Right now I'm hooked on Swindled. The guy has a very deadpan voice and I thought I couldn't listen, but I could and his delivery really grew on me. It's white collar true crime.

I got turned off to broadcast radio decades ago. Too much mindless chatter, more time to fill than useful words to fill it with. What the host thinks, what they did, what strikes them, I don't care. Fortunately, when my dissatisfaction struck, in-car time could be productively spent with audio books and home recorded cassette tapes and then CDs.

Long into - I can't listen to podcasts that sound like a chatty radio program with blah blah blah. Here are some I like that I think make good use of the time and waste none of theirs or mine. A bonus when discovering a new podcast series is that one encounters a wealth of past episodes (dozens or hundreds) from which topics of interest can be cherry-picked. After that, it's once every few weeks or months before new episodes appear.

Clear & Vivid with Alan Alda (quite an eyeopener, he's a very thoughtful person)

Broken Record - usually an interview with an accomplished musician. I find about half are of interest, I delete the others. The production comes out of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast machine.

Spycast - from the Int'l Spy Museum in Washington DC. Interviews with people and authors about topics of intelligence and espionage. Well done

Strong Songs - a music school trained musician deconstructs popular songs of many different genres to explain what techniques of music theory, composition, arrangements, rhythm, instrumentation and creative sound elements were combined in songs he finds (and viewers suggest to him) are noteworthy. Very interesting but it's one of those things that needs to be listened to closely and without distractions. Good for walking alone or a solitary drive. About once every 4 or 5 episodes is a show in which he answers listener questions about particular songs or passages they'd like his insights about.

Subtitle - a good series irregularly published concerning languages and language use.

Twenty Thousand Hertz - a podcast produced by a busy consulting sound designer (a job that used to be called "sound engineer") that explores many interesting things near and far that relate to sound. The significance of the name is that 20K hertz is a frequency that's normally the upper limit of human hearing.

AND

One that shouldn't be of interest to me (the subject matter is far removed from me and my life) but is because the two guys that produce it are so serious but also humor-filled about what they do and are quite personable:

The Bowery Boys - Interesting vignettes about the history of and people and places in and around NY City. Well researched and very well done.

Cooper, that sounds like an interesting podcast. I will give it a listen. I always wonder what the lawyers who are listed as white collar defense are up to in the firms we hire. Looks like I am about to find out.

Elmer, thank you for that very thoughtful list. I share your dislike of silly/mindless banter. I like high production values.

The Moth!

Sarah’s Bookshelves Live (heard about it here and love it)

99% Invisible - about the thought that goes into things we don’t think about (unnoticed architecture and design)

Hidden Brain (Shankar Vedantam has a great voice)

History Chicks - 200+ episodes about dead women. Everybody from Pocahontas to Joan of Arc to Elizabeth Taylor. Excellent.

This American Life

Fresh Air

RadioLab

The Argument - NY Times

Sway - NY Times

Tiny Victories - if I only have 15 minutes to fill with light stuff.

Dolly Parton’s America. There were only 6 episodes but an excellent series.

Since we're exchanging views, let it be pro and con. I can't stomach Terry Gross, for me she comes off too often as a self-righteous pseudo-intellectual. The last time I listened to Fresh Air, in broadcast form, was maybe 20 or more years ago. I wasn't a big fan at the time but it was on during a time window when I was often driving. She was having a not particularly controversial conversation when her guest said something that she apparently disagreed with. She changed gears and began to confrontationally and impolitely castigate the guest. I thought "Hey, you're participating in an interview, not a debate competition". She was obnoxious to him and I thought that was very out of line. That was the last time I listened to Fresh Air.

Elmer, 100 percent same feelings about Terry Gross. A self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual is spot on for me. At one point I liked her, I have no idea why. Even her discussions around artists are lame and dressed up as profoundities. Did I grow up or did she start believing her own publicity? No idea.

I have no lack of self-confidence and even when comfortable at times when I find myself having an outlier's opinion, it's nice to learn at least one soul out there has a similar impression. Thanks.

I’ll have to listen to Terry Gross with a more critical ear. I listen to her only occasionally, if I am intin her guest, but it has never occurred to me not to love her:)). I do listen regularly to historian Heather Cox Richardson’s history and politics chats twice a week, as well as her podcast (with Joanne Freeman) Now and Then. She also has her wonderful daily letters, “Letters from an American”, free to your inbox- all this via Substack. I love her calm and reasoned blend of American history and politics “then and now”, which often gives me reason for hope.

I listen to many, many podcasts while working and exercising, and see a number of my faves up there - RadioLab is awesome, so is 99% Invisible. I really enjoy Planet Money and The Indicator from Planet Money. This Is Uncomfortable is really good, and I love Atlas Obscura. There's also The Last Archive and Criminal. I also loved S-Town and Serial.

This American Life is one of my long time faves too, as well as On The Media and The Memory Palace.

I could go on...

I have listened to the Moth too. I had a bunch of favorites on Stitcher that I listened to on my phone, but it has been quite awhile because service is so lousy here. I got started listening to S - Town, which was mentioned by the radio guy I listen to. I wouldn't like mindless banter on the radio either. Not sure why anyone would purposely seek that out. Lately I listen to Spotify and have been listening to some of Joe Rogan's interviews. There are so many different podcasts to listen to....and talk about mindless banter! So many are. I listen to Rogan on TV with ROKU. I listened to his interview with Bob Lazar last night.

I need to see if I can get Stitcher on ROKU. It works better inside, because I am not outside moving around, which is how I used to listen to it before I moved here.

I like language, and chatty podcasts, so I listen to A Way With Words. Not deep, usually fun, and I always learn something.

I do appreciate good production and hosts with appealing voices. I find some types of voices irritating.

Here's a few more good ones I forgot to mention:

If you like Antiques Roadshow, they have a 'rest of the story' podcast called Detours that is quite entertaining, and there's a podcast called Invisibilia that's fascinating in a RadioLab sort of way.

I used to love the Backstory podcast from the University of VA 'history guys' too. I listened to most of their episodes a long time ago.

Just remembered a couple from LAist Studios: California Love and California City. Both have excellent production.

And Gimlet Media had a drama series called 'Homecoming' that was made into a TV series for Prime, I think - the TV series was very good too.

I'm more into audiobooks than podcasts, but there are a few CBC Radio shows I listen to on podcasts, like Under the Influence and The Debaters. I also like Chris Hayes' Why Is This Happening.

P.S. Reply All is very, very good. They just announced they were ending, but there are lots of past episodes to listen to that are evergreen. There were some serious issues that resulted in a big shakeup in the staff. It's very unfortunate because I did love that podcast.

marilyn c and others -

First, if you have weak cell reception at your home, you can connect your phone to your home Wifi signal and use that to download anything you want, without changing any other setting but that and then proceeding as if you were standing under a cell tower and had a 5 bar connection. The phone's app doesn't care what highway is used to deliver the milk.

Second, the overwhelming majority of podcasts are free and available from very many different sources. Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, PodBean and others all offer the same download capabilities. Most have their own unique apps to use but those are free too. There's no advantage or disadvantage to using one source instead of another for the thousands of free and dozens and hundreds of popular podcasts