Any good Futility Closet podcast substitutes?
June 28, 2022 6:36 PM   Subscribe

I need recommendations on some good podcasts for family road trips to replace Futility Closest, and we leave tomorrow!

Futility Closet has been our family summer road-trip podcast for years now, but now it is gone and we've listened to all the episodes. I need some recommendations for some good replacements. A couple requirements:

-- No true crime or creepy stuff, those give my youngest nightmares
-- Non-fiction recommendations please -- weird and interesting history and facts are definitely the most popular subjects
-- I listen to quite a few British podcasts (Loremen is one of my favourites), but even though we watch a lot of British TV with the kids they have a difficult time parsing accents and dialects in the car.
-- 30 minute episodes are best; definitely not longer than an hour per episode.

Difficulty: we leave on a road trip tomorrow at noon!
posted by fimbulvetr to Media & Arts (20 answers total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
 
Quirks and Quarks is a CBC science segment show that is family appropriate.
posted by Horkus at 6:58 PM on June 28, 2022


Response by poster: Quarks and Quarks is great, but CBC radio is always on in our house -- the first person to wake up in the morning turns on the kitchen radio, the last person to bed turns it off.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:46 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]


Already listened to 99 Percent Invisible?
posted by mekily at 7:47 PM on June 28, 2022


Best answer: Alie Ward's Ologies podcast has a bunch of kid-friendly edits called Smologies. They're all very energetic and charming, and all under 30 minutes.

You might try some episodes of Nate DiMeo's The Memory Palace here and there and see if they work for your kids. It covers some of the same territory as Futility Closet -- lesser-known episodes of history -- but the mood is generally slow and gentle (think a more wry Mister Rogers). Running time can be as short as 5 minutes, but they can go up to 20 minutes. There's a single swear word at the end of the most recent episode Kiddo, but it's an otherwise charming story about a cat, and most episodes wouldn't trip the cussmeter. (Despite all the caveats, I really love this podcast.) Snakes! No Summer. Hercules. The Prairie Chicken in Wisconsin: Highlights of a Study of Counts, Behavior, Turnover, Movement, and Habitat. The Wheel (so GREAT!). Family Snapshots. You can search by topic here.

Do they like music? Every 20-30 minute episode of Song Exploder (Hrishikesh Hirway) has a musician break down the creation of a specific song. The line-up leans pretty Gen-X / Millennial, but you'll find a few younger people like Billie Eilish. (But who knows -- maybe your kids are really into Courtney Barnett.)
posted by maudlin at 8:07 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


(OK, maybe the Courtney Barnett episode is a bit heavy for kids.)
posted by maudlin at 8:16 PM on June 28, 2022


Best answer: I just wrapped up with Futility Closet myself and you might find some other good suggestions in my AskMe looking for other options which was where I found it. I think 99 Percent Invisible might be good since people can pick topics they're interested in and you always learn neat stuff. You do have to avoid some of the "friend of 99PI" stuff that sneaks in sometimes. Atlas Obscura podcast seems like it's up your alley from that list though I haven't listened to it msyelf (yet).

One that I like is There's No Such Thing As a Fish which is British but it's not super dialect-y (really depends on how old your kids are) but it's like four cool trivia facts and then people who are all friendly with one another riffing on top of them with more facts. It's not always G-rated (definitely some swearing and sometimes they talk about sex or drugs but it's never tawdry and no creepier than some of the stuff on Futility Closet) but the tone is light.

