Commutes can be unpleasant sometimes.
Whether you’re packed body-to-body on the T or bumper-to-bumper on the highway, the trek to and from work is often a joyless experience. With podcasts however, you can use your travel time catching up with the latest news, learning something new, or simply having a laugh.
With all of the kinds of podcasts available for listening today, there’s bound to be something that makes your favorites list. Here are some that made ours.
Business
Boston Speaks Up: In this interview-centric podcast, host Zach Servideo talks with inspiring individuals across Beantown. Each episode focuses on one person, who tells the story of their successes, inspirations, and struggles. Often, the show focuses on people with connections to startups and entrepreneurship, including Angel Investor and Startup Mentor Jason Burke, Tech4Hood co-founder Roman Jaquez, and BostInno’s own Rowan Walrath and Srividya Kalyanaraman. (Average runtime: 45-70 minutes).
Planet Money: This biweekly NPR podcast covers all things economy. From explaining broad economic topics like the fluctuation of interest rates and the production process of dollar bills to retelling economic history like the invention of recycling and the origin of income tax, Planet Money has everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the green stuff. The show was born out of an episode of the podcast This American Life in 2008, and since then has produced almost 1,000 episodes. (Average runtime: 22 minutes).
Educational
Hidden Brain: Another NPR podcast, Hidden Brain uses a mix of storytelling and scientific research to delve into the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior: The thoughts and desires hidden beneath the surface of our minds. Host Shankar Vedantam explores human behavior through sociology and psychology, touching on a range of topics such as distraction, false belief, empathy, and identity. The podcast grew out of Vendantam’s Slate column of the same name, and relies heavily on scientific research. (Average runtime: 30-50 minutes).
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week: In preparation for writing Popular Science articles, the PopSci staff writers go on a lot of odd research deep dives. In The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week, they collect the strangest items they came across in their work week, from smoke enemas, to carnivorous mushrooms, to Thomas Jefferson’s belief that Giant Sloths roamed Western America. Each writer shares one strange fact, and at the end of the episode, they vote on whose fact was the weirdest. For anyone who loves learning fun facts, or just wants something interesting to bring up at parties, this is the podcast for you. (Average runtime: 45 minutes).
Sawbones: A medical history podcast hosted by Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin, Sawbones explores the often dark, often weird ways that medicine has evolved over the years. The show’s subtitle labels it as “A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine,” and that’s a pretty accurate description. The episodes cover medical techniques like plague medicine, mercury, and crystal healing, as well as the history of diseases like rabies, polio and cholera. Although the subject matter is often inherently dark, it’s always offset by the goofy banter of the show, and the dynamic between Sydnee, the knowledgeable doctor, and Justin, her not-so-knowledgeable husband, is always a joy to listen to. (Average runtime: 45 minutes).
Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness: Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness hosts this podcast about, well, anything he’s curious about. Through a series of interviews, Van Ness learns all he can about a particular subject, which can range from social issues to politics to advanced science. Through Van Ness’ unique voice and charisma, as well as his thorough interview style, listening to Getting Curious is like getting a crash course on a particular topic. It’s learning in a very fun, very playful, very Jonathan Van Ness way. (Average runtime: 50-60 minutes).
Radiolab: Radiolab describes itself as a podcast that “investigates a strange world”. The WNYC Studios podcast is investigative journalism at its best, digging into odd moments in history, and unusual phenomena in society. The show combines story-telling with education, and puts the listener right in the shoes of the strange moments it highlights. There are episodes about rewriting DNA, narratives and scientific research on the concept of color, and even an episode about “falling”, which combines stories about falling in love, getting injured, and riding down Niagara Falls in a barrel. (Average runtime: 60 minutes).
Storytelling
The Moth: This podcast, run by a non-profit organization of the same name, is dedicated to unscripted, first-person storytelling. Stories are told at the Moth’s Mainstage program around the world, and then recorded and curated for retelling in podcast form. The stories can be heartbreaking or hilarious, and are told by people of any background that you can possibly imagine. The only thread that ties each ten to fifteen minute long story together is a particular theme, which can be as broad as “Confrontations” or as specific as “Stories from Ireland”. (Average runtime: 50 minutes).
