The Dollop - one comedian reads a non-fiction story, typically from american history, to another, and they riff on it as they go. I'd recommend starting with the John Mccain episodes (I think it was a 3 parter)
Citations Needed - the official podcast of hexbear.net, fairly dry analysis of media, PR, and the history of bullshit
Blowback - A fairly thorough look at a different US imperialist war each season; S1 is Iraq, S2 is Cuba, S3 is DPRK
Film Reroll - A group of actors play through movies as a tabletop RPG, typically going wildly off the rails, using GURPS. I'd recommend starting with O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Damn straight! The playthrough of Memento is probably my favorite series, but I feel like it'd be confusing for new listeners.
TrueAnon, the only podcast against pedophiles
Content warning, it's hosted by 2 Maoists
Since @TraschcanOfIdeology already did my job, I'm going to recommend The Deprogram, a podcast run by three communists from three different countries. It's kind of a Marxism 101 podcast combined with a lot of shitposting. @yugopnik is a member as is @Secondthought_JT.
372pages.com
it's a two-man book club exclusively about terrible books. very funny stuff.
For outsiders - the name is a reference to the length of Ready Player One ("372 pages we'll never get back") and while you can enjoy it second-hand, it's best enjoyed as a read-along book club solely for ragging on the book.
I personally only tune in for books that I've actually experienced but it reading the first run after being the only one in my friend group to dislike Ready Player One was the sweetest catharsis I never knew I needed.
The book was fun pablum for some silly nerd nostalgia and if you don’t expect anything more it’s enjoyable.
The movie is a hot fucking mess.
Fair, and that's probably the main reason I couldn't get into it for books that I hadn't personally read since I can't tell if they're punching down at some hyper specific genre author who I otherwise have no reason to interact with
That said, when they're punching up at a super popular and successful book that has made millions of dollars it feels (imho) very light hearted and fun rather than as hateful as I made it sound. If you've ever vented to someone about a book even though they're just giving the equivalent of "that's nice, dear" responses then you may enjoy this podcast.
Their latest series is on Artemis - a book I put off despite adoring the author's other two books because I'd heard it just isn't as good. Now I'm probably going to read it so I can enjoy the good parts now and the bad parts when I listen to the podcast :)
I read Artemis when it came out, and I really liked it!
I really should have given it a chance by now but The Martian clicked with me so well (only book I've ever finished and then immediately started again) that I was scared of sullying it if his next book was as bad as random people on the internet said lol
Ngl I wouldn’t be surprised if the main reason those random internet people didn’t like it is bc the protagonist is a brown girl
Nice. My advice is that if a book hasn't grabbed you in the first couple chapters then don't feel obliged to stick it out just because it's popular. I've spent a lot of time powering through books I didn't like (usually audiobooks on 2x speed) just to see if they got better by the end and they very rarely do lol.
Trashfuture, its a techno pessimist podcast from britain that has good mix between humor and talking about contemporary issues
The running segment of "One host reads out a tech startup's name / mission statement / nonsensical management-speak verbiage from their website and the other two hosts have to guess their business model" is my favourite part. Even better as they accidentally predicted the Greensill Capital collapse by virtue of all of the dumbest startups they found being funded by the same place.
I'm going to do @wtypstanaccount04's job and recommend Well There' s Your Problem. A leftist podcast about engineering disasters which more often than not concludes it's rent-seeking behavior, complete disregard for worker safety, and just existing in capitalism the reason why bridges fall down.
(this shares some hosts / guests with Trashfuture which is one of the two other podcasts I listen to)
WTYPP is the best podcast with slides around . The best way I can explain it is your substitute teacher trying to give a civil engineering lecture while two smartass students crack jokes and distract him. It's the only podcast I know where a host will stop talking about the orphans crushed under mining slag to take a leak, crack a beer into the mic on their return, argue about some inside joke from 30 episodes earlier and then calculate how many inflation-adjusted xboxes a company was fined for killing all these orphans.
It ranges from the dry, detail oriented explanations of an event, to the wider capitalist pressures that led to the conditions where it occurred and there will be an equal number of irreverent jokes throughout.
Then it all wraps up with the user-write-in section about how ways their own bosses have tried to kill them to save a buck.
