I spend quite a lot of time listening to podcasts on a range of topics. If you can recommend any particularly good podcasts please get in contact but, in the mean time, here’s a list of the feeds I’m currently subscribed to and a few words about each.
Comedy
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 rotates between the News Quiz and the Now Show. The former is a panel quiz and the largely satire and sketches, both focusing on current events.
No Such Thing As A Fish is a weekly podcast hosted by the QI Elves. Each week they present and discuss their favourite facts. If you’ve ever watched an episode of QI on television you pretty much know what to expect.
Music
The Concert from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum consists of recording of music performances at the museum. If you like classical music, subscribe!
Science & Humanities
Thinking Allowed is a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme about the social sciences. Each episode features one or two short interviews with researchers or authors in the social sciences with a bit of background, correspondence, etc. from the host.
In Our Time is a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme in which the host is joined by three experts to discuss a topic from history, science, philosophy, and more besides. Melvyn Bragg is a good host and the guests are always excellent.
The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and its newer sibling History of Philosophy in India aim to introduce listeners to the grand sweep of “Western” and Indian philosophy respectively. They are both eminently accessible and highly entertaining.
Up Close is a “research talk show” produced by the University of Melbourne. They interview researchers, graduate students, and visitors to the University about their research, covering pretty much every academic discipline you can think of.
Elucidations is a philosophy podcast from the University of Chicago. Each episode is an interview with a prominent philosopher about their research. The hosts (graduate students at the university) are great and they get some truly outstanding guests.
While the Aristotelian Society was formed in 1880 their Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society podcast only stretches back to 2011. Each episode is a recording of a philosopher delivering a paper to the society.
Computer-y things
Risky Business is a weekly podcast about computer security. The news segment can be pretty funny and feature interviews are usually informative. Each episode also includes a sponsor interview and even they are usually pretty good.
I’ve recently subscribed to a few podcasts covering topics like data mining, machine learning, and data science. Talking Machines, Data Skeptic, and Linear Digressions are all pretty good with a range of content about these fields.
It’s been a while since either of the Haskell Cast or the Type Theory Podcast published an episode but I continue to hope. The former interviews people who have an impact in the Haskell programming language community and the latter interviews guests on topics related to type theory.