Best Podcasts for Long Flights (2026)
Long-haul flights are dead time unless you plan ahead. These 10 podcasts are all long-form, deeply engaging, and built for bingeing — exactly what you need when you're locked in a metal tube for eight hours with no Wi-Fi.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
1. Hardcore History — Dan Carlin
Dan Carlin's episodes regularly run four to six hours, which sounds insane until you realise you're halfway across the Atlantic and haven't looked up once. His multi-part series on World War I (Blueprint for Armageddon) and the Mongol Empire (Wrath of the Khans) are genuinely riveting. If you only download one podcast for a long flight, make it this one.
2. Serial
The show that made podcast bingeing a thing. Each season investigates a single story across multiple episodes — wrongful convictions, a soldier's desertion, the American justice system. Season 4 arrived in 2026, covering the history of Guantanamo through personal testimonies. Download an entire season before boarding and you won't notice the hours disappearing.
3. Fall of Civilizations — Paul Cooper
Paul Cooper narrates the collapse of entire civilisations in three to four hour standalone episodes. The Roman Empire, the Aztecs, the Khmer Empire — each one is a beautifully produced audio documentary you can sink into for a full flight leg. The writing is literary and the research is serious, but it never feels dry.
4. Radiolab
Hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser, Radiolab takes big scientific questions and turns them into layered, immersive audio. Episodes run around 45 minutes, so you can stack three or four in a row and cover everything from the nature of consciousness to the mating habits of snails. The back catalogue has 20 years of material — you'll never run out.
5. Criminal — Phoebe Judge
Stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Phoebe Judge has one of the best voices in podcasting and her storytelling is calm, precise, and gripping. Episodes are around 30 minutes — short enough to slot between meals, long enough to get completely absorbed.
6. Stuff You Should Know
Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant have been explaining how things work since 2008, and they're still going strong with multiple episodes a week. Topics range from how quicksand works to the history of the Concorde. Each episode runs about 45 minutes and the tone is like overhearing two smart friends having a conversation. Perfect for keeping your brain occupied without demanding intense concentration.
7. Lex Fridman Podcast
If you want depth, Lex Fridman delivers. His conversations with scientists, engineers, and thinkers regularly stretch past three hours. Guests include everyone from physicists to chess grandmasters to heads of state. The long format means conversations actually go somewhere interesting — no soundbites, no rushing. One episode can cover an entire transatlantic crossing.
8. You're Wrong About — Sarah Marshall
Sarah Marshall takes events and people you thought you understood — Enron, the Satanic Panic, Princess Diana — and shows you what actually happened. The research is meticulous and the delivery is warm and funny. Episodes range from 40 minutes to over an hour, and the back catalogue is enormous. Great for when you want to learn something surprising without feeling like you're studying.
9. No Such Thing As A Fish
The researchers behind QI share the most extraordinary facts they've found each week. Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray keep it funny, fast-paced, and endlessly surprising. Episodes are about 50 minutes and stack brilliantly — play four in a row and you'll land knowing more weird facts than anyone at your destination.
10. Casefile True Crime
An anonymous Australian narrator tells true crime stories with zero sensationalism and meticulous detail. Multi-part episodes on complex cases can run two to three hours combined, and the single-narrator format is perfect for headphones on a plane. The EAR/ONS series and the Silk Road episodes are standout starting points from a catalogue of nearly 500 episodes.
Download before you board
Queue up your flight playlist before takeoff and you're sorted for the whole journey. Download Podcast Alarm and never be stuck with just the in-flight entertainment.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
