Since the medium's been getting a decent amount of press lately I figured there's gotta be some fans here. The LA comedy scene's probably the gotten the most coverage (Marc Maron's interview show WTF and Scott Aukerman's comedy program Comedy Bang Bang (formerly Comedy Death Ray Radio) both shows on IFC coming out later this year and Doug Benson's "The Benson Interuption" shows had a short run on Comedy Central) but everyone with a laptop and some spare time seems to have their own now, covering everything virtually any and all topics of interest to anybody. Any fans here?

I know of WTF pod, but I'm more with the whole O&A circle. Specifically I listen to Bobby Kelly's You Know What Dude? Pod. Listening to it right now, actually. Really good stuff. Burr's up there, too, but I'd appreciate it more if he had someone to riff with.

He did a show called Uninformed Radio with Joe de Rosaback in '07 on O&A's Sirius network, I'm sure you could find it somewhere. The basic format was that they would try to educate themselves on a topic by way of an "expert" but the true genius of the show was Burr's overall hotheadedness mixed with De Rosa's complete inability to take a joke on his behalf and shows would often devolve into shouting matches between the two. They'd always "make up" between shows then do it all over again. The Julian Mccullough show in particular set Joe hard over the top. It ended pretty much when Bur moved to LA and started the MMP

I could never get into Bobby Kelly's show, the first episode I tried started with a completely serious rant about how he could survive the apocalypse cause he "does Ju Jitsu bro." The Monday Morning Podcast is fucking awesome though, even hearing Burr go off on sports (which I both know and care nothing about) is awesome and his listener advice sections are awesome

Uninformed was the first show between Burr and Derosa that I heard. I LOVE the show. Best mediocre show ever. Derosa is also one of my favorites. As for BK's YKWD pod, I don't listen to the early stuff. It sounds too amateurish with the poor equipment and the core nucleus wasn't there. Once Derosa became synonymous with the podcast, it became gold.

De Rosa's the only reason I checked out Bobby Kelly's show but I remember being put off on him just hearing Burr's impersonation back in the Uninformed days, "dude, dude, dude, you know what dude." I like de Rosa but I'd actually rather listen to him get defensive about being adopted than put up with Bobby's tough guy routine.

I'll start off with a few shows I follow:

Aukerman's Comedy Bang Bang follows a winning formula of pairing actors/musicians/comedians (usually friends of his) with hilarious characters portrayed by comedy stalwarts such as Paul F Thompkins, or Andy Daly as well as newcombers like Nick Kroll, Seth Morris, or the brilliant James Adomian. Not every show is gold but it hits FAR more than it misses. Aukerman also co-owns the Earwolf podcasting network along with Jeff Ulrich (who's got his own show called Wolf Den detailing the ins-and-outs of podcasting as a business.) This show has been picked up by IFC for a "late night" styled tv show due to air this summer, a ten minute preview can be seen here.

Also of note on the network: Who Charted is a hilarious exchange between Aukerman's wife Kulap and comedian Howard "Dragon Boy Suede" Kremer." Together they count down "Top 5" charts, usually in pop music, movie box offices and a chart loosely based on the guest. In addition to the colorful guestlist, much of the humor comes from the, at times, utter ineptitude of Kremer as a host. As a downside, they do cover pop music charts almost every week so repeated listens will expose you to a fair bit of shit music, though often times with hosts and guests alike shitting on it.

Matt Besser's Improv4Humans (also on Earwolf) follows a similar formula to that of the Upright Citizen's Brigade show Asscat wherein guests will recount stories based on audience (or in the podcast's case Besser's Twitter followers) one word suggestions. Shows usually feature 3 relatively unknown members of the LA improv scene but he has pulled Tim Meadows and Horatio Sanz for an episode each. This show started late last year and as such has a much shorter back-catalog than most of the others I'll mention.

John Oliver (of the Daily Show) has kept a show with fellow Brit Andy Zaltzman for about 4 years now called The Bugle. The show was sponsored up until late December of last year by the online presence of a British newspaper and the format of the show was the two of them picking news headlines and writing short punchy satirical pieces on them. The show has an incredibly organic feel to it as the two co-hosts compose their pieces with no communication and often times elicit hilarious reactions from the other, especially as Zaltzman will occasionally pen short stories chocked full of long strings of terrible puns on the subject to the dismay and often horror of Oliver. They also do excellent "exposes" of world leaders like Silvio Berlusconi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Newcomber Probably Science follows a similar format to The Bugle but their topic is Science. Brooks Wheeling, Andy Wood and Matt Kirshen pick recent stories and explore them with guests to the extent of their (often meager) abilities. This show is also faily young, having come up in the last few months or so, though with several prerecorded episodes released at once.

