This is mostly just a question: I’m genuinely curious about what your favorite podcast is right now. I’d love to hear what it is, the length of an average episode, and why you like it so much.
I’m not even sure I have an answer of my own to share. I mostly listen to tabletop game podcasts like the Coop Cast, Ludology, the Board Game Design Lab, the Dukes of Dice, and the Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast.
Whenever there’s a new season of Revisionist History, I’m all over that. I occasionally listen to a few business podcasts, though not on a regular basis.
So what’s your answer? I’d love to know!
My favourite is definitely the Secret Cabal. Other gaming podcasts I like are dice tower and BGDL and I enjoy now hearing your fb streams in podcast format at work where I have tons of time to listen to podcasts.
For non-gaming I always love NPR stuff even though I’m Canadian. Fresh Air, POP Culture Happy Hour, Code Switch and It’s Been a Minute are my fave NPR shows. I should tell you some good CBC ones but I’ve fallen off a bit there lately. Spark is great though, about life and how tech affects life. Under the Influence is about advertising and is usually fascinating even for non business people. And As It Happens is a phenomenal current events show with archives going back over forty years. Ok enjoy your podcast!
Chapo Trap House
Stuff You Should Know is an awesome educational yet entertaining pod cast. Strongly recommended.
Board Game Design Lab, Ludology, Drive to Work with Mark Rosewater, and Secret Cabal are my favorite tabletop ones. I also listen to the Angry Chicken (I’m a big Hearthstone player) and Coin Concede. Recently tried the Art of Manliness and TED Radio hour, and some of those can be great.
Game Brain – it has similar vibe of “friends talking about games” as The Secret Cabal, but the format is different (one friend at a time). All of them have distinct backgrounds and points of view.
Two non-gaming podcasts I recently subscribed to but haven’t started listening to are “Fall of Civilizations” and “Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History”
I’ll throw out a plug for Tabletop Game Talk. They focus more on board game topics than specific games. (Although they do touch on Keyforge a lot). In fact they recently did an episode on Stonemaier Games. Really neat group of people. I’ve seen them do a live show at Gen Con the last two years.
My long-running favourite is The Dollop. I had gotten slack and had about 25 episodes to catch up on. Have been burning through them and even after 400 episodes it still entertains me greatly.
It’s a little sporadic in its releases, but Harold on Games is a great podcast where conflict simulation game designer Harold Buchanan interviews his industry peers.
Jamey,
Far and away my favorite is Ludology…it’s the one from which I’ve learned the most and the one I recommend to all of my clients. Right behind it is my friend Gabe Barrett’s Board Game Design Lab. Those two podcasts form the foundation, at least for me a well-rounded education on the industry.
For entertainment value, it’s Blue Peg, Pink Peg and the Brawling Brothers. While I’ve met Jamey Keagey and some of the cabalists, and they’re very nice guys, the Secret Cabal podcast is too cacophonic for me to listen to for any period of time.
Cheers,
Joe
I can’t remember if you watch The Good Place but their podcast is AMAZING. Marc Evan Jackson hosts it with members of the cast and crew and I just can’t handle how great it is.
I do watch it! I didn’t know they had a complementary podcast.
I don’t love most podcasts but this one is solid gold.
Gaming podcast, probably Every night is game night, or one-stop co-op shop.
Non-gaming: No Such Thing as a Fish… absolutely hilarious and sometimes educational 🙂
I’ve got a few favorites.
The Spawn Chunks is a Minecraft focused podcast. It’s Patron supported, and episodes are usually 45-60 minutes. ( They do record extra bonus content before and after as a Patreon reward. ) The hosts are very entertaining. I didn’t imagine that I’d find an hour plus a week of people talking about Minecraft entertaining, but here we are.
Limited Resources is a Magic the Gathering focused podcast, supported by Patreon and Sponsors. It is specifically about drafting Magic. But, it also contains a lot of good content for people looking to get better at MtG. The median episode is probably around 50 minutes, but when new sets come out for Magic they do big set review episodes that push three hours. I don’t really play Magic all that often. ( Just casually with my wife. ) But the hosts are entertaining enough to keep me coming back for more.
