5 PODCASTS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO

5 PODCASTS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO

When we sit down to edit, background noise is a must.  Sometimes it’s a movie or show on Netflix or Hulu.  Others, it’s music on Spotify.  But sometimes, you just want to pop ear buds into your phone and let podcasts tell you a story.  Here are five of our favorites (we’ve included an E next to the ones that can, from time to time, get a little explicit language-wise so you can plan on which ones not to play when little ones or the easily-offended are around). So great ready to laugh & be entertained!

The West Wing Weekly

It’s exactly what it sounds like, a weekly recap of the seminal TV show “The West Wing,” hosted by TWW cast member Joshua Malina (he played Will Bailey) and Song Exploder host (and West Wing superfan) Hrishikesh Hirway.  Every week, they talk about one specific episode (they’re going chronologically from the pilot to the finale) and bring on a special guest either from the show or the actual West Wing of the White House.  It’s socially-conscious, it’s funny, it’s informative, it’s nostalgic, and – best of all – it’s just really really good. 

Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig (E)

YouTube star Grace Helbig sits down each week with one of her famous friends (usually a fellow YouTuber) to ask them questions that are 100% superficial and require no follow-up.  Whether it’s asking who – living or dead – you’d most want to throw cold spaghetti at or fielding ridiculous questions from Twitter, Grace hits that sweet spot between wanting to learn more about your favorite internet celebrities and… not wanting to learn THAT much.  Plus, the theme song and bumpers were all made by Flula Borg, who makes everything he touches better.

Dead Pilots Society (E)

The newest ‘cast on the list launched in September and only releases one episode per month, so it shouldn’t take long to catch up.  The premise is pretty simple: Ben Blacker (host of The Writers’ Panel, another favorite) and Andrew Reich find a TV pilot script that was bought by a network but never filmed, then bring together a group of actors to do a “table read.”  They have very funny friends, and the scripts they find are hilarious, so this is always a fun diversion on a long drive to a shoot.

Welcome To Night Vale

The cursor has been blinking for a long time.  Trying to find a way to describe WTNV is… nearly impossible.  Funny?  Yes.  Terrifying?  Certainly.  Crushingly sad?  For sure.  Inspiring?  Absolutely.  WTNV takes on the form of a twice-monthly community radio broadcast from the strangest city on the planet.  Whether it’s the discovery of a tiny civilization under the bowling alley, the murder trial of a literal five-headed dragon, a cat that’s forever hovering four feet off the floor of the men’s restroom, or the mysterious glowing cloud that rains animals (all hail…), there’s never a dull moment in Night Vale.  Unless Steve Carlsberg is involved.  Ugh.  Steve Carlsberg.

How Did This Get Made? (E)

There are a lot of “bad movie” podcasts out there, but none quite so entertaining as HDTGM.  Paul Scheer, June Diane Rafael, Jason Mantzoukas, and a weekly special guest sit down to watch a movie that makes you ask “how did this get made,” then they make fun of it for an hour or so.  It’s a little deeper than that, but that’s really all you need to know going in.  Not only will you be asking how a particular flick got made, you may also wind up asking “What is its mission?” or trying to figure out whether a confusing plot is the result of “a Jacob’s Ladder scenario.”  Inside jokes abound, and even the most excruciating movies are almost worth it thanks to the HDTGM gang.

Honorable mentions: Black List Table Reads (similar to Dead Pilots Society, but for movies that never got made), The Writers Panel and Children of Tendu (two great podcasts about writing), and Squared Circle Gazette Radio (a British podcast about one of Pat’s favorite guilty pleasures – pro wrestling).