Your First Podcast | TheaterFire

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Dirty_Butler@reddit

Behind the Bastards, I was really late to the podcasts

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I've never subscribed or even regularly listened to any podcast. I'll watch clips of Conan's on youtube, and Billy Corgan has some interesting interviews, but aside from that I've never understood the appeal.

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Floundering_Dad_43@reddit

My first podcasts were actually just NPR shows that I couldn't listen to live; I'm almost 100% positive that the first one I ever downloaded and listened to on my Zune was This American Life, and the episode was about the Chicago Public School system.

My favorites today are pretty much all NPR-based: This American Life, Snap Judgment (and Spooked!!) and Home of the Brave, which is hosted by Scott Carrier, a former TAL contributor.

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

Oh, interesting. I remember Scott Carrier from those early TALs. (I relistened to the episodes from the beginning a few years back.)

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Floundering_Dad_43@reddit

It's months between episodes, because he travels, but his stories are always so timely and his manner is just so soothing and calm. His most recent episode he was in Odesa, Ukraine, interviewing people about the war there

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dallyan@reddit

Same but for WNYC. Brian Lehrer Show and Leonard Lopate. Later I started listening to The Bugle around 2010? 2011? Then came Serial and the wave of podcasts.

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PopsiclesForChickens@reddit

I love Spooked!

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Numerous-Release-773@reddit

I never got into "Serial" to be honest, but about the same time as that got really popular, I was listening to fictional horror and sci-fi podcasts such as "The Black Tapes" and "Limetown".

In terms of nonfiction, I loved "You Must Remember This," "Backstory with the American History Guys," and "99% Invisible."

Podcasts used to be really cool back in the day, before the medium was taken over by rich morons.

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Now every celebrity has a podcast.

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

They're not all bad, though. I really like Julia Louis-Dreyfuss's Wiser Than Me (interviews of influential older women), and Ted Danson's podcast. And Mike Birbiglia's.

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Numerous-Release-773@reddit

Oh God, I know. It's not my thing at all. I can't abide listening to two rich celebrities talk about their extravagant lifestyles and not much else. "Oh my God, you went to Obscenely Expensive Snobby Restaurant the other night! I was there too! What are the odds!"

One time I was listening to one of those podcasts, I think it was Chelsea Handler maybe and she was talking to some random actress as a guest, and the actress was going on about how wonderful her relationship is because they go to therapy together and it's just life-changing and wonderful and affirming and blah blah blah and everyone should do it, and then it's like she suddenly remembered that maybe not everybody has the financial resources to go to couples therapy consistently and she's like, "I mean it is really expensive." I'm listening to this rolling my eyes so hard, I was like yeah no shit.

I mean good for them, it's fine for them to enjoy their lifestyles, but it's not something I personally need to hear. Like it means nothing to me. It means nothing to my life. So I don't know why I would waste my time listening to stuff like this, and I really have no idea why other people do.

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Not my thing either. Just give me the facts of some crazy story or make one up.

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

Come to think of it, I think mine was Serial, as well. Same: avid NPR listener since sophomore year of college, especially This American Life (the "squirrel cop" episode hooked me) and Fresh Air.

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notoriousrdc@reddit

We're Alive and The NoSleep Podcast

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Flaxscript42@reddit

Hardcore History: Wrath of the Khans

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edasto42@reddit

I generally dislike podcasts. So many of them are like crappy morning zoo radio shows from a tertiary market in the Midwest. The only one I ever really enjoyed is the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia podcast. It started as the three main actors/writers (Mac, Charlie, Dennis) would rewatch the first season and talk about behind the scenes and other funny anecdotes. That structure got looser and looser until it became an extension of the actual tv show and one realizes that these people aren’t always acting and that they are their characters in a lot of ways. I mean Rob Mac has a son named Axl- tell me that’s not something Mac from the show would name his kid if he had one.

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NorthernLolal@reddit

I guess technically speaking it was Tom Green doing interviews with famous people at the after parties when he lived in LA.

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BBallsagna@reddit

Loveline was my first podcast. Followed by most of the stuff on the Stuff You Should Know

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TheAngerMonkey@reddit

We were a This American Life household, then My Brother, My Brother, and Me. When MBMBAM made to move to Maximum Fun, we got super into several of those as well (RIP OhNo! Ross and Carrie.)

Honorable mention to the Stuff You Missed In History Class podcast, which is still great but I only really started listening when my friends became hosts.

