About this column
So you got hooked on Season 1 of Serial and you want to start listening to more podcasts, but you don’t know where to start?
Allow me to introduce you to a few of my faves. I’m a longtime podcast junkie whose iTunes queue is regularly full to bursting with new (and old) shows. And I LOVE to share a good resource with an interested person.
I listen to — how can I put this strongly enough — a LOT of audio. Hours and hours (and hours) a week.
Podcasts, for me, are a mental palate cleanser in between work sessions. They shunt my brain into a more receptive and expansive mode, which is a nice buffer in the midst of a full workweek. I like to listen while I’m driving, making lunch, and brushing my teeth. I have at least one podcast in my iTunes (usually more than one) for just about any mood or mindset I’m in: hungry to learn (audio, along with written, is one of my best modes for learning), wanting to zone out, wanting to be entertained or edutained (that’s a word now, right?),
So if you’re looking for a little more podcast love in your life, here are my current top picks, by category.
LIFE/INTROSPECTION/HUMAN EXPERIENCE
Anna Sale’s interesting show covers the big three topics that consume us humans. Her shows are about the idiosyncratic yet totally universal nature of what it means to be a person. “Jane Fonda After Death and Divorce” is a truly excellent episode. For a quite different flavor, check out “Brooklyn Left Me Broke and Tired.”
If you love learning about other people’s livelihood and how they bring in the bacon, you’ll love Working. The aspiring ‘nose’ in me totally geeked out on “How Does A Perfumer Work?” which gets up close and personal with small-batch perfumer Anne Serrano-McClain.
LITERATURE/WRITING
A TINY SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
Hosted by Sherman Alexie and Jess Walter, two (famous) fiction writers from Washington State who are real-life friends. They talk shop, which means, the writing life, and also chat about current events and the human condition. I feel like these guys are my friends riding in the backseat while I drive us along some country roads. In Episode 1, they each read from their works in progress. Score, literary lovers!
BUSINESS MEETS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Koren Motekaitis is a life coach and swim coach, and over the years has rubbed elbows (podcastically speaking) with every ‘big name’ interviewee one might want in the entrepreneurship, values-based business, and personal development realm. This is the first podcast I ever started listening to, way back in early 2010 when I first started my online-based business. I enjoyed this one with her and Jen Louden, talking about friendships, belonging, and loneliness.
SELF-CARE
Mark David and Emily Rosen are the co-founder and director, respectively, of The Institute for The Psychology of Eating in Boulder, CO. Since adolescence, I have read books, watched documentaries and TV shows, and listened to audio wisdom on the subject of making peace with food, body image, et al. Yet I’ve never found elsewhere the level of depth and whoa, right to the core insight that host Mark David offers his one-on-one coaching clients in these recorded-for-us sessions. This episode with Debbie, a 45-year diet veteran, is awesome.
I’m new to the ‘natural movement’ conversation, and Katy Bowman is not only the industry frontwoman but also a great teacher and guide for newcomers. (‘Newcomers’ is a bit of an oxymoron since this is ancestral movement we’re talking about here.) I especially liked Episode 3 on “Casts”; it’s not what you think.
MARKETING/SOCIAL MEDIA
I like Amy Porterfield’s teaching style a LOT. She’s the girl next door of my podcast queue. She’s also the most thorough, generous, and prolific business marketing specialist I know of. She’s single-handedly reviewed my faith in using Facebook for business. Don’t miss her fantastic free downloads that go with each episode.
In the comments, I’d love to know:
What’s in your podcast lineup? Tell me about your favorite show and why it keeps you refreshing for the latest episode.
Hello, you.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
My favorite podcast remains This American Life. I used to listen to it live on the radio every Saturday morning but now catch up – binge listening style – in batches. It introduced me to David Sedaris and other funny, witty contemporary American writers,
Gah. I, too, love TAL. Such a classic.
Hey! These are awesome!
Have you checked out The Startup or Mystery Show? Also goodies!
Thanks, Shenee. I just found my way to Mystery Show via Startup, which I really like. It’s a fun season following Dating Ring, no?
The New York Public Library podcast is fantastic – noteable episodes: Tom Wolfe on handwriting and humanity and Elizabeth Gilbert & Anne Patchett in conversation.
RadioLab – the episode ‘Tell-Tale Hearts’ reduced me to tears twice.
This American Life – as Jo says above. Compulsory listening. I loved the Superpowers episode – from a few years ago.
Oh, Sas, thank you for introducing me to the NYPL podcast. I had no idea. Elizabeth Gilbert & Ann Patchett were delightful.
Happier by Gretchen Rubin. It really makes me happier as I drive to work :) And then The Lively Show
Thanks for the suggestions, Marcia! I like The Lively Show, too, but I didn’t realize GR has a podcast. Will check it out.
I love Back to Work, with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin. They talk about fear and anxiety, making sure you care deeply about your work, taking risks, and how we communicate with each other – especially how we deal with communication that we didn’t ask for (hello email).
I’ve been listening from the beginning, so at least half of my enjoyment comes from seeing (listening to?) Dan and Merlin’s relationship evolve, and they chat about pop culture stuff, and their lives as well (both are fathers to young children).
Alligator in the Bathroom, the first episode, as well as the 6th (Expectational Debt) are my favourite early episodes, but you can jump in with any that sound interesting to you.
Thanks for your suggestions, Olea! These are all new to me. Oh, the wide, wonderful world of podcasts.
I love On Being and Being Boss. Perhaps I just like podcasts with the word “being” in the title? I’m also a sucker for the TED Radio Hour. It’s a great cliff’s notes on groups of talks and gives me an idea of which TED talks I want to listen to the whole way through…
Ah, ‘being’. It is a great word, a great state.
I LOVE Being Boss, too!
I love podcasts too and will be checking these out. I am a jeweller and work at the bench of a night time by myself, so I always have a podcast playing. Everything fromo Entrepreneurial to Historical, My top seven would be –
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Create and Thrive Podcast
The Accidental Creative
Raise Your Hand, Say Yes
The New Normal
The Moth
and though it has finished, After the Jump.
I also love This American Life, even though I am Australian. :)
YES to After the Jump, The New Normal, and The Moth. I’ve enjoyed episodes of almost all the others you list here, too, Christina. We could happily co-work while indulging in audio. :)