As somebody whose life is, most of the time at least, accompanied by one podcast or another, I’ve listened to a lot of them. For a long time.
Over my years of podcast consumption, I’ve learned a lot about what I love and what I really don’t love. Often, I like something that’s a bit different, a bit sideways, and more than a bit quirky and unusual.
With that in mind, here are five podcasts that, on paper, couldn’t possibly work. They shouldn’t work.
Yet they do. Gloriously.
The Worst Idea Of All Time
Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery are New Zealand comedians. They are besties, they love each other in such a healthy and beautiful way, yet they managed to have the worst idea of all time.
The premise of the podcast explains it pretty clearly: Tim and Guy watch and review the same film every week for a year. And it’s usually a terrible film.
Year one was Grown Ups 2, year two was Sex and the City 2, you get the picture. They watch the film, review it on the podcast, and we have the privilege of hearing them lose their minds over the course of every 12 months they can tolerate making the podcast for.
They are so funny and endearing that I shouldn’t enjoy their evolving madness, but they just make it so compelling, which is reflected in the podcast’s semi-cult status nowadays.
Everything is Alive
Everything is Alive’s blurb says, “Everything is Alive is an unscripted interview show in which all the subjects are inanimate objects. In each episode, a different thing tells us its life story – and everything it says is true.”
You’re probably wondering if you really want to dedicate 24 minutes of your life to an interview with a can of Coke, or 18 minutes to a chat with a baguette, but Everything is Alive is a genuinely thought-provoking listen.
Memory Lane with Kerry Godliman and Jen Brister
Kerry Godliman and Jen Brister are British comedians. On Memory Lane, they invite other comedians to come on the podcast and talk about photos that mean a lot to them.
They have great guests like Rachel Parris, Rosie Jones and Maisie Adam, but surely a podcast based on photos the listeners can’t see wouldn’t work?
It does.
Their Instagram account, where they share the photos being discussed, does help, but I often listen without checking it out. The joy of having articulate guests who are used to communicating difficult concepts is that they can paint a picture that’s sometimes even better than the old snap they’re describing.
The Junkees
Like many non-Aussies, I only really became aware of Kitty Flanagan when I fell in love with Netflix’s Fisk, but when I ran out of episodes I wanted more. That was when I found her podcast, that she records with fellow Aussie comic Dave O’Neil.
The pair review snack foods. The Junkees should work even less well than Memory Lane – there’s no Instagram you can go to to taste whatever weird crisps or chocolate they’ve found on their travels – yet it’s such fun listening.
They are witty and cute, and I love it.
The Blindboy Podcast
The Blindboy Podcast is made by Blindboy, the musician from The Rubberbandits. It’s hard to describe the podcast beyond that. Each episode is unique, unpredictable and beautiful, and Blindboy’s curiosity about everything makes for fascinating episodes every time.
I pace my Blindboy listening, as this inimitable production is intense and sincere, but every time I do tune in, I’m so grateful I did.
So if you want to listen to an Irish guy talk about autism, Irish folk tales, the inside of a tennis ball, climate anxiety, drag, mental health, or fish fingers, Blindboy is the podcast you need to check out.