This is a thing I assume people know about me, but I'm not sure they do.
I like to listen to old
Idle Thumbs episodes when I need to hear something that is lighthearted but not dumb. I like to listen to Ear Hustle and Talking Politics when I feel like I can take some bad news (which both podcasts dole out responsibly, not manipulatively), but there's times where I just need some escapism.
Idle Thumbs is great for this because it's friendly, relatable (to me) people talking about video games, which is like a fond homeland that I have emigrated from. Some of the really old episodes are jarring because there is are some old 2008 values are in play, re: saying things like "I got raped" to express "I lost at a video game".
However, there is also an "ambient lack of doom". It's from a time when democracy as we know it was not in danger, and when right-wing racists were not seizing power throughout the world. This gives it a lightness (perhaps imagined by me in part?) that is refreshing at times.