Moving away from comedy, Stuff You Should Know is a show where 2 writers for HowStuffWorks attempt to educate each other on topics ranging from "How Dreadlocks Work," to "How Stagflation Works." No matter how heady the topic, everything is broken down to the most basic layman's terminology and the two manage to make just about everything interesting. They also run a video version of the show where one co-host will attempt to explain a concept like "financial haircuts" to the other in under a minute. The HowStuffWorks network also includes similar shows on History (Stuff You Missed in History Class,) history with a feminine focus (Stuff Your Mom Never Told You,) and a look at the future of certain real world systems (Stuff From the Future,) as well as another general topic show called Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

Anybody else have any favorites out there?

I am a podcast addict. Seriously, I spend an unhealthy amount of time listening to my iPod - both to music and to podcasts. I have a long daily commute and they are a good way to pass the time if I don't feel like blasting some music. Also, I would also usually rather do something and listen to a podcast then sit and watch TV as I tend to find them much more stimulating.

Anyway here is an incomplete list, broken up by category.

Entertainment

The Adam Carolla Show - I'm sure a lot of you know Adam Carolla from various TV shows. I actually find him much funnier in this podcast than in anything on TV as he is the sort of guy who is just naturally funny when speaking off-the-cuff, especially when he goes on a rant about something that annoys him. Each episode of this show is about 90 minutes long and will usually feature guests from all walks of life. He and his guests/co-hosts will speak on just about any subject you can imagine and this makes for a wonderfully free-flowing show. The output is prolific as welll; about 5 episodes per week. I could never hope to listen to each one, I just catch it a couple of times a week. A very good show though.

Lou Reads The Internet For You - This one is not for the faint-hearted! Basically Lou visits all sorts of strange forums and reads aloud the crazy shit that people post. From people who think they're vampires, to drug trip reports, to racists, to escort reviews, to people who get off on ejaculating onto food there's all sorts of nonsense to listen to. I've got to say that I can't stand to listen to some of it though - such as anything involving beastiality or incest. Still, there's enough funny stuff here to outweigh the disgusting. Recommended.

The Nerdist - I think the title here says it all. It's a very nerdy show hosted by Chris Hardwick and features a different (nerdy) guest every week. I find that this one is a bit hit-or-miss depending on who the guest is, but if it's someone I'm a fan of then it is always worth a listen. While I don't find Hardwick particularly funny myself, I think he is a good interviewer and seems to be capable of establishing a good rapport with his guests.

For Those About To Rock - This is one of my favourites. Basically it's three Poms (who are usually drunk) giving track-by-track reviews of a bunch of different rock and metal albums. While their tastes would - for the most part - not be tremendously palatable to those who frequent this site, I think they are a funny bunch of bastards who obviously have a good deal of fun making the show and the enthusiasm really comes across. I often laugh out loud listening to this one.

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! - This is a news-based quiz show that airs on NPR and features three guests answering questions about the week's news. This is another show that I find varies in quality according to who the guests are. It's quite inoffensive compared to, well, any of the others I've mentioned here, but it will usually get a few laughs out of me. I'll always learn about some weird stuff that's happened somewhere around the world too, which is a bonus.

Sport

Grandstand - Digital versons of a lot of shows that air on Grandstand, which for those non-Australians is the sporting segment of ABC radio. They have shows pertaining to a good number of sports, many of which I don't care about in the least, but for those I that I do check out I find that the coverage and analysis is top-notch. A very Australian focus which may have limited appeal to foreigners.

The Greatest Events In Sporting History - With a grandiose title, this one comes from the same network as For Those About To Rock. It's a couple of Poms who discuss, well, the greatest events in sporting history as they see them. They cover a wide array of different sports and different episodes will look at different aspects, such as great comebacks, biggest underdogs, most epic chokes, etc. I think a lot of different sport fans can find something to like here.

This Week In League - Being a rugby league fan, this is another favourite of mine. It's two guys from Brisbane who give a game-by-game run down of the previous week in the NRL and previews for the next week's matches as well. This is another show where the passion of the hosts really comes through and adds a lot to my enjoyment of it. I also find the coverage provided here by these two fellas is in many ways better than that provided by commercial networks. If you're into league then you should definitely check this one out.

