I've been really getting into podcasts lately. I always listen the the Starside Lounge, of course, and the Ready Up Live podcast. I usually try to make time for Guardian Radio, but not always.

That's how I started. Now I can't seem to stop. I've been listening to Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk Radio, but those can be hit or miss for me. Listen to TED Radio Hour every now and then.

My recent favorite that I just started a few days ago is Welcome to Night Vale (website link, not podcast link).

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life.

The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern United States". In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink said that he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.

It's as ridiculous as it sounds, and it's incredibly funny, and sometimes creepy. I fell in love with it about halfway through the first episode.

So, to the point, I just wanted to throw that out there for folks, and wanted to ask what others listen to. I realize this is a hugely broad subject as there are podcasts about nearly everything. So apart from sharing what you listen to, does anyone have any other podcasts similar to Welcome to Night Vale?

I've tried listening to some that are just readings of short stories and such, but I can't listen to those. I can't listen to audiobooks; I just lose focus when people read to me. But the presentation of Welcome to Night Vale tells a story in a pretty unique way that's not just someone reading a story.

There's a reason Night Vale is unique. Nobody's done that kind of presentation. However, you may like radio dramas or plays. Do you want podcast recommendations on those?

I'm afraid the vast majority of fiction podcasts ARE people just reading stories.

There's a reason Night Vale is unique. Nobody's done that kind of presentation. However, you may like radio dramas or plays. Do you want podcast recommendations on those?

Yes, actually. I've never listened to one, so it might be what I'm looking for. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

Part of what makes Night Vale work for me is that they're of reasonable length. I listen to an episode or two before bed, and it's perfect. And it's partly just that I can do other things while listening; I don't have to be 100% focused on it. Hell, you can miss half of an episode, and it'll still be great and funny. While it does have story developments in the long term, you could listen to basically any random episode without context and it will still be excellent.

So a true radio drama or play might run into the same problem as audiobooks; my mind wanders a lot when I listen to things, so I'll end up zoning out for a few minutes then have no idea what's happened in what I've been listening to.

I'm afraid the vast majority of fiction podcasts ARE people just reading stories.

Yeah, that's what I've been finding out. Which is great for a lot of folks. Just not me, unfortunately. :(

And, I mean, also, I am just genuinely curious as to what other folks listen to, fiction or otherwise.

I would love if their was a Grimoire focused podcast for Destiny. It's the main reason I listen to Guardian Radio. I like their readings and discussion of the cards, although it's usually just a small segment (and on a hiatus). I don't really need the news recap stuff, as I get enough of that here.

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing a Destiny Grimoire podcast, but people will just bitch at me, so I won't.

All right. Here's some radio drama podcasts I have listened to and can confirm are all right. Most of them are simply presentations of older shows in podcast form. I will not give websites since I'm just reading off my phone. If you want, I can give you an OPML file. Go for bold first.

Case Closed - Old American Radio mysteries now in public domain presented as a podcast

BBC Radio 4 Comedy of the Week - Occasionally funny plays, but more often sketch shows.

Dragnet - Yes, there's a podcast dedicated entirely to releasing old Dragnet episodes.

BBC Radio 4 Drama of the Week - 30 minute to 2 hour long plays, no genre requirements. They do comedies fairly frequently. Actually, As You Like It on there was probably my favourite version I've seen/heard of that. Not sure why.

Fibber McGee and Molly Show - Similar to the Dragnet podcast, it just plays old episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly. The show, while ostensibly funny, may seem kind of hacky for modern audiences. It relies a lot on running gags and in jokes.

Home Front - A BBC Radio 4 drama program that's basically a soap opera set in a coastal town in England during World War I. There is an "omnibus" version, which allows you to listen to the whole week of programs at once.

The Archers - Another BBC Radio 4 drama. Definitely a soap opera in all but a soap company sponsorship. It's set in a rural community somewhere in the West Midlands. They also have an omnibus version.

Radio Icebox - Some Minnesotans make stories about cold stuff.

Old Time Radio Westerns - Westerns from radio. I like westerns.

Radio Drama Revival - They take radio dramas from elsewhere and broadcast them. Many are multipart, and there is no genre restriction. Generally good stuff.

