podcast/audiobook recs?

[domarzione]

It's July and my hockey podcasts are all on hiatus until September and the Mets podcast I listened to is kaput and I need something to listen to for the summer. Does anyone have something they love? 

For podcasts: I am not a fan of true crime as a species or political/activist stuff. I'm not looking to get mad about anything. I love food, history, hockey, baseball, Hollywood sausage-making (I have a subscription to The Ankler), and grew up listening to Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story and Car Talk. I love learning new things, I hate audience participation shows. I have my alarm clock set to Bloomberg Radio because I don't have any particular interest in the markets but it's important to know.

I don't have a great history with audiobooks, but I keep wanting to try again because maybe this time it will stick. I read a lot of nonfiction -- the top of my holds lists at the library are Maureen Ryan's Burn It Down and Alex Joske's Spies and Lies. I like historical fiction and have been told that Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell gets better after the first third and might be worth it as an audiobook. I made it through the end of Dune, almost all of Neal Stephenson and Daniel Silva, and will read any good murder-mystery but you will have to sell me on fantasy and I generally Cannot with teen or younger protagonists no matter what the premise.

So now that I have established my bona fides as a Difficult Customer... anyone have recs? 

Comments

[thelostglove]

You might dig the audiobook of Deacon King Kong by James McBride, it's a novel set in 1960s Brooklyn housing projects and is very loosely a mystery about why the local drunk shot a drug dealer he used to coach in baseball. It's also very funny and at times quite dark, with a huge and engaging ensemble.

I listen to a lot of nonfiction history but looking at my Goodreads I'm realizing I get mad about most of it. Barbara Ehrenreich's Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy covers a lot of stuff, but I'd never read a book about collective joy before. Tom Reiss's The Black Count is about Alex Dumas, the father of the novelist, who led an absolutely wild life in 18th century France that inspired a lot of his son's adventure stories. A World On Fire by Amanda Foreman is a looonggg but super interesting look at Britain's involvement in the US Civil War, a topic I had honestly never thought much about. I am not personally super interested in food history but if you are, Sarah Lohman's Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine is solid and not extremely taxing after 30 hours on the Civil War.

I was able to get these all on audiobook from the library, obviously ymmv.

[domarzione]

Thank you for all of the interesting suggestions! I have access to three different library systems right now (two from NYC, one from Maryland) and I should be able to find almost anything between them. And I shall be looking for a few of these.

[via_ostiense]

My favorite food podcasts: the Sporkful, the Splendid Table, and Good Food

[domarzione]

Thank you! I shall look them up.

[randomreader]

I'm a big fan of Gastropod, for deep dives on various food items/topics .

[domarzione]

Oh, thank you for reminding me that this exists. I listened to a couple of episodes well before I actually listened to podcasts -- I was a late podcast adopter, initially disliking the way nobody sounded like professional.

[cofax7]

Food and History: Gastropod? They have a big backlog.

Sidedoor is the Smithsonian's podcast, which does nice bits of American cultural history.

Wolf 359 is an entertaining space adventure/audiodrama (which reminds me, I need to listen to the ending).

[domarzione]

Ooh. Thank you!