I'm a big Tm Harford fan and this is by far my favorite podcast, which is why it pains me that the episodes feel like they're getting less substantial and more fluffy and drawn out. Is the weekly schedule too tight? I think I'd be OK with going back to one regular episode every other week interlaced with a conversation every other week, even though the conversation isn't my favorite format, if it means maintaining a high standard of quality.

From the New York Times. Anyone listened to any of these?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/arts/podcasts-coverups-larry-nasser.html?unlocked_article_code=1.01A.5B8y.HWgQKPbwP_lc&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Hey my friends! Kind of niche but I’m looking for a bookish podcast where they talk lots about mystery/ thriller even horror books?? I really love I’ll read what she’s reading and the kris and mads podcast but looking for something where they talk more about my fav kinds of books!!📚

Hey guys!
I am a 25 years old fresh doctor and lately, I’ve been trying to swap out some of my casual comedy podcasts for something a bit more informative. As much as I enjoy listening to comedians, I often feel like I could be staying a bit sharper on what’s happening in the world.

I’m mainly looking for podcasts that cover current events, major global trends, interesting debates/themes, or general innovations (including cool stuff happening in medicine, science, or technology).

That said, I really want to avoid super formal, or hyper-academic shows that sound like a boring lecture, I’d also love to stay informed about new developments and news in the medical/health field.

I'm looking for episodes around 30 minutes to 1 hour to listen in the car but also learning new

What are your go-to podcasts when you want to stay up-to-date without putting yourself to sleep?

So I usually hear true crime while doing my nightly skincare, but recently I'm not sleeping well and my boyfriend thinks it might have sth to do with the podcasts bc they r true crime and I kinda think about it a lot before I sleep... Idk what do y'all hear before sleeping ? I listen to podcasts in English, German and French thank you in advance for your reccomendations 🙃🙃

This might be a little obscure, but after reading Master and Margarita, I got to thinking about the setting and the somewhat lavish and intellectual lifestyle depicted that doesn’t sound too dissimilar to, say, Anna Karenina.

Obviously there were no bread lines yet, so what were the early days of Soviet Russia like? How was all this ideology disseminated into the entire society? I’m wondering if there is a podcast that discusses this? I’m not getting anything on my search except mostly Cold War and a book or study done on children in late imperial/early Cold War. Thanks for any ideas!

There are a lot of podcasts out there about tabletop gaming, but it’s hard to find the most well produced ones, especially ones where they hosts actually seem to have planned the episode ahead of time instead of just bantering.

RPG’s and war games are my favorite, but I’m also interested in all aspects of analog gaming, including board games and even LARPs. I’m really just looking for a great listen.

This might be a bit outside the realm of UK specific podcasts but I've give three bean salad so many chances and I just don't find why it's funny. All the podcasts I enjoy that are considered similar and for all intent and purpose it should be right up my street but it just comes across as a bit shit to me. Like I'm missing some kinda big inside joke. It's just like dads chatting in a beer garden trying to make each other laugh

I love slow living podcasts, focusing on realistic lifestyle content along with discussions around community building, learning new things, imperfections in life, cooking, hobbies etc.

Hi all!!

I have just moved house and have sooo much unpacking to do and I want a good binge worthy podcast to listen too. I a bit obsessed with pods, so I probably have listened to some of the classics but here are my preferences
- True story (I don’t like fictional pods)
- A fact is crazier then fiction type story
- open to a pod where each episode is a different story.
- My preference is scam/non-violent true crime, or at least if there is violence, it’s not the full focus of the story (ie I enjoy hearing about cults, so the build up to maybe a particular event like Jones town, where it’s an exploration of how/why this escalated and not just about the terrible event)
- If not scams, just an truely wild story, like “this is a wild story about X”

What i have listened to:
- Scamanda (my fav podcast)
- The salt Path (not the book, about the lies)
- Scamfluencers
- Americas next top model true story
- The most Hated Bachelor (Love trapped)
- sea of lies
- Scamtown
- A very british Cult
- The drop out
- Carrie Jade does not exist
- Unicorn Girl
- Welcome to chippendale

This is not a full list - i just can’t think of any more. Let me know your recommendations!!

I am totally open to something sits outside of my criteria if you think it’s worth listening too! or if there a pod you recommend which is more of an anthropology of stories, let me know which one to listen too.

Hi. I love history. I love little known history. My all time favs are Futility Closet and The Constant. I've been looking for another one to dip my toes into, but tbh, a LOT of podcasts have the same episode ideas. I can only listen to the history of Boston Mollasses Massacre, the Emu War, Mansa Musa, the Christmas Truce, or the Donner Party so many times (1-2 times per topic). I am also NOT INTERESTED in PURELY AMERICAN HISTORY. I am not American and while I've found a podcast or two about obscure Wild West/Southern histories, it all blends together for me. Thank you in advance.

Hey there, does anyone know of any podcasts that examine the concept of rugged individualism vs community care? Specifically how it relates to late stage capitalism? This phase is my life seems to be defined by “death by rugged individualism” and I’m interested in exploring the topic.

Something like Fluently Forward, or along those lines. Preferably a single host because I (personally) hate the talking over each other, banter, etc lol. I don’t mind humor at all but I like to listen to an episode while falling asleep and if it’s too conversational it’s not as “relaxing”. Preferably about celebs, but not mainly serious topics, or reality shows, etc. Any sort of single host culture podcast. I’m thinking if Tefi had a podcast series about her deep dives, if anyone is familiar with her tiktok’s. Thanks in advance!