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macklin_sob@reddit

I was late to the party and started MBMBAM in 2019. I picked my kid up from Hish School and she immediately pointed out Griff and Justin as the Monster Factory guys. We would listen to the new episodes every week when taking walks in 2020.

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dogtweredog@reddit

The Purple Stuff Podcast.

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japhia_aurantia@reddit

Mine were (and still are) This American Life and Radiolab tbh. I listened on the radio for years and then moved to an area where I can't get the local npr station inside my house, so I started listening to the podcasts - originally via iTunes and now mostly on Spotify.

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inghostlyjapan@reddit

I can't 100% guarantee it was the Hotspot from Gamespot but it probably was.

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Secure-Force-9387@reddit

My podcast journey was almost identical. I still listen to Timesuck, STM, Your Stupid Opinions, and everything else those two do.

Now that I'm older, finally diagnosed with Autism, and with general don't-give-a-fuck-ness, I'm finally comfortable with leaning into my uber nerd side that I've tried to suppress my whole life and listen/watch a TON of DnD podcasts.

My current trend is re-listening to DCC and listening to/watching the Hello, Crawlers podcast.

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WendyPortledge@reddit

The first podcast I ever listened to was The Ricky Gervais Show, but I only got into it around 2012. After that was Ten Min Pod.

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Awkward-Coffee9761@reddit

Doug Loves Movies and Comedy Bang Bang and then Planet Money were my OGs.

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DTFChiChis@reddit

Get Drunk and Play Records

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jedispaghetti420@reddit

Smodcast and Star Wars Minute got me in the door.

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vlazuvius@reddit

The /Filmcast was mine.

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DasKittySmoosh@reddit

First pods were We’re Alive and Zombies Ate My Podcast

After a bit I got into Generation Why.

Added in Nerdist and Ear Biscuits shortly after

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iminthemoodforlug@reddit

John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman’s The Bugle

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that1tech@reddit

Midnight on the edge of town. I was looking for coast to coast am-esq shows and came on this. I remember nothing about it besides being a call in paranormal show and the name

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violetwandering@reddit

Serial was my first podcast. Now I have so many in rotation!! I started listening to NPR in my early 20s after randomly hearing about All Things Considered.

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Spartan04@reddit

It wasn’t Serial, in fact I’ve never listened to that or any true crime podcasts, not my thing at all.

I got into podcasts a lot earlier than that, in 2005 when Apple added podcasts to iTunes. A few of the early ones I subscribed to were This Week in Tech, the Dawn and Drew Show, and some other technology related podcasts. I also subscribed to the podcast versions of Car Talk and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me when NPR made them into podcasts.

Every morning before work I’d have iTunes on my computer refresh the podcasts and then plug in my iPod to sync them so I could listen to them at work.

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blueplutoredsky@reddit

The Dawn and Drew show for me for sure.

I even had a few episodes I burnt onto some CDs for a roadtrip. 👍🏼 and my current car still plays CDs 🤣

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bananabastard@reddit

The Ricky Gervais Show.

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rockTheAnts@reddit

I would have never found out about the wonderfully weird and hilarious Karl Pilkington without this show.

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MetalEnthusiast83@reddit

Giant Bombcast.

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Trick_Marketing_9567@reddit

The Nerdist

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electric-poptart@reddit

I love NPR shows (Snap Judgement is my favorite) but I can't get into podcasts. I'm a big fan of radio because it's a communal listening experience. We don't get that with TV anymore, so I'll take the inconvenience of tuning in at a certain time over listening alone.

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Cinderhazed15@reddit

Early listening onto the Radiolab podcasts - the colors episode was amazing!

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YourOwnPunkyBrewster@reddit

YES!! This was my first intro to actually using a podcast app—I mean, specifically the color episode! We had to listen to it for a perception/cognitive functioning class in college. It’s a great episode! I haven’t really listened since the OG hosts changed, to be honest.

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catsoncrack420@reddit

Marc Maron the OG. And a Philosophy podcast called The Unexamined Life.

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Maleficent-Pear8248@reddit

S-town was mine....so freaking good!

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DrenAss@reddit

I haaaated S-town! It started off interesting and the it got really depressing and pointless to me.

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pi_guy@reddit

S-Town had me hooked!