Also I introduced it to a friend and they're trans now so be prepared. 10/10 podcast.
A More Civilized Age - Leftist episode by episode review of Star Wars The Clone Wars (and now moved on to Rebels)
The West Wing Thing - The hosts of The Audit review every episode of The West Wing and get angrier and angrier about it as it goes on. It finished last year and they started the Audit.
Worst of All Possible Worlds - Leftists review pop culture things. The episodes on the Minions movie and Boss Baby are sooooo funny.
Lateral with Tom Scott - Lighthearted logic(?) puzzle quiz show. Have you ever seen the BBC show QI? It’s that.
Alphabet Boys - 10 episode series on how the FBI infiltrated activist groups during the George Floyd protests, and set a man up for terrorism. Fuck the FBI.
I also want to second a bunch other people mentioned, Trashfuture, The Audit, The Dollop, TrueAnon, Blowback, Shrieking Shack, Minion Death Cult, and of course Chapo Trap House
Kill James Bond is quite fun, three trans british people watching the films and talking shit about them. Also Jack Ryan, Bourne and Austin Powers films (because they already finished all bond films).
the only podcast is citations needed (https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/)
edit: and blowback, of course (https://blowback.show/)
Work Stoppage - The premier labour news podcast updated weekly hosted by 3 marxists of slightly different stripes. 5/5
Red Game Table - Matryoshka, a cosmic horror investigation rpg set in the USSR during the Cold War. Each season is self-contained, but all of the Matryoshka seasons are in the same continuity/world.
The Audit - In The Audit, comedian Dave Anthony and screenwriter Josh Olson audit a variety of online classes, docuseries, and other media products created by noxious political figures and boil them down to the good stuff. By which they mean… the bad stuff.
The Audit
The most recent season has been about PragerU, it’s absolutely infuriating and I love it
Is Red Game Table done by former Proles of the Round Table people? It sounds like the RP bonus episodes they did ages ago.
All Dogs Must Die is a really hilarious episode by episode breakdown of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by two of the OG's of LP's, Chip Cheezum and Ironicus. As per usual, they genuinely love the material even if they are occasionally baffled by certain writing choices. Very funny, and a good overview even if you've never watched JoJo.
Age of Napoleon is a fantastic podcast even if the maker is a little lib at times, but he is essentially a Christman-ist.
Many good recommendations here already. I want to add Death Panel for covid news, Decolonized Buffalo podcast for making sure you don’t turn into a fucking patsoc, Struggle Session for funny bits about blockbusters (most episodes are paywalled tho), The East is a Podcast to help destroy your orientalism, I Don’t Even Own A Televison (left-adjacent bad books podcast, sadly defunct but has many hilarious episodes), Historic.ly for decolonizing your mind, It’s Not Just In Your Head for psychology (many recent episodes have been pretty lib tho), Geopolitical Economy Report for the economics of imperialism, Cadre Network for interviews with global south comrades, Auxiliary Statements for reading some of the lesser-read theoretical texts (like the origin of capitalism), Swampside Chats is also good for this (their Wilhelm Reich episode was basically “this guy is a crank but oddly right about everything”). Byzantium and Friends and We’re Not So Different are left but sadly not Marxist history podcasts. Gerald Horne’s youtube channel also has some of the best geopolitical analysis I’ve ever seen.
I’ll check that out. I know this may be anathema here but the recent episode they did with Matt Christman I found pretty disappointing. IIRC they basically argued that capitalism began with the Thirty Years’ War, a claim which was completely new to me, let’s just say.
What kind of gaming and nerd shit? Are there particular consoles or specific types of nerd shit you're into? That kind of information could help me possibly give you recommendations if we have any similar tastes.
Pretty much all the good political and news ones have been mentioned, but I don't think I've seen American Prestige or Know Your Enemy listed yet.
A podcast that I've been listening to that I have no idea where I found it has been Anime Sickos. Definitely on the lighter side of things. All about the 4 pillars of modern misery: anime, gaming, posting, and jobs. You don't need to listen from the beginning but I've been doing it since it started a little before covid happened and it's kinda of fun to listen through on retrospect of how awful it all was and how people were effected by it
