The podcast for comedy

Good Hang With Amy Poehler

Parks And Recreation star Amy Poehler hosts this amiable podcast, interviewing Saturday Night Live comics Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig and Rachel Dratch, top performers such as Regina King and Selena Gomez, and even her own husband, Adam Scott. Poehler’s chat with Paul Rudd will restore your faith in actors as they both take great joy in nailing the pretentions in their profession. The only downside is the guests are often there to plug new products, as with Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman for The Roses, but Poehler knows how to get them off track.

The podcast for Star Trek fans

Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

Star Trek fans will obviously recognise the name of show creator Gene Roddenberry. Mission Log explores the universe of vintage Star Trek one episode at a time. Even if you don’t know your Borg from your Vojean, various incarnations of the show have impacted several generations; they’re on a 14-year mission to cover every aspect of Star Trek and Gene’s son Rod is an occasional guest. Originally hosted by John Champion and Ken Ray, the latter left after seven years to be replaced by Norman C Lao, and coverage expands to cover The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and all the movies too.

The podcast for divine decadence

Caligula: Package Of Excellence

No rumour could match the reality when it came to the shambolic making of Tinto Brass’ notorious 1979 movie about Emperor Caligula. Journalist and writer Collin Friesen (who worked on Schitt’s Creek) and historian-critic Tara McNamara bring a wry wit to this five-episode series discussing the utter chaos of this production which involved Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren and John Gielgud. Never able to resist getting involved, I’m one of the critics drafted in to discuss how Gore Vidal’s script was made into a pornographic film before being restored, recut and creditably salvaged in 2024.

The podcast for genre afficionados

Smersh Pod

Smersh Pod is a film ’cast that goes for genre deep cuts. Hosted by John Rain, its stated remit is to ‘do a little bit of everything’, from new releases to forgotten obscurities and much-debated titles from James Bond (as the title suggests), Amicus, Carry On and Hammer. Rain engages a regular roster of guests including Toby Hadoke (a leading authority on Quatermass and its screenwriter Nigel Kneale) while Scotland’s Paul Whitelaw displays his forensic knowledge of Sylvester Stallone’s 1980s output. The tone is reliably affectionate and irreverent.

The podcast for sci-fi completists

Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever (Almost)

Winner of the 2025 Ear Worthy Podcast Award for Best Movie Podcast, this informative series has notched up more than 40 episodes to date. Starting from 1902’s A Trip To The Moon, host Ayesha Khan has an enormous field of movies to choose from but has a knack of picking real fan favourites including La Jetée, Village Of The Damned and Alien. Guests are extremely well qualified, with Soviet history expert Denise Youngblood tackling Russian obscurity Aelita: The Queen Of Mars, while Stanford University neuroscientist David Eagleman champions 2023’s underrated The Creator.

The podcast for Irish film fans

Film Ireland Podcast

Covering all things cinema from across the Irish Sea, Film Ireland’s podcast is supported by Screen Ireland and showcases talent alongside a focus on initiatives for industry insiders. Recent guests discussing their current releases include writer Alan O’Gorman on Christy (a film about estranged brothers not the new boxing one with Sydney Sweeney) and director Darren Thornton on Four Mothers. The podcast shines a light on key groups such as The Writers’ Guild Of Ireland, features annual film festivals and covers oldies including 1970’s bizarre Dublin-set Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx starring Gene Wilder.

Main picture: Beta Bajgart.