Behind the Bastards
fun + informative history podcast on awful people and events with a comedic bent
Blowback - https://blowback.show/
History of US interventions on different places over the last century.
Darknet Diaries - https://darknetdiaries.com/
True stories from the dark side of the Internet
I highly recommend Darknet Diaries.
I enjoy all of the episodes in one way or another. But here are a few of my recommendations.
Ep 36: Jeremy from Marketing - “A company hires a penetration tester to pose as a new hire, Jeremy from Marketing, to see how much he can hack into in his first week on the job. It doesn’t go as planned.”
Ep 14: #OpJustina - “In 2013 a hospital was accused of conducting a medical kidnapping against a young girl named Justina. This enraged many people across the country, including members of Anonymous. A DDOS attack was waged against the hospital.”
Ep 24: Operation Bayonet - "Darknet markets are online black markets. They are highly illegal, and dangerous to run. Hear exactly how dangerous it was for Alphabay and Hansa dark markets.
Ep 29: Stuxnet - “Stuxnet was the most sophisticated virus ever discovered. It’s target was a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran. This virus was successfully able to destroy numerous centrifuges. Hear who did it and why.”
I love Darknet Diaries. I want to recommend one in the same genre, Modem Mischief.
The Dollop: THIS is a bi-weekly American history podcast where labradoodle daddy and wearer of pants Dave Anthony reads a story from American history to his nemesis Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the story is about
For anyone looking for a good episode to start with, The Rube is a certified classic.
I’m listening to that now and had to turn it off at work because I was laughing so hard.
Got any more great Dollop recs I might have missed? I’m a more recent convert - past few years or so, so anything before then :)
Some of my favorites that come to mind:
- Ten Cent Beer Night
- The Cereal Men
- Carry A Nation
- Ronald Reagan
- The Mad Gasser
Not exactly a new one, but I listened to S-town with great enjoyment. It’s a little story about an alleged murder, a truly original American man, and rural Alabama. I was never bored, and I certainly learned something. And you get to hear an amazing Alabama accent.
- The Amber & Lacey, Lacey & Amber Show gets me into a positive mood.
- Countdown with Keith Olbermann is still good when he isn’t bringing up exes.
- Worlds Beyond Number is a neat TTRPG live play from last year.
- Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
- Bonanas for Bonanza because Maria Bamford is an unsung comedy legend
- The Doug Stanhope Podcast
- How Did This Get Made? making fun of bad movies is fun.
- Lovett or Leave It politics with a spoonful of snark
- LeVar Burton Reads reading rainbow will never die!
- SmartLess easy listening
- Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me the sign of a true celebrity is appearing on this show.
- Strike Force Five was kinda neat as an insight into unscripted dialogue with competing professionals, but they seemed to gang up on Jimmy Fallon, who, arguably, has the most prestigious late night show.
Hell yeah, I love Behind the Bastards, I also reccomend its sister podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, similar podcast I Don’t Speak German (antifascists talking about various goings on regarding the far right) and, if you want Something Completely Different, Film Reroll, an actual play podcast in which all the campaigns are based on movies.
