I am a fan of podcasts. I’ve been listening to them for years. I listen to them while driving, on my way to work, getting ready in the morning, and occasionally at the gym. Over the past year, I’ve nearly doubled the number of podcasts that I listen to and it’s been great.
The majority of the podcasts that I listen to are more informational rather than serial or storytelling. I play and pause the podcasts I listen to quite frequently and I’ve found the more informational podcasts to be more conducive to my listening needs and information retention.
One of the big reasons that I listen to the podcasts that I do is to try and make sense of the world and, more importantly, me in this world. Podcasts are a portal to knowledge, to discovery, to worlds and places that I wouldn’t have been able to access as easily otherwise. For me, life is about the journey, about the evolution, and the podcasts that I listen to are a part of that evolution and growth. I’ve laughed, been left pondering, and in the case of the last podcast I listened to, shed some tears, listening to these podcasts. It’s really why I’m sharing what podcasts I listen to on a regular basis, in hopes that it can help someone else as well.
Another Round is really one of my feel-good and thought-provoking podcasts and one that I continue to love listening to. Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton are just an absolute delight to listen to and I just love what the two of them are doing and the different topics they cover in their podcasts. Whether that’s TV or movies, or books, or politics, or race and gender, or an intersectionality of all of that, it will make you think, make you laugh, and it may even help you change your perspective. Just take a listen to any of their episodes and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Solid podcast!
Call Your Girlfriend continues to be a mainstay in my podcast listening. I’ve been listening to this podcast from Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow since its very first episode. I love the friendship these two women have with one another and the conversations they have from everything about politics to womanhood, to intersectional feminism, to the workplace, to books, reality TV and everything in between. It definitely feels like you’re listening in and/or a part of the conversation that’s happening between these two best friends as you listen to the podcast and it’s pretty fantastic. The conversations they are having are relevant and important and informative. I’ve gained a lot from listening to these two women talk about almost everything and I highly recommend you check it out.
Ctrl Alt Delete is a newer podcast that I have been listening to but has quickly become one of my favourites. It’s an interview style podcast where the host, Emma Gannon, interviews a new guest every episode. These guests range from UK Members of Parliament to playwrights and authors, to TV and radio hosts, to Youtubers. The majority of the guests on the podcast are women, women of diverse backgrounds and experiences, and that’s what attracted me to the podcast and what’s kept me listening. It’s definitely exposed a lot of different personalities, authors and genres that I would have never known about if I had not been listening. It’s also quite inspiring listening to all these different individuals and what they are doing in the world and where they are going. Highly recommend.
Code Switch is another new addition to my listening line up and has honestly been one of the best additions. It’s a podcast that talks about race and identity and more and more what that all means and what it means if you are a person of colour living in the United States. It’s thought-provoking, it doesn’t pull any punches, and it’s given me a greater understanding of inclusivity and what that actually means. The podcast is hosted by journalists of colour who aren’t afraid to get to the nitty gritty details of what it means to be a person of colour and the challenges, the benefits, and the joy that comes with it. Highly, highly recommend.
Get Booked is a book recommendation podcast from the Book Riot site. Listeners send in their requests for book recommendations and the two hosts, Amanda and Jenn, try to answer as many as possible. I have added so, so many more and many different types of books to my TBR (to be read) list because of this podcast and I’m pretty happy about it. It’s one of the two book-related podcasts, the other being All The Books that I listen to regularly that has provided a wealth of book recommendations in a manner which really has helped expand my reading spheres. I have yet to send in my own request for recommendations but it’s definitely something I ponder, though with the size of my current TBR, not really needed.
Stop and Fangirl is another one of my feel good podcasts that I’ve started to listen to recently. I’m a fangirl, I’m a geek girl, and I’m not afraid to admit it and neither are the three awesome ladies, Lyra, Lizzie and Lynnie, who host this podcast. They cover a number different topics related to fan culture and pop culture and it’s a delight every week to listen to. It’s a great podcast and definitely well worth a try if you’re a fan of pop culture.
Other podcasts I’m listening to:
- 2 Dope Queens
- The Read
- Women of Marvel Podcast
- Book Riot Podcast
- Black Nerd Girls
I hope this post inspires you to try out some of these podcasts and I hope that they bring as much joy and benefit that they have had for me. Thanks for reading!
A Work in Progress 