There aren’t 200+ Black Tapes episodes. I think you’re misreading the season two episode numbering as hundreds instead of season 2, episode X. I think there’s maybe 20-odd proper episodes and a few miniepisodes. It’s pretty decent though, as is its sister podcast TANIS.
You’re the podmaster, charmtrap.
I’m a bit of a QT3 movie podcast fanboy (don’t change a single thing!). I also love Hardcore History and You Must Remember This, a podcast about 20th century Hollywood.
Ah, well, I’m relieved!
Like I said, I just subbed the other day after hearing it mentioned positively on another podcast. I’ve gotten through the first two eps and enjoyed them enough to continue.
Charmtrap, you have podcast issues! :) Thanks for the list. I’ll have to give Radiolab a listen as I see its very highly ranked. Also This American Life as it’s always at the top of the rankings. No idea what these podcasts entail though.
Charmtrap, wow, how do you have time to listen to all of that? I can’t get in my much-more-limited list as it is. Someone posted a link to Airline Pilot Guy a while back and I really like that one, but I think it’s designed for guys on long-haul flights, because it’s 3+ hours. Can’t use half of my weekly commute time on one podcast.
A few others I like:
2 Dope Queens – My wife introduced me to this one. Weekly stand-up comedy weirdly sponsored by WNYC, the same station that does Radiolab.
In Our Time – Intelligent discussion of historical events, figures, science, and literature from the BBC, not dumbed down for American listeners. Superb show.
KCRW’s The Treatment – Elvis Mitchell is the Terry Gross of movie/TV interviewers.
The Moth Podcast – Just real people’s stories. Sometimes funny, sometimes gut-wrenching, always entertaining.
The Seattle Files with Chris Allen – Chris is a local actor/improviser and Seattle history buff who brings on local comics/improvisers and tells them stories of Seattle history. The stories are fascinating – Trump’s grandfather who started the family fortune with Seattle brothels, Francis Farmer’s tragic life, the pig war, the guy who shot down the police chief and walked away a free man, the old Seattle red light district, etc. The comedy level varies significantly depending on the guest, but even if you’ve never been to Seattle you’re likely to find this really interesting.
WTF with Marc Maron – If you’re a fan of comedy or music, you’ll love this. Maron is a superb interviewer. It’s really telling to listen to WTF and The Nerdist interview the same person. The Nerdist podcast just feels like casually shooting the sh*t with the interviewee. After the WTF podcast, you feel like you really know more about the person and their art.
The Memory Palace – A little less special since they had to add an intro/ads, but still some very cool stories. Short and a must-add.
Oh, thanks for the reminder of this. It’s Jessica Williams. I heard about it several weeks ago and meant to subscribe.
Believe it or not, this is after a considerable pruning:
Comedy:
Jordan, Jesse, Go
Stop Podcasting Yourself
Answer Me This
My Brother My Brother And Me
No Such Thing As A Fish
Judge John Hodgman
International Waters
Spontaneanation
Comedy Bang Bang
Improv for Humans
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Probably Science
Hollywood Handbook
Harmontown
With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus
Beef and Dairy Network
2 Dope Queens
Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction
Sawbones
The Adventure Zone
The Adam Buxton Podcast
Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
Hard Nation
Put Your Hands Together
Sklarbro Country
Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium
BBC Friday Night Comedy
Still Buffering
Games:
8-4 Play
Bombcast
Beastcast
One Life Left
Daft Souls
Crate and Crowbar
Cool Games Inc
DLC
Gamers With Jobs
Idle Thumbs
Idle Weekend
QT3
The Game Design Roundtable
The Geekbox
Designer Notes
We Like Dota
Shut Up And Sit Down
Science:
Astronomy Cast
Nature
Guardian Science Weekly
All In The Mind
Little Atoms
Minute Physics
Space Boffins
Paleo After Dark
Sci Fri
The Skeptic’s Guide To The Universe
Radiolab
History/General knowledge:
99% Invisible
This American Life
Analysis
BBC Documentaries
From Our Own Correspondent
In Our Time
Hardcore History
The History Of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
Philosophy Bites
The Philosopher’s Arms
The Memory Palace
The Allusionist
What You Missed In History Class
Tech:
The Vergecast
Ctrl Walt Delete
Guardian Tech Weekly
Movies:
QT3
How Did This Get Made
The Flop House
Doug Love Movies
Kermode and Mayo
The Canon
We Hate Movies
Storytelling:
The Truth
Risk!
The Moth
Welcome To Nightvale
Comics:
Two Headed Nerd
War Rocket Ajax
Other stuff:
Oh No Ross And Carrie
Song Exploder
That’s a lot ginger, if you had to narrow them down to 1-2 from each category what would you choose?
For me, or for a stranger?
Alright, here is my list of podcasts I listen to and recommend that I haven’t noticed mentioned before:
You Need A budget - Short(10-15 min), weekly podcast about budgeting your money.
Question of the day - Short (20 min), daily podcast by the same guy who does Freakonomics radio and another guy. They take one random topic each day and discuss it.
Freakonomics Radio - Weekly hour long podcast where they discuss a topic usually from an economics point of view
Startup Podcast - Season 1 focused on them starting this podcast, Season 2 focused on the start of another business, and this season has been a hodgepodge of startup stories.
