Bakersfield Podcasts

The strongest Bakersfield listening does not add up to a broad portrait of the city. The direct coverage splits between one true-crime chapter, a hockey preview, a sports-career interview, and a pair of episodes whose program name happens to contain “Bakersfield.” If you arrived through True Crime, choose carefully: much of what looks relevant is only a passing geographic mention.

The clearest true-crime route

Slaycation: True Crimes, Murders, and Twisted Vacations offers the most explicit crime-focused treatment in A Bad Day in Bakersfield (Part 2). Its style mixes researched narration with an unruly panel: scene-setting gives way to interruptions, disbelief, profanity, and gallows humor, while the show tries to keep victim empathy intact.

That combination makes the episode a fit for listeners who find solemn, uninterrupted true-crime narration too airless. The catch is right in the title: this is Part 2. It may work as a taste of the show’s Bakersfield coverage, but it is an awkward place to begin if you want the whole story in order.

True Criminelle: True Crime & Mysteries is a more serious-sounding alternative, though Bakersfield is not the declared subject of either Steven Stayner: Hidden in Plain Sight – Part 1 or Steven Stayner: Hidden in Plain Sight – Part 2. Its solo narration is brisk, emotionally reactive, and victim-centered, following events chronologically while pausing for moral commentary. Listen for the Steven Stayner story; treat any Bakersfield material as context rather than a city-focused investigation.

That distinction matters. There is enough here to connect Bakersfield with true-crime listening, but not enough to promise a deep bench of episodes devoted to the place itself.

Bakersfield through hockey

For a complete change of register, The Reign Check | Ontario Reign turns Bakersfield into the object of advance scouting in Week 7 - Road Trip Recap + Bakersfield Preview. The title promises a practical sports-radio structure: look back at the road trip, then look ahead to Bakersfield.

This is the cleanest choice for hockey listeners because there is no mystery about the episode’s purpose. It is a preview, not local history or cultural reporting. The show’s other listed episodes, Pacific Division Champs! (4/15/26) and Division Title On The Line... Perhaps? (4/7/26), reinforce that standings and competition are the governing frame, even though Bakersfield does not appear in those titles.

A workplace conversation, not a city guide

Sports As A Job approaches the name through California State University Bakersfield. Ep. 002: Don't Sell Yourself Short, Logan Belz the Assistant Athletic Director for Special Projects at California State University Bakersfield is the relevant doorway, and the title tells you exactly what kind of listening to expect: a career-oriented conversation built around a named university role.

Choose it if the institutional and professional side of Bakersfield interests you. Skip it if you want reporting on the city. The follow-up title, Ep. 003: You Are Not a Fraud!, points even more clearly toward workplace confidence and career advice rather than place-based coverage.

The name-collision trap

The Bakersfield Gentlemen looks like the obvious destination, but its titles do not establish that the city itself is the subject. PCA Talk and What is to Come with The Bakersfield Gentlemen centers the named group and its plans. Weekend Make up Show For The Bakersfield Gentlemen reads as a program update.

Those may be useful if you are specifically looking for The Bakersfield Gentlemen. Do not treat them as a guide to Bakersfield. This is the sharpest example of why searching by place name alone can produce misleading results: the word is prominent, while the place may barely be under discussion.

Where to start

Start with Slaycation: True Crimes, Murders, and Twisted Vacations and A Bad Day in Bakersfield (Part 2) for the only title that plainly offers a Bakersfield true-crime story, provided you are comfortable entering midway through.

Pick The Reign Check | Ontario Reign and Week 7 - Road Trip Recap + Bakersfield Preview for concise hockey coverage. For a professional interview connected to a Bakersfield institution, try Sports As A Job and Ep. 002: Don't Sell Yourself Short, Logan Belz the Assistant Athletic Director for Special Projects at California State University Bakersfield.

Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.