Podcasts I'm listening to in 2026

Eric Mesa

- 18 minutes read - 3655 words

It’s time once again for my annual podcast list. The formatting continues with the changes I added last year: Podcast Republic (the podcatcher I use) no longer provides the podcast’s official description. In lieu of that, I have the “My Thoughts” section which is part description and part opinion. If you click on the podcast’s title - that is the link for the podcast’s feed. If you click on the link for the Podcast website, that should take you to whatever website the podcast lists as their official website. This year I added an “Ended” subheading for podcasts that have ended, but I’m not removing them just yet from the podcatcher in case I want to check out old episodes.

As per usual, I’ve put the podcasts into categories to more easily find them.

News and Current Events

My Thoughts: I put this one under news, but it could just as easily fit in pop culture. They interview people who are in the news either for political or cultural reasons.

My Thoughts: There are rarely episodes anymore and one of the last episodes explains why. However, whenever there is an episode, Dan REALLY challenges a lot of my preconceived notions and that’s why I keep the feed around.

My Thoughts: This podcast is the perfect way to start your morning if you want to know what’s going on in the world. It publishes around 6AM EST Monday-Saturday.

My Thoughts: Billed as an expansion of one of the stories from Up First. While Up first is about 15 minutes for all the top headlines, this one is 15 minutes for just one story.

My Thoughts: This podcast is essentially a news show about news shows; a meta-commentary on the news. They cover how things are covered and, sometimes, how we got to that situation.

Politics

My Thoughts: A good, short program that tells you exactly what you need to know about the political news on any given day. On Fridays they have “can’t let it go” in which the hosts talk about an obsession of theirs that week. It often doesn’t have anything to do with politics.

My Thoughts:: There is often overlap between this show and the NPR Politics podcast - not just in topics; sometimes they play the same clips and interviews. But it is a political news podcast focused specifically on the president.

My Thoughts: A podcast hosted by 3 lawyers that does deep dives into Supreme Court cases. The Patreon feed has more episodes available in addition to skipping ad breaks. I have learned a lot about how the Supreme Court works and also learned of many old cases I’d never heard about, but which have long-reaching effects to this day.

My Thoughts: If you want a news show that has folks from both the left and right AND doesn’t have them just yelling at each other (MOST OF THE TIME), then this is the perfect political news show. While I often find myself disagreeing with the hosts that don’t share my views, they do sometimes really surprise me with some potentially different ways of viewing the news. I really appreciate that opportunity to gain an understanding of someone coming at the same problem from a different point of view.

My Thoughts: David Plotz is often playing the foil to straight “men” John Dickerson (of CBS News) and Emily Bazelon (of NYT Magazine and a trained lawyer). They discuss weekly news topics. They seem to fall about halfway on the spectrum between the NPR shows and Breaking Points in terms of seriousness, analysis, etc

My Thoughts: Roman Mars (of 99% Invisible) and his law professor neighbor discuss Constitutional Law using Trump administration cases as well as any relevant cases from history to discuss what is guaranteed by the constitution and what is just governed by norms.

My Thoughts: A brand new podcast that covers the news from the point of view of the intelligence agencies. So far they’ve covered quite a few interesting stories from a slightly different perspective than the NPR Politics podcast.

My Thoughts: I used to listen to the 538 Politics Podcast, but it was suddenly canceled this May and I didn’t know where the folks ended up. Galen Druke ended up forming this podcast and it provides a lot of the same POV of politics with a focus on data-based analysis. I understand that these podcasts need to be funded in order to continue to exist, but it’s a bummer that instead of having commercials some episodes just cut off halfway through if you’re not a subscriber.

My Thoughts: Another US Supreme Court podcast. There hasn’t been a new episode in 2 years. This one was more of a general court podcast than some of the others I’m subscribed to.

My Thoughts: I’ll probably remove this one by next year since the show is over and hasn’t come back. (I’ve had quite a few shows declare an end and then resume, so I don’t always get rid of feeds right away)

The World Around Us

My Thoughts: Covers just about any topic - often scientific. Focused on great sound effects.

My Thoughts: Same as above, but for kids. They mostly focus on a program about animals called “Terrestrials”

My Thoughts: A great show that gets the listener to think about design and what goes into the design of the objects all around us. There’s a strong focus on architecture, but it’s not limited to that.

Psychology

My Thoughts: A program dedicated to showing us that we often cannot trust our minds or our intuition. Usually in the form of examples and interviews with experts. I love learning new ways in which we can understand ourselves.

Pop Culture

My Thoughts: This started off as a podcast about Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. With the book series going nowhere it’s mostly now just a pop culture podcast. I’ve started watching lots of shows after hearing them cover one of the episodes.

My Thoughts: The show bills itself as solving cultural mysteries. It does indeed do that. They explored the exercise craze of the 80s and Jane Fonda’s tapes, the design and marketing of Tupperware and Tupperware parties, and all kinds of fun topics.

My Thoughts: A similar premise as above, but a bit sillier.

My Thoughts: Yet a third of this type of podcast. This time hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.

