"Podcast" rhymes with "broadcast"

I have to admit I was a little late hopping on the Pinterest bandwagon (as in, several years late), but once I did, there was a time in the not so distant past that a lot of (ok, most) of my sentences started with, "So, I saw this idea on Pinterest that. . ."  So much so that I'm pretty sure my husband tuned out about 80% of our dinner conversations during that period.

While my love for Pinterest hasn't dwindled in the least, podcasts are my obsession du jour.  I spend a LOT of time commuting, but the bright side of sitting in traffic for 2+ hours a day is: I get to listen to a LOT of podcasts.  So now during dinner, I frequently find myself saying "So I heard on this podcast I listened to today that. . ." and thankfully, my husband doesn't tune me out as often.

I thought I'd share my favorite podcasts here (that is, all the ones I subscribe to) as a point of reference for those lucky people in my life who I keep badgering to jump on the podcast bandwagon and for anyone interested in finding some really great stuff to listen to.
​

• TED Radio Hour, from NPR

I think TED talks are generally awesome, and while I have gotten sucked into the TED website before clicking links and watching videos, I really prefer how this podcast takes many of those talks and digests them into bite-sized pieces for me to listen to in just one hour.  Each week has a theme tying together the talks, and Guy, the host, interviews the TED speaker so you get to find out even more about their story.  

• Note to Self, from WNYC

Manoush is awesome.  I could listen to her all day.  I have to admit that sometimes I don't know all the tech-y stuff she's talking about (I had to come home one day and ask my husband to define "meme" for me--whooops, guess I've been living under a rock for a while), but I do love how real her show is about normal people integrating technology into their lives in an intelligent and sustainable and realistic way.

• Freakonomics Radio, from WNYC

Stephan Dubner explores "the hidden side of everything" in this podcast in which he comes up with really great topics and/or questions and then interviews a whole bunch of people that makes for a fascinating 45ish minutes.  Recent topics include: "Who Needs Handwriting?," The Cheeseburger Diet," and "Does 'Early Education' Come Way Too Late?" (so fascinating!  This episode prompted me to buy the book, Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain, by Dana Suskind, because I was so enthralled with the podcast!)

• Happier with Gretchen Rubin, from Panoply

I've read all of Gretchen's books (The Happiness Project, Happier at Home, and the latest Better Than Before) and completely loved them.  I'm not typically a note-taker or writer-in-the-margins when I read, but I have a notebook filled with my thoughts while reading The Happiness Project, and the copy of Better Than Before on my nightstand has all sorts of notes scratched in the margins and pages dog-earred.  Anyways, this podcast is a delight.  Gretchen and her sister, Liz, discuss habit formation and ways to be happier in daily life, and it's just plain fun to listen to them.

• This American Life, from WBEZ Chicago

​I'm pretty sure Ira Glass was born for radio.  And I'm pretty sure there hasn't been an episode of This American Life that didn't completely hook my attention for the entire hour.  I've listened while running, I've listened while driving, and on more than one occasion I've whipped out my phone at the dinner table to play a clip from an episode for my husband.  Similar to other podcasts, each show has a theme and then does individual stories that are all twists on that theme.  And they are all fantastic.  Plus, Ira rocks.

• Car Talk, from NPR

Click and Clack are hysterical.  This is my Monday-morning-commute-to-work podcast, and I actually look forward to getting in the car on Monday mornings just so I can laugh along with this show.  I could care less about cars and car repair, but I will never stop enjoying this show.  I laugh out loud at least once during every show.  Seriously.

• Living Homegrown Podcast with Theresa Loe

This is my newest podcast find (thanks to Erica at Northwest Edible Life), and I'd pretty much like to be best friends (and/or next door neighbors) with Theresa.  You can hear her smile in her voice, and I learn something in every single episode. I'm staying current with new episodes but also went back and listened almost non-stop for a week to all the interesting ones produced before I discovered her.  Topics like container gardening and small-space gardening and canning and fermenting and making yogurt--so many recent additions to my to-do and to-learn lists thanks to this podcast!

• Question of the Day, from Earwolf

This is another podcast with Stephen Dubner but here he co-hosts with James Altucher.  They put out three episodes a week, all in the neighborhood of 20 minutes long, and they ask one question and then just talk about it.  Yep, pretty simple.  More often than not, most of what they talk about isn't related to the question (or is only vaguely related) but I still love hearing what they have to say and argue about.  Topics vary widely (from the presidential election and voting to Miley Cyrus) but are all equally interesting.

• Invisibilia, from NPR

Alix and Lulu, where did you go??  I also discovered this podcast a little late (seems to be a trend with me, hmmmm), but then I binge-listened to Season 1 in its entirety in a week and now I'm basically in withdrawal waiting for Season 2.  Trust me, once you start this show, you won't want to stop.

• Real Simple Podcasts

This is really 4 podcasts that come out each week: The Labor of Love, Adulthood Made Easy, Things Cooks Know, and I Want To Like You.  I have to admit, the cooking show is the only one I listen to on a regular basis (and from it I learn really interesting things about bananas and citrus and cookies and more!), but occasionally one of the other ones will spark my interest as well. 

• Hidden Brain, from NPR

I've heard Shankar Vedantam for years on Morning Edition on NPR and have always been captivated by his voice and manner of speaking but also by everything he has to say about social science research.  He recently started this podcast that explores social science in about 20 minute chunks, and the podcast is really captivating.


Well, I hope this has inspired you to download a few episodes and hopefully get hooked on a few podcasts!  I'm always in the market to discover new podcasts myself, so recommendations are welcome!