So, being a grad student, I get a lot of downtime when I am doing something mindless, which I usually dedicate to listening to podcasts (I also listen to a lot of standup but that may deserve its own topic). This is also inspired by Gref talking about Watch Out for Fireballs in another topic. Does anyone else listen have regular podcasts, and if so which ones would you recommend? I might already be oversaturated but I'm always looking for more.
Sports
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Advanced NFL Analytics (variable, ~50 minutes): This gets at a lot of the systems that people are using to quantify NFL play, including how to assign individual credit to players, talking fantasy, and analyzing what decisions should make given certain scores and field position. Football analytics isn't on the level of other sports like baseball or even basketball but the guys that appear on this show give me hope that it will get better.
Around the NFL (2-3 times a week, ~1 hour episodes): I don't think these guys even have especially strong analysis, but I've listened to them for a while and they have good rapport. They bring up stories about other teams that I haven't been following but they don't go into very much depth. Still, it's a really easy listen.
BS Report with Bill Simmons (erratic, ~1 hour): I'm unsure what I think about Simmons since I think his writing can be grating and he's a really obnoxious Boston sports fan but he is able to carry a conversation fairly well. He also brings in people more interesting than him. Whether I'll listen to an episode depends on the guest, mostly.
Grantland NFL (variable, 2 times a week during the season, ~1 hour): Robert Mays and Bill Barnwell write for Grantland and their pieces are usually really good, breaking down tape and approaching football with some analytics. It's hard for two dudes to really know 32 teams in depth, and I don't think they do, but they come pretty close.
Grantland Sports (variable): The Lowe Post is great for basketball. Zach Lowe gets great interview subjects and knows the strategy behind basketball inside out. Men in Blazers was great during the World Cup, too.
Slate's Hang Up and Listen (weekly, ~1 hour): This isn't about any one sport, but it covers major sports stories more in the context of their larger societal impact. When it covers sports that I don't care about (baseball, a half hour piece on lacrosse?), I give it a skip but usually it is topical and the discussion is interesting.
Games
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Giantbomb (weekly, ~3! hours): This podcast is long and spends maybe a half an hour each episode actually talking about games but I listen to it mostly because is extremely conversational and the guys involved are all pretty interesting.
Retronauts (weekly, ~1 hour): The old Retronauts podcast had been going on for years and years (like 2007?). I haven't listened to their entire back catalogue but they cover a game or an old shitty console system each week in fair depth. It's hit or miss based on who they bring on for certain topics (some people are weirdly opinionated against things for no discernible reason), and mostly it is dudes reminiscing about older games but I guess that is the point. The new Retronauts was recently kickstarted and they cover a topic that is requested by backers (including Planescape: Torment recently).
RPGFan Random Encounter (1-2 times a month, ~2 hours): Covers RPG news, not hosted by unbearable people. This is harder to find than you'd expect.
Watch out for Fireballs (weekly, ~2 hours for main episodes, half an hour for extrasodes): There is nothing special about this podcast's format, but it works. Kole and Gary cover a game every week and then take questions about those games or just hold conversations about basically anything in Extrasodes. They go into real thematic and mechanical depth with each game, which is great when it's something like Fallout, but they've even covered stuff like Tony Hawk in a similar manner. Their discussion of Master of Orion 2 got me to replay it, which basically ruined my productivity for a solid two weeks. Very basic stuff but it works because of likable and knowledgable hosts. They also do a podcast on terrible games called Abject Suffering which is usually pretty funny.
Movies
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The Dissolve Podcast (twice a month, ~50 minutes): This is weird since I don't think these are structured very well, but thedissolve does the best coverage of movies online right now and I like all of its writers. Discussions are on a singular topic in movies, not about a specific movie necessarily, but they tend to have interesting opinions on these topics. The games at the end of each podcast are usually hit or miss, and I usually tend to want them to talk about something rather than play them.
/Filmcast (weekly, ~1 hour): Goes into fair depth about a major movie release each week. Hosts are all likable but I don't tend to agree with them a ton, but the discussions are usually worth hearing. It sucks when some of them clearly miss the point or hate a movie for weird reasons but that's
Filmspotting (weekly, ~1.5 hours): The hosts are incredibly smart and film literate, and do really well thought out reviews of a movie or two a week. I kind of wish they went into spoiler territory since I would like their in depth perspective on certain movies. As is, they do great work talking around the substance of a movie/emotional resonance of a movie without giving everything away.
Filmspotting SVU (twice a month, ~1 hour): Related to Filmspotting. They cover and recommend movies that are available on streaming outlets like Netflix and Hulu, which is usually a good way to find queue recommendations that you wouldn't have known about. They also cover a movie in depth every week. Not as knowledgable as the Filmspotting guys but both hosts are likable and know their stuff.
The Flophouse (twice a month, ~1 hour): Bad movie podcasts are a dime a dozen but I really like this one. It consists of Daily Show writers who know film really well and they just kind of riff on godawful movies (Bratz and Foodfight are classic episodes). That's what everyone else does but it's all about the group of people that are doing it, and these guys have strong chemistry that are all fairly funny.
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews (weekly, ~1.5 hours): Mark Kermode is a grumpy British man who likes to go on long British rants about things. The highlight of the show tends to be when he spouts off on something he loathes. He justifies the Transformers movies' existence because of his ~10 minute long rants about how cynical and soulless Michael Bay is, and he tends to have pretty good taste in things and argues well for things that I don't like. The show also tends to get very strong interviews, like high profile directors or lead actors. Since it covers the gamut of movies, he doesn't go into much depth into individual films, but you walk away with an idea of what the movie is about and whether it has any substance.
Judge John Hodgman (weekly, ~1 hour): I didn't think much of Hodgman until I heard this show. People come to him to solve what is usually a pretty frivolous problem, tell their sides of the story, and make a case for why they should get their way. Although it's a comedy show and he makes fun of the issues when they deserve it, he usually comes up with a pretty reasonable, well argued compromise to solve these problems. The show is generally entertaining, especially when the plaintiffs/defendants are batshit crazy.
Others
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This American Life (weekly, sometimes repeats, ~1 hour): Segments about one subject. Some strong storytelling about things that you tend not to know very much about.
My Brother My Brother and Me (weekly, ~1 hour): Three smartasses give horrible advice to the lunatics who ask insane questions on Yahoo Answers! Very entertaining, I find it dangerous to drive with this on.
Radiolab (twice a month, variable length): Sort of like This American Life in terms of its storytelling structure but with a more scientific bent. This also tends to have inaccuracies but tends to be a fine place to start with a subject you're interested in.
StarTalk Radio (weekly, ~45 minutes): Neil deGrasse Tyson has a great radio voice. There are interesting episodes looking at the accuracy of science behind sci-fi movies (he got accused of being a wet blanket for doing the same thing for Gravity), but he covers a wide range of scientific topics pretty well. There were some weaknesses, like some inaccuracies in the recent neuroscience podcasts, but it's usually a pretty good listen.
