Are you a podcast lover yet? If not, you should be! I discovered podcasts with the rest of America via the Serial Season 1 saga. With a five hour daily commute, I actually found myself looking forward to the train rides on Serial days! A good podcast is compelling, engaging, intriguing, and – did I mention – free! Thankfully, there are myriad of fanatic choices. Below I’ve listed by current five favorites that I love to listen to while cooking, on walks, or as I do my makeup. After all, it’s always the right time to learn something new, be captured in suspense, or just enjoy a good laugh.
Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin: This podcast comes out every other Monday and features an interview of someone from a wide range of fields – actors, politicians, news reporters, music producers, authors, chefs, comedians, you name it! Alec proves to be a gregarious, affable host and does a superb job of generating engaging conversation with everyone from Julie Andrews to Anthony Weiner. He is an intrepid storyteller who connects with each of his guests and inviting the audience into the recording studio with them. A fanatic show, it’s currently got my number one spot.
Episode to try: Michael Pollan
America’s Test Kitchen: My authoritative source for all things culinary, I never know what topic this podcast is going to cover each week but I do know it will somehow be relevant and fascinating. The testing alluded to in the name ranges from how to thaw and refreeze hamburger or the best brand of butter to how 98 of the top 100 wine connoisseurs in the world failed to identify red and white wines when all were dyed red. The tips and tricks are based firmly in the culinary sciences, yet are incredibly approachable and pedantic. Plus, the people that call in to ask questions are absolutely hilarious.
Episode to try: Wine Fraud Nation: Cheap Wine, Expensive Labels, and Big Money
Limetown: If you were a fan of season one Serial, here’s the next podcast you should devour. A work of fiction, Limetown is narrated by a reporter who is investigating the perplexing disappearance of an entire township. A bit staged and wildly entertaining I couldn’t listen to this suspenseful story while walking because I was always frantically looking over my shoulder to ensure no one was following me. I couldn’t stop listening.
Young House Love Has A Podcast: You are likely already familiar with the legendary DIY blog by the same name. If you aren’t, it’s time for you to jump down that rabbit hole of wonderful. I’ll meet you back here in a few weeks. If you are, then you know that the married duo behind Young House Love quit blogging over a year ago due to their inability to find a work-life balance while blogging full time. Now, THEY’RE BACK in the form of a weekly podcast. Their down to earth personalities shine in this new medium – the content remains in a similar category as the blog with a mix of their own experiences and interviews with the rockstars of the home DIY world. I look forward to their weekly “what we are digging” finds. Hovering around 20 minutes, it’s a bite sized bit of delight every Monday.
Episode to try: Three Pro Bloggers Get Real About Sponsored Posts
Reply All: Admittedly I haven’t dug into the archives of this one much yet; however, I was incredibly intrigued by the four podcast series centered around Paul Modrowski. Currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison where Internet is forbidden, Paul has a blog that he publishes via handwritten posts that he mails to his mother and she types up, mailing him back the screenshot of the post. Paul maintains his innocence and Sruthi (the show’s producer) guides us through her year-long research into his case. I yo-yo’ed from various points of decisiveness by the minute – certain he was guilty one moment and equally certain of his innocence the next. The emotions were eerily similar to those I experienced while devouring the popular Netflix Making A Murderer documentary; however, unlike the documentary I did arrive at an opinion of certainty regarding Paul’s guilt – but I won’t spoil it for you now! I’ll let you listen and decide for yourself.
Episode to try: On The Inside