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

I listened to S-town on a Roadtrip. Being from the Deep South so much of it rang true. There’s so many wild stories like this one hiding in Red clay and swamps

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n33dwat3r@reddit

Hello from the Magic Tavern was the first podcast I actually listened to more than 1 episode and the only ones I have listened all the way through were Soberish and Alien School from Jessa Reed.

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ReasonableMerchant@reddit

Serial was my first. Completely hooked on his story. Got me through a lot of 10k runs. Then moved onto Hardcore History and now History of the World, love me some history.

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LeftHandStir@reddit

Hardcore History/Dan Carlin is the GOAT.

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MotorbikeNick@reddit

The History of Rome from Mike Duncan. Was there for almost the whole journey getting started at about episode 20 and running through until the end.

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LeftHandStir@reddit

Duncan is incredible. On my second full relisten of Revolutions Season 10 as we speak. Feels appropriate :)

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LeftHandStir@reddit

Lol Serial? 6 years too late. The B.S. Report, 2008. I used to play it on my work computer, really low. Then I got an iPhone in 2010 and it was off to the races.

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rinky79@reddit

Mine was 99 Percent Invisible, back when it was only about 7 minutes long (but after it had transitioned from a segment on This American Life to a podcast).

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dbzmah@reddit

I've never followed a podcast so... Serial?

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nocabec@reddit

Surprised it wasn't earlier for someone in this sub. I was listening to podcasts in 05/06, pretty much as soon as they were available in iTunes. One of the first was a recap podcast about Buffy, but at that time there was also a weekly Office discussion podcast.

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2099AD@reddit

Word Balloon with John Siuntres.

I occasioanally work in comics.

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BasicReputations@reddit

What Went Wrong had been the only good one I have found so far.

Keep trying to find good news ones since NPR has more or less gone to shit but hooowheee that has been a minefield.

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Adventurous_Pin_344@reddit

Yep. I was a regular This American Life and Radio Lab listener.

I was also a total Savage Love junkie (Dan Savage is a genius) and then got into Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

The Longest Shortest Time is the BEST when you're in the early days of parenting.

These days, I don't listen to a lot of pods, but when I do, it's usually The Ezra Klein Show. Sometimes The Daily. (The Sunday episode about Ibogaine was super interesting.)

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ericwbolin@reddit

Filmspotting remains as one of two podcasts I listen to. They were one of the OGs, too, starting in '05.

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FoppyRETURNS@reddit

Late adopter sadly. With sirius I didn't get in the game. Learned all podcasters were grifters anyway.

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jivemasterjohn@reddit

Also NPR shows. This American Life and Car Talk

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Money_Magnet24@reddit

Coast to Coast with Art Bell
Hardcore History (Dan Carlin)

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Coast to Coast was another time. I think Strange Planet comes close.

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Money_Magnet24@reddit

Yes

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folksongcat@reddit

The first one I listened to was Up and Vanished, which led to My Favorite Murder and other true crime podcasts. MFM is probably the only one I listen to regularly. I listen to We’re Here to Help and the Amy Poehler podcast occasionally.

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Pre pandemic I ran a local Murderino group on facebook. What a time.

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Rough-Instruction-29@reddit

Dirty John

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Dude. I listened to this and then watched the Made for TV movie. It was soooo upsetting.

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Rough-Instruction-29@reddit

I didn’t know there was a movie. I’ll have to check it out

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

And they also made Dr.Death.

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JFish3d@reddit

Dr. Death (Dr. Duntsch Series) was the very first and then LPOTL, which I still love.

Hail yourself, and Megustalations!

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Agent17@reddit

Spike colony

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lakebistcho@reddit

Serial was definitely a cultural moment. But there were a lot of podcasts out before that. One of the first I got into was Kevin Smith's podcast called Smodcast.

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thagrrrl79@reddit

I was super into Smodcast until Kevin started getting high every ep.

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Jenn31709@reddit

Smodcast and Babble On were my favorites

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thagrrrl79@reddit

All Hail the Glow Cloud!!

First podcasts: Deutsche Welle, German-language world news out of Berlin (was taking German in college; it helped); "The Awful Show," four guys sitting around BSing & various folks throughout the US listening live; one I can't remember the name of about a long-haul trucker & the "characters" he created to keep himself sane (actually became friends with the creator for a few years).

Now, it's a mix of fiction & wrestling news.

NADDPOD, Rotating Heros, POST Wrestling, Welcome to Night Vale & Good Morning Night Vale, & Supernatural Now & Then are the current rotation w/ a couple that sporadically post.