Pleasuretown - This is the most similar to Welcome to Night Vale. It's a WBEZ production that tells the story of a made up failed utopian society in Oklahoma. It's crowdsourced, just like Night Vale.

Relic Radio and its variants - Similar to the other rebroadcasts from like 60 years ago, Relic Radio plays old American radio plays. They have a few feeds for different genres.

The Sonic Society - Similar to Radio Drama Revival, but I like it better. It's a great place to find out about new production companies and listen to a variety of shows.

These are the only reliable, regularly updated podcasts for audio dramas I know and listen to with any regularity.

In general, if it's a podcast, it's pretty awful in my opinion. Hence, when I want radio drama, I go to the BBC iPlayer thing. There's no IP check for radio.

The only problem with using that is that the vast majority of the stuff isn't a podcast, and it's paid for by license fee payers in the UK, and it's kinda supposed to only be for them. Their world service is for the rest of us.

For example, there's a lovely little 45 minute play written by Johnny Vegas on right now but you can only listen to it on the website. We outside the UK are never supposed to hear it, and we never will, unless it's on iPlayer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0680s8k

Radio 4 also has a series called "15 minute drama" which plays multi part dramas in 15 minute increments, which may be good for your awful attention span.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qy2s

But, you described something that you can zone out to while listening to and come back and it will still be funny. You should try a panel game like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR, or, back to the BBC again, any one of DOZENS they broadcast regularly. My favourite is called The Unbelievable Truth, where comedians write a funny script where every single element has to be a lie except five facts they shove in there. It's very reliably entertaining. If you like panel shows, explore more of Radio 4's stuff on iPlayer. You'll be excited.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mf4f

I've been listening to podcasts since around 2004, before iTunes carried them, and I maintain that the charm of podcasts is that they aren't radio shows. The benefit is that you get hardcore nerds on a particular subject who talk about things they love with people they like. This is suited to things like the podcasts you mentioned, and even larger, higher funded, and better produced ones like The Patch for gaming. Where podcasts are lacking are things like dramas and shows with guests and regular segments. Adam Carolla is a big exception there. Even the biggest comedy shows are usually just a couple guys in a studio they built in a walk in closet who occasionally have guests over.

The podcast is also great for long form interviews, niche subjects, and shows that are actually boring to most people on the radio. You won't find quality drama here. You will find the equivalent of 3 guys in a studio they build in a closet with Blue Snowball microphones. It's not good. If I were you, I'd look elsewhere for that, or just deal with the old time radio rebroadcast podcasts.

Thanks for the post! I'll definitely be looking into some of these over the long weekend.

It's mainly just going to be trying podcasts until I find something I like (obviously). Maybe I'll stumble onto other things I love as much as Night Vale. Maybe there's not much out there for me. Who knows?

I do appreciate your effort, though, and some of those do sound interesting, so it wasn't for nothing!

If you give me a list of subjects you like I can supply you with a curated list.

Hardcore History is awesome. Each episode is usually several hours, but interesting all the way through. His latest series are free, and you can purchase the older ones for pretty cheap.
My recommended series to start with:
Wrath of the Khans
Death Throes of the Rebublic
Ghosts of the Ostfront
Blueprint for Armageddon
And my favorite for being the most bizarre: Prophets of Doom

http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

He also does a good political show if you're into that. He's pretty libertarian.
http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/

Hardcore History is awesome. Each episode is usually several hours, but interesting all the way through. His latest series are free, and you can purchase the older ones for pretty cheap.
My recommended series to start with:
Wrath of the Khans
Death Throes of the Rebublic
Ghosts of the Ostfront
Blueprint for Armageddon
And my favorite for being the most bizarre: Prophets of Doom

http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

He also does a good political show if you're into that. He's pretty libertarian.
http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/

Hardcore History is great. It's the most engaging history podcast I know of, and I always get excited when a new episode is out. Then, if I am not familiar with the subject, I go and get the best book I can find on it and find out what actually happened.

I see a lot of people bring up his opinions on Reddit as if they're, like, actual accepted ideas, and people often regurgitate things he says without second thought. Hardcore History should be treated like a History Channel show, where they have a limited time and they have to make something engaging and hook in the audience. But, due to the seriousness of the podcast and its subject matter, it can be tempting to think it's presenting a full, scholarly picture, just in an engaging way.

