No music, and nothing that requires me to have to pay too much attention. Something fun and positive to take the edge off all the terrible shit happening would be cool.
NPR story podcasts are pretty good. Like, not politics you know but there are plenty of podcasts where people gently tell you how tortillas are made and that is cool.
Or pirate audiobooks.
Or most libraries have audiobooks you can download now I think.
Honestly, any podcast by Jamie Loftus (My year in Mensa, ghost church, sixteenth minute, bechdel cast, etc).
You’re wrong about, the constant, American hysteria, ologies, cool people who did cool stuff are some of my other faves.
I second some of these. I listen to cool people regularly, as the episodes release, and have listened to all the past episodes. I’ve listened to all of your wrong about with Sarah Marshall, who I totally have a parasocial crush on. I’m listening through the back catalog of You Are Good, which is a movie podcast with her. I don’t even really watch movies. I’ve not listened to any of Jamie Loftus’ own podcasts yet, but she’s always a wonderful guest whenever she’s on one of the other ones.
I feel like Margaret Killjoy of Cool People might not be too popular here, as she’s very anarchist and rather critical of MLs, and IIRC she has less than great opinions about Ukraine. Personally I’ve not adopted a label and am not educated enough to do so. She’s far more informed than I am and also a source of a lot of my personal leftist education, so I have a lot of admiration for her.
You’re definitely right about Maggie Killjoy. I still enjoy much of her work. I don’t know her personally but I have several friends who’ve worked with her and speak highly of her so I take the chance to promote her creative work if and when it comes up.
Edit: yes, also have parasocial crush on Sarah Marshall, but my main parasocial crush is def j loftus. It’s embarrassing honestly.
CBB and its extended universe is improv comedy
Teacher’s Lounge is improv comedy (my current fav podcast)
Welcome to Nightvale is surrealist comedy
The Dollop is one guy telling funny history stories to another guy. Pretty funny, vaguely leftish
West Wing Thing is one of the guys from the Dollop tearing apart the most liberal show of all time
Off book is musical improv comedy
Seconding The Dollop, there’s a lot of fun wacky shit they cover besides the horrors of general US history. Though their language can be problematic at times; they’re the joe rogan of the left. Lol. Not really, but they are couple of white guys. Funny and based in general though. Still Covid conscious too!
I made it through so many Kurt Vonnegut books when I had to commute for an hour and a half every day…those are great. So is most of Bill Bryson’s audiobooks, which are interesting but don’t require too much attention. He also reads most of his own audiobooks, so it sounds more like he’s remembering than reading.
public broadcasters in various countries probably have archives of old radio programs, like the beloved CarTalk. you don’t have to know anything or care about cars, as top 3 liberal youtuber angela collier explains
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
