I’m quite late to the podcast party. I must admit for a while I didn’t have a clue how to access one and thought it was for someone far more techy than me. Once I realised all I needed was my phone I jumped straight in although I have to say I find the in-build podcast app on my iPhone a pain to use. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t find it particularly intuitive. James introduced me to Overcast which I dowloaded from the app store, though most of the time I listen to podcasts directly through my laptop. We also have one of those Alexa things in the kitchen and on the 2 of out 10 times she understands my accent, she’ll serve me up an episode to listen to while I’m prepping dinner.

Comedy

My Dad Wrote a Porno was my first foray in to podcasts. The concept centres around a group of three friends analysing an erotic fiction novel allegedly penned by the father of one of the presenters.
I have to say the first series had me flitting between fits of giggles and uncontrollable cringing. It was good while it lasted and though I don’t think we’ll be listening to series 2 and 3 I wonder if I’ve just become a bit desensitised to the humour. Do give it a whirl though if you fancy a laugh.

True Crime

In the autumn, James and I devoured season one of Serial, the tale of an unsolved murder in Baltimore. I found the whole thing gripping and unnerving though if you want closure you’re sadly not going to get it. Since then James has been listening to Someone Knows Something again covering cold cases. While we’ve been beavering away on the bathroom project we covered a big chunk of the JonesTown episodes of Casefile, the true crime podcast about the cult leader Jim Jones and the appalling massacre at a South American jungle settlement.

Women & Pop Culture

Recently recommended to me by Adam’s wife Lizzie, I’m not afraid to say I have a huge girl crush on Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton from The High Low. Their weekly round-up of pop-culture and politics is intelligent, witty and I find myself nodding in agreement to (nearly) everything they say. Their criticism of rebranding ‘looking after yourself’ to self care – ‘lighting a candle, doing some meditation and wiping your arse with the cushiony tissue not the standard’ had me howling with laughter.
Becky also recommended Ctrl Alt Delete where Emma Gannon interviews creatives. I loved the episode with Lauren Laverne and as a resulted have added Late Night Women’s Hour to my listen list too.

DIY

Young House Love has a Podcast, brought to you by Sherry and John Petersik, the DIYers who experienced blogger burnout several years ago after sharing every step of renovating two properties and their life. They took a break, reduced their blog content, bought another house and started a podcast. It’s VERY enthusiastic so I have to be in the right mood for it but I have a real soft spot for these two home decor bloggers who became experts in their field.

Career

Janet Murray – now this lady is very keen to bring in her own experience when she’s interviewing guests! However if you can get past this, she has a wide range of industry experts on her Soulful PR podcast who give some sound advice on getting more exposure for your business.

With these weekly podcasts, I’m very much enjoying the fact that it’s the antithesis to the binge of a TV boxset. It’s old school in the way that I have to wait for next week to listen to the next episode. It sounds like I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, and that would be correct, but I’m tuning in while multi-tasking; doing the cleaning, making the dinner, fitting a new bath (as you do) and it makes a welcome change to listening to the same old playlist on spotify.

What podcasts do you listen to? What else should I be adding to my listen list?