My Thoughts: This show is in its 50th year so I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of it before. Terry Gross (and another, new host) interview pop culture and political figures. These interviews often go deeper than any of the other similar shows (except maybe Maron, who has gotten people to open up reveal some deep aspects of themselves)

My Thoughts: The host takes a pop culture topic and examines it from different angles. It’s somewhat in the same realm as 99% Invisible and Decoder Ring, but the host often brings on co-hosts and experts and that really changes vibe and makes the episode have less of a feeling of authorial intent.

My Thoughts: An exploration of clothing: its history and role in culture. I’m not much of a fashionista, but I ALWAYS find these episodes fascinating.

My Thoughts: About the English language, but it often touches on culture, history, and other things. Some of my favorite series have been about the history and evolution of various profane words and phrases. It’s never quite as simple as it seems it will be.

Ended

My Thoughts: Marc interviews comedians and musicians. It’s pretty famous and I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of it. I think Marc is getting ready to end the show. A long time ago he covered most of the comedians I cared about so I often find myself skipping the episodes.

Television and Movies

My Thoughts: The hosts go over a movie from the 1990s and talk about how it relates to the politics of the 1990s. It’s been very interesting to view these movies through the lens of whatever was happening in politics at the time. It’s also funny how much dreck was produced back them; so many of the movies are so bad.

My Thoughts: It’s just the audio of Colbert’s show. I don’t have time to watch it, but I can listen while I exercise or drive around.

My Thoughts: Just like above, it’s the audio feed of the TV show. Most of the time it doesn’t matter - every once in a while there’s a visual joke that I miss.

My Thoughts: There hasn’t been a new episode in YEARS, but I keep hoping it will come back. It was always great to learn about how two movies on the same topic would come out around the same time.

My Thoughts: I just started listening to this podcast recently, but I am really enjoying it. Two relationship professors cover romantic movies and talk about what lessons we can learn from the movies. I’m often surprised at how well some movies do at portraying certain relationships. It can also be funny how wrong movies get relationship dynamics. I usually skip the episode if I don’t care about the movie. I strongly recommend the episode on Frozen and the episode on Groundhogs Day.

My Thoughts: A hilarious podcast about bad movies. It took its premise a little more seriously early on (with Paul doing research on shenanigans that may have contributed to the movie coming out so bad). Nowadays it’s mostly just funny commentary. I will usually skip it if I don’t care about the movie.

My Thoughts: Despite the name, this podcast isn’t only about books that were badly adapted to movies (although those can be fun episodes). Instead, author Maggie Takuda Hall and Red Scott (from Boars, Gore, and Swords) discuss both what went right and what went wrong when books (or magazine articles) were adapted into movies. Sometimes they have a guest host and some seasons focus on an author or on a specific book. Whenever they are on hiatus I can’t wait for them to come back.

My Thoughts: Paul from How did this Get Made and Amy (a movie critic) speak about movies from Top 100 lists and discuss what makes them so good. Or, occasionally, wonder why they made it to the list.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Culture

My Thoughts: Brandon Sanderson created this podcast to have something to do while he signs pages. He and fellow author Dan Wells discuss whatever interests them - usually some piece of SFF culture. I also like Dan Wells’ focus on food crimes. Plus dad jokes galore.

My Thoughts: A somewhat similar premise as Our Opinions are Correct, except very much tuned to the host’s interests and experiences in the geek world. I recommend the following episodes:

My Thoughts: A goodreads.com book club and book news podcast. I’ve read along on a few books with them and it’s been great to be part of a virtual book club and it’s exposed me to books I might not have otherwise have read.

Ended

My Thoughts: Authors Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders talk about various geek topics. Often involves the intersection of books and culture. One of my favorite episodes was Why Silicon Valley is doomed to misunderstand the future and Romancing the Dragon changed how I look at dragons in fiction - and made me give the Fourth Wing series a shot.

Tabletop Gaming (TTRPGs)

My Thoughts: This show is currently using a different format in which each episode is only 10 mninutes long and doesn’t have any editing as the hosts focus on some issues in their personal lives. That said, episodes (especially the back catalog) often have VERY good advice for DMs. I’ve learned a lot that I’ve used at my tables. In 2026 they also added someone with an accent who I think is a Spaniard. His episodes are about what we can learn from the craft of magicians to apply to GMing.

My Thoughts: This is my absolute favorite Actual Play. These guys are amazingly hilarious. I discovered them when they did a limited series based on Tales of the Valiant. Their usual story is based on Starfinder and they are currently on season 2 of that storyline. Each episode is only 1.5-2 hours long, so it’s not as much of a commitment as Critical Role. I HIGHLY recommend you listen to this one.

My Thoughts: This started off as a podcast about the Star Wars TTRPG, but now it’s about Starfinder 2e. It’s a mix of tips that are broadly applicable to TTRPGs, tips that are specific to Starfinder, and character build contests.

My Thoughts: Another actual play. Currently they’re running an awesome, western based story using the Tales of the Valiant rules: The Misfortunate 4.

