Edinburgh Podcasts

The liveliest Edinburgh listening begins after dark or just before showtime. Crime and paranormal podcasts head for haunted rooms and castle secrets; comedy shows arrive for the festival and record amid the bustle. Elsewhere, the city becomes a route, a sporting venue or a chapter in a larger history. Most shows visit once, so choosing by mood matters more than searching for a single definitive series.

The notable exception is It Just So Happened - an alternative history show, which devotes a three-part sequence to the city: IJSH79 - EDINBURGH - 7th August 2025, IJSH80 - EDINBURGH - 8th August 2025 and IJSH81 - EDINBURGH - 9th August 2025. That run is the clearest option for listeners who want several consecutive episodes rather than a brief detour.

Ghosts get the prime locations

Edinburgh’s darker podcast coverage leans heavily toward hauntings. Scottish & Scared Podcast goes straight inside with The Most Haunted Home In Edinburgh. Its nearby episodes on Murder At 88 Candlemaker Row and The Salisbury Crags Murder suggest a show comfortable moving between supernatural stories and named cases, although those titles do not identify Edinburgh directly.

The castle receives a louder, more unruly treatment from The Pandemonium Witches: Murders, Mystery, and Mayhem in S1.E107 - Scotland's Haunted Fortress: Edinburgh Castle, Ghosts, Siege, and Secrets. This is group storytelling with digressions left in: excitable reactions, corrections and side chatter interrupt the factual narration. Listeners who like their eerie history tidy may find the approach busy; those who prefer the feeling of friends trading a disturbing story should settle in easily.

For a much cleaner castle stop, both A Scottish Castle A Day and World History Encyclopedia offer an episode simply titled Edinburgh Castle. The matching titles conceal two different promises. The former places the landmark inside a castle-by-castle format, while the latter approaches it through world history. Neither advertises the social, profane energy of Scotland's Haunted Fortress.

Mums Mysteries & Murder takes a conversational route into the subject with Halloween Special with Wayne from Eerie Edinburgh. Expect the show’s usual loose catch-up energy around the darker material: listener talk, personal asides and live reactions are part of the rhythm. The episode is the best bridge here for someone who wants paranormal Edinburgh without giving up the warmth of a chatty duo.

When the festival takes over

Comedy coverage sounds less like a city guide than a collection of dispatches from people already inside the event. 25 Days with Adam Knox, Peter Jones, Luka Muller & many, many more. reaches the end of its run with The Edinburgh Fringe 2025 - Day 24 and The Edinburgh Fringe 2025 - Day 25. The numbered format makes these natural picks for listeners drawn to the day-by-day texture of a festival rather than a retrospective overview.

Amnesty International's comedy podcast offers an earlier festival snapshot through Edinburgh festival: Amnesty Secret Comedy Podcast returns for 2013 and Edinburgh festival: Amnesty Secret Comedy Podcast episode 4, with Eric Lampaert and Nish Kumar. The titles make the appeal plain: comedy tied to a particular festival edition, with named performers and a continuing series to follow.

For circuit talk, Can I be Funny? has Ep 23: Edinburgh Fringe Special!. Its measured interview style leaves room for practical details and digressions about how comedy work actually happens. The tone is warm, informal and familiar with small venues, gigs and the awkward mechanics behind a working comic’s progress.

Then there is Diane Chorley's Chatting With Chorley: The Podcast, recorded in front of the event rather than calmly surveying it. S3 Ep10: David O'Doherty & Jordan Gray (Live from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) promises guests and a live setting, delivered through a rapid character-comedy voice that is affectionate, filthy and prone to sudden swerves. Come for atmosphere and comic chemistry, not orderly festival analysis.

The broadest critical overview belongs to MickeyJoTheatre. Mickey-Jo's Best and Worst Shows of the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 (Roundup of 60 Plays & Musicals) is built for listeners who want judgment as well as enthusiasm. The show’s solo style thinks aloud through craft and staging, explaining enough context to carry listeners who have not seen every production while remaining willing to say when something fails.

Roads, records and other ways into the city

Some of the most useful episodes approach Edinburgh sideways. The Scottish Roadscast turns it into a point of departure in The A1 - Part 1 - Edinburgh to Dunbar. That is the choice when the route out of the city is more interesting than another festival room or haunted building.

Propulsion Swimming Podcast plants Edinburgh inside a sports conversation with British Record at the Edinburgh International?!. Its brisk two-person style mixes technical swimming language with immediate fan excitement. This is specialist listening: the city supplies the meet, while the race and its implications drive the discussion.

These narrower angles reveal the limits of the wider coverage. Beyond the festival, eerie locations and a handful of specialist episodes, Edinburgh is often a stop rather than the continuing subject. That makes the focused multi-episode history run, the festival diaries and the castle treatments especially valuable.

Where to start

Begin with It Just So Happened - an alternative history show and IJSH79 - EDINBURGH - 7th August 2025 if you want the opening of a sustained sequence. For a haunted landmark told with lively group reactions, choose The Pandemonium Witches: Murders, Mystery, and Mayhem and S1.E107 - Scotland's Haunted Fortress: Edinburgh Castle, Ghosts, Siege, and Secrets. Theatre listeners should go to MickeyJoTheatre for Mickey-Jo's Best and Worst Shows of the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 (Roundup of 60 Plays & Musicals). For festival immediacy, try 25 Days with Adam Knox, Peter Jones, Luka Muller & many, many more. and The Edinburgh Fringe 2025 - Day 24.

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