One of the joys of a long commute (ha!) is the opportunity to listen to Podcasts. To be perfectly honest, lately I’ve been listening to “David Tennant Does a Podcast With….” but I thought I’d put together a list of philosophical podcasts for students.
Here is a list of 100 podcasts collected by Daily Nous (Updated July 2021): https://dailynous.com/2020/11/23/big-list-philosophy-podcasts/
In what follows is a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorites and some recommendations from other philosophers:
UNMUTE – “A Podcast where philosophy and real-world issues collide.”
Hosted by Myisha Cherry, the podcast focuses on diverse philosophers. “It is called UnMute because we want to give a platform to people and topics that have been silenced.” I really liked Episode 037 with Dr. Michele Moody-Adams discussing monuments and memorials, but UnMute has loads of great topics.
PHILOSOPHY BITES –
This is one of the more popular philosophy podcasts – with over 400 ‘bites.’ There is also an ‘Aesthetics Bites’ version. Nigel Warburton interviews well-known philosophers on a wide variety of topics. Try a bite from May 30, 2017: Aaron Meskin on The Definition of Art.
NO NARROW THING– “The podcast that gets philosophical about everything.”
For full disclosure, I went to grad school with one of the hosts, Dustyn Addington. The podcast is fun and thoughtful. I’d recommend #30: “Microaggressions and Trans Identity with Sam Sumpter.”
HI-PHI NATION (SLATE) – “A show about philosophy that turns stories into ideas.”
Another very popular podcast produced by SLATE. It is very well produced and probably sounds a bit more like what you think a podcast would sound like.
PARTIALLY EXAMINED LIFE – “A philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living …“
Another popular podcast, airing episodes for over ten years. There are episodes dedicated to discussing the work of particular philosophers. For example, Episode 16 was on Danto’s work (and I guess the hosts joked that Danto would never listen to it- but he did and he liked it!).
PHILOSOPHY TALK (NPR) – “The program that questions everything…except your intelligence.“
Technically a show on NPR, you can listen to the old shows online as if it were a podcasts. This was the first all philosophy show I was every aware of (and hosted by pretty famous professional philosophers).
And here are some recommendations from friends:
VERY BAD WIZARDS – “A philosopher and a psychologist ponder human morality“
NEW BOOKS IN PHILOSOPHY A podcast from the New Books Network – you can search through books based on subject (which is a nice feature).
ELUCIDATIONS – A University of Chicago Podcast
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY (without any gaps)
CONVERSATIONS WITH DIOTIMA: History of Women Philosophers and Scientists While not techically a podcast, you can click on episodes which will bring you to YouTube.
BBC4 Radio’s “IN OUR TIME” has programing on philosophical themes. This one is on Aristotle’s Biology.
CONTRAPOINTS – Again while not technically a podcast, a YouTube series with some philosophical themes (fun, some explicit language).