Two years ago Allison Maxwell suggested a little podcast to me.  You might have heard of it… Serial.  It sounded fascinating, but… I had no idea how to listen to a podcast!  I’m not even kidding!

So I called my tech guy (okay, my husband Josh) and asked him how I go about listening to a podcast.

— If you’re a podcast listener, you’re probably laughing right now, but I’m serious– I didn’t know how to find a podcast!–

— And if you aren’t a podcast listener, I’m about to open up your world.–

As it turns out, the podcast app was already on my phone– it’s one of those annoying ones you can’t ever delete.  I had it saved under a folder I’d titled ‘Useless.’

I listened to Serial on an hour drive home from Richmond, and quickly I found every excuse in the world to listen some more!  Now I don’t go a day without listening to some sort of podcast.  I love it.  I also listen to a lot of audio books.  It’s so wonderful to have information or stories to listen to while driving or putting on makeup or editing.

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Here are a few of my favorites, organized by category (but not necessarily in a particular order).  I’d love to know what yours are– I’m always looking to add some new ones to the line-up!

Personal Development:

The Dave Ramsey Show: It’s a financial podcast, and it’s totally inspiring.  We’ve followed his plan for a full decade now and I can vouch that it really does work!  It’s no frills and he’s a bit rough sometimes, but it really does work.  Callers ask questions and Dave answers them.  I know the answers before he even says them, but I still love listening to it.  It’s also three hours a day, every day, so I never run out of episodes to listen to!

Up First: This is a short news podcast every morning.  I’ve only been listening for a month or so, but I really love it.  It’s by NPR and they report on US politics each morning.  95% of the time it’s unbiased, and I love that.  It’s hard to find straight to the point news sources that don’t spend 15 minutes talking about the latest celebrity or a new cat meme.  It’s super short, but just enough information to get my feet wet, and I know what to research if I want to learn more!  They also report more than just the headlines– if President Trump is having difficulties with a certain country, then they’ll let us know how past Presidents have fared with that same country.  It’s important to know those details.  It’s certainly not in depth, but it does give me a good taste each morning.

North Point Community Church: Always a solid message, and totally fascinating.  When we lived in Atlanta, we attended and volunteered at this church, so it always holds a special place in our hearts.

Mom Life:

Coffee + Crumbs: Calling all moms!!!  This is encouraging and fills your soul.  It’s meant to bring some peace to your day– a place of rest.  And they do!

Disney Story Central Podcast: Hazel hears me listen to podcasts all the time, and she wanted one for herself!  This is a total gem!  They have excellent in-character voices tell different Disney stories.  She’s listened to all of them at least twice.  She loves them and I love that it’s a different way to stimulate her mind.  Also?  She knows the Moana story but has never seen the movie, lol!  Extra bonus– if you’re heading home late one night, you can totally claim this as the bedtime story, in the car!

Business Development:

Christy Wright’s Business Boutique: She’s a gem, and she talks 100 miles a minute with tons of information.  It’s the only podcast that I’ll go back and listen to twice.  I like my information fast and I don’t like a lot of fluff, so I love that she gets straight to the point.  She’s also a part of the Dave Ramsey team, so her advice aligns with my goals, and that’s really helpful when getting business advice!

The Goal Digger Podcast: I’d seen Jenna Kutcher’s Facebook ads for months and I was so sick of them.  Just another blonde chick telling me all about how I can grow my business!!  But then one day I listened to the podcast and I hated to admit how much I learned.  And pretty quickly I fell in love with her.  There’s a reason her business is booming and she has a zillion followers.  Her advice is solid.  This is also a super quick moving podcast– one that will make you want to take notes!

For Fun:

99% Invisible: I love this one!!  It dives deep into things that we’ve either never thought about, or barely noticed.  Totally fascinating.

Reply All: I like about 80% of these episodes.  It’s all about the internet, and I like about 80% of the internet, so that makes sense.  They report on different weird internet things.  They also have a piece called Yes/Yes/No where they answer really weird internet things.  I like that I never know what the next episode holds.  It’s a fun listen.

Criminal: It’s all about criminals and criminal behavior, but not in the way you usually think.  It’s rarely the evil criminals you think about for a criminal based show– sometimes you are even on the side of the criminals!  It’s also a fascinating show.

Detective: Who knew I liked true crime stories?  Detective has two seasons, each one is stories from a detective of his time in the field.  Both have great voices and incredible stories.

Serial: If you haven’t listened to this, you are living under a rock.  Crawl out from under that rock, listen, and tell me whether he killed that girl or not.  Season 2 is way different.  I still liked it but many people did not.

S-town: I don’t even know how to talk about this podcast without doing any spoilers.  Trust me, you need to get through episode 3 before you can even google it on the internet!  It’s a storytelling podcast, and it only has 7 episodes in its entirety.  After finishing it, I have no idea how I feel about it.  If I tried to write about my feelings afterwards, I think I’d write a 30 page paper.