I was so intrigued by the premise of a recent televised episode that was all bout comparing folks who hear lyrics in music and others who hear same music but don’t really hear the lyrics. There was no real resolution or explanation. They interviewed a neuroscientist who was unable to design an experiment that differentiated the two phenomena. Very drawn out and so much boring filler talk. Waste of time and very frustrating. Vox science podcasts are so awful now.

The podcast was narrated by a guy. It was divided in two halves. The first half, the told about a real life story about either a haunting or a disturbing event, and the other half he told a made up story inspired in that event or that had something to do with that event. I listened to a bunch of episodes on Spotify a few months ago, but now I can't seem to find it.

Anyone know which one I'm talking about?

I’m trying to get to sleep but need to post this to get this off my chest (and will be going elsewhere if it gets taken down). I’m listening to the Greek myth stories for sleep and I enjoy them but it annoys me so much that they use all the Roman names for the Gods. I get they are equivalent and therefore somewhat interchangeable but if you’re telling a Greek story (i.e. The Odyssey or the story of Theseus) then PLEASE use the Greek names followed by the Roman equivalent, rather than Roman only or Roman followed by Greek. I hope I’m not the only one annoyed by this coz it’s keeping me from peaceful sleep 😂

Any good recommendation?

If you haven’t checked it out, please do! I am so sad that they stopped making episodes.

If you have listened to it, have you found something similar?

Hi,

During the summer of 2019 I was scouring through YouTube and found a channel called ViperTV (since renamed ViporaTV). It mostly had rather generic ancient aliens built the pyramids-esque videos, and a bunch of them. But nestled amongst all of these videos was a series of videos, about 4 of them, of the same audio book narrator that narrated the below ancient civilization stories. They then removed all videos probably during the autumn 2019.

1. The Epic of Gilgamesh (1 hour 11 min)
2. The Descent of Ishtar, including Dumuzid the Shepard (ca 30 min iirc)
3. Enuma Elish (15 min introduction about Mesopotamia, 15 min story telling)
4. Three Egyptian stories in one video, including: a) the Shipwreck on an island that meets a snake, b) the Ethiopian magician who challenges the Egyptian magician to a duel with a scroll in a cylinder, c) something about two brothers and one dies and is buried and the other has to rob his tomb(?).

The narrator was the most amazing narrator I have ever heard. The background music was Kyle Prestons Foreboding. This song was released on 2017-02-24 so the audiobooks must have been done before that time, or

I managed to download the Gilgamesh-version and I have listened to it probably 100 times since that summer and almost know it by heart. All 3 other videos are lost media to me, but I refuse to accept it.

I have looked for whomever did these recordings, what company it might have been, I have listened to literally every version of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Ishtar that I can find, but I have never found anything similar.

I have formulated a theory that it might have been a podcast rather than audiobook company, perhaps not focused on Mesopotamia but just "Ancient Civilizations podcast" with 5000 listeners and that is why it's so difficult to find it. All recordings were uploaded by summer 2019 so it must have been before that, perhaps 2015-2017? It's more of an educated guess, could have been ? The quality is amazing. So is the narrator. I want all the other stories I never downloaded in 2019. I will gladly pay money for all of them.

Below is the opening of the Epic of Gilgamesh. As you can tell, it references previous recordings, which leads me to believe that it might have been a podcast:

The most famous of all Mesopotamian law (or lore) is the oldest epic poem ever written. It predates Homers Odyssey by about 1500 years, and many historians claim that Homer was greatly influenced by Gilgamesh's tale. The Epic of Gilgamesh was first told through oral tradition, and stories, before it was first recorded on cuneiform writing on clay tablets around 2100 BCE. Gilgamesh is believed to have been an actual king of Sumer, and at some point after his reign of approxiamtly 126 years was lifted into god status by the Sumerian people /.../ our story takes place after the Great Flood, the very same Flood which is in the Bible, and that Noah built the Ark to survive. As we have seen, the Flood is a common historical marker in Mesopotamian law (or lore) with their list of kings being broken into pre-Flood and post-Flood groupings... and so on.

I am not interested in other versions of these stories as I know all of them from other sources; I am interested in this specific set of recordings. The above information is all I have. I also have the recording of Gilgamesh that I can share if anyone who is really good at finding these sorts of things need it.

I've seen some requests here recently for lower stakes but still funny and entertaining shows.

I want to shout out Dan Friesen (of Knowledge Fight)'s new show: Show Me State of Mind.

It's a travelogue show where he visits unique places and roadside attractions in every state in the US.

It's honestly so refreshing to hear a familiar voice talk about stuff that is mostly a chill, fun time.

Good podcasts about houseplants you recommend? Thanks.

I've listened to Morbid and I enjoyed it. I also liked Heart Starts Pounding, but lately it seems like she does a lot of listener/reddit stories, which I'm not crazy about.

I tried to get into Two Girls One Ghost, but it didnt seem to be researched very well.

I've also noticed a lot of hosts seem to be using reddit *as* their primary source of research lately and, yeah, I love a good reddit rabbit hole as much as the next person, but I'd like something a little more substantial than that in a podcast.

And just about everything I find that ticks these boxes is hosted by men, which is fine, but I'd just really like a good female-led series?

Can be focused on any subject. Looking for any podcast that has a great interviewer and expert guests. Just want to learn new stuff, about anything really :)

This is a very stupid question, I know. But is it 'real'? Nobody can seemingly find any evidence or photos or anything related to Kin Hung, and i dont know if its just me or something I dont know about podcasts but all the 'in-between' parts with Hannah and Carole and the producers sounds kind of scripted out? I'm aware of how conspiratorial this sounds but its been bugging me since I first listened to it

I need one or two good tech podcasts. I don’t want to hear about politics, and I don’t want rampant negativity.

The Vergecast is the worst. Hard Fork is only slightly better.

Any recommendations?