My Thoughts: They do a few different actual plays. I’m currently enjoying the one using the Nimble TTRPG involving the small animals that live in the mall.

My Thoughts: This is a long-running story - about 3 years long at this point. You can probably jump in at the beginning of any season, but I recommend starting back from the beginning. Like most of the other actual plays I listen to, it’s a good blend of humor and serious storytelling.

Programming and Technology

My Thoughts: Mike Kennedy interviews someone from the Python ecosystem. He’s a great interviewer and I think he asks great questions. I do tend to skip episodes if the topic doesn’t interest me. At this point in my Python journey I’m not interested in just listening to every single Python thing (unlike when I first really got into the language).

My Thoughts: This show has changed format recently from a conversation between two former Red Hat employees to an interview show. I still learn a lot, but I also sometimes find my attention drifting if the topic isn’t one I care about.

My Thoughts: In like 6 minutes you can hear a summary of the latest tech news. It’s a great jumping off point and I’ve been able to bring a lot of these topics to work.

My Thoughts: A Red Hat podcast focused on open source projects.

My Thoughts: the follow-up to the Go Time podcast with a lot of the same hosts. They talk about programming and programmer-adjacent topics. Recently it has provided a sane view of AI from folks who are best positioned to tell the hype from reality.

My Thoughts: News and interviews about the Go programming language. Pretty relaxed format.

My Thoughts: Red Hat’s podcast on the business side of technology and open source. They usually pick a topic and drill down throughout the season.

My Thoughts:: Mike Kennedy and Brian Okken talk about various Python news items and blog posts from around the net.

History

My Thoughts: The host goes through various historical periods and uses the latest in science, archaeology, DNA testing, and so forth to bring new light to what was happening in history. He’s currently covering the Iron Age across the entire world, including Asia and the Americas. Very great style that often focuses on both the personal story and the greater cultural story.

My Thoughts: It’s like a combination of your typical history podcast and You Are Not So Smart since it’s often about how we take the wrong lessons from history. My favorite episode so far is about the Titanic and how we are wrong to think they didn’t have enough lifeboats.

My Thoughts: This is the history show by which I measure all history shows. Unfortunately, it rarely releases because the epsiodes are so deeply researched. (And I think the host is a perfectionist)

My Thoughts: Dan Carlin interviews experts about history. It’s usually an entertaining interview even if I don’t love it as much as hardcore history.

My Thoughts: The show uses history to reflect on why things are happened the way they are in the present. I usually learn a lot and it provides perspective on how long it took to get to a certain state and how long it might take to fix it.

My Thoughts: A look at the ridiculous history of people in the United States. I think if we learned more about these folks, more people would find history interesting.

Science

My Thoughts: Neil DeGrasse Tyson and co-hosts tackle different science topics. To be honest, I might get rid of this podcast soon. I often find myself skipping many of the episodes.

My Thoughts: Scientists and a comedian or actor discuss a science topic. It’s usually very entertaining.

My Thoughts: A bunch of comedians with science or math degrees discuss science articles. There’s also usually another comedian invited on as a guest host.

Cooking

My Thoughts: A much more straight-forward cooking podcast. Each episode focuses on a food, its history, and some other facts about it.

Ended

My Thoughts: Using food as a starting point, many different topics are explored: history of food, culture and food, and so on.

Business and Finance

My Thoughts: A fun show that explains lots of financial concepts, especially related to whatever is happening in the news.

My Thoughts: Usually a shorter look at specific topics that speak to what’s happening in the economy.

My Thoughts: From the book of the same name, they tackle different topics from a very unique point of view.

My Thoughts: 2 daily podcasts - one in the morning and one in the afternoon to cover news about the stock market.

My Thoughts: What I enjoy about Marketplace is that it’s a mix of the headlines and more long-form journalism. By checking in with business owners regularly, there’s a continuity to some of the reporting and economic opinions.

My Thoughts: When I first started listening, it was focused on the big rivalries like Coke v Pepsi or Sega v Nintendo. The most recent season takes one company and focuses on a big issue they have dealt with to focus on lessons we can learn. Most recently (at the time of this writing) they had a trio of episodes about the company behind Sriracha sauce and their partnership (and then break up) with their pepper supplier.

Short Fiction

My Thoughts: I’ve been listening to this podcast for a long time now. They have science fiction short stories (although sometimes novellas over many episodes) that I usually find incredibly entertaining and sometimes they really make me think.

Ended

My Thoughts: There hasn’t been a new episode in a decade, but I keep hoping that Ivan Hernandez of Boars, Gore, and Swords will revive it.

Music

My Thoughts: Since I don’t listen to the radio, this is how I find out about new latin music and hear news about the artists. This is how I discovered Rosalia.

My Thoughts: The host breaks down a song with the creators. I will often (but not always) skip if I don’t recognize the artist. It was also made into a TV show that lasted for a season or two.

Writing

My Thoughts: A bunch of SFF authors I enjoy cover writing topics. Even though it’s geared towards aspiring writers, I love learning about the craft.