Top 10 Podcasts you Should be Listening To
Grab a warm cup of tea. Snuggle under the blanket. Get ready for a memorable podcasting session.
#10 : The Mortified Podcast
In French, there is a saying : “ The truth always comes from children’s mouth”. This podcast will have you smile as adults read back their childhood and teenager memories from their diaries.
Every successful product, service, brand started as nothing else than an idea. And often, it involved failure and reiterations. How I built this sets out to explore the mindset and the ups and downs of starting something new.
The average person in America spends “approximately” 109,980 hours working, in their lifetime. It’s easy to see why having a meaningful job is important. Work in Progress shares the surprising stories of everyday people who found their — often unconventional — career path.
Cities run because of carefully engineered spaces and flows. The Urbanist sheds some light on the behind-the-scenes work of subways, schoolyards, small apartments and smart cities.
#6: NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
Want to make the news a little more entertaining? This weekly tongue-in-cheek coverage will have you test your knowledge through an entertaining quizz show. Celebrity guests included.
Does your brain keep going on tangents when you hear about something? This is the show for you. Ask Me Another brings the biggest names of the hour and explores all topics loosely connected to headlines.
Last month, Stuart McLean died at age 68. CBC still kept the show available for storyteller aficionados and with the soundbites recorded over the past years, we know it will be timeless. A heart-warming Canadian production that uncovers local stories from the small towns and nooks of our country.
You’ve read the book. You’ve seen the movie. Now it’s time to hear the podcast. Freakonomics explains everyday phenomenon from the viewpoint of economists.
#2: Radiotopia’s 99% Invisible
Everything around us is someone’s brainchild. Often, a lot of though gets put into the design of everything ranging from house compounds to airport design to fortune cookies. Roman Mars explores the world around us with fascination and curiosity.
#1: NPR’s Planet Money
Understanding economics is understanding the world. At least a good chunk of it. Planet Money demystifies the complex world of economics and reveals the hidden side of everyday realities.
The Usual Suspects
If you talk to Podcast enthusiasts, there are a few other podcasts which will typically be mentioned in casual conversation.
- NPR’s Serial, investigative journalism on often dark topics.
- NPR’s Invisibilia, touching the unconscious mind.
- This American Life, where Ira Glass tackles a topic from multiple, seemingly unrelated angles.
- Radiolab, where Jad Abumrad makes sound-experiments using podcasting.
- The Tim Ferris Show, where Tim Ferris deconstructs the success ingredients to an expert’s skills
- BBC’s Intelligence Squared, which hosts intelligent debates on society’s most pressing issues
What’s the deal with Podcasts?
If you want a little background on podcasts, here goes: Although podcasts started in the 1980s, it is only with the advent of the iPod that they became a household commodity. Last year, the market expanded beyond Apple, with Google and Spotify offering podcasting support, which means you no longer require iTune or the web to listen to your favourite shows.
People sometimes find it odd, in a world of technology-galore, that we should go back to something as basic as mere sound. No special effects. No image support. Just a voice talking. And yet, Alex Bloomberg (NPR’s Planet Money and Ira Glass’ This American Life) brings an interesting perspective when he shares the surprising results of a well documented study: Audio is the most honest medium.
In a recent meeting with 7 ‘‘leading podcast professionals’’, as the NY Times put it in a 2016 article, Apple addressed some of the top concerns when it comes to podcasting. As it generates no revenue for the company, many worry that this medium will not be supported in its growth, the same way that revenue-generating services might.
Top of the mind concern? Findability.
This theme is not unique to podcasting.
And it is not new, either.
Already, in 2013, the phenomenon started to get on the map, as in this article from Wired Magazine:
In the last months of 2013, more than 600 million search queries were carried out per day, and the number continues to grow 3–4 percent annually. However, customers fail to find what they are looking for — including your company — often. The problem is called “findability.” It’s a big problem, and it will only get bigger as competition increases.
Findability is the quality of a piece of information to be conveniently and intuitively “within reach” on the web when needed. In the hypercompetitive world of online commerce, ensuring that your findability is better than your competitors’ can be the difference between success and failure. First consider the two distinct hurdles to consumers finding exactly what they want on your site: external findability and on-site findability.
Several solutions are emerging to fix the findability problem, from SEO strategies to UX practices to content curation.
I thought of giving my two cents on the question: As a starting point for exploration, a little podcast curation.