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IsThataNiner@reddit

Definitely Radio Lab, basically followed your exact same trajectory (have to check out The Gist) except now I don't listen to almost any besides Comedy Bang Bang. I think it's because I don't commute. I also get so bored with just people talking about almost absolutely nothing!

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trevourmeyer@reddit

This Week In Tech (TWiT) back in 2005. It was first called Revenge Of The Screen Savers, shortly after the demise of Tech TV, and I remember how exciting it was when the Screen Savers guys were going to carry on elsewhere, even in audio-only form. iTunes didn’t even support podcasts at that point because it was so new, so you had to manually download episodes or sign up on an RSS feed.

I also remember how Leo Laporte tried so hard to standardize the “netcast” term rather than “podcast,” in order to keep the medium separate from Apple/iPods, but obviously that never stuck. I love my old iPods, but I kind of wish it had become “netcast.”

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ambercrayon@reddit

Ricky gervais show episodes that I'm pretty sure came from lime wire

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shefwed82@reddit

I started listening to this show called TBTL. Really difficult to describe and felt super unique at the time. Probably isn't anymore. I stopped listening years ago, but I think it's still going strong.

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terrab123@reddit

Hidden brain was my go to. Anyone listen to the Jordan Hilinger (sp) podcast?

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Verbull710@reddit

Converted in 2011, started listening to Reasonable Faith and Renewing Your Mind 👍

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Dee_Buttersnaps@reddit

Not quite sure what my first podcast was, but there's a high probability it was Harmontown, which was Dan Harmon's coping mechanism after he got fired from Community.

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tav7623@reddit

I couldn't tell you the first podcast I listened to as I'd come across a bunch of them all at around the same time, but I can tell you that the first one I subscribed to was called The Midnight Horror Show. It was a podcast with a bunch of demented ( ;) :P ) horror fans talking about all things horror, actively encouraged their listeners to engage with them on social media, and they would occasionally have recurring segments, such as Where's Webula ? (one of the host's names was Webula and the name of the segment was a play on Where's Waldo) in which Webula would then tell the audience about his latest trip (usually a location or setting from a horror movie like the town of Derry, Maine from It, or Santa Cruz from The Lost Boys etc.) without naming the town or place he visited and then ask the audience if they knew where he went and the audience could post on their message boards where they thought he went and on the next show they'd shout out the person on the message boards who got it right. Sadly though this podcast and their message boards are no longer active, but I made some friends through both and will occasionally chat with them online.

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FajitaTits@reddit

Marc Maron. Also, my last podcast since he ended it. It was the perfect combo of longform interview, show biz stories, and creative process people. I’ve yet to find an apt replacement and don’t have the attention span other podcasts

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ST_Lawson@reddit

I started listening to podcasts when the folks from TechTV started rolling out a few in the early/mid-2000s. Stuff like "This Week in Tech", "Diggnation", etc. I watched a lot of TechTV back in the day, and it was a natural progression to podcasts when TechTV became G4, and I pretty much lost interest in their mostly gaming-related shows.

More recently, I listen to a lot of NPR podcasts: Planet Money, Short Wave, TED Radio Hour, Wild Card. I also enjoy Twenty Thousand Hertz, and Alive with Steve Burns.

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Spartan04@reddit

I miss Revision 3. At their peak I had a fair number of their video podcasts that I subscribed to.

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JamesMattDillon@reddit

Not a podcast, unless you consider NPR and other new talk radio shows as podcasts

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ST_Lawson@reddit

If you get them via a podcast app, then yes, they are podcasts. NPR shows make up the majority of podcasts I listen to.

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JamesMattDillon@reddit

Nope, just over the radio. Or some times I stream them over the Iheartradio as the stations are on there.

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Outrageous_Picture39@reddit

I’m seeing so many people mention This American Life. Jack Hitt’s story in “The Super” episode might be the greatest story I have ever heard. Twists, turns, and chance meetings decades after the event. It had it all.

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Daylight-Silence@reddit

Bill Simmons and then Adam Carolla (when he was still more or less Loveline-esque and hadn't deteriorated into whatever's going on now)

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Obi_Wan_Benobi@reddit

Simmons for me too.

I actually didn’t start listening to podcasts until after LeBron’s “Decision” in 2010. Simmons was probably the first but I downloaded a bunch of NBA ones.

