We’ve put together a selection of what we consider the best podcasts – read on to find your new favorite show.
Remember way back in 2005 when podcasts were heralded by the media as the future of radio? Well, a few years later everyone collectively became a bit sick of audio, and the same publications were quick to ring the death knell for the once-beloved podcast.
Now it’s not just the interview format that makes the best podcast ear candy, but advice shows, conversations between friends, comedy series, horror series, tales about the past and so much more.
We’ ve collected together just a few of our favorite podcasts to liven up your morning commute. Whether you like to laugh, cry, scare yourself silly or expand your mind on your way to your 9-to-5, we’ ve got something for you.
If you’ve ever read The Guardian’s Long Read features, you’ll know you need to carve out a lot of time to sit down and be able to make a dent in them. Luckily The Guardian now records some of them too so you can listen to them on your commute and fit in even more in-depth pieces.
Topics covered by the Audio Long Reads vary from the history of Indian restaurants in the UK to political topics from across the globe. You can get some amazingly varied topics from subscribing to Audio Long Reads and we’d recommend checking it out to see if anything takes your fancy.
Plan to start running soon? Marathon Talk may be the show that will persuade you to get up and out for a jog. It’s the UK’s number-one running podcast and is listened to all over the world by people trying to start out running for the very first time as well as jogging veterans.
There’s currently around 700 hours of Marathon Talk episodes out there, so if you plan to start running a lot you’ll have lots of material to get you motivated and out the front door.
Ever wondered if we can resurrect languages that have entirely died out? That’s one of the topics The Allusionist covers, but this show also dives into the intricacies of the English language that you’ve never noticed.
Designed to be short little bursts of information about the way we write and talk to each other, The Allusionist is a great listen for anyone with a passing interest in the way languages have developed and continue to change at great pace.
If you’re a film fan, you have to check out Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s podcast. You may have heard it refereed to as Wittertainment, and it’s essentially two guys who love cinema reviewing the week’s releases and chatting in-between.
The show brings in a lot of massive stars, exhaustive film knowledge and one of the UK’s best film critics to make a must-listen show about the latest releases. Plus, there’s a great dose of Jason Isaac too.
A light-hearted, genuinely passionate podcast that celebrates the game. Marcus, Pete, Jim and Luke have picked up a huge following, do live shows and offer an ad-free version and host of extra shows if you’re prepared to pay for Acast, but the weekly classic and another (ostensibly) betting focused show remain freely available and well worth a listen – plus there’s a new move into European football that has fans excited too.
Stuff You Should Know is perhaps the most self explanatory title for a podcast ever. The show features Josh and Chuck talking through topics and trying to get to the heart of the information you need to know about them.
Recent podcasts have been based around satanism, stuttering and even ketchup. Essentially this is the perfect show to listen to if you’re looking for great new dinner party material.
Beloved British comedian Adam Buxton became the joint king of comedy podcasts when, many years ago, he presented with chum Joe Cornish on cult UK radio station BBC Radio 6 Music.
Fast-forward to the present day and Buxton has begun a new, interview-based podcast, which he releases roughly every other week. Each episode sees Buxton having deep conversations, also known as ‘ramble chats’ , with the likes of Louis Theroux, Richard Ayoade and Jonny Greenwood.
They feel much more real and relatable than other interviews you’ ll hear, and Buxton shares a lot too, rather than just firing questions at his guests.
Let’s imagine that you found out your dad had written an actual porno. Your dad. A porno. *Shudders*.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to Jamie Morton. But, rather than ignore it, or bottle it up, or feel rather disgusted like most of us probably would, he decided to read through it with the help of Radio 1’s Alice Levine and James Cooper.
And that’s how My Dad Wrote a Porno was born. Carter reads a new chapter each week, and it makes for truly laugh-out-loud-funny listening.
Even if you aren’t into Hip Hop, this is a great listen. Brit-based comedian Romesh Ranganathan chats all things rap with a number of special guests who recollect the first time they heard their favorite hip-hop tracks and how they tie in with their lives.
Ranganathan maybe known for his stand up but he’s a great talk show host too, managing to uncover brilliant stories from his guests – who range from Frankie Boyle to DJ Yoda. His own rap insights are great, too, although the less said about his lack of love for De La Soul the better.
Hey, It’s Okay is essentially the weekly talk-show version of Glamour Magazine UK’s monthly feature of the same name. Every episode the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Jo Elvin is joined by a member of her editorial team and a celebrity guest to discuss anything and everything.
Each episode runs from 30 to 45 minutes and usually covers three topics of discussion but they can range from Googling yourself and social media to mental health and relationships. The show attracts a good range of guests that have included Dawn French and David Baddiel and the discussions are consistently funny, down-to-Earth and guaranteed to cheer you up.
Brought to you by the team behind the fascinating and addictive TED Talks, the weekly TED Radio Hour podcast presents ideas, new ways of thinking, and compelling stories for you to mull over on the way to your dull office job.
Topics range from ways to save our dying planet and unpicking the problems with democracy, to a frank peek at the ways in which we love. If it’s brain food you’ re after on your commute, rather than creepy stories or endless laugh-out-loud moments, then TED Radio Hour is what we prescribe.
If you’ ve even got a smidge of an interest in cycling, you’ ll love The Cycling Podcast. Presented by award-winning journalists Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe, it focuses on the world of professional cycling, covering the weekly talking points of the sport and the stories behind them.
With expert analysis and interviews with the biggest names in cycling, their encyclopedic knowledge of the sport is infectious. And while they take the sport seriously and don’ t shy away from cycling’s more challenging topics, their talk of the food and culture of the region they’ re visiting on a Grand Tour adds a layer of color and atmosphere that’s all nicely wrapped up with the teams relaxed (but far from amateurish) presenting style. It’s easy to see why it’s one of the most respected sports podcasts out there.
For the likes of the Tour de France, Giro d’ Italia and Vuelta a Espana, there are daily half-hour podcasts to really immerse yourself into the story of a three week Grand Tour. That’s not forgetting the The Cycling Podcast Féminin, a new monthly show dedicated to women’s cycling
Having only started in 2017 you might be forgiven for thinking that the Important If True gang are new to the world of podcasting, but this couldn’ t be further from the truth. Chris, Jake and Nick are podcast veterans, having hosted the successful Idle Thumbs podcast for a number of years.
Important if True is obsessed with all things tech and pop culture. At their heart, Chris Remo and co are phenomenal story tellers, taking the best niche tales and spinning them out into epic tales which all too often get integrated into classic pop culture tropes.
It’s not uncommon for an episode to start with an innocuous piece of technology news, only to grow into a pitch for a B-movie screenplay that then gets referenced throughout the rest of the episode. With laughs aplenty and some genuinely interesting observations, Important if True is a must-listen for any fans of nerd culture.
What do the Large Hadron Collider, Toy Story 2 and the estimated cost of the Death Star in Star Wars have in common? All have been topics covered on No Such Thing As A Fish.
Every week, the brains behind BBC’s long-running entertainment panel show QI sit down around microphones to share some very strange facts, and believe us you’ll gain some peculiar knowledge from this show.
