Podcasts about Kentucky, United States

Early in Trophy Catfish, a March 21, 2026 episode of Kentucky Politics Weekly, the hosts start on the state budget, which has moved to a free conference committee. They keep tripping over when that committee met. "Free conference committee during a UK tournament game?" one of them asks. It is a passing complaint, but it shows how these shows hear the state. The legislative calendar and the basketball calendar are one calendar, and the listener is expected to follow both.

Basketball is what you hear first and most often, with football close behind. In October 2026 the University of Kentucky won 35–34 in overtime at South Carolina. Two days later the Kentucky Sports Radio Podcast Network posted Kentucky Football Can DREAM BIG After Historic Comeback | KSR Football Podcast. Under the noise, many of these shows keep returning to one question: who stays. Coaches weigh offers, players weigh the transfer portal, and a city decides how much housing its zoning will allow. Off the court the arguments are just as concrete. In September 2026, Woodford County officials approved a countywide data-center ban, one local answer in a wider argument over what kinds of growth a place should accept.

What Kentucky is

Kentucky is a U.S. state in the eastern part of the country, known as the Bluegrass State. The Census Bureau estimated 4,588,372 residents on July 1, 2024, and the state's economic-development cabinet lists its area as 39,491.61 square miles. Its economy includes manufacturing, automotive production, logistics, agriculture and bourbon production.

Some of the shows below address the state as a whole. Some belong to Louisville, and listeners who want more of that city's own audio can continue on the Louisville page. Others belong to Lexington.

The Cats, and the families who carry them

The Kentucky Sports Radio Podcast Network is the loudest way in, and it covers a wide range. In Kentucky Took Another Tough Loss-Can They Bounce Back Again + Florida Preview, the hosts take apart a 36-6 run that let Texas A&M pull away. They call the team's swings "mentally exhausting to follow." The same feed can be gentle. The Brother Behind Malachi Moreno’s Rise at Kentucky | Interview With the Morenos follows a running contest between Malachi and his older brother Michael, whom the episode calls the best three-point shooter in Eastern Kentucky University history. Their mother, Sarah, admits she reads the cruelest posts about her son. Malachi's answer, as she tells it: "mom, who cares?"

Sources Say Podcast, with Jack Pilgrim and Shawn Smith, works the recruiting beat. In Who Is Kentucky Going After in Transfer Portal? | Here Comes the Sources Say, the show tracks Zoom calls and a leaked Snapchat photo, and describes Kentucky's list of portal targets as "a growing amoeba." The Kentucky Basketball Podcast moves at a slower pace. Kentucky MBB Season Recap with Jack Givens | Kentucky Basketball Podcast looks back on a 22-14 season that ended with an 82-63 loss to Iowa State. It lingers on how much Otega Owe had to carry: "He's working against three players every game."

Football has its veterans. In Wildcat Whip with Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro & Dick Gabriel pre Auburn, from Behind Kentucky Football, a panelist who says he played without off weeks has no patience for injury excuses: "Everybody's beat up." The feed's most recent listed episodes come from the 2025 season, so treat it as an archive.

Cats Talk Wednesday pairs Vinny Hardy with Terry Brown, and it drifts in a good way. Leisha McKnight & JR The Bossman Join Us! introduces McKnight as a fellow Harlan native and Appalachian storyteller. The talk also turns to grandparents' stories: Bigfoot sightings up Cloverlick and a revenue man who went missing there.

Louisville talks Kentucky too, in its own voice. On ESPN 680 and 105.7, The Round Table with Round Daddy turns serious in The Round Table w @JStreble82 & @Lamb76 - @JakeNawrot -Hour 1-4-17-2026. A co-host who played at Kentucky when Rich Brooks was "close to being fired" tells a newly committed recruit that rebuilding a program is a rare chance.