For example, in the Ghosts of the Ostfront series, which was my first real exposure to him, he omitted huge portions of the eastern front history, and said some really dumb stuff, like the Germans should have quit after Operation Barbarossa failed. He does that kind of stuff a lot. He always says "I'm a fan of history," but it seems to me like that's the history crackpot version of the 9/11 truther "I'm just asking questions," and excuse to not be particularly rigorous. I think he would agree with that, too.

However, unless you're really, really boring and enjoy listening to historical books on tape at 2x speed during your 90 minute commute, Hardcore History is fantastic. Just be aware it's entertainment, not education.

EDIT: Actually, I just remembered something. A girl who was living with me was having some insomnia problems and turning to getting drunk every night before bed to try to sleep because she couldn't shut her mind off. She also didn't respond well to sleeping pills. I gave her Hardcore History (once it was going paid, I made sure to keep all the old episodes, so I have a full archive), and she would listen to it for 45 minutes every night and eventually fall asleep, no alcohol. I've also given it to others as an introduction too. I really do like it. End edit.

The best history podcasts that, as far as I can tell from my own knowledge and research, I would consider both education AND entertainment are

The History of English Podcast - If you liked my post on how to pronounce Gjallarhorn, you'll like this podcast.

The History of Rome - Now finished, this thing does an entire history of Rome from the mythical origins to the end of the western empire. It's humorous and very well researched. If you want to finish until the end of the Roman Empire, try the History of Byzantium as well. Though I'm not well versed enough to say if it's accurate, it does seem boring enough to be.

Some other entertaining history podcasts I like the most include The Born Yesterday podcast which appears to have podfaded, but I describe it as Dan Carlin in 30 minutes or less, and the Podcast History of Our World, which is a funny, joking review of world history. If you had a 2 credit hour world history survey course, it would be about equivalent to that. There's also a panel game based on history called Actually Happening that's pretty funny, but the hosts are flamboyantly liberal, and do just go off half cocked a lot. Backstory with The American History Guys is a show that has segments that tackle subjects in American History in easy ways, and is put on by 3 professors as a radio show they let us download for free. Everything I've fact checked from them has checked out, but due to the limits of their show format, I don't consider it an educational show, per se, since you get no context. Good for parties and trivia.

But some recommendations of other, completely un-Nightvale podcasts.

We Have Concerns - Did you know that Mount Everest has a serious faeces problem? Did you know that doctors in Seattle are combating cancer with scorpion venom? Did you know there's a haunted housw in Illinois that really is haunted (sort of)?

Anthony Carboni and John Cannata take recent news in the world of science, nature and oddities, and discuss the ramifications of cool, weird and scary science over a 20 minute podcast, interspersed with improv, Thai Food and one dad joke per episode.

Jimquisition - Jim Sterling (formerly of Destructoid, now of Jimquisition.com), Laura Dale (Destructoid) and Gavin "Miracle of Sound" (The Escapist) host a videogame news cast and/or anti-Ubisoft propaganda machine (depending on how they're feeling that day). Jim is one of my absolute favourite reviewers, and has had a lot of podcasts in the past. This is the first one normal enough that I can recommend to the general populace.

Fistshark Marketting - this actually might fit the bill of "like Nightvale". Featuring Jim Sterling, Conrad Zimmerman and a female host whose name I forget because I'm awful, Fistshark Marketting is a 20 minute snippet of the weekly boardmeeting at Fistshark. It started off pretty simply, with "What if X celebrity has been doing Y silly/outrageous/unlikely thing" but it's been evolving into sometjing far more absurdist/surreal lately. Also Bono from U2 makes the occasional guest appearance. Allegedly.

You're wanting the kind of sterile, scientific, boring approach to history that turned me off to it in school. Dan Carl8n approaches it in a more philosophical way. Each series starts off with a question, and then he attempts to answer it through telling a story about a historical event. It's teaching through parables, but the parables are deeply rooted in history. So yeah, if you're looking for a history textbook, this isn't your guy. But if you're looking for some great thought provoking story telling, then Hardcore History is really great.

Out of the others you listed, History of Rome has been my favorite. He is more of the textbook type, but he keeps it interesting and light.

