Podcasts that Persuade
October 19, 2013 11:39 AM   Subscribe

Please recommend specific episodes of podcasts that make a clear, logical, and sustained argument. I'm looking for podcasts in the This American Life, Radiolab, and 99% Invisible genre that attempt to persuade, rather than just inform. Thanks!

This question is similar, but not exactly the same.
posted by Hoenikker to Media & Arts (10 answers total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think Sound Opinions does this.
posted by bleep at 11:43 AM on October 19, 2013


How about the Munk Debates? You get both sides of a debate, but both are aimed at persuading.
posted by walla at 11:44 AM on October 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Oh, and while answers about political podcast are very helpful, I'd rather steer away from that arena, where possible.
posted by Hoenikker at 11:46 AM on October 19, 2013


Big Ideas from TVO is available as both audio and video.

The Munk Debates are part of CBC's venerable and fabulous Ideas. (I cannot believe how lucky we are to get this show 5 nights a week and once in the afternoon.) Not all of the episodes will fit your parameters, but many will. They sponsor the Massey Lectures, where each year's lecture covers about 5 hours, but you'll have to pay for any pre-2013 podcasts.

A Point of View from the Beeb is tiny -- only 10-11 minutes per podcast -- but worth it.
posted by maudlin at 12:14 PM on October 19, 2013


Intelligence Squared
posted by evoque at 12:16 PM on October 19, 2013 [2 favorites]


Freakonomics! Their latest episode dealt with pet cremation, and how even people that pay for an individual cremation usually end up with random pet ashes that aren't even from their animal. Apparently pet cremation is a very fraudulent industry.

They had another one about the economics of parenting that was really fascinating -- made the argument that parents don't have as big of an influence over their kids' lives as they think.
posted by Ostara at 12:34 PM on October 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


Hang Up and Listen features a lot of passionate and closely-parsed argument about sports -- so good I listen to it even when it's about a sport I don't care about.
posted by escabeche at 1:15 PM on October 19, 2013


BackStory with the American History Guys.

Ockham's Razor is Australian, though more often than not is about issues of global/universal importance. It also often gives a soapbox to people with... less than well-informed ideas—so be sure to listen with your brain fully engaged.
posted by BrashTech at 1:19 PM on October 19, 2013


Radio 4's Analysis programme seems like it would fit your purposes. It's about politics, but not really party politics, more broader issues of social theory, economics and ethics (there's a rightwing slant to most of the programmes, but I say this from a British lefty perspective and YMMV, plus even I get a lot out of it). They tend to seize excitedly on the ideas du mode, so it can be a bit like reading Vogue magazine, but for political theory.
posted by Acheman at 5:05 AM on October 20, 2013


Not in the same league as TIL, etc., but Skeptoid is all about debunking pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.
posted by look busy at 7:39 AM on October 20, 2013


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