I’m relatively new to the world of podcasts but I’m a big fan! So I’ve decided to devote today’s gratitude blog to Podcasts. Have you joined the wave? A podcast is an audio program on topics ranging from personal narrative to in-depth reporting on a singular crime story to how-to shows about launching a new career. I’ve reported here that I’m trying to curate my environment more carefully by limiting the random radio/news I get. So I’ve taken to listening more to podcasts, where I can learn something or get inspired or at least be entertained by a personal story.
Everyone can get podcasts for free, either through iTunes or Google Play. You subscribe to them and as new episode are launched, they automatically appear in your feed. Here are a few I know you’ll love and hope you’ll try.
- The RobCast— This is my very favorite one. Rob Bell is a preacher/spiritual guru who offers a riveting spiritual spin on day-to-day human problems as well as the bigger questions of our time. He makes the Bible and scripture very relatable and provides some useable approaches to living in a complex and sometimes confounding world.
- Don’t Keep Your Day Job— Cathy Heller is a singer/songwriter who interviews people who created a career based on doing what they love. Inspiring stories of hard work coupled with patience combined with risk-taking and willingness. Pragmatic, personal and persuasive.
- Serial— One crime story dissected for an entire season. I particularly loved Season Two which investigated the disappearance of Pfc. Bowe Bergdah, who walked off his base in Afghanistan, was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for five years and was later charged with desertion. Riveting story-telling and unprecedented access into the working of the U.S. Army in a war zone.
- Embedded— NPR’s Kelly McEvers dives deep a single news story each week. It’s a little like 60 Minutes for the radio, but I love really trying to understand what is happening behind the headlines. The stories range from police shootings to opioid addiction in Ohio. This one is for those of us who want more than the thirty second blip.
- StoryCorps–StoryCorps has created an enormous oral history of life in America by inviting people to interview family and friends in their traveling studios — one copy goes to the Library of Congress and the other you keep. From the mundane to the poignant to the truly inspiring, these ordinary people reveal in their own voice what they’ve loved, achieved and lost in this life and we are all enriched by listening.
So those are my favorites, but I’ve already cycled through some that I’ll also list as tried but rejected.
- Things You Missed in History Class; Hidden Brain; Invisibilia; On Being — I didn’t like the hosts of these shows, either their voices or the pace of the program, or both. Also, with Hidden Brain and Invisibilia, I found that the content usually didn’t offer anything new to the discussion. I already know that women talk far less than men in meetings but are perceived as talking a lot more. What else have you got? How do we address and solve this one?
- Crimetown; The Nerdist; — I just got tired of these stories and the way they were presented. It just didn’t hold my attention.
- From Scratch; The School of Greatness — These hosts and guests are a little to smug and pleased with themselves and they both seem too self-promoting to me. From Scratch is billed a start-up to big company how’d-they-do-it show but it just comes across like an opportunity for some super-rich, super-successful guy (mostly) to talk about how great he is. I’ve got enough of that in my life anyway.
Honorable Mentions (these are podcasts I’ve heard great things about but haven’t yet tried):
- Pod Save the World/ Pod Save America
- S-Town
- NPR One
- Money for the Rest of Us
- How to do Everything
Happy listening, readers. I’d love to hear what you are listening to and what you love about it.
Boonedoggler 