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tailcoatFor the entire month of March and most of April, I was embroiled in a bitter battle that pitted me against man, robot, and my own stupidity and capacity for resilience. The long story takes over 40 minutes, both hands, and at least a glass of wine to tell. The short story is that I had to stare and watch robots do a job that was supposed to mean I was free to do the rest of my job for many, many hours a week.
In normal lab circumstances, I listen to music and sing along if no one's around. However, these were extreme circumstances and I quickly become aware that music alone would not keep my sanity intact. Enter podcasts. I already knew a small handful of podcasts from the greatest hits of my previously 4-hour daily commute (also known as The Dark Days or the Year of 150 Books). But as I said before, these were extreme circumstances and I needed more than the brief backlog I had left myself from those days.
So, without further ado, the list of podcasts that kept me sane and that I recommend to you. This is not a comprehensive list of the apocalypse - I vetted many podcasts and some did not make the subscription cut and others I recommend at the end with caveats. But I enjoyed these and I hope you will too!
Addendum: Since it took me FOREVER to finally finish this list, we're now in June, and if you know me at all, you know I like my media queer and what better to make use of the fact that I'm finishing this in Pride Month than to star the fiction podcasts from the below list with confirmed queer relationships! Podcasts with one asterisk (*) contain or normalize queer relationships but do not focus on them as a major part of the plot. Podcasts with two (**) contain queer relationships that impact the plot, are major points of character development, or come up again and again.
Let's start off with my podcast baseline, aka the podcasts I already loved, the front-liners to watching a piece of lab equipment do its job for seven straight hours.
Stuff You Missed in History Class - Just what the title suggests, people and events from world history that you probably didn't cover in class (though mostly focusing on the US and Europe). Ranges from serious to funny depending on the topic and excellent for trivia tidbits. Updates weekly Mon/Wed
Sawbones - Medical history with a focus on all the ways we've gone weirdly wrong about a certain topic and how we've gotten better about it too. Updates weekly Fri
Campaign - Actual play podcast set in the Star Wars universe that had ambitions of having a much more serious plot but took a quick hard left into shenanigans and became much more focused on character development and sneaking into concerts than getting plans for the Murder Ball - sorry, I mean, Death Star, anywhere. Updates sporadically, but usually at least a couple episodes a month. *
As you can tell, this isn't a lot. While all shows - especially History Stuff - have a healthy backlog, most of that was obliterated by The Dark Days, and I felt too far behind on Welcome to Night Vale to return to it and a little too fragile for its brand of existentialism. I needed something new. Something fresh. So I went searching and asked friends and found oodles upon oodles of podcasts, resulting in countless hours of aural distraction and a way to keep my sanity intact. All in all, I think I vetted over 40 new podcasts. List is presented as it is in my ipod: separated into fiction and non-fiction, then alphabetically.
The Adventure Zone - Another actual play podcast, with the standard D&D system and much like Campaign, much more focused on storytelling and character development than actually adventuring. Each chapter has a different trope feel, such as murder mystery on a train, street racing, robot laboratories, westerns, etc, and the whole cast is a delight. I ended up listening to the entire thing TWICE, which, considering one run-through is about 70+ hours, should say a lot about 1) how much I liked it and 2) how much listening time I had on my hands. Updates bi-weekly Thurs *
ars Paradoxica - Time travel gone awry, government conspiracies, and questioning the morality of your decisions and creations and whether fixing it will actually help or just make it worse. Currently between seasons, but updates the 1st of each month. *
The Bright Sessions - A therapist for the "Strange and Unusual" and her patients figure out life with powers, controlling said powers, starting relationships, rescue missions, and morally defunct research institutions. Updates bi-weekly Wed **
Limetown - Public radio investigation into the incidents that led to the small town of Limetown being off the grind, then mysteriously closed-off, on fire, and then completely emptied in three days with all occupants missing. Currently a closed, one-season show.
The Magnus Archives - Horror anthology podcast in the style of statements given to the Magnus Institute, which researches the esoteric and weird. Statements are standalone incidents, but many, when taken together, start to connect and point towards a larger concern. Updates weekly Thurs *
The Penumbra Podcast - Serial radio drama that plays with tropes across the board. The other one I've listened to twice through. The main serial is a PI story, noir-style, but set on Mars, and the interim stories are various one-shots that range from Twilight Zone-esque dramas to Westerns to knights of the round table-esque fantasy. Also literally everyone is queer. Updates bi-weekly Tues **
Rabbits - Another public radio investigation, this time of the narrator into her best friend's disappearance. Retro video games, old radio shows, and what seems like a scavenger hunt in both the physical and digital world taken to the ultimate extreme ensue. Updates bi-weekly Wed
Within the Wires - Presented as a series of 80's-style relaxation exercise cassettes given to wards of a mysterious institute, subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages start to work their way out and a larger story of escape and love and dedication wave its way between the narrator and listener. Highly recommended listening actually doing the exercises they start out with. Completed Season 1, with Season 2 to come in the fall **
Non-fiction!
99% Invisible - Weekly short looks into the things in our lives we often take for granted - the design of flags, of neighborhoods, background sounds and more. Fascinating and endearing at the same time. Updates weekly Tues
Lore - Like a real-life Magnus Archives, stories from folklore are examined and presented as a way to understand something more about ourselves and how we interact with the world, but as a story, rather than a debunking. Updates bi-weekly Mon
Myths and Legends - Just as the title suggests, myths, legends, and fairy tales from around the world, from as original a source as the host can find. Accompanied by a short creature feature at the end of each episode, it's a nice way to get the origins of stories we've probably heard in some form. Updates weekly Tues
No Such Thing as a Fish - Weekly fact dump from the research team behind QI and as hilarious as it is informative. The panel each presents a favorite fact they've learned in the last week and the rest will chime in with related facts or discussion or tangents. Updates weekly Fri
In normal lab circumstances, I listen to music and sing along if no one's around. However, these were extreme circumstances and I quickly become aware that music alone would not keep my sanity intact. Enter podcasts. I already knew a small handful of podcasts from the greatest hits of my previously 4-hour daily commute (also known as The Dark Days or the Year of 150 Books). But as I said before, these were extreme circumstances and I needed more than the brief backlog I had left myself from those days.