The West Wing Weekly is a podcast that goes through the West Wing episode by episode. They are supported by advertising, a lot of advertising. They talk to cast members, talk about the episode of the week, and episodes average probably 35 minutes. Again, the hosts are entertaining, with lots of in jokes.
Finally we have Serial. That’s what got me in to listening to podcasts in the first place. Seasons take a long time to produce, so it’s not at all like the other three I listed.
Oh, I also listen to Critical Role in podcast format. I just can’t watch episodes, as there is simultaneously too much going on and not enough going on. Episodes are 3-4 hours. I’m a bit behind on this one.
I’ve tried listening to a bunch of other podcasts, but I’ve found I really need engaging hosts to reliably listen.
I listen to a lot of podcasts. Not a lot of gaming podcasts, but a lot of NPR-style podcasts.
My favorites:
99% Invisible. It’s a great show about design and the way it impacts our lives, often in ways we don’t actively notice. It’s not a podcast about board games, but I’ve now designed and signed 2 games based on 99PI episodes.
Ear Hustle. It’s a podcast produced in San Quentin prison in California. The show is co-produced by San Quentin residents and a team from the outside. Really interesting view into a part of society I knew nothing about.
Reply All. A podcast about the internet. Pretty broad-ranging topics, really good, often funny, always entertaining.
The Anthropocene Reviewed. Author John Green does short 5-star reviews on various elements of the human world. Somehow, he makes me cry when talking about Sycamore Trees.
There are a few one-shot podcasts I’ve listened to that aren’t ongoing series:
The end of the World. It’s a podcast about existential threats that could cause the end of humanity. Ok, it sounds depressing, but it’s really not, more like cautionary. Very interesting.
The Clearing. It’s a true crime podcast about a woman who comes to the realization that her father was a serial killer.
Serial and S-Town. Both are good one-shots.
I really enjoy Half-Arsed History. It’s a nice, light, fun history podcast about 30 minute episodes. Riley Knight, the host has such absurd expressions, he is also one of the color commentators for pro Magic coverage.
I listen to Drive to Work with Magic designer Mark Rosewater depending on the topic.
Otherwise a lot of NPR.
Lately I’ve been listening to The History of English Podcast. If you try it, start from the beginning at Ep 1! It is basically exactly what you would expect from the name, just a detailed history of how English came to be and gives you context to political/social influences of the time. I never thought I’d find a 40 min talk about the letter C to be so interesting!
I also recently listened to a one-shot podcast that was amazing… “Apollo 11: What We Saw.” It goes through the stories of the Apollo missions from the perspective of the host when he was a kid and how inspiring it was. Very interesting, I felt like I had a decent amount of info about the missions but man did I learn a lot of cool details.
Not been listening to many on the regular at the moment, but, my favourites of the ones I’m currently listening to…
Ludology – You already listen to it so I don’t need to go into details, but for those who don’t, episodes are about an hour long, serious discussion on game design, mainly focused on board games but they’re in a run of really interesting topics outside of that focus currently. I’d say are essential listening to anyone creating or wanting to dig deeper into any form of gaming.
Haken: An Animal Crossing Podcast – A podcast about the video game franchise Animal Crossing. About an hour long episodes, youtube hosted with a new piece of artwork for each month to act as a visual and for thumbnails, but also available in audio only. I just like it because it’s chill, though it’s of approximately zero interest to anyone not into Animal Crossing.
Well There’s Your Problem – A podcast about engineering disasters, about the exact opposite of chill. Youtube hosted, using the video format to provide a slideshow alongside the audio. I think it’s also available in audio only form just without the slides. Not all of it is in splashy ‘building collapses’ style disasters, I think their best episodes so far are on slow build disasters that aren’t directly responsible for deaths but make everything that much worse generally, such as the episode on the politics of traffic engineering. Pitches the tone perfectly, with just enough humour to make it bearable that you’re usually listening to how people died horribly, but not so humourous that it mocks the topic.
