Three Moves Ahead

Part of the Idlethumbs network, which is a relatively popular gaming/media website usually notable for being run by ex-(and current) game developers and being a more indie-small-time-operation than most game style sites. Three Moves Ahead focuses on strategy games and usually involves a panel style discussion with relevant guests about a particular game. Like any panel style show, it often depends on the quality of the guests, but in general they are well picked. The main host, Troy Goodfellow is himself a paradox assistant developer and often has other developers in , sometimes even the developer of the game they are discussing. The discussions are normally interesting and offer diverse and often critical opinions on the given game or topic.

I particularly like this podcast because it exposed me to a lot of strategy games I never knew existed. Both hosts have deep backgrounds in strategy board games and there's more than a few episodes devoted to board game inspired games or games ported directly from board games. I've been looking for the next step up in terms of complexity from paradox style games, particular Hearts of Iron, and through this podcast I found a few. (ungodly expensive though, niche titles always are)

If you're interested in strategy games or like hearing about game systems in strategy games (board and computer) I'd highly recommend this podcast.

 

I only listen to a couple of podcasts on a regular basis:

Accidental Tech Podcast: These guys mostly focus on Apple stuff (with the occasional Tesla or other random announcement thrown in) but I find them quite entertaining. They mostly look at stuff from Apples at a developer's point of view.

Monstercat Podcast: Because music.

Hak5: Hak5 mostly focusses on penetration testing, so they mostly stick to linux and Windows. Unfortunately for me, they are massive Ubuntu fans, so when they talk about the difficulties of adding repositories or the software manager being broken or too few customisation options in the menus, I just can't take them seriously (I run Arch with a self-built window manager. They do not understand the meaning of pain). But either way they're good to watch if you're into hacking things.

Yeah, my podcasting life is boring.

 

There has not yet been a Sports podcast suggested.

I rarely miss an episode of Football Weekly, which can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/football/series/footballweekly

It is the long running Football (Soccer) podcast of the Guardian, hosted by James Richardson, who is extremely good at what he does. He is both funny and knowledgeable.

The podcast regularly wins awards and as far as I know is widely considered to be the best of its kind. It mostly focuses on English Football, but European Competitions are talked about even when English teams are not involved, as are Spanish and Italian Football. Italian Football mostly because James Richardson is a a big Italophile. The German and French leagues are mentioned but rarely discussed in depth.

I assume that for the Euro 2016, there will be a daily edition, there normally is for big tournaments.

 

Tim Ferriss has some really interesting interviews.

And I just finished season one of Limetown. It was amazing. It's a sci-fi story kind of similar to the X-Files in atmosphere about a town where everyone goes missing.

 

Okay, so I'd recommend "The Bugle". It is a satirical news show, similar to John Oliver, Jon Stewart etc. It has been going on since 2007 and has hundreds of episodes. It is hosted by John Oliver along with Andy Zaltzman.

But the thing is, it ended last month. Oliver's show had left him little to no time for the podcast and so he had to resign. Andy will carry on the show after a few months of hiatus.

Since then, I have just been going through all the episodes because even if the events are no longer relevant, the episodes are still hilarious.

Another one I listen to Common Sense with Dan Carlin. He's the guy behind Hardcore History.

It is similar to the Bugle in the sense that it also covers major topics that are relevant in today's world. But it is not comedy. He goes in depth into the issues he talks about. Kind of like Hardcore History itself.

And, of course, his voice is godly.

 

Ok, stuff I listen to:


Hardcore History: Basically pop-history. Enjoyable pop-history though.

Global Dispatches - Conversations on Foreign Policy and World Affairs: Run by the guy who runs the UN Dispatch newspaper its basically a series of conversations with movers and shakers in the international affairs scene. No foreign ministers or ambassadors, but the lower level people who actually get stuff to happen. Really interesting.

Alice Isn't Dead: By the people who make Welcome to Nightvale, and IMHO far superior. A wonderful combination of horror, mystery and comedy.

The Report: A BBC production which hasn't updated in a while, but is generally very interesting. One of many shows on this list which involves people taking a closer look at something and then talking about whatever that is for half an hour. The last three topics were on Psychedelic Drugs (and science's relationship with them), Gang Warfare in Dublin, and Jimmy Saville and the BBC.

Common Sense: This is my shower podcast at the moment. Interesting enough to be worth listening to but not so full of information that you need to actually pay attention. There are some gems in there, but a lot of Dan Carlin ranting about moneyed interests in US politics.

The British History Podcast: A podcast about British history. The aim is to tell the entire thing from pre-history to WWII. They're currently at the Viking invasions and King Alfred.

