Entertain Your Brain With Some Great Podcasts
There’s nothing that makes a tedious task easier than listening to a podcast while you do it. I do general tidies of my house during the week, but Friday after I come home from working out I do a deep clean. I’ve got laundry going, I’m tackling the mysterious shower door grime, I’m spray mopping the floors - and the whole time I’m listening to a podcast. Same with dog walks! I can easily walk twice as long when I have a good podcast to listen to. This summer I’ve been doing a lot of tendious-ish tasks, and I’ve had to get some new podcasts to binge listen to while I accomplish my goals. These are those podcasts!
For when I’m walking the dog, but want to exercise my brain too
Ologies has been around for a few years, but I just started listening recently. I downloaded one tester episode, and liked it so much I’ve gone back to the beginning and am making my way through the entire back catalog of shows. Host Alie Ward chooses one “ology” each week, like phonology (linguistics) or horology (watches), or mythology (stories). Her interviews are always interesting, even if you’re not particularly interested in that shows’ ology in the first place.
By the Book is a show hosted by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer in which they choose a self-help book, follow its teachings for two weeks, then report back on how it went. They were also guests recently on Forever 35, which was on yet another podcast rec list. I tend to skip around with By the Book, only listening to episodes that sound up my alley, BUT! I have gone back and downloaded episodes I skipped after listening to them discussed on one of the many (very enjoyable!) bous episodes between seasons.
When I need a body positive boost
I had heard about She’s All Fat before, but I just started listening this Spring. I binge-listened to every episode, and now I’m in real time. I love how host Sophie Carter-Kahn and co-creator/former co-host April K Quioh have structured the show, and the segments they created are original, funny, and smart. She’s All Fat covers all kinds of things from pop culture to fashion to activism, all through focusing on how they relate to larger bodies. It’s a fun and eye opening show whether you’re fat or straight sized, and I’m glad I started listening.
While we’re talking about bodies and how to love them, I have to mention Christy Harrison’s Food Psych. This podcast was one of the first things my therapist and I talked about, and how I knew she was a winner. Harrison is an anti-diet, intuitive eating focused dietician. She packs SO MUCH into each episode, it’s amazing that we get to listen to it for free. I particularly love her approach and interview style, and truly every person could benefit from listening.
When I’m looking for a bit of gossip
Keep It is my preferred LA-based celebrity, politics, and pop culture podcast. It’s great for when you want to know about that thing everyone is talking about on Twitter, but you don’t actually want to do any research yourself. They get amazing guests (Angela Bassett!) and this is truly the ONLY podcast that does witty ad reads that are tolerable and actually witty. That should be reason enough to listen.
As for a New York based pop culture podcast, I prefer Who Weekly. It’s a podcast about low-level celebrities and all the antics they get up to. It took me awhile to get into Who Weekly, for silly reasons like the hosts getting facts wrong or the lack of any musical cues before ad reads. BUT, I still listen to each episode right after it downloads so clearly they’re doing a great job and I’m hooked.
