I am subscribed to 127 podcasts, so close to getting that elusive extra binary digit, but yeah, lots of different topics and quite a few who don’t have anything new coming out but I keep for the back catalogue.

Broadly speaking I have a few major interests and associated groups of podcasts.

Religion As someone who lives in a supposedly Christian culture with lots of fascistic behaviour creeping into public life I listen to quite a few podcasts around religion. Some are more on the vehement and sardonic end, others more in the range of learning and understanding. The Puzzle In A Thunderstorm group put out a few great shows which are more on the “religion is bad and here is why” end of things, starting with The Scathing Atheist which does lots of current news, moving into God Awful Movies which looks at religious and just plain awful films and shows, and The Skepticrat which is much more politics focussed. That group also works with the team from Cognitive Dissonance on a show called Citation Needed which is basically a few people listening and responding to someone telling them about some weird thing from Wikipedia like a molassas flood or a particularly onerous historical figure. Lastly is Data Over Dogma, a great podcast with a scholar of religion from the LDS church (Mormon but don’t call them that) and an atheist talking about Christianity from a modern social justice perspective and really looking at the scholarship around the associated religious texts. That one is really good and I have learned a lot listening to them.

Science Anything from the microbe.TV group is amazing, starting the TWiV (This Week in Virology) but moving through all the rest. They were great during the rise of covid but I was listening long before that and they really do break things down well and broaden your understanding of science in a meaningful way. The Naked Scientists have a great set of podcasts about general science topics and break things down to a layman level without losing all of the nuance. The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe is a great pop sci group, and Talk Nerdy To Me is another great show from one of the hosts.

Politics/history Cool Zone Media put out a few great shows including Behind The Bastards Whig is about history’s greatest bastards, Cool People Which Do Cool Stuff which is basically the opposite, It Could Happen Here which covers current events and deep reporting on issues around politics and the state, and a few others. Cleanup on Aisle 45 is a great show about law and so on as relating to dealing with the aftermath of the Trump presidency.

News The Daily Beans is a great daily news show relating to US politics, while the Guardian puts out a few more local shows for other anglosphere countries.

General and mixed interest Serious Inquiries Only is a great show for exploring issues around science and politics with a fair and grounded left leaning bent. Where There’s Woke is from the same team and is an exploration of the moral panics around woke controversies and honestly, wow, some of the bull that the right wing get upset about is so incredibly dishonest and the real story is so much more interesting.

There are a tonne more but I can’t make an exhaustive list now, those are the ones that come to mind immediately.