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The Apocalypse Players - A Call of Cthulu TTRPG. Two of my favorite are: Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 and A Christmas Inheritance.

The Duncan Trussell Family Hour - Lot of the guests tend to be Buddhist monks, comedians, spiritual gurus, occultists, etc. Ranges from mundane topics to esoteric ones.

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman and Data Over Dogma - Both discuss the Bible from an academic view. The cultural context behind the Gospels, the biases in each Gospel, the non-canonical gospels

Hi-Phi Nation - Uses stories to talk about philosophical topics. Recommend: Wishes of the Dead, Moral Exploitation, The Morality of War, and the 2 Part Hackademics.

The Cracked Podcast - Generally it's comedians and journalists talk about various topics. Really good episodes are: 4 Mind-Blowing Truths About America (Made Clear By Baseball), Why Americans Hate The Poor (with David Wong & John Cheese), and Why A New Civil War Will Be Fought By A Thousand Sides.

The Blindboy Podcast

Blindboy Boatclub, famous as one half of The Irish duo The Rubber bandits, shares intimate and interesting "hot takes" on various subjects, interviews with interesting artists, and original short fiction all against the backdrop of an original soothing ambient piano track. This is my comfort podcast.

The Rest is History. Two brits historians talking about world history stuff informally, twice a week. It's really fun! Also Mike Duncan's Revolutions and the History of Rome.

Who shat on the floor at my wedding

Crime in Sports and Small Town Murder, same hosts and very funny. You don't need to know about sports (more about the crime)

Dead Rabbit Radio, been shamelessly shilling it (not my podcast and I'm not affiliated with it any any way) for the better part of five years. Daily paranormal and weird news episodes and Jason Carpenter doesn't have all the cringey seriousness that most high strangeness podcasts have.

I tend to like history podcasts by academics, so here are three:

History of Egypt Podcast
Emperors of Rome
AskHistorians podcast, but I admit I pick and choose episodes with that one. I do wish they'd come over to the Fediverse, but I kind of get it, as their stated goals are broad outreach and getting warm&fuzzies for their mostly younger academics.

Imposters on Spotify is another gripping show following people who lived off huge whopping lies and upset people along the way.

The episodes about Wayne Simmons who passed himself off as a deep cover spy for the CIA and managed to lie his way to be a regular Fox News "expert" and Whitehouse access. Amazing example of how far you can get with balls of steel and being an arrogant loud mouth.

The Connect With Johnny Mitchell. Great stories and guests about prison, cartels, drug trafficking, etc..

Fictional is great, when he actually does updates. He tells sort of cliff notes versions of classic literature, with an accessible modern tone and language. Lot of Sherlock Holmes and Shakespeare in longer multi-part episodes, but also just some good short stories like ones from Poe and Philip K Dick.

Very Presidential on Spotify.

This is a revealing insight in to past US presidents and shows the murkiness and greed of politicians embarking on power and making the most of it whilst they can.

They tell of Lyndon B Johnson who enjoyed showing off his prodigous cock in front of people. JFK who was drugged up most of the time whilst playing Russia at Nukes. Gerald Ford seemed to be the only normal genuine president.

Unexplained Mysteries on Spotify. Great if you can get past the irritating narration bouncing between two presenters like a rubber ball.

• The Constant, a podcast that follows, as its subtitle suggests, humanity’s history of getting things wrong. It covers a history of societies most mistaken ideas, like believing birds flew to the moon or turned into barnacles in the winter, to trying to rejuvenate health by surgically implanting goat testicles, to a seven part attempt to identity a submarine found at the bottom of the Chicago River, tracing many failed designs in the process. The host (a playwright) injects a ton of fun humor and very theatrical reveals with clever writing.

• Our Fake History, which looks at historical people, places, objects, and events that have developed a popular mythology, or myths that may have a basis in reality, and looks at what’s real and what’s fake. Was there a pope that was secretly a woman? Did Ty Cobb kill a guy? Was Atlantis based on a real place? Did the Chinese visit the New World? He often tells great stories, and then revels what’s made up about it and why we know. It’s presented by a Canadian history teacher who also composes and plays most of the music he uses.

Distractible (if you already follow Markiplier, muyskerm or lordminion777)

Girls who don't DND (a refreshing take on DND from people who take it with humour, highly entertaining)

Uhh Yeah Dude They've been doing the podcast since 2006, and just surpassed their 1000th episode. Listener supposed and ad free. Just two guys trying to figure it all out.

The Constant: A history of getting things wrong

History of Everything

History of Rome

Revolutions

Improbable Research The chemistry between the host and readers is what makes me love it. And the subjects, of course. It's a podcast by the ignobel prize people, about weird, fun and interesting research.

I currently love these two:

• Gastropod "A look at food through the lens of science and history" It's really good well researched content and Nicky Twilley is a wonderful human

• Bad gays About gay villains and complicated figures in history

Dark Ages. It's a fantasy/workplace comedy about the staff of the Rivercliff Museum of Mostly Natural History. I won't go into more detail to avoid any spoilers but it's been one of my favorites for awhile now though sadly there's only one season so far.

Also, EOS 10, which is about the medical staff on a space station and the funny/weird/bonkers stuff they get into.

