5 Non-’Serial’ Podcast Picks for Your Non-’Serial’ Listening Pleasure
I’ve crunched the numbers and it’s official: I spend more time in a given week engaged with podcasts than any other individual media format. More than movies or TV, more than music or radio or books. That’s largely because these little earbuds are tucked in all the time, in the spaces between doing those other things. When I’m exercising or commuting or otherwise in transit, I’m almost always plugged in to a podcast.
Now, it goes without saying that in my podcast travels I’ve certainly filled plenty of time catching up on the immensely popular Serial podcast, which recently launched a second season. But that doesn’t mean I’m not constantly in search of content with which to occupy your ears during off-Serial hours. So, ranging from sci-fi to true crime to improv comedy, below are five great podcasts that I’ve come to love.
1. Escape Pod
For science fiction fans, the excellently named Escape Pod is a good habit to pick up. It’s essentially an audio format magazine for new science fiction, “publishing” the work of both rookie and established writers.
Significantly, contributors are paid according to market guidelines established by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and Escape Pod works with theater and voice-over professionals to do the actual reading of the stories. You can find some real gems here.
2. Criminal
Loosely themed around the topic of true crime, Criminal is a podcast with a bullet, so to speak. Quickly climbing the charts — yes, there are many podcast charts — Criminal is a marvel of lean, mean storytelling savvy. Host Phoebe Judge and producer Lauren Spohrer are both public radio veterans, and they specialize in a narrative style of quiet velocity.
Criminal doesn’t just relate stories of true crime; it veers off into fascinating notional alleyways — the mythology of the American outlaw, say, or the ethics of assisted suicide. One terrific episode details weirdness surrounding the death and burial of crime writer Raymond Chandler more than 50 years ago. Criminal displays an admirable willingness to chase down a good story no matter where it leads.
3. BBC History Extra
My most recent podcast addiction, this excellent series from BBC History Magazine can be a particularly debilitating habit. The weekly episodes feature in-depth interviews with marquee historians from Britain and beyond, bouncing from subject to fascinating subject — ancient cities, Cold War spies, weird inventions, 19th-century whaling. The archives go all the way back to 2007, so there are hundreds of episodes to cherry-pick.
4. Superego
Featuring a rotating cast of Los Angeles–area comedy professionals, Superego features state-of-the-art improv comedy that’s almost fractal. The premises start out weird, then expand outward into exponentially weirder territory. Anchored by L.A. comics Matt Gourley, Jeremy Carter, Mark McConville, and Paul F. Tompkins, the podcast regularly brings in marquee guest performers like Drew Carey, John Hodgman, Patton Oswalt, and Julie Klausner.
The trick is in the editing. Each episode consists of multiple three- to five-minute segments that are distilled from longer improvised runs. If you like obscure H.R. Giger in jokes, you’ll like Superego.
5. Stuff You Should Know
Among the elder statesmen of the podcast community, Stuff You Should Know co-hosts Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark have perfected a certain style of conversational podcasting. Twice a week, the boys dig into some random topic by independently researching it, then comparing notes on the mic.
It’s simple and it works. The SYSK guys bring a spirit of genuine curiosity that can’t be faked as they happily hold forth on whatever — vestigial organs, road rage, street gangs, ocean currents, juggling, leper colonies, Kickstarter, puberty, socialism, police interrogation, avalanches, marijuana, maglev trains, werewolves, even the Spanish Inquisition. And no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Glenn McDonald writes about the intersections of technology and culture at glenn-mcdonald.com and via Twitter @glennmcdonald1.