Harmontown - Weekly podacst featuring Dan Harmon (creator of Community/Rick & Morty) being a crazy drunk person.
Astonishing Legends - Podcast that talks about strange and unusual events in history.
Our Fake History - Weekly podacst that digs into historical myths.
Well, with the caveat that the selection is somewhat arbitrary:
Comedy:
Comedy Bang Bang: Character-based improv show which regularly has amazing guests. Probably the single most indispensable podcast in my feed. Lots of in jokes, though, so maybe start with the end of year best-ofs.
Spontaneanation: Improv show hosted by the incomparable Paul F Tompkins, with the sketch riffing off a discussion with that week’s guest.
Games:
Crate and Crowbar: Sort of successor to the UK PC Gamer podcast, featuring alumni such as Tom Francis and Graham Smith, and with fine frequent guests such as Pip Warr.
Idle Thumbs: Games and robot news talk show hosted by the people behind Firewatch (though the show precedes the studio’s formation). They talk about game design in a really thoughtful way.
Science:
Astronomy Cast: Does what it says on the tin. Everything you ever wanted to know about space.
Radiolab: Somewhat overproduced but always fascinating show about fascinating phenomena at the intersection of science and culture.
History/General knowledge:
99% Invisible: Ostensibly an architecture and design podcast, but really bite sized modern history lessons
Hardcore History: Pretty much the opposite. Deep dives on big subjects.
Movies:
QT3: Well, you know what this is and why it’s great.
The Flop House: The best of the bad movie podcasts, at least if you’re not going to watch the films. The hosts are extremely funny and have great chemistry, so you get some great extended riffs.
Storytelling:
The Moth: True stories told without notes is how it’s pitched. Usually some combination of funny and heartbreaking, but always gripping.
Welcome To Nightvale: Probably the most famous/popular of the fiction podcasts. Praire Home Companion meets Lovecraft, basically. Possibly running out of steam after 90 episodes, but they’ve got a bunch of spin-offs in the works (not to mention things like Limehouse and The Message which took inspiration from them and Serial).
Pip is actually a Crate and Crowbar regular now, since she now lives with Chris Thurston and Marsh moved to Sweden.
Thanks for the Last Podcast on the Left recommendation, Charmtrap. I really like it some…but man can it be exhausting to listen to. Henry Zebrowski is pretty funny about 33% of the time, and the other 67% he’s almost exhaustingly un-funny and the show feels like it falls into a formula. “Here’s something interesting to advance the story and topic of this particular podcast. Here’s an interesting observation about that fact that is frequently either thought provoking or really amusing. And now here’s Henry Zebrowski like 1984 coked-to-the-gills Robin Williams only less funnier carrying on for 3 minutes. Now the other two people bray out politeness laughter like they’re on the morning zoo show of a 1990s FM radio station. Repeat.”
That it manages to overcome that fatal flaw speaks to how interesting and well done the rest of the content is.
I had no idea this existed.
I think I stumbled upon it because it got picked up by one of the big podcast networks (MaxFun or Nerdist, probably, but I’m not going to google it at work). It’s pretty great - it’s a mix of pre-written material and stuff the competitors come up with while the pre-written stuff is being performed, based on suggestions from the audience (they either accept the first suggestion, or they can hear a second suggestion and the audience decides). The individual efforts are hit and miss but there’s always at least one that is solid gold every epsiode. The emphasis is definitely on comedy rather than eroticism.
Recently I’ve really gotten into Radio Lab’s spin off, More Perfect, a series about various Supreme Court cases which is really fascinating. Highly recommended.
A couple on my regular list that I haven’t seen mentioned:
Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend: This one has two episodes weekly: the Monday ep is Alison talking one-on-one with somebody in the entertainment industry. Alison is an insightful interviewer, so the conversations are generally lively and enjoyable. The Thursday ep is Alison and five of her friends BS-ing for an hour or so. In-jokes abound, but this particular crew only goes back to the beginning of 2015, so catching up won’t take long.
Can I Pet Your Dog: For hardcore dog-lovers. Generally consists of a few segments about dogs the hosts (Allegra Ringo, Renee Colvert, and Travis McElroy) met, dog-centric news, etc., then an interview with a guest. I’m a big fan of this one, but if you don’t love dogs and/or you can’t handle high levels of giggly cheerfulness, it might not be for you.
Amazing thread. Thanks
New additions to my list of subs:
The Doug Stanhope Podcast - This is actually a really long-running podcast, but for some reason I never heard about it until recently. It;s similar in format to Jimmy Pardo’s podcast, but with Doug Stanhope instead.
The Dead Pilot’s Society - Basically the Black List Table Reads, but for TV pilots.
Kevin McDonald’s Kevin McDonald Show - Him off the Kids in the Hall recording a live show. A mix of sketches, interviews and music. Pretty infrequent so far with just two episodes since August.
Sleep With Me - The podcast equivalent of those rainstorm apps for insomniacs.
Election Profit Makers - David Rees and friend do a podcast on playing the political prediction markets. Probably a bit painful to listen to now. The final episode is pretty bleak.