Need An Escape? Listen To These Podcast Recommendations

I have a confession to make. I am a podcast junkie.

Podcasts for me, especially in the pandemic, has served as an escape but also a form of “infotainment.” It has largely replaced listening to music, and honestly, I am not sure how I feel about that. But I digress.

My favorite podcasts represent a range of tastes. Some I binge and some I go in and out of, sample or look at the topic or guest before I dive in. In the days of swiping left/right and speed scrolling, podcasts buck the trend with an engaging long-form format that in some cases can be multi-hour long. Think about that. You can invest the same amount of time in a podcast as a feature film!

There are certain podcasts for certain activities, which I will share below. Some are great for when you are doing chores (ideally the long ones so you can just press play and zone out), some are good for the 15 min drive to the store and some are great as background during self care (my latest favorite is a lavender salt bath). 

You would think I would be loading up on the self improvement or career-based titles. My podcast library is filled with  good intentions; marketing and water/climate/science titles that I will admit I have not spent much time with. I beat myself up for that a bit but if we go back to the premise that podcasts are for escaping, it makes sense I deep end on true crime and not the latest marketing trend.

Recommendations below and please do share your favorites, I am always looking for good podcasts.

Here are my favorite – never miss/ binge podcasts (spoiler alert, lots of true crime).

1. The Murder Squad: Jensen and Holes; episodes drop on Mondays – Each week, Billy Jensen, a true crime journalist and Paul Holes, a retired cold case investigator cover an unsolved case. Their work has lead to closing some of these cases and arrests.
2. My Favorite Muder: episodes drop Thursdays. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark tell true crime stories in a way that is both hilarious and horrifying
3. The NPR Politics podcast; multiple NPR reporters host the latest political news and analysis. Practical and informative with a bit of fun mixed in.
4. Revisionist History; Malcolm Gladwell runs these like serials. There are five seasons for you to binge and they just get better and better. A great way to open your mind and change your perspective. 

Here are my occasionals

1. What’s Essential hosted by Greg McKeown; Inspired by his book Essentialism (which I just ordered), Greg interviews people from all walks of life to home in on what is truly essential and how to live as an essentialist.
2. The Joe Rogan Experience; Rogan is a mixed martial arts expert, stand up and commentator. He runs very long-form (hours long) interviews with a broad spectrum of people. Great if you need to immerse for a long walk. What I like about these interviews is the exploration of the complexity and nuances of people – individuals and society. A nice break from the black & white or red & blue if you will
3. SYSK, Stuff You Should Know; Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark are original podcasters. They passed their 1,000th episode for this fun, quirky and informative discussion on a topic you may or may not have heard of. The breadth of things they examine is so big. I always learn something.

…and two I started…stopped and may get back to eventually

1. Productivity Paradox; Was good for a while, then started to feel overwhelming to me. Too many systems, too much homework. I ended up going back to Getting Things Done – David Allen – that said, I am a huge fan of Tanya Dalton. She is an inspiring entrepreneur following her passion. She has a company, InkWell that sells productivity tools like physical planners – beautifully designed. 
2. The Happiness Lab; Hosted by Dr. Laurie Santos, a mix of personal stories and scientific research to shed light on where real happiness comes from

Wrapping It Up

I don’t blame you for wanting to escape the madness around us nowadays. I hope you enjoy these podcast recommendations. What are some of your favorite podcasts?