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Daylight-Silence@reddit

I started listening pretty soon after he started, so 2007, apparently. He still felt like kind of random blogger and most of the early guests were his friends and other ESPN personalities. When he started getting actual famous athletes on, it felt like "Wow, my goofy friend Bill really gets to talk to Steve Nash? This is crazy!" It's wild how big he got.

I'm still mad neither he nor Sal was beaten over the head with a Subway sandwich at the conclusion of the inaugural guess the lines competition

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pug_fugly_moe@reddit

Corolla was my first podcast too. Back then he was basically riffing off of Loveline. Last episode I listened to was only for the guest, and still didn’t fully enjoy it. He lost me after firing Alison and Gina sounded too morning radio show host-y. It’s too bad because he had some genuinely funny bits. Him and David Allen Grier as Teddy Pendergrass was one of the funniest things I had heard.

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shiftdown@reddit

I haven't listened to Adam in probably 2 decades, but did enjoy him back in the 90s/early 00's

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Daylight-Silence@reddit

I still listen to old Lovelines on occasion, sometimes on a honest-to-God iPod. I even read one of his books. I don't remember when I gave up on the podcast, but it was a looooooooong time ago. Every time I incidentally see something he's saying or doing now, it just bums me out

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Dude. Had the same experience listening to old Joe Rogan vs the last 7 or 8 years.

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fbissonnette@reddit

You mean Stuff you should know?

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HuckleberryHappy6524@reddit

Sysk was my first podcast as well.

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fromthedarqwaves@reddit

Mine was stuff you know. I kept up with it until a few years ago and just started again because I like talk but not news. Science Friday was also one of my early ones. I used to play them on the first iPod shuffle.

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

Love that one too.

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Acceptable-Fold-3192@reddit

Smodcast because I was a big Kevin Smith fan (still love most of his movies, he just has so many podcasts now).

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worksnake@reddit

New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2014. Got drunker than probably I ever had. New Year’s Day, I ashamedly walked up to my empty grad school office and decided to check out this podcast phenomenon people wouldn’t shut up about. I listened to the entirety of Serial that same day, and that was my first podcast. Oddly enough, I never caught the bug and have only listened to podcasts intermittently over the years.

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jocundry@reddit

I started listening in 2007. NPR, Radiolab, TAL, the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, Anything Ghost (one of the very first paranormal podcasts), and a bunch of other ones that have stopped recording.

I'd been listening to podcasts for 7 years by the time Serial came out. I was surprised that so many people didn't know what they were lol

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AshDogBucket@reddit

Radiolab for me. I heard it on my local NPR station and was confused when these things started being called "podcasts." I remember my bff explaining to me and I was like "ok so it's a radio show."

I've tried but only a few podcasts have kept my interest and have not become problematic. Drunk Bible Study is my favorite that lasted for many years. Christianity Without the Crap was amazing (I was interviewed on it!) But short-lived. West Wing Weekly was also amazing. How Did This Get Made is the only one i occasionally listen to now because it's the only current podcast making new episodes that's remotely interesting to me.

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kbrick1@reddit

Oh my god Drunk Bible study and West Wing Weekly!

Did you ever listen to Good Christian Fun?

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AshDogBucket@reddit

Nope

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kbrick1@reddit

Serial —-> true crime pods (only one I still listen to is LPOtL) —-> You’re Wring about/Behind the Bastards/ Mean Book Club ——> Pod Save America/Bulwork/In Bed With the Right/ If books Could Kill / 5-4

I’ve gotten much more political over the years

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ConnectKale@reddit (OP)

My true crime pod listening has really dwindled over the years. I skip most of them but LPOtL is a mainstay. I really like side stories it reminds me a bit of the Soup from back in the day. I get all the mainstream culture news I need without really needing to be plugged in and they aren’t afraid to bring brevity to some serious topics.

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kbrick1@reddit

Ah yay! I also just love the continuity of listening for so many years. I’ve gone to live shows with my sis and friends. It’s been such a fun addition to my life :)

I like how they’ve evolved over the years too.

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emerican@reddit

Unfortunately, Joe Rogan in 2011. Listened for years and started my own podcasts. Man, I want to say it was such a waste of time, but I learned quite a bit just listening to him and his friends

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RoyalPuzzleheaded259@reddit

I have never listened to a podcast. I have never been a fan of talk radio so I’ve never had any desire to try a podcast.

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Floundering_Dad_43@reddit

Why reply?

