Let's start with the name: the word Podcast comes from the merger of PoD ("Personal on Demand") and Broadcast (transmission, diffusion). So the Podcast is a transmission of content on-demand and periodically updated through "RSS feeds," to which a user can subscribe.
The myriad of informative stimuli we immerse in today spreads through words and - more often - images. Many of us feel the need to escape from an exclusively visual type of communication and rediscover a more abstract, reflective dimension. Usually, the voices lead the Podcast to establish an intimate and intellectual relationship, which is ultimately conveyed by the content. The content is an additional stimulus: podcasts are more or less rightly considered the realm of serious and in-depth content, of articulated and reliable sources. And that's also why the most popular way to hook up with a new audio title is often the advice of those you trust.
With thousands of podcasts to choose from, we've narrowed it down our favorite ones!
The Pat McAffe Show
It’s a sports podcast hosted by ex-NFL player Pat McAfee where he discusses college and professional football.
Ologies Episodes with AlIE Ward
Alie interviews people about the "ology" they are into, such as dendrology (TREES) or Pelicanology (PELICANS). It is an excellent podcast because you learn something new every episode, and Alie is an engaging interviewer. There are 100s of episodes.
WFT with Marc Maron
Marc Maron has been writing and performing raw, honest, and thought-provoking comedy for over twenty years. In September 2009, Marc changed the podcast landscape when he started WTF with Marc Maron. This Podcast features Marc's revelatory conversations with iconic personalities such as Conan O'Brien, Terry Gross, Robin Williams, Keith Richards, Ben Stiller, Lorne Michaels, and President Barack Obama. It became a worldwide phenomenon, with more than six-million downloads each month and 250 million lifetime downloads within its first six years.
Home Cooking
Home Cooking is Samin Nosrat (from Netflix’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) and Hrishikesh Hirway (from Netflix’s Song Exploder) taking cooking questions from listeners. They have great chemistry and will make you laugh and learn through each episode.
Criminal
Criminal is produced and hosted by Phoebe Judge. She unravels obscure crimes dating back over the last 100 years. Most have a crazy twist to them. She also hosts “Phoebe reads a Mystery” (where she takes classical mystery novels – think Agatha Christie – and reads them in a serial manner).
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman dives into the meaning and history of the English language. She explains why we use the words we do and the importance of how we choose what we say.
99% Invisible
99% Invisible is produced and hosted by Roman Mars (my favorite male voice in podcasting). His team takes things in our everyday world and explains them from a design point of view. The show is produced in downtown Oakland.
Spacebridge
Spacebridge tells a largely-forgotten saga of the late Cold War when despair about a nuclear conflict's prospects gripped the world. Both Soviets and Americans grasped at emerging communication technology via satellite and early Internet "spacebridges" that brought together citizen diplomats ranging from New Agers to tech-enthusiasts to astronauts. The urge to "just connect" helped tilt the world from top-down broadcasting to the more horizontal, Internet-leveled society where we all now live…for better and or for worse.
Business of Architecture
Discover strategies, tips, and secrets for running a fun, flexible, and profitable architecture practice. The focus here is simple: discussing ways for architects to create a dream architecture practice: design what you want, when you want, and get paid well for it.
Crime Junkie
Crime Junkie is a weekly true-crime podcast dedicated to giving you a fix. Every Monday, Ashley Flowers will tell you about whatever crime she's been obsessing over that week in a way that sounds like you're sitting around talking crime with your best friends. The storytelling is straightforward and free of rabbit holes, so the cases stay suspenseful and are easy to follow.
Serial
They go through different criminal cases and examine questionable evidence to get the listeners to come up with their conspiracies as to whether the defendant is guilty or not.
The first season is the most captivating and tells Adnan Syed's story, sentenced to life in prison. Still, some evidence is questionable, and the Podcast takes you through the entire case with real interviews and audio from the trials.
HBO picked up the first season, turning into a miniseries, and helps you visualize the case!
Club Quarantine
Club Quarantine curated by the DJ Producer team of Gabriel & Dresden. Based in the Bay Area, Dave Dresden is the host and often accompanied by his partner Karin Bash, a DJ in her own right. They perform several live DJ sets each week, and the music genre is in the range of melodic techno, trance, and deep EDM. The podcasts are accessible from Twitch and Facebook. Dave has built a fantastic community of fans and supporters worldwide that populate the chat feed with entertaining banter moderated to exclude inappropriate and harmful comments. The vibe is only positive and affirming. Dave interjects a lot of narration among the tracks, citing music history and describing new works.
The Michelle Obama Podcast
The Michelle Obama Podcast features the former First Lady diving deep into conversations with loved ones—family, friends, and colleagues—on the relationships in our lives that make us who we are.
The Thread
Explore history's interlocking lives and events. Turn back the clock, one story at a time. Discover how various strands weave together to create a historical figure, a big idea, or an unthinkable tragedy. From OZY Media. History. Unwound.
