"Pod Save America" - politics podcast by funny guys (former Obama staffers)
"Lovett or Leave-it" - comedy show about politics
"Pod Save the World" - serious podcast about world issues
Anything by Crooked Media, basically.
Also, "Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara" - serious, smart look at current events by former US attorney
"FiveThirtyEight Politics" - insight into current events, with an emphasis on polls and facts.
Politico's "Nerd Cast" - not my favorite, but actually winds up being a bit more conservative than the other podcasts I listen to
SORTA RANDOM:
"99% Invisible"
"The Way I Heard it" - by Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame. They're short, about 10 minutes each
"Freakonomics"
"This American Life"
"You are Not So Smart" - dives into human biases and ways in which we really aren't that smart
"Stuff You Should Know" - random trivia
SERIALS:
"Serial" - murder mystery
"S-Town" - mystery in Alabama
"Steal the Stars" - scifi
ARTS:
"Splathouse" - B-movie / horror
"Writing Excuses" - for writers, hosted by authors such as Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Taylor, and Mary Robinette Kowal
"Country Gold" - a podcast about 90s country (my guilty pleasure) hosted by Terri Clark
This was a radio programme from the BBC which is also available to download:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04b1g3c/episodes/downloads
The BBC has a ton of podcasts available, although some are only available to UK listeners
- "Conversations with Tyler" (economy)
- "99% Invisible" (real-world design)
- "Radiolab" (journalistic stories)
- "Cosmic Vertigo" (astronomy)
- "The Dice Tower" (boardgames)
- "Common Sense" (political commentary)
- "Welcome to Night Vale" (fiction, surreal sci-fi)
- "Leviathan Chronicles" (fiction, epic fantasy)
Also, they released a vinyl episode, so I don't think I have to say anymore.
99% Invisible already got a few mentions, but it's so good that it's worth mentioning again.
I also like “wait wait don’t tell me”
2. You are not so Smart (Psychology, Bias, Cogsci)
3. All in the mind BBC (Psychology)
4. Buenos Dias America (north, central, and south american news, with. focus on usa)
5. More or less behind the statistics BBC
6. WDR 5 Profit (west german radio, pretty neutral economics/finance summaries and topics)
7. Medizin und Gesundheit (Deutsche Welle)
8. Francias Authentique (great podcast for keeping up that rusty french, with a really great host)
- "EconTalk" by Russ Roberts
- "LSE Talks" by the London School of Economics
- "Revisionist History" by Malcolm Gladwell
- "Freakonomics"
- "Radiolab"
- "The Commonwealth Club Talks"
LORE
Helps me understand how the world actually works.
Radiolab
Real time with Bill Maher
Wait wait dont tell me
snap judgement
Freaknomics