Skatcast has something for everyone. Tuesdays are the Skatcast Show. Cartoons for your earballs. Wednesday is the Dipshit Files. True crime stories with humour thrown in. Thursday is Dave and Angus. Two characters travel to different states, learning about them while also being kicked out of half the places the visit. Friday is Just A Ride. 3 hosts talk about everything from religion and politics, to how to be the best version of yourself, to poop jokes. Saturday is Skat-Tunes. An hour of user submitted music across all genres from unsigned bands. And starting next week, Sunday has a new show (who's name escapes me) centered around video games

Skatcast.com

https://skatcast.fandom.com/wiki/SKATCAST_Network

We only LOOK Thin For anyone that needs inspiration to start eating better as part of a path to a more healthy lifestyle. They've helped keep me on track after having lost 80 lbs. https://www.weonlylookthin.com/

Quick Question with Daniel and Soren Two ex-Cracked.com writers shoot the breeze on random questions. https://www.youtube.com/@QQPodcast (There's an audio version out there too)

How Did This Get Made Three mostly comedic actors rip apart famously bad movies. Funnier than it has any right to be. Paul also has another podcast called Unspooled where they break down critically acclaimed movies as well. Both are great listens. https://hdtgm.com/index/#podcast

Highly recommend the Space Jam episode.

www.theskepticsguide.org Separating science from pseudoscience, medicine from quckery.

www.levarburtonpodcast.com. Each episode Levar reads a piece of short fiction.

We Have Ways of Making You Talk, about WWII, now over 600 episodes. Chatty, inspired, incredible guests. Not all about D-Day and Iwo Jima, but dealing with lesser-known stories and personalities. The hosts are Al Murray and James Holland (whose brother Tom does an excellent podcast called "The Rest is History".

I give a second recommendation for Quick Question with Soren and Daniel.

I also recommend Belief it or Not. They go through histories of different sect of religion. I am pretty sure one of them grew up pretty religious and went to pastoral school, but I haven't listened in a bit. I like to get behind and binge on road trips.

My personal short list of Podcasts:

Chilluminati Podcast: A mystery, supernatural, true crime, UFO/UAP comedy podcast. The cast has a lot of chemistry and they research into the paranormal with both hopeful naivety and critical skepticism.

Let's learn everything: Three people passionate about science cover different topics and answer variety questions that delve deep into the world of scientific research.

Lateral: Tom Scott's quiz show where guests try to answer obtuse and unexpected questions with even more obtuse and convoluted reasoning.

Cox 'n' Crendor show: Youtubers Jesse Cox and Crendor do a weekly morning radio show spoof where they just talk about random stuff that happens in their lives.

Play, Watch, Listen: Game devs, writers and actors, get together whenever they have a chance to talk about various topics regarding the world of video games, movies and music. Mainly Alanah Pearce (writer, God of War), but also Troy Baker (voice actor and musician, The Last of US), Mike Bithell (programmer, Thomas was alone) and Rahul Kohli (actor, Midnight Mass).

The Geekenders: Streamer and Youtubers Dodger (Brooke Thorne, Dexbonus) and Jesse Cox gather every weekend to meet a weekly guest and talk about variety topics, mostly about video games. Sort of a spiritual revival of the legendary Cooptional podcast format that was lead by Total Biscuit (John Bain, The cynical brit).

I would also list The Podcats but Daniel Hardcastle (Nerdcubed) can barely be bothered with scheduling recordings with MATN and Mattophobia anymore.

The Beef and Dairy Network: The #1 podcast for those involved, or just interested, in the production of beef animals and dairy herds. Bone-dry gonzo comedy about the globe-spanning world of the Bovine Farmers Union.

Misquoting Jesus: Renowned biblical scholar provides historical discussions of topics related to early Christianity, and the texts in and surrounding the New Testament.

Mindscape: Physicist and professor Sean Carrol has in-depth conversations with experts from a variety of academic disciplines.

Oh No! Ross and Carrie: Two skeptics investigate claims of the paranormal--they show up so you don't have to. Fantastic investigative journalism.

Mission to Zyxx: Improvised comedy sci-fi podcast that's one part Star Wars, one part Star Trek, one part Red Dwarf, and all parts silliness.

https://ohnopodcast.com/

Oh No, It's Ross and Carrie

"the show where we don’t just report on spirituality, fringe science and claims of the paranormal, but take part ourselves. We join religions, undergo alternative medical treatments, and hunt for ghost, goblins, demons, and deities. If it has an extraordinary claim attached to it, we’ll check it out."

Valley Heat - a podcast from a freelance insurance adjuster about the goings on in his neighborhood. The primary story focuses on his mission to find out who is using his recycling bin as a drug drop.

It sounds boring but it's absolutely brilliant.

The less you know about it going in the better.

He also has a couple Patreon exclusives that go deeper into the hijinks.

Malevolent!

Plot summary:

Arkham Private Investigator Arthur Lester wakes up with no memory of who he is or what has happened, only a nameless, eerie voice guiding him through the darkness.

Blind, terrified, and confused, his journey will lead him towards a series of mysteries in the hopes of understanding the truth of what has transpired.

As cosmic horrors seep into the world around, Arthur must ask himself whether this entity truly seeks to help him, or are its intentions more…

Malevolent

It uses the podcast medium so well with the main character being blind and the resulting dialogue between him and the voice in his head that he needs to see the world around him, like the listener, and in general is incredibly well written. Harlan Guthrie is a genius.

deprogram, the joy of why, the joy of x.

The Magnus Archives. This is a 200-episode paranormal horror podcast. Each episode is based around a statement from someone who witnessed or experienced something paranormal. Episodes increasingly delve into the lives of the people who archive these statements. The character development is fantastic. Only a single curse word is uttered in one of the final episodes.

Fighting in the War Room - four long time friends discuss film and other pop culture; it's just a lot of fun hearing four people who clearly respect and love each other talk about the latest movies and shows!