of Reply All
The Turning - Each season explores an organization that people don’t commonly call a cult (but probably should)
Shell Game - Funny and frightening exploration with LLMs
Knowledge Fight. Two great dudes who break down the insanity of Info Wars
Dungeons and Daddies (not a BDSM podcast), an actual pay D&D podcast about four dads and a Honda Odyssey accidentally thrown into the forgotten realms.
The players are the writers and director from the rocket jump YouTube channel, they also made a show called videogame highschool. The DM is Anthony Burch, creator of “Hey Ash, Whatcha Playing?” As well as the lead writer behind borderlands 2 (and basically the reason it’s a good game).
I don’t know if they are under appreciated, but:
My brother my brother and me
The Adventure Zone
Sawbones
Articles of Interest. It’s nominally a fashion podcast, but they tie it into lots of other topics: history, culture, identity, religion…
Two ordinary cops. It’s two ex coppers talking about their time as coppers in the Northern Territory of Australia.
I Don’t Speak German
Film Reroll
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From Rewatch With Love, if you like James Bond rewatch podcasts. Finished now so you could watch/listen to them all.
If you have any interest in biology/neuroscience, Robert Sapolsky’s Father-Offspring Interviews is fantastic
I have no way of evaluating what is popular or under appreciated but I just started listening to Too Many Tabs (Pearlmania 500) and I’m very much enjoying it.
NADDPOD is my jam right now, it’s four comedians playing D&D
