Darknet Diaries is nothing like every other podcast I’ve ever listened to. Listened to every episode 2-3x. It’s a podcast mostly about social engineering, hacking and cyber security.

Start with episode:

• 92: The Pirate Bay
• 116: Mad Dog
• 102: Money Maker

Surprised nobody has mentioned my two favourites:

• Behind The Bastards: Robert Evans (formerly of Cracked fame) talks about the worst people in history for hours.
• Oh No Ross and Carrie: “When they make the claims we show up so you don’t have to.” Maybe start with the series on scientology, it’s some of the best work they’ve done.

Most of the other stuff I listen to is either industry specific or fandom/hobby specific.

If you’re into gaming I would suggest

• NoClip (video game documentarians about modern video games)
• video game history hour (general video game history done by the video game history foundation)
• insert credit ( almost game show style, the hosts have only a few minutes to answer all kinds of questions about games, the gaming industry, or even opinions.)

Otherwise I really enjoy

• behind the bastards ( kind of like deep dives into shitty people of the world and what makes them tick)
• cautionary tales ( true stories about disasters, humon error, and catastrophies )
• 99 percent invisible (weekly episodes on all kinds of deep dives into things that often go without notice in our lives, the most recent episode covers the history of album art for example)

On the humorous side:

• My Brother, My Brother And Me - 3 brothers giving not-so-serious advice to listeners, reacting to questions from Yahoo Answers (when that was a thing), and overall being funny/silly
• My Dad Wrote A Porno - 3 people reacting to an “erotica” book series that one of the guys’ dad published (I would say the books are maybe only 5%-20% explicit, depending on the chapter) (some of the characters’ voices can be annoying/grating, and the narrator tends to repeat sentences after they react to them which can be annoying as well)
• No Such Thing As A Fish - the behind-the-scenes staff of the show QI bring up interesting facts and tidbits from history/nature/etc. (each episode is split into 4 parts where each member brings up a fact and the others react to it and bring up related facts)
• If I Were You - Jake & Amir from CollegeHumor giving advice to listeners (mostly in a sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek way but sometimes genuinely), mostly about relationships/dating
• SmartLess - Jason Bateman and Will Arnett (Arrested Development) and Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) interview a famous person each episode where only one of the hosts known who it is beforehand (it gets better after the first few episodes, though some conversations are less funny/entertaining than others)
• Office Ladies - Jenna and Angela from The Office (US) reacting to each episode of the show and bringing up behind-the-scenes stuff (some of episodes include interviews with other cast members/staff)

• 99% Invisible
• Well There’s Your Problem
• The War On Cars
• The Urbanist Agenda
• The Climate Deniers Playbook
• Underunderstood
• Induction
• Hard Fork
• Drilled
• The Adam Ragusea Podcast

In no particular order.

• my brother my brother and me (funny)
• sawbones (medical mythbusting and funny)
• the adventure zone (funny d&d)
• Darknet diaries (hacking and security stories) (EDITTED)
• npr up first (quick daily news)

Those are the ones I’ve stuck with. Also:

• Hardcore history (in depth history lessons)

Last Podcast on the Left: cryptids, cults, and killers. My go to everyweek they just covered Andrew Cunanan.

Something Rotten: Jacob Geller and Blake Hester analyze darker video games. I love Jacob’s youtube channel and Blake Hester has some great insights in this series as well. They are currently covering Silent Hill 2 and just had SuperEyePatchWolf guest star.

I love knowledge fight. About Alex Jones and the conspiracy theory of the day.

Darknet Diaries is right up there. All about hackers, malware, and penetration testers. Too bad the guy is on a mental health sabbatical. Plenty of binge worthy there though. Click Here is in the same space and of similar quality.

Stuff You Should Know

The Memory Palace - Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, often a little bit of both.

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They’ll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser.

I Spy - True stories told by spies who steal secrets, kill adversaries, and turn agents into double agents. Each episode features one spy telling one dramatic story. Unfortunately, this show seems to be defunct. Still an interesting listen, though!

Limetown - A 22 episode fictional story about the mysterious disappearance of over 300 people from a small town in Tennessee.

The Other Half - Two friends watch the same movie—except one only watches the first half, and the other only watches the second half. Then they get together and discuss the film, and try to figure out the context of what they saw.

Hey Riddle Riddle - My favorite podcast at the moment. Three improvisers answer riddles some of the time, and goof off most of the time. They do improvised scenes and have a good time.

Twenty Thousand Hertz - The stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds. It’s basically 99% Invisible, but for audio.

What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law - Particularly interesting if you live in the U.S., this show takes a look at modern issues and controversies through the lens of constitutional law. You’d think a podcast about legal matters would be dry and obtuse, but the show really is geared for a non-legal-minded audience.

Almost Plausible - My own podcast! A couple of friends and I friends take an ordinary object, such as a pillow, or a ceiling fan, or a toilet brush, and we come up with a movie plot where that object plays a central or critical role. Note: At the time of posting, we have just released our Halloween episode, which breaks from the regular format. So if you go listen to the Pumpkin episode, although it’s an entertaining one, it’s not representative of the show.

• Co-recursive
• the Haskell Cast
• the Lambda Cast (not that fun to listen to but it taught me a ton)

Right now I’m listening to The Deprogram. It discusses the problems with capitalism from socialist’s perspectives. It’s very entertaining

Recently bigned 85 episodes of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics. It’s released monthly and hosted by two linguists, one of which is Tom Scott’s writer and the other is a linguistics professor in New Zealand.

I’m a history buff, so :

-The Age of Napoleon: brilliant podcast that covers the entire Napoleonic era from different angles, currently about halfway, one episode per month

-The history of Rome: finished podcast that goes over every era and emperor in Roman history