Politics & Current Affairs

On Point With Tom Ashbrook - This is another NPR show that broadcasts out of Boston. While this show isn't as exclusively focused upon politics as it was when I first started listening to it in ~2006, it still provides reasonably in-depth coverage of various current issues and I will always check out an episode if the subject is an interesting one. Being NPR and out of Massachusetts it is consistently left-liberal, although they do bring in the occasional right-of-centre guest to argue with.

American Conservative University - Extremely inconsistent in terms of quality, this is basically an aggregator of various audio streams from across the American right. There's some terrible Evangelical propaganda on here, but also some fairly intelligent commentary and analysis on various questions of politics, philosophy, history etc. It's just a matter of finding the diamonds in the rough.

Common Sense With Dan Carlin - This is another favourite of mine, and I've been listening to it since 2005. Dan Carlin is a fairly centrist guy who will speak in a free-flowing manner about particular subjects usually related to US politics and governance. I find his discussion stimulating as he avoids getting into the usual 'horserace' details of politics and will instead tackle bigger questions such as the influence of the media, lobbyists, ideology and secrecy on the state of contemporary governance. It can be pessimistic at times, but it is consistently well-informed and thought provoking. Dan also has a great knack of being able to break down and clearly communicate issues of some complexity. He also has another great show called Hardcore History which I would encourage you to check out.

Late Night Live - Another ABC show hosted by Phillip Adams, who is a charming old lefty. This show is very wide-ranging, generally dealing with 2 or 3 subjects per night and featuring a different guest for each one. Something I appreciate is that while Phillip has his own perspective he often has guests on who represent views substantively different from his own. Rather than being confrontational he is open-minded and willing to hear different perspectives and civil in his disagreements. I wish other people would follow this example.

Marxism Today - This is an interesting one that I have only recently discovered. In each episode the host will discuss a different aspect of classical Marxist theory and how it can be applied in an analysis of the modern world. A remarkable demonstration of the continuing validity of an oft-maligned and neglected way of looking at the world.

---

Shit, that turned out to be a bit longer than I had intended, and I have only covered a reasonably small proportion of the podcasts to which I listen. Nevertheless, I hope that will give you an idea of my idiosyncratic tastes and that at least one of these shows can find a new subscriber based on my recommendation!

<3 Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. One of my faves

Yeah it's good stuff, especially when PJ O'Rourke is one of the guests, which is unfortunately not as often as it used to be.

This along with Jimmy Pardo's show Never Not Funny I've always wanted to get into but I was always put off by the sheer size of the back catalog that comes with doing a daily show for hours each. Is this a subscription show? I've never actually looked into that


I'm still torn on this one. I haven't listened to the show since maybe last spring even though Hardwick's genuine enthusiasm during interviews with certain guests is great but the humor between Chris, Matt and Jonah is way too insular for me as an already casual listener and the "Hostful" eps are a drag.



This seems interesting, I'll have to look into it.

A Few more:

Another show in this vein is In our Time with Melvyn Bragg. Bragg invites a handful of experts (usually author/scholars at prestigious English universities) to discuss topics ranging from the formation of modern mathematics to the Oracle of Delphi. Bragg does an excellent job at trimming the fat and the result is an incredibly dry yet dense crash course in the subject at hand.

Lately I've been working through The Joe Rogan Experience. I've NEVER liked Rogan and was resistant to listen even after seeing his impressive list of guests over the last few years but he's actually a surprisingly intelligent and reasonable guy and his conversations with comedians get pretty "inside baseball" (for those that care about that sort of thing) and has some mind-blowingly in-depth conversations with friends recounting their experiences with heavy duty psychedelics. Those eps with Joey "Coco" Diaz are pure gold

The Smartest man in the World with Greg Proops is by far my favourite one at the moment, which pretty much comes out on a weekly basis. He basically holds forth on various topics and events-of-the-moment in front of a live (and usually drunk) audience.

Red Ice Radio which comes out of Scandanavia is a rich source of various esoteric and fringe subjects for the more conspiracy-minded amongst you.

I've tried a number of times on this one but can't get into it. Proops makes for a good guest on shows like Doug Loves Movies, Comedy Film Nerds, CDR Radio etc. but his off the cuff riffing always comes across as Greg huffing his own farts in front of a confused audience.

You know what dude, you got your iPad, you got your coffee, you got your twitter, you got dorsal fins, BOOM! You're fuckin' surfin' the web dude.

Jay Mohr and Florentine's podcasts have got to be good too but I don't have the time between O&A, Ron & Fez and Nick & Artie (which despite being terrestrial is fucking hilarious.)