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RoyalPuzzleheaded259@reddit

Because I have opinions too that are just as valid as those of you who listen to podcasts.

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Floundering_Dad_43@reddit

You're opinions are not as valid as those who listen to podcasts in a conversation about podcasts. It's like if someone is talking about basketball, but I don't watch basketball, why am I going to pipe up just to say "I don't watch basketball"?

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RoyalPuzzleheaded259@reddit

I think you have this sub confused with the boomer sub.

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kbrick1@reddit

It’s surprising to me how many people don’t share this obsession with me 😂 I kind of assumed everyone listened to podcasts

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Primary-Strawberry-5@reddit

Honestly my first podcast (besides one off listens of if I was looking for interviews with specific people) was The Boogie Monster with Kyle Kinane and Dave Stone. Then I got into Morbid and True Crime Bullshit. Now I mostly listen to Malevolent Mischief and occasionally Bailey Sarian. Been listening to audiobooks a lot because I need new readers but don’t feel like paying for new readers

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jaybeau1979@reddit

Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo. Just celebrated 20 years this past weekend. Garon sucks!

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S_A_R_K@reddit

I'll let you know when it happens

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ConsiderTheWillies@reddit

I started with the Ricky Gervais show. A little while later I got into the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. I've listened to the latter off and on for a couple decades now, I think.

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YEMolly@reddit

Mine was My Favorite Murder! During Covid this happened. I would just walk around all day mastering to get out of the house.

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herseyhawkins33@reddit

Loved serial but I go further back to this week in tech and the basketball Jones (which became the starters and now no dunks). Looks like it was this week in tech (TWiT) that started in 05 and TBJ in 06. I remember syncing the eps with my iPod. Wow time flies!

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Gregory-al-Thor@reddit

Pretty sure the early episodes of Hardcore History when they were only like 30 minutes. Maybe History of Rome.

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civilSurvivorMum@reddit

I’m another “NPR was my podcasts gateway drug. started streaming TAL when I lived in the UK 2004-06 and switched to the podcast when I moved back to the states. From there I added Wait Wait…, Radiolab, Stuff You Should Know, then Snap Judgment and Spooked, S-Town, Serial, Death, Sex, and Money, HDTGM, Selected Shorts, The Smartest Man in the World, WTF (never was super consistent with that one, though I’d loved Maron from his Air America days but I could only ever selectively listen to WTF). There have been a bunch of others that have come and gone over the years — had to drop all the BBC radio shows when they switched platforms — but I still listen to TAL, HDTGM, Snap & Spooked weekly. I cannot do chores or shower without a podcast on. ADHD says no. I also tried to listen to industry-based podcasts like 99% Invisible but I get immediately distracted and stop paying attention. I think they stress me out for some reason.

Am hesitant to try new podcasts on my own cos I’m neurosparkly mess, but I’m finding the ones I still listen to don’t publish frequently enough, so if anyone has recommendations I am open.

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Longjumping-Bell-762@reddit

Serial was one of my first ones. My first fun podcast I listened to was called Go Bayside. It was a Saved By the Bell rewatch podcast by comedian April Richardson. It was hilarious to listen to. I listened to it on her own website as podcast apps weren’t really a thing at that time.

I really got into podcasts for about a decade and last year started to get burnt out on them. I only keep up with two now.

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gatsome@reddit

I think the /Film podcast when it first started.

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BillyDMountain@reddit

Smodcast and some of the other podcasts on the Kevin Smith podcast network like the one by George Carlin's daughter Kelly. There was also a life advice one I sometimes listened to early on hosted by Anna Faris and when David Hepworth's The Word magazine was still around it had a companion podcast I listened to as well a message board I was on.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

I have never listened to a podcast.

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rockerswise@reddit

Sam Harris

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Ishvale@reddit

I used to listen to tech and gaming podcasts constantly. I started going into the office less and less, and it eventually turned into talk radio. NPR, sports, etc

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LeftHandedGuitarist@reddit

Various Star Trek podcasts, then eventually retro gaming ones and some music theory stuff.

I tend to prefer scripted ones over people chatting, I can't stand when they have off-topic rambles.

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flatulating_ninja@reddit

Probably Doug loves Movies, been listening for close to 20 years now.

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CalgaryChris77@reddit

I didn't start listening to Podcasts until about 2018, now I listen to a lot of them. Never even heard of many of the podcasts listed in here, but I'm also not American.

