Son of the Son of the Podcast Post

I can believe the last one was in 2019, I have listened to so many podcasts since then.

Except...honestly a lot of it is more of the same. If anything I've cut down on the number I listen to. Work from home for two years had a lot to do with it, what with being able to just have youtube running on my phone. Let's see...

Futility Closet is no longer running their podcast, great sadness is had. Apocrypals remains top of the charts. Pretending to Be People's second series is ongoing and pretty keen. I'll be leaving off most of the rest of the ones that I have mentioned before. Turnover is high, and I find myself often looking for new recs.

Midst

New weird space fantasy western and easily my favorite narrative podcast for its breakneck pace greek chorus narration style. Critical Role bought them out and they delayed the next season and took down the entire series to drip-feed it back out with ads and a paywall. I am saltier than the Dead Sea about it.

Uncanny Japan

Short episodes on Japanese folklore and ghost stories. Host has a very relaxed delivery, so it's good if you want something mellow to listen to.

The Redacted Reports

I am a picky bastard with actual plays, but I've binged over 100 episodes of RR in only a couple months so that certainly speaks for something. It's on the more serious side of the spectrum from PtbP, and on the well-produced axis across from RPPR's tabletop raws, which means it has a solid niche for itself.

Between Two Cairns

Yochai and Brad doing the good work of reviewing OSR / NSR / whatever-it's-called-now modules. Entertaining, good for recs, I vibrate with anticipation of any future Unicorn Meat episode.

Nobody Wake the Bugbear

Can't say anything about their D&D campaigns, but their Mothership APs are great fun and come highly recommended.

Conlangery

Niche content? Niche content! It's not particularly polished and I wouldn't necessarily call it a gem, but it can fill the niche and sometimes I get the itch.

(Aside: If you ever want a case study of how the internet has changed, listen to an amateur podcast that was running ten years ago and count how long it takes for casual r-slur drop. I am honestly quite glad that particular host left the show a very long time ago.)

Lingthusiasm

Now this one I will definitely recommend to all and sundry. Gretchen and Lauren are incredibly entertaining and knowledgeable hosts, and are able to present complex topics in a fun and easily-approachable manner. Gold star.

372 Pages We'll Never Get Back

Two of the Rifftrax guys read weird, often bad books. It's loads of fun and bound to add some very peculiar entries to your lexicon ("I, Titus Uno, Certified Public Accountant...")

Astronomy Cast

Short episodes, and whole lot of them. Good for a listen if you want some astronomy in your pod diet, I tend to drift in and out of listening to it as a palate cleanser or while doing lighter chores.

Monster Man

An entry-by-entry dive into the monster manuals of first and second edition D&D, with regular special episodes featuring monsters from further afield, collected by theme, topic, game, or source. A great resource both as a historical survey and useful advice.

Kill James Bond

Wherein the hosts watch all James Bond movies in chronological order and gradually lose their minds. Having caught up, they have expanded to other spy media such as the Bourne movies and a manic episode about Cars 2, a film that cannot be comprehended by mortal minds.

RTFM

I don't listen to it often, but they have good variety on the books they talk about and they tend to focus on the games themselves over adventures, and there are a whole lot of wonky games out there (if it tells you anything I saw there was an Eclipse Phase episode and immediately said "I will listen to this now.")

Tarnished Archaeologist

Cheating a bit and adding a youtube channel, but it's basically a podcast about Elden Ring lore through the lens of forensic archaeology and it is _fascinating_. Avoids the common pitfalls of the genre through brevity, integration of real-life historical analogs, and focus on material conditions as a major shaper of society and history. Was difficult going back to Vaati after this, honestly. Triple gold star.

Words for Granted

An NPR radio-show style podcast about language, fielding questions about odd pronunciations or the origins of figures of speech. Lots of callers sharing obscure figures of speech from their families. Not much structure or direction, but very good listening if you want to zone out while playing Zelda.