I’m in Australia, so The Dice Men Cometh podcast is number one on my list, closely followed by The Secret Cabal. I also really enjoy The Five By podcast which spends five minutes on each of five games – not chatty, but thoughtfully written and presented.
The Board Game Design Lab is my go to Podcast in the car during my daily commutes.
John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart – very well produced, average 30 min weekly episodes, insightful and relevant and encouraging content
(guilty pleasure) Office Ladies – very well produced (though the commercials are annoying), average an hour weekly episodes, hilarious and fun and informative commentary on The Office
(self-improvement) Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast – very well produced, average 30 min monthly episodes, insightful and comprehensive
(board gaming) BGDL, Breaking into Board Games, Building the Game, Every Night is Game Night, and Ludology – most are decently produced, but some are not
Favorite podcast overall right now would have to be Timesuck. Funny, educational, and ridiculous. But only for those who are ok with a lot of cussing.
I just wanted to chime in to say that I’m loving these responses! Thank you all for taking the time to share your favorite podcasts.
There’s a few different podcasts I never miss an episode of, on a few different subjects.
Boardgaming
Blue Peg, Pink Peg – Discovered when deliberately looking for a female voice in the industry. Thank you Christina.
Boardgame Barrage. These guys put out an hour every week, and are just really entertaining to listen to. Their girlfriends occasionally appear, which again, makes for a great perspective.
The Game Crafter Official Podcast – has great resources for an aspiring designer, and they run an awful lot of competitions, which is also great inspiration.
Former Christian, now an atheist. I listen to a Christian Podcast that regularly has atheists on, and an atheist Podcast, that is a call in show, wanting Christians to give their best reason to believe. Their both good because they are encouraging the dialogue from the opposition.
Unbelievable?, hosted by Justin Brierly.
The Atheist Experience
Pop Culture
The West Wing Weekly – is almost near the end of it’s run, of examining every episode of the show. All the cast and main crew have guested, so it’s really an incredible story behind the story.
The Good Place: The Podcast – Same thing. Crazy spoilers though. I think they started in during Season 2, so don’t listen to it before you’ve watched at least Season 1 of the show.
Veronica Mars Investigations – Same thing again, going through all the episodes, the TV movie, and the books. No guest stars so far on this podcast, but they’re only half way through Season 1.
News
The NPR Politics Podcast – I’m Australian, but I think the whole world has a vested interest in what’s going on in the U.S. This seems like a very fair and non partison reporting of the News, and what it means.
What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law – Law Professor examines Tweets made by the President, and what that might mean, due to the Constitution of the United States.
The Rest
Reply All – Internet Culture
99% Invisible – An examination of design in the world
Science Vs – Chooses a topic, and pits facts against fiction
Freakonomics Radio – Economics and how it applies in real life
Criminal – “I’m Phoebe Judge. And this is Criminal.”
The Allusionist – Words. And where they came from.
Tea with Alice – Australian comedienne Alice Fraser, talks with people about what is on their mind/what they are struggling with.
Cruisin’ for a Reviewsin’ – The wife of a good friend of mine, recently had the epiphany that Tom Cruise produces the greatest film spectacles, because of the choice to do his own stunts. She gets people to sit down with her, watch a Tom Cruise film that they haven’t seen, and then they review it.
Besides board game podcasts, as someone who reads the Hollywood trades daily and watches a lot of films, I like the Hollywood Reporter podcasts “Awards Chatter” and “Hollywood Remixed.” Also, I don’t listen to every episode but I find NPR’s “Hidden Brain” absolutely fascinating.
The only podcast I regularly listen to is from the UK, “The Retro Hour”, they have retro computer/video gaming news and a weekly interview with someone who was involved with the retro gaming industry which covers the 70’s through to the 00’s now!