I’m one who likes to make sure my senses aren’t going to waste. I only watch TV shows when I’m doing some sort of personal project, listen to music or audio books when I walk. And listen to a lot of podcasts when I’m at work, video or audio. As you can imagine, I’ve listened to a lot of shows throughout my time considering a week of 8 hour work days is 40 hours, and a month is usually 160. I can honestly say I’ve got to the point where I see certain show hosts as close friends I’ve never met, and other hosts as people I’m glad I haven’t met. Sorry I didn’t mean that to sound horrible, in essence some shows are good and some are bad. Anyway, I’ve put together a list of 6 of my favourite podcasts from all corners of the Internet, they may not be for you but I still think they’re worth checking out, if you have some free time on your hands. 

Just a quick warning for readers in the UK, all of the shows I list below are American, sadly no British podcasts have been able to catch my attention for a long period of time, so please ignore the list below if you’re not a huge fan of the American accent.

We have concerns

This is somewhat of a guilty pleasure comedy podcast for me as I listen to it every now and again. The two hosts, Jeff Cannata and Anthony Carboni go through one news article per episode submitted by a fan, (usually related to science), and talk about it with a comedic eye. Poking fun at it through the improv acts and jokes. I love the humour and chemistry between the two hosts, and each episode doesn’t fail to put a smile. There is also some element of education to their show but not always.

http://wehaveconcerns.com/

Reply All

The lists of shows I listen to aren’t in order but if they were, this would be at the very top of the list. Reply All is by far my favourite podcast and the best show from Gimlet media. It is a show that goes through weird, sometimes forgotten stories from the internet. Naturally being a Gimlet show it’s well edited and put together, and the hosts have good banter whenever the episode calls for it, but what makes this show fantastic are the stories. 

I don’t know where they find them but their stories are so interesting yet have so much variety. From episodes about how a Hasidic Jew left the community after discovering the internet, to the origin of certain internet memes and what their creator thinks of what the web has done with them. Each episode engages me to the fullest and leaves me with a new appreciation for the internet.

https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/

Toolsday

This is one of the newer tech podcasts I’ve started listening to. Toolsday mainly focuses on web technology and speaks to me as I am familiar with most of, or all the tools mentioned on the show. What differentiates this to all the other tech podcasts I listen to are, the hosts. Firstly both hosts don’t fit the mold of being white males in the tech industry and they interject their backgrounds into episodes every so often. Secondly, they’re both quite unintentionally funny, I love the fact that Una sings a different theme song for each episode, and Chris put her down every so often after she’s sang it, the wealth of knowledge they bring to episodes, and the occasional bickering between the pair.

http://toolsday.io/

Invisiblia

This podcast is one quite close to my heart, there aren’t that many episodes in a series compared to the other shows I have recommended, but that doesn’t bother me too much. Invisivila has 3 hosts whose name I can’t recite because it’s mentioned so few times in the shows, but they so a fantastic job of telling the story and pulling at my emotion strings. The psychological stories that are talked about in each show are not only mind blowing, but also eye opening. I learn things about the human body I didn’t know were even possible; like the case of a woman who could see someone expressing an emotion and feel that exact same emotion herself, or the blind man who is able to ride a bike without any assistance. The hosts don’t just stop at the superhuman ability the individual has but also how it affects their friend; family, and their life as a whole.

This is one of the few podcasts that makes me stop and pay full attention whilst listening, then have a session of deep contemplation afterwards.

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia

We’re alive

I believe I’ve spent the most hours listening to this show out of all the others in this post. There are 143 episodes around an hour long each, and I don’t regret an minute of it. This is not your typical podcast, it’s not a documentary or conversational type of show, more of a fictional story with actors, foley and character development. The basic premise is very original, a zombie infestation has developed in some part of America and a group of people try to survive it. Okay so not very original, but the zombies aren’t like the ones from the Walking Dead, they can run, jump, some are insanely huge, and one can even talk. 

As well as listening to how the group understood the zombies more and more, I enjoyed listening to how they develop, working together as a team, and continuing on after deaths of close friends. Also, some of these episodes have the most tense cliffhangers I’ve ever heard in a podcast.

http://www.werealive.com/

Undone

With only 3 shows at the time of writing this article this is the newest podcast I have on this list. The host is brilliant, the editing is top notch as I’d expect from a Gimlet show, however this podcast in some way speaks to me as a millennial. As one who listens to a horrible news story, forgets about it a few days later and moves on to the next thing. The idea of this show is to look back on events that were in the news a long time ago, and see how they’ve progressed, how the people and the area involved have changed since. 

The first episode was one that drew me in and made me immediately fall in love with this show. It focused on how disco suddenly disappeared in the late 70s and no one ever talked about it, or addressed it. The story talks about why disco stopped during that time, the people who were involved in it, and what happened to those people afterwards and that type of music evolved from those events. If all the future episode are like the first 3 I’ve heard, this will definitely be one to look out for.

https://gimletmedia.com/undone/

These podcasts are great for those who want an introduction to the medium, however they are very subjective. I’m sure people who have listened to a lot of shows will have a whole different top 6, or even more. Nevertheless I believe my selection is quite diverse, and will help in choosing which type if podcast you enjoy listening to. 

Ollie