I have never listened to any of the podcasts mentioned so far (except for Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time, which is broadcast as a BBC Radio show over here), but there are a few I will be checking out. I listen to the following:

The Bugle (I didn't spot that Inspector_Satan had already covered this one)
This is my favourite of the lot, presented by stand-up genius Andy Zaltzman and The Daily Show's John Oliver. It's a satirical comedy podcast that used to be funded and hosted by the Rupert Murdoch Sunday Times website. For this reason, it takes the form of an "audio newspaper" with feature stories at the start, letters pages (listener emails) towards the end, and finishing with the sport pages. There are long-running gags and callbacks, and the format is largely the same from episode-to-episode, but the content being current affairs makes it easy enough to jump in and take a listen with the newest podcast. You won't have to listen through the whole archive to get all the jokes, and both of the presenters are sharp and likeable, and clearly put a lot of work into making sure they have fresh content each time. The Bugle has been going for more than 4 years has quite a large cult following, and was directly responsible for the fall of Hosni Mubarak's reign of terror in Egypt [citation needed].

Inside the Huddle
A UK-based American Football podcast hosted by NFL.co.uk, with specific focus on reporting league news to UK fans. It is not a sport that receives any coverage in mainstream news over here, so this podcast (twice weekly during the season, once weekly off-season) compiles all of the previous week's stories and analyzes them, explains their significance, provides background and historical relevance etc. Also it talks you through the weird and byzantine league system or wildcards, drafts and combines, which are all but impenetrable to outsiders, but which most Americans have learned via osmosis.

The Truth About Markets: London
One of the best news broadcasts out there, and the very best for explaining financial fraud and corruption to the layman. Presented by financial journalists Max Keiser and Stacey Herbert, this show takes a broad look at the world of markets and macro-economics. If you watch your mainstream news and you think that you will never understand collateralised debt obligations without degree-level education, or you don't understand why rising gold and oil prices are anything but a bubble, or why banks were so keen to sell everybody houses in the '90s and '00s, then you should listen to this.

Utter Shambles
This is a podcast for British comedy geeks, hosted by Comedy Central. It is presented by Robin Ince and Josie Long (or Danielle Ward on occasion) and they basically sit down and have a nice chat with a guest about anything and nothing. The strength of this podcast is the laid back style that sounds less like an interview and more like a rambling chat over a cup of tea. The guests can really make or break a show like this, but the two presenters work together so well that it is never boring or awkward. Some of the best episodes include guests like comic book author Alan Moore, League of Gentlemen and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss, and British comedy legend Barry Cryer.

One Life Left
Award-winning UK video games podcast. This is a very "industry" type of podcast and I think the choice of content was most directly influenced by EDGE magazine, making it aimed at 20-something gamers rather than kids or teenagers. It's still interesting and you get tidbits of information as the presenters are clearly all "connected". But it can go over your head if they start talking about an industry head who you are not familiar with. They don't hold your hand and lead you through topics, they expect some prior knowledge of the video games industry. They still have reviews and features on new releases and the group-presenting style (usually at least 3 people) works nicely.

The Rob Simone Talk Show
This show is hilarious as it reminds me of the talk radio shows on GTA games. Rob Simone is a talk radio personality who specialises in paranormal activity and - on the surface - appears very much into all this UFO and illuminati stuff. The bit that makes this worth listening to though - for me, as a cynic - is the way he questions the callers and picks away at their stories. Obviously he finds holes in their narratives all over the place and makes them appear like crazy fantasists, but the whole time he does it with an air of credulity like he really believes what they are saying. This is a great show because it is either tinfoil-hat madness, or the most complete send-up I have ever heard. I think it is a mixture of both.

As It Occurs To Me
This is a sort of satire run by Richard Herring - the unsuccessful one from the '90s comedy double act Lee and Herring. It is supposed to be a look at the previous week's news with sketches all written in the previous days. But it is very hit-and-miss and virtually all of the jokes are callbacks to earlier shows or repetitive catchphrase humour like Little Britain (returning characters in various situations each week, and the sketch "punchline" is when they deliver their stock phrase). For all of these reasons, it doesn't really work as a podcast as you have to go back to the first episode of the first series to really get anything that follows. I only include it because of the interesting way it was recorded and run: it is taped in front of a large live audience in a theatre and there is some interaction. The audience buys their tickets, and the money then finances the show for the next week. It's really self indulgent, but the ambitious format is worth checking out. Possibly.

