I'm fairly basic.
I quite like
THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST and
RHLSTP with Richard Herring, but tend to listen in cycles, as very quickly the shtick of both can grate. Herring in particular is a terrible interviewer, which isn't the end of the world, it's just tedious hearing him guestsplain and
whatIloveaboutthatis his way through whole episodes.
The
Taskmaster Podcast is usually good fun, though Ed Gamble is a bit Herringish in his interrogation style. I think I prefer the combination of Gamble and Acaster on
Off Menu, there's more of a balance.
The Rest Is History's Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland are another double act that I think work better as the sum of their two parts, the latter's effete Centrist Daddism taking the unpleasant edges off the former's muscular Tory Boy worst excesses. They are very posh and innately conservative, but they serve up very listenable slabs of history.
Similarly,
We Have Ways Of Making You Talk is also pumped full of boys' boarding school vibes, but Al Murray and James Holland bring a high energy enthusiasm to proceedings, and are rarely dull.
I know Mike Duncan's
Revolutions has its detractors, but whatever the quality of the historical analysis, I found each series engaging and illuminating.
In a similar vein is Dirk Hoffmann-Becking's
History Of The Germans (currently up to episode 159 and still only at 1349), which is working through a whole lot of stuff I am completely ignorant of.
For pop cultural ephemera Tim Worthington's
Looks Unfamiliar is like a super lo-fi, underground version of those turn-of-the-millennium nostalgia clip shows, but a lot better. He also ropes in impressively niche guest contributors like Jack Kibble-White, Anna Cale and Paul Putner.
Fighting On Film with Robbie McGuire and Matthew Moss is as intersectional a podcast as is possible, if by that you mean it brings together interests in both military history and war films.
Comics-wise, I have to plug
The 2000AD Thrill-Cast - it's in-house shilling from Tharg's publicity droid Molch-R, but it frequently features great guests and is rarely less than interesting.
Then there's Eamonn Clarke's
Mega City Book Club, where guests share their love for a particular (
2000AD or
2000AD-adjacent) comic, strip, collection or graphic novel via a
Desert Island Discs-type format.
If you want a good prog-slog podcast, then look no further that
Space Spinner 2000, where Americans Fox and Conrad wade through The Galaxy's Greatest Comic from its first issue up until the last, if that ever happens. So far they're racked up 300 main episodes, plus nearly 50 on the Judge Dredd Megazine, with sundry other specials and side projects... They are nothing if not committed, and it's basically just two guys talking about a comic, issue by issue.
I can categorically state that
The le Carré Cast is hands-down the best one around on the books, adaptations, characters and worlds of John le Carré; thoughtful, in-depth, critical, with some solid guests sharing their opinions. Its American podcaster Jeff Quest is also responsible for the similarly-pitched
Barbican Station, which focuses on the work of Slough House author Mick Herron.
kathyburke.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
fallofcivilizationspodcast.com
and others.
