My Favorite Podcasts | Categorized for Your Listening Pleasure

As promised (who knows when, to who knows whom), I’m sharing my favorite podcasts today. 

I’m not sure how I discovered podcasts, but it was shortly after I graduated from BC and was director of a small non-profit in Rhode Island.  The only thing more under-sized than the organization staff was my paycheck. 

My parents’ generosity + understanding are over-sized, and so I lived at home, commuting about an 1-1.5 hours each way from Massachusetts.  Living at home afforded me the opportunity to really pour myself into community building and mission-centered work (without starving), which eventually led to bigger and better-for-me opportunities.  

The drive was long enough that at some point I’d lose the Boston NPR station and need to switch to the Providence station.  The morning talk on other stations (in all its prank calling glory) drove me crazy and I could burn only so many rad mix CDs in a given week… so I got in the habit of (just wait for this early 2000’s situation…) downloading a week’s worth of podcasts from iTunes (mostly news/comedy — I don’t think true crime was a thing back then?) and burning those to CD each Sunday.  By the time my tenure in Rhode Island was winding down, I had an FM receiver attachment thing and could play episodes directly from my iPod.  Living the dream.

Needless to say, ’tis no longer 2004.  We have Bluetooth connections, copious true crime series, and other cool/grown-up things (like our own homes + mortgages).  Now that we’ve unpacked that time capsule of an introduction, here are my favorite podcasts, categorized for your listening pleasure.

***You can find a full playlist of all of my favorite podcasts listed below by clicking this link –> Listen Notes.  (I’m not super sure how helpful this playlist will be, but there’s a real dearth of options when it comes to sharing podcasts/podcast playlists… so maybe go invent something?)

MY FAVORITE PODCASTS

NEWS

• NPR News Now: The latest news in five minutes, updated hourly — Perfect when you’re out of the loop, but also nearly out of time.
• NPR Up First: Weekday morning news update (each episode is 10 minutes long) covering a range of topics including politics, culture, and current events.
• The Daily from The New York Times: Similar weekday update format (20 minutes per episode) with quick updates and one more in-depth story.

POLITICS/POP CULTURE

• Lovett or Leave It
• Keep It
• Fake the Nation
• Pod Save America

CRIME/MYSTERY

• My Favorite Murder: Also happens to be, I think, my favorite podcast.  A compelling, compassionate, smart, interesting and often v. funny conversation between two true crime enthusiasts about, well, murders — it’s worth going back through as many older episodes as you can.  
• Heaven’s Gate 
• The first seasons of Serial + Undisclosed 
• Death in Ice Valley from BBC + NRK:  Very interesting story — the first season is wrapping up next week, so you can jump in and listen to a bunch of episodes without waiting… because patience is for the generations who came before us and didn’t have Amazon Prime… also the atmospheric soundtrack to this podcast is very spooky/great

INSPIRATION

• Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
• OnBeing with Krista Tippett: So many inspiring, beautiful interviews — another one that’s perfect for picking + choosing episodes and working your way through older ones
• Style Your Mind with Cara Awill Leyba

HISTORY

• King’s Last March (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• Uncivil
• Slow Burn (Watergate)

MISCELLANEOUS (…POTPOURRI, if you will)

• The Jealous Curator: Art For Your Ear — Such wonderful, inspiring interviews
• Inside Trader Joe’s: short, interesting episodes about the company’s philosophy + products
• WTF with Marc Maron: Great interviews with interesting guests
• Stuff You Should Know: Perfect for traveling (I loved listening to this while flying for work)– you can pick a few topics you want to learn more about and likely end up at your destination feeling better informed.

For what it’s worth, I go back and worth between using the regular old podcast app on my iPhone (which I am pretty sure you have to download from the app store) and the Spotify app on my phone, or linked to our Amazon Echo.  Both options do the trick for me, but I’d love to hear how you listen to podcasts… and what you listen to, of course! 

And do let me know if you have questions — I’m happy to walk you through how to listen to episodes, subscribe, etc.

I’ll update this list periodically (and hopefully Spotify will add a podcast playlist option soon, making this list even easier to share)… so feel free to pin or bookmark it.

Also On Tap for Today:

• Mid-week meal prep 
• Finishing up a few Father’s Day surprises…
• Restocking my Branch Basics stash

What are your favorite podcasts?  Favorite apps for listening?  Questions about podcasts?