In a previous post, I mentioned that I love podcasts and use them as a way to get out of my own head. This is a surprise to me, because I’ve always been the kind of person who tunes out audio. It could just never capture my attention. But maybe that’s because I wasn’t listening to the right stuff.
I started listening to podcasts in the last couple of years, and it’s made a huge difference in my commute, which has gone from long and painful to me wishing I could drive around the block to keep listening to the stories.
There’s an art to telling a story well, and not everyone can do that in a purely audio form. I’ve found some podcasts on topics I’m interested in but that I can’t bear to listen to because they’re dry and/or awkward. When I find a good one, I so appreciate the thought that goes into it. Here are my five favourite storytelling podcasts.
This one is at the top of my list and the one I always listen to first when there are new downloads. They choose a theme each week and tell different stories on that theme, and they’re hugely insightful. I often find myself wondering where on Earth they find the stories.
Some recent favourite episodes:
Captain’s Log – about the cryptic notations people make (in varying mediums) and the unexpected stories behind them. The story about Girl Scouts and their “unrelenting cheerfulness” was profound.
Lower 9 + 10 – these stories about the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, which has been the slowest to rebuild after Katrina, are not the usual ones we’ve heard.
A big part of what makes or breaks a podcast for me is the host, and I love the host of this show. Anna Sale has a way of conversing with guests and delicately asking tough questions in a way that elicits really interesting stories. This is a new(ish) podcast that covers just what it promises to – death, sex and money.
Some recent favourite episodes:
A Dirty Cop Comes Clean – A Brooklyn cop talks about how he stole from crime scenes and got into drug dealing in the 80s. Fascinating
W. Kamau Bell Wonders How Much Is Enough – Kamau Bell is a comedian, and happens to be a black man married to a white woman. His stories about race and finding work in the world of comedy are really enlightening.
3. Planet Money
Oh, NPR’s Planet Money is just awesome. I’ve long been aware of it but only started listening recently, because, you know, finance. Not my thing. But it’s so good. Various hosts tell all kinds of stories related to money, finance, economics… Wait! Don’t run away! Really, it’s fascinating.
Some recent favourite episodes:
The Moonshine Stimulus – Did FDR really buy moonshine during Prohibition? The Planet Money team gets to the bottom of it.
The Chicken Tax – how the American auto industry is built on a trade dispute over frozen chicken parts (aka a story about the economy that actually makes sense to me)
How Much Does This Cow Weigh? – on why a bunch of people together can end up with the right weight of a cow (and how that same phenomenon applies to the stock market)
They also did a great series on t-shirts (based on their own Planet Money t-shirt) – from how they’re made to where they end up when we’re done with them.
4. Radiolab
Radiolab is another podcast on a topic that wouldn’t immediately catch my interest – science. (Hey, I’m a word girl.) But I love the wide range of things they cover, and the hosts are great too.
Some recent favourite episodes:
The Rhino Hunter – Ooh, this is a good one. An episode about big game hunting in Africa (coindentally released after the Cecil the Lion fiasco) that addresses the role conservation plays. (I’m not sure I buy the argument, but I don’t think they do either.) Really well done.
Mau Mau – this is another one you’ll listen to with incredulity. It’s about a rebel group in Kenya and the information revealed through rare documents from the British colonial government.
Patient Zero – This is a wide-ranging discussion of the patient zero concept, including AIDS and Ebola, but it was the Typhoid Mary story I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I can’t even remember how I found this one, but I suspect it was host Nate DiMeo’s voice that drew me in. It’s just lovely. In any case, these are short podcasts about history, carefully crafted and fondly told. I recommend it for a little something different.
Some recent favourite episodes:
The Ballad of Captain Dwight – interesting insight into an African American pilot who was tagged by JFK as the first Black astronaut, and how history ultimately stole that opportunity from him.
High Above Lake Michigan – a story of a 19th century ferris wheel
Harriet Quimby – an inspiring story of an early female aviator
This is just a partial list of the podcasts I listen to regularly, and some of my other favourites happen not to be in the storytelling format, but what have I missed? Do you have any favourite story-based podcasts?
9. Eat ice cream. Or whatever you like to treat yourself with, but use it as a treat. Don’t make it a habit, or it will contribute to your crappy feelings.
