The best Podcasts to make you smart and keep you well informed

Podcast are an awesome source of information that you can consume while going for a walk, driving or anything else that doesn't require your full attention. I know that I enjoy finding new podcasts, I figure the same holds for other podcast fans. So without further adue, here is a list of podcasts that I enjoy listeing to. Maybe there is something on this list that you find interesting or intriguing.

My Top 3

• Behind the Bastards: deep dives into the story of not-so-nice people, often with hilarious sprinkles of dark humor, should probably have a this could be considered offensive warning.
• In Moscow's Shadows: commentary on current Russian affairs, revealing much of the inner workings of the russian system and by analogy, any system of government, alliance and dependencies; The host (Mark Galeotti) is fabulously knowedgable about all these matters.
• War on the Rocks: Often very insightful war commentary (due to current events, mainly Ukraine) focussing on things beyond the immediate headlines.

The Rest (in no particular order)

• Syntax: web development stuff, rather Javascript centric, but lots of good info
• Foreign Affairs: mostly international relations stuff from a reputable magazine
• Inside the Hive: current affairs commentary from Vanity Fair
• The Journal: current affairs, from the Wall Street Journal
• Ukraine, the latest: BBC commentary on the Urkaine war it's surrounding events
• Radio Atlantic: current affairs and social commentary from The Atlantic
• Darknet Diaries: Tales from the dark side of the internet
• Angry Planet: Info surrounding war and militar affairs
• Programming Throwdown: covering a wide range of development related subjects
• The Un-Diplomatic Podcast: international affairs, with a primary focus on Asia
• Gone Medieval: lots of info on various subjects from the middle ages
• On Shifting Ground: very good podcast on international affairs
• Popular Front: independent podcast about war and conflict
• Fall of Civilizations: not a lot of episodes but great deep dives into civilizations which are no more
• Laravel News Podcast: you can probably guess what this one is about
• Linux after Dark: podcast about Linux and the IT industry in general
• Software Engineering Daily: lots of great talks about all areas of technology

That's it. Hopefully you saw something that made you think "I should check this one out" ... enjoy!

Addendum & Special Mention

We all like a good conspiracy theory. Some people go off the deep end and end up in the loonie bin (Qanon, anybody?) but in an age where we're surrounded by fake news, the nature of conspiracy theories are somethign to consider. A great podcast episode on this, with lots of humor sprinkeld through it (as well as some real insights) can be found here from the Angry Planet Podcast: Why QANON Matters And Why It Won't Go Away. It's a 2-part episode, the part about conspiracy theories starts around minute 31. As a bonus, the speaker is Italian and has an accent that makes him sound like you're listening to Roberto Benigni. In if by any chance you don't know who Roberto Begnini is, you should watch La Vita e Bella which is an absolute masterpiece that achieves the miraculous feat of simultaneously being both funny, deeply positive and very disturbing.