Eighteen Things We Like’s Daughter
Okay, we’re taking an extended break between Series 13 and Series 14. Normally, we’d suggest eight things we like that could fill your time… but man, it’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, and it’s a longer break than usual. So instead, how about one of these eighteen things we like?
500 Open Tabs
Cartoonists Kaveh Taharian (Musicalsplaining) and Hannah Hillam have the same problem… they each have hundreds of tabs open, and never want to close them. Every episode they share stories about the rabbit holes they’ve been diving down, in the hopes they can finally close one or two.
Beef and Dairy Network
Sometimes you just need a hit of absurdity, and well, nothing is more absurd than Benjamin Partridge’s Beef and Dairy Network. Take a peek into an alternate universe where beef is king, and every subject eventually turns back to the cattle industry. Oh, and did I mention Ted Danson is the Dark Lord of Hell? Because he totally is.
Broomgate: A Curling Scandal
Canada is a source of endless fascination to us, because it’s similar enough to America that the differences can be really shocking. Take this six-part miniseries from the CBC, for example, about a terrible scandal that almost destroyed the sport of curling. Scandal! In curling! Who knew!
The Comics Journal
Sometimes we miss print magazines, you know? Thank god this one managed to survive by making a successful transition to the internet. You can always count on The Comics Journal for reviews of interesting material and thought-provoking long-form essays on every aspect of the art of comics.
The Curiosity of !?
On The Curiosity of !?, father Richard and son Anton take some time to discuss whatever has their fancy, whether that’s potatoes or playing cards or pirate treasure. Not only is it a fascinating glimpse into the evolving tastes of a young mind, it’s a heartwarming tale of a father and son as they travel together into the unknown.
(Also, Richard’s is a good friend of the podcast and you can hear his voice on several episodes of this very podcast if you listen hard enough!)
Drapetomaniax
“Drapetomania” was the name Southern race scientists gave to slaves’ supposedly irrational desire to be free. In Drapetomaniax, Michael Harriot recounts stories from black history you may not have heard, from a perspective you probably haven’t considered. You probably still aren’t be invited to the cookout, but now you’ll know why.
Ed Zitron
If nothing else, 2024 has been the year of Ed Zitron. His writings have helped crystallize what a lot of us have been thinking about the tech industry, especially its recent turns towards increasing enshittification and the disastrous pivot to Artificial Intelligence. You should do yourself a favor and check out his work, whether that’s through his blog Where’s Your Ed At, his first podcast 15 Minutes in Hell, or his current podcast Better Offline.
(Ed, please do us a favor and don’t go off the deep end like Matt Taibbi. We don’t think we could take it again.)
Factually!
You may think that Adam Conover finished ruining everything years ago, but nope! He’s still out there fighting the good fight. Every episode he brings on a new expert to tell us why everything sucks… and ask what we can do to make it better.
(Also, as we type this, he’s just finished interview Ed Zitron! Go figure!)
Flaming Hydra
This year has also seen the rise of writers’ collectives, and the standout of the pack has been Flaming Hydra. For $36 a year you get two essays a day from some of the most interesting writers on the internet, covering every topic under the sun. What more could you ask for?
If Books Could Kill
It’s no secret that we love Michael Hobbes (Maintenance Phase, You’re Wrong About). So why wouldn’t we love his other current podcast, If Books Could Kill, where he teams with Peter Shamshiri to read the influential books that everyone was talking about at the cocktail parties of years gone by (and which turned to be wrong about nearly everything)?
J. Draper
If you’re ever in London, you should get a walking tour from J. Draper. If you’re never in London, you should go to her YouTube channel and check out her videos, long and short, about British history which are informative, though-provoking, and always entertaining.
James Hoffman
We’re coffee lovers, but we’re not exactly coffee snobs. That’s why it’s good to have someone like super-barista James Hoffman in your pocket. James produces great, informative videos on every aspect of the coffee experience and really helps make great coffee accessible to a wide audience.
(And while you’re at it, you should check out the of James’ evil twin, Hames Joffman.)
Snack Stack
Who knew that the history of snack food was so fascinating and varied? Did you know about the Great Midwest Cheese Duel of 1935? About the old woman who lived in the backwoods of Minnesota and made root beer? About the weird and complicated history of pizza rolls? Neither did we! Sign up to Doug Mack’s Snack Stack newsletter to learn all these amazing facts and more!
Sword and Sandwich
Or maybe you want a solid dose of progressive politics with your food criticism. If that’s the case, go over to Talia Lavin’s The Sword and the Sandwich, where a sandwich is never just a sandwich. Maybe the croque monsieur is all about fin-de-siecle sex panics. Maybe the hot brown is all about race relations. Or maybe the Italian beef is just a giant metaphor for Dune, and vice versa. Who knows? Let’s find out together.
True Facts
Look, it’s 2024. If you’re on the internet and still don’t know about Ze Frank, I don’t know what you’ve been doing with your life. But look, he does comedy/nature videos filled with amazing true (but still hilarious) facts about animals. If that’s not right up your alley, why are you listening to this show?
The Truth
Alas, audio drama anthology The Truth is dead and gone, but before it went it produced probably the finest radio drama we’ve ever listened to: “The Heat Meat.” Go listen to it right now. We’ll wait.
Where We Parked
As much as we love Kevin Perjurer’s meticulously crafted Defunctland videos, sometimes it’s also nice to just listen to him let his hair down. He does that on Where We Parked, where he teams up with Jack from Theme Parks Shouldn’t Exist to talk and joke about some of the weirdest corners of theme park history.
The Wind
Fil Corbitt describes The Wind as a podcast about listening, whether that’s to music, to people, or just to the world around you. Sometimes that means he’s talking about the Satanic backmasking in the 1980s. Sometimes that means he’s talking about how to change the name of a mountain. Sometimes that means he’s talking about the whip culture in Reno’s homeless population. It’s all fascinating.
