Podcasts I Love

I really can’t remember the first time I listened to a podcast. I have known of its existence a long time ago but I was never really into them. Around one or two years ago I started listening to podcasts because I was bored. I started with some boring ones which left me uninspired and sleepy but I searched for some podcasts with topics of my interest and I was hooked.

Picture from Pixabay.

What I love about podcasts is that they can be as long and short as you want. You have 20 minutes to spare? No problem! Your plane is delayed and you have two hours of nothing to do? I’ve got just the podcast for you. Podcasts are also very diverse, there are lots of different topics out there, just find the ones that interest you the most and you’re all set.The podcasts I tend to listen to are usually about feminism, social justice issues and also history. I think one of my first podcasts was the TED podcasts, which is basically just the audio version of the TED videos. I learn a great deal from podcasts and it really is just a fun way to learn. Here are a few of my favourite podcasts to listen to:

Stuff Mom Never Told You

One of the first podcasts that got me hooked. Stuff Mom Never Told You talks about a lot of things, and as the title suggests, they’re probably things your mother never told you. Most of the topics focus on the challenges women face today. The feminist hosts are lively and full of knowledge that I can never get bored. Their podcasts vary from half an hour to an hour with topics such as Where the f*** are the pockets on women’s clothing? and #MeToo. I wouldn’t call this podcast “fun” but it’s also not serious that it makes you dizzy. It’s powerful and thought-provoking.

#MeToo movement, one of the episodes covered in Stuff Mom Never Told You. Picture from Pixabay.

The History Chicks

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen me posted this podcast on my Stories. I am basically in love with this podcast because I’m a history geek. This is actually what I was aiming for with my Female Unicorns Series (that I never update I know right. And fyi, I didn’t actually know this podcast when I started that series.). It talks about female characters throughout history. Each episode is concentrated on one person where they talk about EVERYTHING there is to know about this person. The episodes are quite long (around 1-1,5 hours) since they do go into quite great details about each character. I find this so interesting because sometimes the (popular) things that we know about people in history can be completely different to what actually happened. Some of my favourite episodes include Hypatia of Alexandria, Marie Curie (this was two episodes, both were so captivating) and Queen Lili’uokalani. Some of the women here are famous and you’ve probably heard before but some to me are new and it’s always a pleasure to listen to the stories of great women in history.

Marie Curie (second from the front), one of my favourite scientists, covered in two episodes of The History Chicks. Picture from Pixabay.

The Guilty Feminist

I first heard about this podcast from Hilda of Kami Perempoean. Obviously the main topic is feminism. The podcast always begins with “I’m a feminist but….” followed by a (usually embarrassing) confession. This podcast talks about issues surrounding feminism while embracing the imperfections we often feel as a feminist. Sometimes people think that there is some kind of perfect standard to become a feminist and that when you glitch and do something “unfeminist” then you are not worthy of calling yourself a feminist. This podcast understands this and assures you that feminists are also humans (surprise, surprise), we are not perfect, there is no checklist to becoming a feminist and you’re not going to suddenly loose your feminism if you do something that is considered not feminist enough. This podcast is hosted by a feminist comedian so you will surely be entertained.

Conversations with People Who Hate Me

I started listening to this podcast last week after I watched Dylan Marron’s TED talk. I loved his talk so much I immediately searched for his podcast and subscribed to it. This is an interesting podcast for sure. Marron is a digital creator, he is very outspoken about his views and he talks about social issues. He gets a lot support from people but also a good amount of hate. On this podcast, Marron calls the people who have sent him negative comments of his work and have a conversation with them. Usually when we have negative comments (for instance on our blog), we tend to ignore it or have online feud. I think the majority of us won’t call that person and have a one on one chat about the comment. To me, this is why this podcast is gold. Marron turns something that is negative into something positive. He doesn’t try to change their mind or make them agree with him, instead he really just wants to get to know these people, who they are and why they felt like they had to leave a negative comment on his work. Of course at the end they still disagree but it shows that two people with different opinions can still have a civilised conversation and isn’t that just wonderful?

Banging Book Club

I found out about this podcast from the two (out of three) hosts of this show popular bloggers Leena Norms and Hannah Witton. I love their YouTube channels so when I found out they have a podcast too, I was interested. From the title you might’ve guessed that they talk about books. Their focus is on sex and gender books which interest me. I like how it’s by three friends and when you listen to it, it almost feels like discussing a fascinating book with your own friends. I also consider this podcast as a great source of book recommendation. However, I don’t usually listen to the episodes of books I haven’t read because I know it will contain spoiler.

Picture from Pixabay.

Anyway, those are my absolute favourite podcasts. It feels kinda amazing when you listen to these podcasts and get new information on things of my interest. You suddenly feel a whole lot smarter 😀

Do you listen to podcasts? Let me know what you listen to!