I have a really hard time listening to podcasts. I bet if I had a smartphone and a commute I might actually have a prime situation to really get into them. As it stands now, when I try and do art on the computer and listen to a podcast.... nothing else happens. I just have to sit and listen. And then two hours go by and I haven't accomplished any work. :/

That said, I've recently found that I can listen to comedic podcasts while working sometimes, because I don't have to pay 100% all the time. I can zone in and out and still enjoy what I do catch. I listen to Comedy Bang bang every couple of weeks; I guess I enjoy zany improve with people unable to stop breaking character.

I've also listened to a lot of WTF with Maron lately which is often funny, but, again, not always a good one to work to as you can get wrapped up in it. It's an acquired taste (I didn't 'get' Maron until I watched his show on Netflix) but they're some of the most down-to-earth, human interviews I've heard, and most of the time due to the nature of the interviewees, they're really inspiring for me. Anytime he talks to a comedian, an actor, artist, or anything like that, there's usually a stage in the walkthrough of their life where they get to their twenties and can't get work, feel like they've failed, are never going to make it, and feel all around shitty. Trying to make a career out of art myself, it's really motivating and comforting to hear others talk about the same kinds of doubts and fears that are in front of me everyday I wake up.

I have a really hard time listening to podcasts. I bet if I had a smartphone and a commute I might actually have a prime situation to really get into them. As it stands now, when I try and do art on the computer and listen to a podcast.... nothing else happens. I just have to sit and listen. And then two hours go by and I haven't accomplished any work. :/

Yeah, I can't really multitask when listening to them. I don't have much of a commute either. I've found that listening when I lay down in bed for the night is the best time. Listening to a thirty minute podcast fits perfect into my nightly routine there (I always listen to music when I lay down, or read a book for a bit, or something).

But that does occasionally lead to spending extra time listening to the next episode or a longer podcast and staying up later than desired, but not often enough to make it awful.

I've also listened to a lot of WTF with Maron lately which is often funny, but, again, not always a good one to work to as you can get wrapped up in it. It's an acquired taste (I didn't 'get' Maron until I watched his show on Netflix) but they're some of the most down-to-earth, human interviews I've heard, and most of the time due to the nature of the interviewees, they're really inspiring for me. Anytime he talks to a comedian, an actor, artist, or anything like that, there's usually a stage in the walkthrough of their life where they get to their twenties and can't get work, feel like they've failed, are never going to make it, and feel all around shitty. Trying to make a career out of art myself, it's really motivating and comforting to hear others talk about the same kinds of doubts and fears that are in front of me everyday I wake up.

That sounds like an interesting one, I will have to check it out. Sounds like it could be something great. I've always enjoyed interview type shows, but it's tough to find ones that connect in any real or meaningful way.

That sounds like an interesting one, I will have to check it out. Sounds like it could be something great. I've always enjoyed interview type shows, but it's tough to find ones that connect in any real or meaningful way.

Obviously I'd say to support the proper channels to listen to his stuff, but I'd go to YouTube first and listen to some of his big ones just to see if you like it. Talks with Louis CK, Bryan Cranston, Norm McDonald, Robin Williams, were some of the first ones I tried, I think, then I switched over to his official weekly posts, sometimes really enjoying talks with people I've never heard of before. The first ten or so minutes he kind of shoots the shit and lets people know what he's doing in his career, then he launches into an hour one-on-one with somebody.

The Nerdist is also a good show for interviews, but they stay superficial and usually aim to be funny. WTF is only funny if they happen to be being funny at the time; it isn't an aim of the show, but Marc Maron usually gets much deeper with the guests. For a more traditional radio show format that spends a decent length of time on interviews, try Adam Carolla's podcast.

My recent favorite that I just started a few days ago is Welcome to Night Vale (website link, not podcast link).

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life.

The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern United States". In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink said that he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.

It's as ridiculous as it sounds, and it's incredibly funny, and sometimes creepy. I fell in love with it about halfway through the first episode.

Interesting. I am going to have to check this out. Sounds like a weird fusion of A Prairie Home Companion and Twin Peaks.

I just listened to his interview with Jason Segel and it was fantastic. Definitely going to make time to listen to some more of these.

I'm loving We Have Concerns. Interesting and funny conversations in short episodes. It's perfect.

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