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GrandPipe4@reddit

I'm not sure which came first for me - Serial, or Hidden Brain which also started on NPR as a quick 15 min weekly series before it became the hour long podcast it is now. But yup, NPR did it, either way.

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Sea2Chi@reddit

Back in 2007ish I worked as a graphic designer so I tended to have podcasts going all day.

My normal rotation was BBC world news select, Cnet's The 404, Wait Wait Don't Tell me, The Bugle before John Oliver hit it big, Joe Rogan before he went crazy, and The Nerdist.

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Thliz325@reddit

I forgot about the Nerdist! That was one of my first ones, then when it was id10t. I remember listening to the minimalists one as I was into them for a bit and then Harry Potter as a sacred text which was my longest one til it ended a month ago.

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Ckn-bns-jns@reddit

I’m definitely a minority here, never got into podcasts and still don’t listen to any.

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fart_panic@reddit

Ratchet and Respectable.

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absentlyric@reddit

Probably the Completely Unnecessary Podcast by Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson back around 2013-2014, just a retro gaming podcast. I got into the true crime podcasts later, but too many to count and recall.

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dadelibby@reddit

i used to listen to the indoor kids, comedy bang bang and smodcast every week. i also had a couple random ones i would listen to that i cannot remember the names of because it was just two random people, who i do not know, talking about what they did that weekend. LOL it was a hell of a time over on stitcher just clicking on shit until you found someone that wasn't annoying.

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Rynoman@reddit

I started with the NPR branch, too. TAL and Radiolab to Pop Culture Happy Hour, which recommended both 99% Invisible and Welcome to Night Vale. That lead to a lot of (now mostly ex-) Radiotopia shows like Ear Hustle, Criminal, Love and Radio, etc. and the rest of the Night Vale family.

There was the How Stuff Works branch, I've given up most but Stuff You Should Know and Missed in History Class still hang on.

Then my "books" branch - Freakonomics led to Revisionist History led Cautionary Tales and Slow Burn.

Now, I need to get back to listening because I'm 6 months behind live episodes and I'm never going to get to the most recent Hardcore History.

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Difficult_Phase1798@reddit

This American Life, 2000 or so.

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catcherofsun@reddit

Dogma free America and skeptics guide to the universe

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Kinetic_Silverwolf@reddit

It wasn't Serial, silly, it was Behind the Bastards, the only actual Podcast on the Internet.

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PopsiclesForChickens@reddit

Yep. Serial led me to This American Life which led me to NPR and a lot of the podcasts that come with that. I drive as part of my workday and I pretty much quit listening to music 7 or 8 years ago and just listen to podcasts and NPR now.

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Boring_Pace5158@reddit

One of the first podcasts I listened to was The Bugle which began with John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman. John Oliver end up leaving the podcast as his job at the Daily Show picked up and then moved on to his own show, Last Week Tonight. Since Oliver's leaving, Zaltzman has had a variety of comics join him. The podcast has left me not seeing Florence Nightingale the same as before.

I also listened to a lot of NPR shows in podcast form, and sill do, especially This American Life.

And the Slate Political Gabfest is one which I have been listening from the beginning.

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violetstrainj@reddit

I was introduced to a lot of podcasts all at once, because my now-husband got hooked on them while he was a night custodian at a church. I think my first one was “Mysterious Universe”, because I’ve always been into the paranormal.

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supergooduser@reddit

Stuff you Should Know and This American Life

Electronic Gaming Monthly for about two years had a really fun ecosystem where they just did whatever.

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shiftdown@reddit

Would Love Line be considered a podcast? Always enjoyed Adam Corolla

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Serrajuana@reddit

The only one I've ever listened to is MrBallen. Not really a podcast person, but that man can tell stories so well! I'd honestly love to go see one of his live shows.

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Ok_Criticism7172@reddit

Mine was indeed Serial as well! I don't think I even really knew what podcasts were before that, but I was visiting my cousin and she recommended it, and I ended up listening to the first couple episodes on my drive home.

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seymourscagnetti420@reddit

The first “podcasts” I listened to were sports talk radio shows that started making their shows available on podcast. I’m guessing the first “podcast only” pod I listened to was Serial. I pretty quickly started listening regularly to Marc Maron and Bill Simmons on pod not long after Serial though.

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Logical-Cherry9395@reddit

I am in the "What's a podcast" category. Not because I don't know what they are, but because I can't be bothered with them.