Who decides, and who pays

Kentucky Politics Weekly brings together Tres Watson and Jared Smith, with Abby Piper. The table is profane and partisan in both directions, and its readings are opinions, not verdicts. In Go and Do Likewise? Challenge Accepted, the hosts walk through Senate Bill 154, which passed the Senate 31-7 and would change which documents voters can use under the state's ID law. They also cover HISA's claim that Churchill owes it $2.4 million. In Trophy Catfish, they discuss a primary debate and float one theory of the race: Daniel Cameron could "slip up the middle as the nice guy."

The Louisville Courier Journal is a different kind of civic audio: a Radio Eye reading service that reads the newspaper aloud for people who have difficulty reading print. 4.14.26 moves from a weather almanac to a report on the legislature shifting power away from Gov. Andy Beshear; it also includes plans for Jefferson Memorial Forest.

Housing is where politics reaches the kitchen table. Uncovered by WDRB News is a show whose latest listed episode dates from December 2023. In Pat Mulloy on how to grow Louisville, Mulloy argues for denser zoning, saying "every neighborhood in this city is entitled to have housing where people can live." The Louisville Real Estate Show handles the practical side. In HOA Gone TOO FAR? Here’s What You Can LEGALLY Do!, a listener is fined for leaving a trash can visible for a few hours. Attorney Chuck Crosby answers that associations "can only do what's reasonable," and that a judge may have to decide what that means.

Lexington's institutions speak for themselves. Behind the Blue is produced by the University of Kentucky, so expect the university's own account. In it, President Eli Capilouto explains the search for a new athletics director, and emergency manager Sarah Fink describes campus disaster drills. Middle Tech covers startups. In an episode on Lexington's startup scene, guest Ben Strevy calls local pitch nights "Shark Tank live in your own backyard." Best of News Talk 590 WVLK AM collects Lexington talk radio, down to a Versailles veterinarian fielding a text about a doodle that shreds its bed.

The long memory

Tales From The Kentucky Room, with host David Bryant, treats local history as something kept in microfilm and photographs. In 250Lex: Gratz Park: The Heart of Historic Lexington with Dr. Jeremy Popkin and Bob Willcutt (2025), the park becomes a record of Lexington: Union and Confederate troops camped there, and a Jim Crow-era sign on the gate barred Black residents. In Appalachian Englishes with Dr. Jennifer Cramer (2025), Cramer reports that among her Kentucky map drawers, "eastern Kentucky is at the bottom of every ranking." She suggests those rankings often reflect stereotypes rather than how people actually speak.

The Louisville Courier Journal readings carry history too. 4.13.26 includes a retired Mammoth Cave guide, Bransford, holding a sketch of his great-great-grandfather, three of whose children were sold into slavery. The Reckoning: Facing the Legacy of Slavery in America follows the same history through Kentucky, and Old Kentucky Tales takes a lighter route to the Cane Ridge revival.

The darker material splits by temperament. Creepy Kentucky, hosted by Quinn and Laura, retells the Bell Witch legend, including Andrew Jackson's visit, with jokes and interruptions. Dig is reported with care. The Girls, Part 1: 'I need to tell you something' carries a warning for accounts of child sex abuse and follows women at a Louisville courthouse who say two brothers, respected coaches, abused girls in their care.

Where to start

• If you follow the statehouse: Kentucky Politics Weekly, Trophy Catfish, for veto-recess arithmetic with a primary debate attached.
• For a reason to care about a recruit: Kentucky Sports Radio Podcast Network, The Brother Behind Malachi Moreno’s Rise at Kentucky | Interview With the Morenos.
• If you own, or want, a house: Louisville Real Estate Show, HOA Gone TOO FAR? Here’s What You Can LEGALLY Do!
• For a walk through old Lexington: Tales From The Kentucky Room, 250Lex: Gratz Park: The Heart of Historic Lexington with Dr. Jeremy Popkin and Bob Willcutt (2025).
• For Appalachian storytelling: Cats Talk Wednesday, Leisha McKnight & JR The Bossman Join Us!, and listen for the family stories.

The Kentucky feed on this page plays clips from these shows.