If your kids tend towards younger the But Why podcast which answers questions sent in by kids on the younger side is well done and engaging.
posted by jessamyn at 8:27 PM on June 28, 2022


Response by poster: Some excellent suggestions! The Ologies/Smoligies looks good. Is the main issue with the full versions swearing? We're generally okay with that, as it is not like the boys don't hear and use that with their friends. I forgot about The Memory Palace, that is a good one. Atlas Obscura Podcast is also on my download list.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:35 PM on June 28, 2022


There is some swearing in OG Ologies, and some topics are a little depressing/sexual. I think most of the episodes are OK for all but the smallest kids. Try out a full version or two and see how it sits. Raccoons can work as CanCon (some discussion of dead raccoons). Dancing Spiders was just wonderful. Fireflies would be a good bet.
posted by maudlin at 9:26 PM on June 28, 2022


The Life Scientific Physicist Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future. 250+ half-hour episodes
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:50 PM on June 28, 2022


Outside/In by NH Public radio is a great podcast focused on various outdoor and/or science topics. I highly recommend the interview of Mary Roach about her new book, salmon stocking, and the q&a episodes. The avalanche recovery and body decomp episodes are also great but maybe not for kids.
posted by hydrobatidae at 2:13 AM on June 29, 2022


The Smithsonian has a podcast called Sidedoor with multiple seasons. They are the right length, though you would need to do a bit of "curating" of topics and skip some episodes.
posted by gudrun at 5:19 AM on June 29, 2022


There was a bit of cross-pollination between Futility Closet and No Such Thing as a Fish. It is still in progress and there four-hundred-plus episodes in the archives. (UK accents, though, so it may be a no-go for your kids.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:30 AM on June 29, 2022


Good Job, Brain! scratches a lot of that same FC itch for me.
posted by Etrigan at 7:18 AM on June 29, 2022 [2 favorites]


I knew coming in late someone would beat me to the Ologies/Smologies! +1 that 1000x over. If you and the kids are ok with the occasional swearing, then all of Ologies should be good to go.

I tend to lean towards this particular podcast genre myself - going through the rest of my subscriptions for kid-friendlyness, I have:

* Sawbones, A Marital Tale of Misguided Medicine! Totally kid friendly and covers weird medical stuff (usually, but has swung a little topical in our post-pandemic age). Their blurb is "a tour of all the dumb, bad, gross, weird and wrong ways we've tried to fix people" I love this podcast, and there's a huge catalog of back episodes.
* Stuff You Should Know is a classic for a reason. HUGE back catalog.
* Unexplainable is "a science show about everything we don't know".
* Ungeniused is "a show dedicated to covering the weirdest articles found on Wikipedia". If you've ever listened to any other RelayFM shows, it's hosts are Myke and Stephen, ie RelayFM's founders. Short episodes that try to be entertaining, and they do cover some very random topics.
* The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is by the folks at Popular Science and they usually cover 3 weird things they've learned this week. Kid friendly, sometimes a small gross-out factor but nothing outrageous.
* Overheard at National Geographic has some interesting topics I wouldn't ever think to dig out myself
* The Science of Birds is "a lighthearted, guided exploration of bird biology" It's not bad, wouldn't be my first pick but you can do a lot worse.
* Everything Everywhere Daily is ok, perhaps a little more educational and scripted than I normally like, but could be a good backup.
posted by cgg at 7:58 AM on June 29, 2022


Go Fact Yourself?
https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/go-fact-yourself/
posted by james33 at 7:59 AM on June 29, 2022


NPR Science Friday?
posted by COD at 2:15 PM on June 29, 2022


The Atlas Obscura podcasts would be a good option. They are short, though mostly less than 15 minutes, but they come out daily on weekdays, and there's nearly 300 of them.
posted by ShooBoo at 4:38 PM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


Ditto Sawbones. Perfect amount of gross stuff kids will love.
posted by charlesminus at 6:07 PM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


The History Chicks!
Lots of episodes. All about cool women in history. Some women have more depressing lives than others, but I’d say in general it’s kid-friendly and not violent.

And I second Good Job Brain, it’s so fun!!
posted by exceptinsects at 9:25 PM on June 29, 2022


Response by poster: As a follow-up, we tried a bunch of different podcasts and the three big winners for the road trip were Our Fake History, Atlas Obscura, and Unexplainable.

The kids liked Atlas Obscura and Unexplainable (a science show on what we don’t know and how we are trying to answer those questions) best of the three.

Thanks for all the recommendations!
posted by fimbulvetr at 6:32 AM on July 14, 2022


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