11 lovely podcasts

I have found a new love for the phenomenon of podcasts. Listening to someone talking is soothing to me, especially when I feel a bit lonely or when I need distractions. It passes the time like nothing else when I am doing the dishes or when I travel. Therefore, here are 11 of my favourite podcasts on Spotify (and often other platforms). Hopefully, you’ll find a new one you like as well! The benefit of listening to podcasts on Spotify for me is that it’s free. This way, you can choose to try out podcasts as a whole as well without spending money.

Career advice

If there is one subject that has gotten a lot of attention online in recent years, it is business. Millions of articles try to help us get that dream job, balance the working life with a social or family life and be more productive. This makes it so that your answer must be out there. However, it’s hard to decide where to find it and who to believe. Therefore, I decided to start with some podcasts that I personally enjoy listening to and that I deem to have solid advice.

• As I mentioned in ‘Blogs/Vlogs I love‘, I am first of all addicted to the voice of classy career girl, Anna Runyan. With her to-the-point advice and her soothing tone, she keeps me focused and ready to better my life and my work. Some tips are more specific to running a business. Some are more general, like how to balance your life and career, so there is something for everyone.
• The second one is more specific for marketing fans. It is called ‘Marketing School – Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips’, which says it all. Here you can click the link to find out more about marketing and everything it entails. The best thing about it is that the episodes are very short. This kind of makes it a vocal tips and tricks book without too much noice in-between the lessons.
• In ‘The Psychology Podcast‘, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman discusses psychology in every way possible. Since I am studying psychology, it is a great way for me to get information active again. However, it is also very interesting for people who are interested in psychology that don’t have much prior knowledge.
• Being a huge fan of TED-talks, I could not neglect to mention the ‘TED-talks daily‘ podcast. Here, inspirational people from all around the world tell you about their life and how you can learn from that. From forgiveness, to business, to being kind to yourself; everything is available. This is the perfect podcast when I want to think about life and what it all means.

Stories

Nothing is more relaxing to me than listening to people telling stories and to dream away to the lands of myths, legends and even horror. There is nothing that makes doing the dishes as bearable as that and there is little that gets me as ready to go to sleep than a good story time. These podcasts will entertain you for hours!

• The first one is actually not a podcast, but no one can tell stories like Gabbie Hannah. Therefore I feel like this playlist of her story times is epic to me. She puts a lot of emotions into her stories, which make her stories a bomb full of entertainment value. This is definitely not the bedtime story you want, but it is perfect when you want to be distracted. I love that she not only tells stories that hurt your opinion of others (she never mentions names anyways), but she also doesn’t shy away from looking a bit silly herself, which in my view, makes her come across so much more human and normal!
• The first ‘real’ podcast in this segment is the Myths and Legends Podcast and it is probably my most listened to podcast. You will hear about lots of stories from ages ago that you either might know, but with a different origins than you’d expect, or stories that you have just never heard of. At the end, there is also always a mythical ‘creature of the week’ that gets discussed. This is really the podcast that gets me to dream away to the far away lands of the ancients Greeks, King Arthur, Mulan, and much more. I can enjoy this at every time of the day! What I love about it most are the already known stories. This because I learned parts of them when I was younger, and it brings me right back to the time that I would sit by the record player of my grandfather, listening to the story of Sinbad.
• The other podcast I would really recommend is the ‘Creepy’ Podcast, full of horror stories. These stories work best when all hope of concentration is gone. These stories are sometimes so thrilling that paying attention is not a chore at all anymore. They are however not that scary that I do not dare to go to sleep anymore. However, that might just be me, since I don’t scare that easily, so be warned.
• I also regularly enjoy listening to ‘Our Fake History‘, where famous historical stories are either (partially) debunked or found to be more true that we’d expect. I love the depth of the research done by host Sebastian Major and his humorous way of telling the stories. It also tends to change how I see certain parts of our history and I always like to be challenged in my beliefs this way. Great show for every part of the day!
• Last, but definitely not least is Stephen Fry’s Podcast ‘7 Deadly Sins‘, where he explores the meaning behind the sins. Why are they so terrible, are they actually, and if they are, how do we see them popping up in our own behaviours? I am a huge fan of Stephen Fry, so it wasn’t surprising that this podcast was amazing as well. Like most of his works, it’s filled with sincerity, well explained arguments, balanced views of life and a lovely sense of humor and wit. It makes you think about the things most important in life and about your own beliefs on who you are and how you act, but without making it too dark or serious. I listened to the first 5 episodes of the season in one day, since it always left me curious for the next episode.

True crime

Sometimes, true crime can be even scarier than the best horror stories. That’s why in that case, I am ending this list of 11 lovely podcasts with some true crime stories. What I love about them is that they mix two things I love: horror and psychology. The true crime podcasts I listen to analyse horrible behaviours of scary people, either working alone or in groups, to try to understand their motives.

• The first one is for me the podcast Cults, where the crimes of various cults are discussed. They range from Christian, small cults to large cults that are not even similar to any religion whatsoever. They are discussed in depth, which is why one cult usually gets two episodes dedicated to their behaviours and crimes.
• The other podcast I love is even more creepy, which is called Serial Killers. In this podcast, the hosts try to find out how various serial killers became the person they became/have become. Why they have committed these horrible acts of death and destruction?

So, what are your favourite podcasts and what subjects do you listen to? Do you enjoy practical podcasts more or are you more of a story time person? And which ones would you like to try out? Please let me know in the comments below!

Lots of love,

Lisa