Making Gay History: Making Gay History is a podcast for anyone interested in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement, and is a collection of personal interviews with key figures and witnesses to queer history throughout the late 20th and early 21st century. Each episode is an interview that Eric Marcus conducted with prolific LGBTQ+ leaders and allies while researching for the two editions (1992 and 2002) of his book Making Gay History. Some of the interviews recorded by Marcus are the only surviving oral accounts by certain LGBTQ+ figures in history, such as his interviews with Sylvia Rivera and Vito Russo. For anyone in the LGBTQ+ community (or anyone interested in untold social histories in general), Making Gay History is a must-listen. (Average runtime: 20-30 minutes).
Snap Judgement: A self-described “musical storytelling” podcast, Snap Judgement combines well-researched stories from history and today with music that makes the podcast into an almost cinematic experience. Produced by WNYC Studios and with a radio show on NPR, host Glynn Washington takes listeners through a number of narratives, the majority of which are told in first person by a variety of speakers. The program first aired in July of 2010, and has been going strong ever since. (Average runtime: 30-40 minutes).
Miscellaneous
Oh No Ross and Carrie: Investigator duo Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy are determined to research as much as they can about spirituality and the paranormal, and want to bring their listeners along for the ride. With the motto “we show up so you don’t have to,” Blocher and Poppy have investigated a large number of fringe religions, pseudoscientific practices, and supernatural claims, often going undercover to get an inside look. Some of their most daring outings in the past have been when the pair both actually joined the Mormon church, as well as when they traveled to the Rhythmia spiritual retreat resort in Costa Rica and participated in Ayahuasca ceremonies (which involved taking an intense psychoactive drug for spiritual purposes). If you’ve ever been curious about anything in the realm of spirituality, Oh No Ross and Carrie is a crazy ride. (Average runtime: 60 minutes).
My Brother, My Brother and Me: MBMBAM is self-described as “an advice podcast for the modern era”. Hosted by brothers Griffin, Travis, and Justin McElroy, this comedy podcast is structured like a typical advice podcast: Listeners send in questions, either self-asked or found on Yahoo Answers, and the brothers answer them to the best of their ability. More times than not, this leads to things going off the rails fast. With tangents and goofs galore, this podcast is great for anyone who wants to take an hour out of their day to listen to something unadulteratedly silly. The McElroy brothers are an absolute joy to listen to, especially when they’re answering Yahoo Answers questions like these. (Average runtime: 60 minutes).
Flash Forward: Produced and hosted by Rose Eveleth, Flash Forward is a podcast that imagines possible future scenarios, and then seeks to explain how these could be made possible through real-world science. Each episode begins with a fictional imagining of the titular future, which is then followed by an interview with a real-world expert about the subject in question, and whether or not this is a future that could actually happen. In the past, the show has explored subjects like eternal prison sentences, the possible secession of California from the U.S., and teleportation. They even had an episode where an AI created a possible future and they debated the validity of AI creativity. Flash Forward was named one of the Best Podcasts of 2016 by Apple Podcasts, and has been featured on Wired, Popular Science, and more. (Average runtime: older episodes 20 minutes, newer episodes 60 minutes).
Beef and Dairy Network: The weirdest podcast has definitely been saved for last. Produced by Benjamin Partridge and a part of the Maximum Fun network of podcasts, Beef and Dairy Network is a comedy podcast entirely focused on, as it states on its website, “the production of beef animals and dairy herds”. The entire podcast is played completely straight, with Partridge staging fake interviews, fake ads for dairy-themed events and organizations, and taking fake callers onto the show. For anyone who’s a fan of dry British humor, and who enjoys oddball comedy of any sort, Beef and Dairy certainly delivers. In both 2017 and 2018, the podcast won Best Comedy at the British Podcast Awards. (Average runtime: 30-40 minutes).
