Story-driven podcast recs

December 11, 2018 7:33 PM

I need some new podcasts. I like non-fiction story-driven podcasts--especially non-narrated documentaries. I don't typically like the "two people talking to each other" type podcasts. I like most topics, but especially history and local flavor. Examples under the cut. What do you recommend?

Podcasts I like: (special favorites marked with asterisks)
99% Invisible
Anytown USA
Backstory
Theory of Everything
Curious City*
Everything is Stories*
Footnoting history*
Futility Closet
Gastropod
Guardian Audio Longreads
Hakai Magazine Audio Edition*
Here be Monsters
Liftoff*
Lore
Pod Save the People
Sidedoor*
Stuff you missed in history class
This American Life
Unfictional
We live here
Welcome to LA*
Wild Thing*
You must remember this*

Podcasts I don't like:
Anything with a McElroy in it
Ear Hustle
How did this get made?
The Kitchen Sisters
More perfect
On Being
Pod Save America
Radiolab
Song exploder
Startup

Thank you!

posted by OrangeDisk to Computers & Internet (36 answers total)

Slow Burn by Slate. Season 1 was about Richard Nixon, Watergate, and Nixon’s eventual resignation; season 2 was about Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, and Clinton’s eventual impeachment. Both explore what it was like for average Americans experiencing it at the time, both focus on the innocuous choices and unknown people who led to great historical events, and both highlight the ways in which those tumultuous times are reflected (and continued) in today’s political climate. It’s narrated, but there’s a lot of archival audio and interviews. Great stuff.
posted by ejs at 7:44 PM on December 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

I like Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell.

"Anything with a McElroy in it" - LOLOLOLOL amen!
posted by elsietheeel at 7:51 PM on December 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Crimetown Season 1. Lots of local flavor.
posted by sandmanwv at 7:58 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

I don't see Criminal or This Is Love on your list. I've really enjoyed those and have the same distaste for the "two people talking to each other" format. Might be worth checking those out. Warning - they're doing a donation drive right now on the two websites so just scroll down to get to the content.

You might also enjoy Mystery Show. It hasn't been updated since 2015 but it's still available for download and there are some great episodes in my opinion, especially "Case #3, Belt Buckle".
posted by belau at 8:21 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

In The Dark
posted by 6thsense at 8:25 PM on December 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

If history through true crime and/or cults are at all your thing:

Transmissions From Jonestown
Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo
Someone Knows Something (especially season 3)
Heaven's Gate
posted by augustimagination at 8:46 PM on December 11, 2018

Just came to recommend In the Dark!
posted by fairlynearlyready at 9:12 PM on December 11, 2018

30 for 30 Podcasts - I'm really not into sports but I still love these.
posted by lookoutbelow at 9:52 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

* especially soothing host voice
+ host with enjoyable English accent

The Allusionist*+
Art History for All*
The Broad Experience+
Criminal* / This Is Love* (MAXIMUM SOOTHING)
Decoder Ring
Grammar Girl
Household Name
The Stoop (may be too two-person-talky for you, but the shorter nonfiction episode segments you may like)
StoryCorps from NPR
What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law (by 99PI's Roman Mars, if your nerves can stand it, because even soothing RM voice can only help so much)*
posted by nicebookrack at 9:58 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Memory Palace
Omnibus! (disclaimer: it's two people talking, but give it a chance.)
The Moth
Risk!
Serial, season 3 - Very different than the previous two seasons. A This-American-Life style expose of the American criminal justice system.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:59 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Rumble Strip Vermont - very local stories and interviews with people in Vermont.
posted by moonmilk at 10:05 PM on December 11, 2018

Tides of History. The host explains history in a way where you both understand and feel the story. It's organized on a broad subject, e.g. Medevial Europe, with each podcast like a chapter in a book until he finishes the subject.
posted by Homer42 at 11:25 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Second Criminal and This is Love. If you like 99% Invisible, they are also Radiotopia podcasts and probably up your alley. Phoebe Judge has a similar soothing/borderline vocal fry tone as Karina Longworth from You Must Remember This.

It got varied reviews, but I enjoyed S-Town.
posted by assenav at 11:26 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

S-Town. A sort of spin-off of Serial. Starts like a conventional small-town true crime conspiracy cover-up, that doesn't really go anywhere, and then a whole other 'local flavor' story rises up over the course of the podcast itself.
posted by mannequito at 11:27 PM on December 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is Actually Happening

No narration, just an interviewee telling the story of a remarkable (and often harrowing) experience. A guy talks about surviving after his charter fishing boat capsized. A woman described going for a weekend getaway in northern California, taking a wrong turn, getting lost, and getting chased by angry pot farmers. A man wakes up in a morgue.

I always look forward to that podcast.
posted by JamesBay at 11:33 PM on December 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

If you like Curious City, you might also enjoy its San Francisco cousin, Bay Curious.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:37 PM on December 11, 2018

Also Gravy, which is produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance and covers the evolution of food in the south.

And ditto This Is Actually Happening, which my mind immediately jumped to when I saw that you liked Here Be Monsters and Everything Is Stories.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:41 PM on December 11, 2018

Also London Compass, which is very brief but has a similar Everything Is Stories vibe.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:58 PM on December 11, 2018

Seconding 30 for 30 - the Bikram series was one of the best documentary-style podcasts I've ever heard. (No interest in yoga needed, and content warning for sexual assault.)
posted by carbide at 12:46 AM on December 12, 2018

Revolutions and the previously completed History of Rome. I'm a huge Mike Duncan fanboy and really recommend his work. His early History of Rome episodes can be a touch rough in the technical department, but the man is a fantastic story teller when it comes to covering historical events.
posted by Hactar at 4:50 AM on December 12, 2018

You might like Last Seen. It's investigative reporting from WBUR and the Boston Globe about the Isabella Stewart Gardner art heist. A pretty interesting subject, with lots of local flavor.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:42 AM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've recently started listening to the back catalog of Paname, a podcast about oddities of Paris history. I wish she updated more often, she has some great stories!
posted by orrnyereg at 7:15 AM on December 12, 2018

I'll second Last Seen, Slow Burn and Crimetown. Standoff, about Ruby Ridge, was also good but short.

