5 Podcasts To Listen To Now

And now for something a little bit different!

I park about half a mile from where I work and stumbled upon podcasts a couple years ago to help my commute be more enjoyable. Every now and then I wander away and dabble in audiobooks, but I always come back to my favorite podcasts.

So whether you want to spice up your commute, make a long road trip go by quicker, or be entertained while you do the dishes, check out these five podcasts!

So you want a story...

Most podcasts that I know of are non-fiction, but I do have two favorite story-based podcasts. The Message is a relatively short fictional podcast about a group of scientists investigating possible alien communication. It features a wide cast and multiple locations so at times it can be a bit confusing. On the whole, however, I really enjoyed listening to it. Welcome to Nightvalue is by far my favorite podcast (non-fiction and fiction). It's been continuously running for years now, which means tons of backlogged episodes to catch up on! It takes place in an impossible desert town where sunsets are loud and secret government
agents watch your every move. I like to call it casual surrealism, and I love it. The plot lines are inventive and the narration is awesome. Give it a go! I recommend starting at the beginning but that's my mantra for any type of media be it a book series or tv series or podcast.

So you want to learn something...

If you want your commute/road trip to teach you something, then there are a ton of podcasts to do just that! History Chicks is run by two women, and they talk about an important female historical figure in hour long episodes. The series is extremely well researched and they present the stories in an engaging manner. I would recommend scrolling through the archives and picking one that sounds amazing (they've done Hatshepsut, Mary Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mulan, Elizabeth Gilbert, etc). If you're looking for something more related to how technology interacts with our lives then Note to Self is the podcast for you! It's a NPR podcast about the social issues that come up with all this amazing technology which is being developed. They recently did an interview with the creators of Black Mirror which was really interesting. 

So you want to laugh...

My favorite talk show type podcast is definitely Dear Hank and John, which according to their tagline is, a comedy podcast about death. Hank and John Green are near legends in the YouTube world and they produce many really cool education YouTube shows ((which deserve their own post!)). You might know John from his books-- The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska were all written by him. He and his brother host a weekly talk show where, in their words, they answer questions, give dubious advice, give you all the week's news from both Mars ((Hank's love)) and AFC Wimbleton ((English football team, John's love)) and always managed to talk about death in every single episode. I would recommend jumping right in and listening to the latest episode and if the people driving by don't think something is wrong with you as you walk on the sidewalk and laugh at apparently nothing, then, I don't think we can be friends. (kidding. kind of.)

What about you? What podcasts do I need to check out?