The podcasts app on the iPhone is often left unused, taking up space or having the unfortunate fate of being uninstalled. However, listening to podcasts is a great way to get information and learn new things in a simple and engaging way. There are many great podcasts ranging from stories about murders, pop culture, up and coming science, things you do not learn in history class, to short stories.
By far the most popular podcast ever is Serial, which was the fastest podcast to reach 5 million downloads. The New Yorker praised it as a “drama of prestige-television-style episodic storytelling.” It was a spin-off from the also very popular podcast This American Life. Serial is a true story of a murder in 1999 of a high school senior girl. The friend of the convicted murderer reached out to the journalist Sarah Koenig, and the podcast Serial was born. The story is told in twelve episodes and the narrative from Koenig is professional but very intriguing. Full of twists and cliffhangers, listening to it is as vivid and interesting as watching a movie. It won many awards such as the Peabody, Edward R. Murrow, duPont-Columbia, Scripps Howard, and Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts.
This American Life is also a great podcast that consists of small short stories that range from a program that brings kids from a poor public school and a rich private school together, what happened when two baby girls were switched at birth in a small Wisconsin town, stories about summer camp, and crazy coincidences. This podcast is often within the top ten podcasts on the podcasts app. They also recently launched an app that allows listeners to take their favorite lines of the shows and turn them into shareable clips of video.
The podcast Pod Save America, invites all kinds of people to talk about current politics, and With Friends Like These invites liberals and conservatives alike to talk about what divides people. Radiolab combines narratives with science, including stories about an autistic man’s journey to becoming independent with the help of Disney movies, the start of AIDS, and episodes about why sleep matters.
Discover the hidden designs that people encounter in everyday life with 99% Invisible. Uncover the mysteries of life through economics, with topics like sports, the American dream, and online dating with Freakonomics Radio. Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast about a fictional town in the USA where all the conspiracies are true. The creators wrote a book based on the podcast, which was one of the Washington Post’s best picks for sci-fi and fantasy.
Life is chaotic, and people are always moving. Podcasts are a great method entertainment and gaining knowledge without having to sit down. Just pop in some earbuds while walking to class, or plug the phone into an AUX cord, and enjoy an effortless source of entertainment.