There are tons of podcasts out there and new ones are popping up every day, but most of them suck. It’s hard sifting through the stacks of garbage on itunes, so I’ve prepared a shortlist of my favorite shows for you to check out. These podcasts all fall under the umbrella of comedy, and on top of being funny they’re interesting, insightful, and there’s a chance you’ll learn something new. I highly recommend starting from the beginning of each of these shows, as there is more to be gained from experiencing them cumulatively.
The Dollop
Each week Dave Anthony – comedian, writer, drinker of tea – researches, writes and reads a story from American history to his friend Gareth “Gary” Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic will be about, and basically no idea about anything that happened before 1980. The stories span from when Europeans first came to this land until the present day and encompass every level and subculture of society, from Henry Ford to Henry Ford’s henchmen.
Backyard nukes, human zoos, legendary con artists, violent labor strikes, newsies, failed coups, cults, baseball games, black magic at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Harriet Tubman, lobotomies, the inventor of Coca Cola – these are all crazy, real, crazy events and people that you probably have never heard of. Throughout the telling, the hosts riff characters and improvise hilarious scenes.
Dave and Gareth make an adorable couple. I feel like listening to them has helped me understand the depths of humanity we’ve managed to claw our way out of, and the depths from which we continue to try to claw. It’s a rare form of optimistic nihilism that I look forward to every week.
Uhh Yeah Dude
Jonathan and Seth are genuinely awesome dudes who run an insightful, heartfelt, real show that makes me laugh embarrassingly hard in public. These two dope boys have been sharing their lives with us every week since 2006, talking about what’s going on in America – not the front page stories, more like the behind-the-scenes. Topics and segments come and go, but may include things like scams, Scientology, scientific research, fast-casual restaurant ad copy, “To Catch a Predator,” the annual Best Names of the NFL Draft, closures of the nation’s oldest businesses, questions to Ask Amy of the Chicago Tribune, and what Jonathan saw at Starbucks on the way over to Seth’s apartment in LA.
What emerges is a mirage-like image of America, something that’s made mostly out of insignificant, oddball details tied together with a few blanket statistics, but that somehow conveys the actual essence of the country – fractured, passionate, devouring itself – and the love between friends that holds it all together. In the sea of events in the world, most news shows only talk about the biggest waves, but UYD reports on the undercurrents.
Harmontown
Dan Harmon is the creator of Rick and Morty and Community as well as a writer, producer, improviser, actor, director, songwriter and freestyle rapper, and every week for the last seven years he has bared his soul in front of a live studio audience in a show that defies explanation.
Brilliant, tortured, endearing, neurotic, and above all totally, brutally honest, Harmon just wants people not to think he’s a gross waste of space. Together with comptroller Jeff B. Davis, dungeonmaster Spencer Crittenden, a cavalcade of celebrities and random people from the audience, Harmon set out to understand how to perfect human society – or, failing that, to gather the best 100 people and form a colony on the moon from which to watch the earth burn.
That premise never really went anywhere, but the show and Harmon himself have gone through many twists and turns: confessions, drunken rapping, obsessing about race, roleplaying games, improvised movies, fear of the alt right, adult diapers, Joseph Campbell, marriage and divorce, trying to understand trans issues, the entertainment industry, and some of the greatest rants ever on class, gender, shame, guilt, anxiety, workaholism and giraffes.
Listening to Harmontown is a life-affirming experience. It’s about people reaching out to try to touch the people around them, to reassure each other that they’re real and they’re not alone. It’s also about cultivating a relationship with the unknown, with God and fear and death and the future, even if that takes the form of a diatribe about twitter trolls. Maybe especially then. Please check it out.
Disclaimer: There are tons of amazing podcasts out there by people who are not straight white men, but these three aren’t them. I apologise for not diversifying my selection, but these are my very favorite shows. I hope if you listen to them you will recognize that their hosts at least are woke to the experiences of people of other heritages and identities.
