The podcasts you need to be listening to

THE world of podcasting has established itself as the new big player in media and entertainment. But if you’re late to the game, here’s where to start.

Five essential podcasts to download today

IF YOU find yourself scrolling through your iPod becoming increasingly tired of your music collection or similarly disenchanted by the repetition of the radio during your morning commute, the untapped world of podcasts is the answer you’re looking for.

August this year marks the 10th anniversary of podcasting and while it began to nudge its way into the mainstream when Apple introduced its podcasting platform in 2005, there has been a recent surge in the number of quality entertainers embracing the medium.

So, whether you want to have more to talk about at dinner parties, bone up on your history knowledge or simply have a laugh, here are five unique podcasts that you need to be listening to.

#1 The Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan — yes the guy that made people eat buffalo testicles on Fear Factor — is a man of many talents. Perhaps the most impressive of these is the podcast empire that he has managed to build. Amassing a cult-like fan base of listeners that equates to a purported nine million downloads a month; the JRE is simply an unstructured, unedited 3-hour chat with a diverse range of fascinating people.

Rogan is a comedian and a commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship so guests from these two worlds, such as the real life Van Wilder and UFC boss Dana White, are recurring themes on the show. However, as the popularity of the podcast has grown it has boasted a bevy of academics, philosophers and celebrities that includes the likes of scientists Cara Santa Maria and Dr Carl Hart, author Graham Hancock, journalist Cenk Uygur, and rapper Kid Cudi.

While listeners will probably want to pick episodes based on the guest, the self-deprecating charm and unrelenting inquisitiveness of the show will have you coming back for more.

#2 Serial

Serial is a good ol’fashioned murder mystery.

The podcast is about a real life a murder that happened in Baltimore in 1999 and one woman’s journey to try and crack the case. That woman is reporter and host of the show, Sarah Koenig, who spent a year digging through the case and interviewing everyone involved from the jurors to the convicted ex-boyfriend who maintains his innocence.

There is something undeniably salacious about a crime story such as this one and each week the listener is taken on an emotional roller-coaster akin to an audio version of Cluedo.

The audacious podcast that deals with the same story over an untold number of episodes is the first of its kind and has received extremely high praise from critics. As fans have flocked online to hash out their theories, The New Yorker magazine aptly called Serial “the podcast we’ve been waiting for.”

RELATED: The murder baffling millions

If you haven’t started listening to Serial yet, the good news is that you’ve got eight episodes to binge on.

NPR just told me I'm the murderer in the next "Serial" podcast.

— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) November 9, 2014

#3 Hardcore History

For so many of us, the last time we opened a history book would’ve been sometime around the end of our high school careers. Even then, it is likely that it was a glossy overview of a historical period from which we simply remember the bullet points.

If, like me, you have creeping desire to revisit the past and expand your historical knowledge, Dan Carlin’s podcast is the perfect way to do so.

Mind you, your commitment will be tested as the level of detail that goes in to each episode is staggering. Every addition is meticulously researched and put together with painstaking precision meaning Carlin’s fans are often left waiting months for a new episode.

You want to know more about Ghengis Khan? Great, Dan has a four-part series (totalling 12 hours!) about the exploits of the merciless leader.

Likewise, coming in at 14 hours, his four part series about the First World War is as enthralling as it is long.

Don’t just take my word for it. In a blog post penned last month, author and political commentator Sam Harris heaped praise on Carlin’s podcast writing; “from time to time one discovers a person so good at his job that it is almost impossible to imagine him doing anything else”.

Hardcore History will transport you to the Western Front

#4 Radiolab

RadioLab is a product of New York Public Radio and is a journalistic marvel. The weekly show takes a topic or idea and weaves a complex web of non-fiction stories.

The episodes are highly produced and use a mixture of ambient music, effects and clever editing to transport the listener to the scene of the story.

It often explores abstract philosophical questions or notions that underpin society but often go unexamined. At times episodes can feel kind of like an intellectual Wayne’s World for your ears.

For instance, one episode begins with the metallic object that is used as the international standard for the measurement of mass and takes the show’s hosts from the French Revolution to an underground bunker in Maryland.

Other episodes are more linear in their narrative such as a recent episode which tells the heartwarming story of a family’s experience with their son developing autism and the methods they used to re-establish communication.

The stories produced by Radiolab have an uncanny ability to stay with you and keep you thinking long after listening.

#5 Infinite Monkey Cage

Adelaide Matters. Brian Cox.

Infinite Monkey Cage is a science podcasts from the BBC that is filmed in front of a live audience. The show is hosted by UK personalities Robin Ince and Brian Cox. If the name Brian Cox sounds familiar it’s because the entertainer had made a number of recent voyages to our shores. And for mine, anyone that can boast the dual titles of physicist and rock star on the same promotional poster is worth listening to.

On podcast episodes the two hosts are joined by fellow scientists and comedians to discuss topics such as death, irrationality and questions like ‘can science save us?’.

Guest panellists in the past have included the likes of Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Tim Minchin and Neil DeGrass Tyson.

If you can keep from laughing long enough, you are guaranteed to learn something.