I used to listen to long form essays on Youtube. My favourite ones either break down the history of a conspiracy, teach me something new and cool about the world, or explore a hobby I've never been interested in.
I don't like the ones about killers or heavy drama. I also don't like podcasts that spend half the time reading the latest news from [topic] in verbatim .
What are some podcasts you can recommend me while I chip away at other things?
I second How did this get made, though now that Stitcher is gone their back catalog isn't available anywhere so you have to just get current episodes ( I'm a completionist so that bugs me).
I also enjoy history vs. But I mainly listened to it because of their series on Teddy Roosevelt. It was fantastic. I recommend it , but I think they cover a lot of different topics so YMMV based on the individual series/topic being covered.