So, without further ado, the list of podcasts that kept me sane and that I recommend to you. This is not a comprehensive list of the apocalypse - I vetted many podcasts and some did not make the subscription cut and others I recommend at the end with caveats. But I enjoyed these and I hope you will too!
Addendum: Since it took me FOREVER to finally finish this list, we're now in June, and if you know me at all, you know I like my media queer and what better to make use of the fact that I'm finishing this in Pride Month than to star the fiction podcasts from the below list with confirmed queer relationships! Podcasts with one asterisk (*) contain or normalize queer relationships but do not focus on them as a major part of the plot. Podcasts with two (**) contain queer relationships that impact the plot, are major points of character development, or come up again and again.
Let's start off with my podcast baseline, aka the podcasts I already loved, the front-liners to watching a piece of lab equipment do its job for seven straight hours.
Stuff You Missed in History Class - Just what the title suggests, people and events from world history that you probably didn't cover in class (though mostly focusing on the US and Europe). Ranges from serious to funny depending on the topic and excellent for trivia tidbits. Updates weekly Mon/Wed
Sawbones - Medical history with a focus on all the ways we've gone weirdly wrong about a certain topic and how we've gotten better about it too. Updates weekly Fri
Campaign - Actual play podcast set in the Star Wars universe that had ambitions of having a much more serious plot but took a quick hard left into shenanigans and became much more focused on character development and sneaking into concerts than getting plans for the Murder Ball - sorry, I mean, Death Star, anywhere. Updates sporadically, but usually at least a couple episodes a month. *
As you can tell, this isn't a lot. While all shows - especially History Stuff - have a healthy backlog, most of that was obliterated by The Dark Days, and I felt too far behind on Welcome to Night Vale to return to it and a little too fragile for its brand of existentialism. I needed something new. Something fresh. So I went searching and asked friends and found oodles upon oodles of podcasts, resulting in countless hours of aural distraction and a way to keep my sanity intact. All in all, I think I vetted over 40 new podcasts. List is presented as it is in my ipod: separated into fiction and non-fiction, then alphabetically.
The Adventure Zone - Another actual play podcast, with the standard D&D system and much like Campaign, much more focused on storytelling and character development than actually adventuring. Each chapter has a different trope feel, such as murder mystery on a train, street racing, robot laboratories, westerns, etc, and the whole cast is a delight. I ended up listening to the entire thing TWICE, which, considering one run-through is about 70+ hours, should say a lot about 1) how much I liked it and 2) how much listening time I had on my hands. Updates bi-weekly Thurs *
ars Paradoxica - Time travel gone awry, government conspiracies, and questioning the morality of your decisions and creations and whether fixing it will actually help or just make it worse. Currently between seasons, but updates the 1st of each month. *
The Bright Sessions - A therapist for the "Strange and Unusual" and her patients figure out life with powers, controlling said powers, starting relationships, rescue missions, and morally defunct research institutions. Updates bi-weekly Wed **
Limetown - Public radio investigation into the incidents that led to the small town of Limetown being off the grind, then mysteriously closed-off, on fire, and then completely emptied in three days with all occupants missing. Currently a closed, one-season show.
The Magnus Archives - Horror anthology podcast in the style of statements given to the Magnus Institute, which researches the esoteric and weird. Statements are standalone incidents, but many, when taken together, start to connect and point towards a larger concern. Updates weekly Thurs *
The Penumbra Podcast - Serial radio drama that plays with tropes across the board. The other one I've listened to twice through. The main serial is a PI story, noir-style, but set on Mars, and the interim stories are various one-shots that range from Twilight Zone-esque dramas to Westerns to knights of the round table-esque fantasy. Also literally everyone is queer. Updates bi-weekly Tues **
Rabbits - Another public radio investigation, this time of the narrator into her best friend's disappearance. Retro video games, old radio shows, and what seems like a scavenger hunt in both the physical and digital world taken to the ultimate extreme ensue. Updates bi-weekly Wed
Within the Wires - Presented as a series of 80's-style relaxation exercise cassettes given to wards of a mysterious institute, subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages start to work their way out and a larger story of escape and love and dedication wave its way between the narrator and listener. Highly recommended listening actually doing the exercises they start out with. Completed Season 1, with Season 2 to come in the fall **
Non-fiction!
99% Invisible - Weekly short looks into the things in our lives we often take for granted - the design of flags, of neighborhoods, background sounds and more. Fascinating and endearing at the same time. Updates weekly Tues
Lore - Like a real-life Magnus Archives, stories from folklore are examined and presented as a way to understand something more about ourselves and how we interact with the world, but as a story, rather than a debunking. Updates bi-weekly Mon
Myths and Legends - Just as the title suggests, myths, legends, and fairy tales from around the world, from as original a source as the host can find. Accompanied by a short creature feature at the end of each episode, it's a nice way to get the origins of stories we've probably heard in some form. Updates weekly Tues
No Such Thing as a Fish - Weekly fact dump from the research team behind QI and as hilarious as it is informative. The panel each presents a favorite fact they've learned in the last week and the rest will chime in with related facts or discussion or tangents. Updates weekly Fri