CBC has many excellent podcasts. There are five seasons of Someone Knows Something, about unsolved crimes in Canada. The host, David Ridgen, is an excellent storyteller and has a super soothing voice. Finding Cleo and Uncover are two others that are good. Be prepared for multiple heartbreaks if you listen to Finding Cleo - it's distressing in many ways, but of great historical importance to Canadians.
posted by Calzephyr at 7:17 AM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

I just finished Bear Brook after seeing it on a "Top 10 Podcasts of 2018" list and it was really good - great non-fiction story telling. It is a "true crime"-type story that has a fair amount of creepyness, but it is very well put together and smart (not a blood and gore fest). It has a good amount of "local flavor" regarding small-town Vermont. It has a interesting narrative structure that jumps around in time to tell a strange and somewhat sad story. It features amazing detectives, too.
posted by Mid at 7:21 AM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Heavyweight will get you. One of the most beautiful podcasts I've ever listened to. You might also enjoy The Dream, a podcast about the history of multi-level marketing, but I'm less sure of that.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 7:56 AM on December 12, 2018

My favorite podcast along those lines is the medical history podcast Bedside Rounds. I like Episode 11: Frank's Sign Redux.
posted by yaymukund at 8:30 AM on December 12, 2018

Thunder Bay (current events, but actual journalism long form story about racism, murder and corruption in a small Canadian town. One of the best things I've heard in a long time)

Under the Influence (much lighter than the above. About advertising, looks at specific techniques used in campaigns, lots of old ads)
posted by chapps at 9:06 AM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

2 Dope Queens, seconding Serial and S Town. TED has one, The New Yorker has their Radio Hour, It's Been a Minute has been pretty interesting... see my local NPR member station schedule, basically.
posted by Snowishberlin at 9:44 AM on December 12, 2018

Nthing Criminal, Mystery Show, and S-Town. S-Town is particularly great from a story perspective, as it is a set of ~10 "chapters" that really feel like a novel.

I am really into Headlong: Surviving Y2K. Headlong is an anthology series, each season is different. The first season was Missing Richard Simmons, which people have some *feelings* about, but forgetting that I would just dive into the Y2K episodes, they're amazing.

There's a show called Uncivil that you might like, which are hidden stories of the Civil War. I'm not a history buff but they're told in a way that makes them appealing to me.

You may have already heard Twenty Thousand Hertz because they were featured on 99PI, but it's a good one to check out if you haven't already. It's basically 99PI but about audio.

I am assuming you have listened to Serial? If not, go listen to Season 1! Season 2 is kinda weird, and Season 3 is less story-driven but getting good reviews.
posted by radioamy at 11:16 AM on December 12, 2018

Seconding Revolutions! (The audio quality at the beginning of History of Rome is VERRRRRY rough, way too rough for me to get into.) He's got a wry quality that I definitely appreciate.

The first season of The Dream was also very good; found it via a MeFi post. It's all about multi-level marketing, both history and current.
posted by epersonae at 11:22 AM on December 12, 2018

I have similar taste in podcasts. I second Slow Burn.

My favourite this year is Thunder Bay by independent producer Canadaland. It's gripping with fantastic reporting. It's an in-depth analysis of the strange climate in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which has had an extraordinary level of corruption and strange tales in the local government and police force as well as an an inexplicably high number of indigenous teen deaths. It's showing up on a lot of best-of lists.

I also thought Believed (Michigan Radio and NPR) was very well done. It's about Larry Nassar and his victims, and how such a monster gets away with it for so long.
posted by Pademelon at 12:47 PM on December 12, 2018

Love and Radio. It rarely has narration and the stories are mostly told through first person accounts.
posted by source.decay at 1:17 PM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you like Gastropod, you might want to try Proof.

"Proof is a new podcast from America’s Test Kitchen, hosted by Bridget Lancaster. It goes beyond recipes and cooking to investigate the foods we love (such as deep-fried oreos and tiki drinks) and don’t love (like once-in-vogue celery and the meteoric rise of the grain bowl). We ask the big questions (where do food cravings come from?) and uncover the hidden backstories that feed your food-obsessed brain. Proof solves food mysteries, one story at a time."
posted by ringu0 at 1:36 PM on December 12, 2018

I'm enjoying Nashville Public Radio's Versify:

Versify is part storytelling and part poetry. It begins by sending our team of poets out into neighborhoods and to community events, where we invite people to share a story from their life. The person they are sharing it to — the person listening — is one of our poets. This is where the magic comes in. The poet listens intently and then turns that life story into a poem, on the spot
posted by Corvid at 3:04 PM on December 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

2nding Heavyweight.

Story-driven fixed-run documentary podcasts I've especially enjoyed this year (with a skew to cults...):
Caliphate
Uncover: Escaping NXIVM
Heavens Gate
The Gateway.
posted by yesbut at 11:11 PM on December 12, 2018

Snap Judgement - similar to This American Life
Reveal - in-depth reporting on social issues
Dr. Death - podcast about a surgeon accused of harming his patients
nth-ing season 3 of Serial
posted by laurasbadideas at 1:46 AM on December 13, 2018