I love this. I won't sig it, but I'll save it.

I do a metal podcast for those interested, it's somewhere on my profile page! My accent sucks

Your accent does suck. I'm hearing some pretty cool music then I get "ueeueueeeueuegh" in between. C'est group d'heavy metal.

Hum, no need to remind me that it does, I mentionned it myself. You should do one in French, mkay?

Well, I took French for 6 years. I forgot most of it, and I'm a better at writing the language than speaking it. If it came to doing a podcast and speaking French, then I'd happily place the blame on reading French through a translator.

wh -- .. NOBODY listens to Dan Savage? *tsk*

Metantoine, do you mean the last fm link? I'm .. confused, I guess.

edit: *noobfused

No, it's on my profile page. HIDDEN!

Is found.

http://www.metal-archives.com/users/Metantoine

n00b

yes, indeed.

I liked it, man. Of the first two specials, I was particularly into Holy Martyr and Sortilege. Listened up to Blind Witch on the third, went out for a bit and came back and it wouldn't load at all, so I guess I'll come back to that. (I dunno .. maybe check on it to make sure nothing's fucked up?) I like doom but haven't explored it as much as I'd like, so I'm looking forward to the thing actually loading. I'd only heard Hour of 13 and a couple of other songs here and there untl I heard Scald for the first time a couple months ago, which almost got played too much. Definitely lent an eerie vibe by Agyl's young demise. Bathory, similar effect.

eh . . your accent doesn't suck. I didn't have trouble understanding you, so .. whatever. It works. Hopefully you'll do more of these? I've been link hopping for a handful of days. It's been cool to ramble the acreage away from what I already know. Thanks.

Sincerely,

noob

The doom podcast is fine, only the Griftegard song doesn't work. If you want a mediafire link, let me know. Also thanks for the kind words.

Sure thing, man! I'll take that link, yes please. (maybe the fuck up was something in my browser because the whole page wasn't loading .. anyhow. Glad it's working.)

edit: yeah, it's loading now. computers .. *shrug*

ALL DAY

"Train by day, Joe Rogan Experience by night! ALL DAY!"

Thanks guys, now I have no fucking life.

I've just discovered The Bugle which I must now add to all the other fucking podcasts that I listen to regularly...soon we'll all be like the people in Wall-E, though some might argue that we're getting there already...

I use Google Reader to follow a few podcasts like Hack on Triple J, Dr Karl on Triple J, noisecreep, metalunderground, metalvideos and a few others. I've added a few that you guys have suggested. Cheers!

definitely a huge podcast fan, its amazing how much great content there is for free out there right now. Heres some of my favs,

Jim Jeffries and Eddie Ifft Talk Shit-Probably my favorite podcast for just pure laughs. Every single week these two comics insult and humiliate their friend on air. It doesnt matter much who the guest is because this is every single episode.

Fitzdog Radio-The podcast of comedian Greg Fitzimmons. At first I didnt like greg very much after hearing him on howard stern but over time he grew on me. Does a solid interview with some interesting guests (The 2 part norm macdonald is amazing and a good start). As well he is among the only people i've heard who can pull off the pre show monologue without being insufferable (unlike marc maron).

WTF-Ok so the monologue is ridiculously annoying and terrible and some of the interviews are shit. So why do I put this one up with my favs, its because everytime you can write off this show he pulls of another amazing interview unparelled in the podcast world. Not always good but when its good its the best interview podcast by leaps and bounds.

You Made It Weird With Pete Holmes-Yet another comic interview show! I find pete holmes to be pretty hillarious and although i often dont know the guest I find myself enjoying the entire episode regardless.

Splattercast-Just a silly horror podcast that I find enjoyable. I like the banter and sometimes find myself laughing at this one than some of these so called "comedy" podcasts.

Those are my weekly listens but some others I will listen to sometimes are
Mohr Stories-Jay Mohr is obviously a douche but for some reason his podcast is surprisingly listenable.
Joe Rogan Experience-As long as that annoying bitch duncan trussell isnt on or their talking about shit they know nothing about (at least half the time). Joe Rogan really likes talking about being attacked by animals to the point of perversion but sometimes he puts on a great show.
Comedy Film Nerds, /Filmcast, How Did This Get Made, Doug Loves Movies..... ya i have no life lol

Finally got back to Metantoine's doom cast. I want more, Tony. More of this good shit.

There's a lot of stuff at RadioFreeSatan including my fav; Metal Breakfast Radio.