Podcasts are not just for Christmas. The favourites I listed back in 2022 I still listen to. Naturally, over the years I have formed intense parasocial relationships with the hosts, whose faces I imagine so perfectly I never wish to see what they actually look like.

I still recommend each and every one, though Trashfuture have been somewhat treading water and Well There’s Your Problem has branched out to disasters beyond engineering, with mixed success, though the excellent Gareth Dennis appears to have joined them as permanent co-host.

But for this list, here are three new (to me) podcasts that helped get me through the madness of 2024.

NB I struggle with ads of a corporate nature, so most of these podcasts tend to be supported by their listeners via patreon. Please do consider subscribing if you find any of these useful, entertaining, or both. 

Bad Hasbara

Part of the lure of podcasts, as a leftist, is to feel less alone. In uncertain and extraordinary times, the people don’t necessarily disagree with you, and can see when things are beyond the pale, but the regular media and news outlets are actively hostile to your moral and ideological positions and report on a world that seems to have nothing to do with reality.

The emperor’s new clothes have never looked more tattered than during Israel’s genocidal and ongoing attack on Gaza. Even Israel’s most skilled and hateful propagandists have looked increasingly absurd, despite the easy ride our credulous liberal broadcasters tend to provide.

And yet day by day we are told that up is down, right is left, and successive British governments continue to support our staunch murderous ethnostate ally, both with words and weapons. To add insult to injury, we are accused of being dangerous racists and terrorists if we dare to protest against the defining abomination of our age.

Into this fetid atmosphere comes two Jewish American writers and comedians, who love puns and hate Zionism. They find humour in the most terrible of times, without ever disrespecting or belittling the suffering that they are commenting upon.

Dubbing itself “The World’s Most Moral Podcast” in a nod to the IDF’s self-serving self-image, Bad Hasbara is ultimately a safety valve, where state propaganda is lampooned and parodied, while a stream of august and brilliant guests turn up to give the whole thing intellectual ballast. 

Recent guests have included Maura Finkelstein, an American academic who lost tenure due to her making comments critical of Israel; Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who amusingly rips Radiohead’s pro-Zionist politics to shreds; and Naila Said, writer-playwright daughter of the great author of Orientalism, who shows kindness, erudition and humility as she talks about her Dad’s rightly oversized impact on the discourse of what it actually means to be human.

As with a lot of podcasts, these hosts tend to talk a lot of crap for ten to fifteen minutes before they get in to the meaty stuff. So please do not be put off (or skip ahead!).

Worst of All Possible Worlds

WOAPW promises “weekly case studies in the pop culture of a dying empire”, the dying empire in question being America.

This it delivers, with excellent commentaries on movies ranging from Team America (it’s racist and bad, folks) to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (this is an insane perfect jewel of a film that could not have been made at any other time).

What makes this podcast such a singular delight, though, is its obsession with Adventures in Odyssey, Focus on the Family’s long-running and bizarre Christian radio drama.

The WOAPW lads do regular deep dives into this earnest and surreal world, taking it very seriously indeed, geeking out to the fundamentalist family radio drama’s voice acting, narratives, bizarre morals and strange character choices and plot twists, while also setting out what the thing says about the Christian Right and America more generally.

The Qanon Anonymous Podcast

If you’re not well-versed in the overlapping worlds of online conspiracy theories, you’re probably missing a lot of what’s going on in global culture and politics, which might be a good thing.

Those goons who took over The White House during the failed insurrection four years ago? Conspiracy theorists.

That guy in the gym who won’t stop talking about Bill Gates and Covid microchips? Conspiracy theorist.

That new story about a bunch of RV owners driving around Canada demanding justice while claiming a middle aged Philippino woman was the true Queen of the nation? Perfectly legitimate citizens with a genuine case, no further questions your honour.

What ties all of these terrible things together is the QAnon movement, populated largely by Trump-supporting, paedophile-obsessed right wing patriots. This powerful subculture’s increasingly hackneyed and convoluted web of theories and assumptions are tirelessly documented and reported on by the brave folks at QAnon anon.

I’ve always been fascinated by conspiracy theories, where they come from, and why people are so desperate to believe. But what emerges here is often pretty dark, with many lives ruined in the ongoing mass desperation to believe the unbelievable.

With Trump back in power from next month, this will continue to be essential listening.