The Classic Tales Podcast: Classic tales, read aloud and then streamed to your computer in podcast form. I just listened to the Wind and the Willows on the podcast and they're currently doing The Return of Tarzan.

Analysis: Probably my favourite podcast of the lot, just for how clever it is. A BBC Radio Four program which is, as you may have guessed, about analysing things. Very high brow, but its the definition of the thinking man's podcast. If you listen to any of the podcasts I'm listing, listen to this one.

The Guardian's Audio Long Reads: The Guardian's best longreads (their meaty essays on various subjects) in audio form for you to listen to. Not as clever as Analysis but its made me aware of a lot of issues that previously I didn't know existed.

Serial: If you've spent any time in the podcasting world you've heard of Serial.

 

*Dude Soup

* Hello, From the Magic Tavern.

* History of Westeros

* Lore

*Myths and Legends

* Rooster Teeth Podcast

* The Weekly Pull

 

I started listening to some Hardcore History, which is what made me start appreciating the podcast format. I followed that up with the entire History of Rome and am current on the History of Byzantium. The History of England podcast has a glacial pace, and has reached the point where it's one podcast a week covering a year or less in time. Considering England has 1000-1500 well documented years of history, I decided to drop it.

For news, I listen to Fareed Zakaria's GPS since I rarely have the time to sit down and watch it on TV. I also listen to 538's politics podcast.

There are maybe 30 others I'm subscribed to, but I work through them sequentially and haven't chosen my next history podcast to listen to. Maybe China, Philosopy, or the Ottomans.

 

Ear Hustle is a podcast about living in prison and is hosted, in part, by a current convict incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison. It's super interesting and worth listening to if (like me) you know nothing about prison life.

 

Anyone listen to The Adventure Zone?

It's a live-play D&D podcast by the McElroys of My Brother My Brother and Me, along with their dad, Clint.

It starts out as being pretty much straight comedy (and pretty solid comedy at that), with Griffin running a premade campaign, but somewhere around the 6th or 7th episode, he starts telling his own story, and the results are... pretty fucking good.

The dynamic they have is great; they never lose the comedy, but they all buy into the story the DM is telling. It's a very neat tightrope act, where you can tell Griffin has things planned, the macro story is very much on rails in a sense, but scene to scene there's room for Justin, Travis, and Clint to just kind of... go nuts. And they frequently do. To frequently genuinely heartwarming and/or hilarious outcomes.

I started listening to it at work, about a month ago, and I never looked back. I was completely hooked.

I'd compare it, a bit, to like, a podcast version of Order of the Stick? Insofar as it starts off as straight goofy, but then it starts telling a story, there's real feeling and heart, though it never loses its essential focus on, well, jokes.

I bring this up because the campaign's about to end. The show's going to continue, but the big story arc they've been doing for ~70 episodes is almost over.

If anyone was looking for a new podcast to dive into, this would be a fantastic time to do so.

So, 50% "check this out if it seems like something you'd like," and 50%, "damn does anyone else listen to this and want to talk about it?"

 

I'll check them out. I've had the first episode downloaded for months, but never taken the step to listen to it.


I'll plug Daly Planet Podcast Show, who some might know from their We've Got Worm spinoff. They do television and film reviews, as well as some spinoff discussion. Really good.

I also listen to Vox's The Weeds, 538, Lawfare, Financial Times, The Economist, The West Wing Weekly, Three Moves Ahead, War on the Rocks, Economics Rockstar, and everything from RNZ.

 

Writing Excuses - 15 minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Clever haiku aside, it's a brilliant show that delves into writing and while a lot of the advice they offer is repetitive at times, there are some gems there that make listening to it worthwhile.

99% Invisible - A show about design principles in everyday life.

History of Rome + History of Byzantium - The first is highly recommended, the second less so, but decent if you want a continuation. History of Rome's host Mike Duncan humor is dry and he blends it in really well with the narrative, which kept the show interesting for me all throughout.

Freakonomics - podcast by the same author who wrote the book. If you've read the books and liked them, the podcast is very much in the same vein.

 

I immensely enjoy the Let's Fight A Boss podcast where the three Irish hosts John, Bryan and Niamh talk about video games, movies, tv shows, anime and other stuff and are entertaining and charming throughout. They have got great chemistry, what they talk about is usually interesting and their dynamic is just so enjoyable and really fun to listen to. It's a weekly podcast where the episodes range from anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours, depending on how much there is to talk about.

You also might recognize John as the youtuber Supereyepatchwolf for his great video essays on movies and anime.

So yeah, check that out.