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2025-01-28 06:00
The much-missed Reply All delved into internet culture with wit, smarts and a lightness of touch that has been sorely missed since its conclusion in 2022. Now, former host Alex Goldman is hoping to ape its success with Hyperfixed, a wholesome podcast about listeners’ varied life dilemmas: from the origins of a mysterious badge to whether or not to have kids. Elsewhere, his erstwhile co-host PJ Vogt’s series Search Engine considers questions you didn’t know you needed the answer to, such as: “Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?”
Named after designer Bruce Mau’s observation that 99% of all design goes unnoticed until it fails (itself adapted from a Buckminster Fuller quote), this longrunning podcast hosted by Roman Mars explores the hidden architecture and design that shapes our world. That means delving into the mechanics of everything from global supply chains and Soviet housing to canned laughter and Ouija boards. With 600 episodes and counting, you can expect deep dives on pretty much everything, however niche. A case in point: a recent instalment was dedicated to Spirit Halloween, the US costume shop that rakes in about $1bn each year despite only being open between August and November.
Turn on, tune in, pig out: if you’re interested in the science, history and stranger-than-fiction facts behind your favourite grub, then Gastropod may be the series for you. Since 2014, writers Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley have offered a window into topics as diverse as the history of cranberries (how did they end up on Thanksgiving and Christmas tables? And can they actually cure UTIs?); why our stomachs rumble; the origins of stuffed-crust pizza; and how lobsters – once seen as cheap slop – got a fancy makeover.
What is eudemonology? Ambystomology? How about cabinology? If you have no idea, then fear not: some of these are not real words, but they do all refer to real things with which Alie Ward’s guests are obsessed. This pod sees the science buff and actor quiz experts in their field, be it happiness (eudemonology) with Dr Laurie Santos of Yale; aquatic salamanders (ambystomology) with Harvard’s Dr Jessica Whited; or, er, cabinology, which really is an episode all about log cabins, analysed by architect Dale Mulfinger.
No list of unpredictable podcasts would be complete without Melvyn Bragg’s Radio 4 series. Offering comprehensive explainers on history, society, science, the arts and everything in between, In Our Time has been on air since 1998 and has more than 1,000 episodes in its heaving archive. There are so many, in fact, that the BBC has a quick start guide on its website, with crowdpleasing suggestions on Shakespeare’s sonnets, Wuthering Heights and feathered dinosaurs. Really, though, the best strategy might be to embrace its unwieldiness by picking an episode at random.
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