I was originally a bit late to the podcast party, but ever since I switched from music to podcasts as my commute distraction of choice I’ve been hooked. I love that I can expand my mind and learn new things while walking to work or sitting on a train, and they’re also a great way to feel like you’re doing something productive when you feel too tired to read a book or write. Today I wanted to talk about some of my favourite podcasts, and why you should be downloading them right now.

Ctrl, Alt, Delete

Hosted by full-time blogger, published author and general social media it-girl of 2016 Emma Gannon, the Ctrl Alt Delete podcast is all the motivation a girl needs on her Monday morning commute. She interviews people from all kinds of industries and specialisms who have built careers and achieved success online and through social media, and although she has the odd male guest the majority of her interviewees are inspiring women who are girl-bossing through life. She and her guests discuss motivation, self-belief, work/life balance and everything in between – just what you need to send you into a new week feeling full of purpose.

The Unsorry Podcast

Sam Sparrow and Lea Rice’s no bullshit podcast series about feminism, careers, body image and everything in between feels like an evening chatting with your best friends. Not the glamorous Saturday night kind where you all dress up and get giggly on over-priced cocktails, but the midweek dinner kind where you turn up in your work clothes because you’ve come straight from the office, limit yourself to one glass of wine because it’s only Tuesday and you’re not insane, and yet dole out some quality real talk and generally set the world to rights. It’s unpretentious, to the point, and I love it.

Another Round

I’ve only just started listening to Another Round but after a few episodes it’s already one of my new favourites. If Unsorry is the midweek catch-up of podcasts, Another Round is the Friday happy hour, an impression that is helped by the fact that hosts Heben and Tracy are actually drinking on the show. They discuss race and gender but overwhelmingly in a lighthearted and digestible way, and they intersperse their serious points with drunk debates, rambling anecdotes and some of the worst corny jokes you’ve ever heard.

Invisibilia

Invisibilia gives me chills – it’s all about the ‘invisible forces’ that influence our behaviour and reveals some seriously mind-bending concepts about how ideas and emotions can exercise control over people in unbelievable ways. I’m cynical enough to dismiss bits of it as hocum or coincidence, but there are also some really interesting ideas about the power of thoughts, assumptions, fear and mind over matter. Hosts Alix Spiegel, Lulu Miller and Hana Rosin generally study a few different cases in one episode with help from relevant scientists, psychologists and behavioural specialists, and I get so engrossed that it’s a real struggle to pause an episode halfway through.

Magic Lessons

Liz Gilbert’s Magic Lessons podcast (which she started after the release of her book on creativity, Big Magic) feels like a free therapy session that I can digest while I’m wandering around the supermarket or waiting for a bus. In each episode Liz introduces someone who is struggling with a creative block, and spends the episode talking through what might be stopping them from creating. Because her guests are just ~regular~ people they tend to touch on struggles that are familiar to most of us – lack of free time, mentally draining jobs, fear manifesting as procrastination – and it’s a great way to give yourself a kick up the backside if you’re in a creative slump.

What are your favourite podcasts? Leave me your recommendations in the comments!