My Don’t-Miss Podcasts
Podcasts are my favorite companion for chores, road trips, and long hours of procrastination. My favorites shift and change, but I wanted to share with you my current favorites!
Double Love: The Sweet Valley Podcast. Francine Pascal’s idyllic and somewhat frightening California high-school world fully shaped my pre-teen and early teen years. I was nothing like the beautiful, popular Wakefield twins or any of their friends, yet somehow I thought high school was going to involve me zipping around in my red Fiat, waving my pompoms and going to dances twice a week. Nope. But the nostalgia never left me, and this podcast by two simply delightful Irish women fills the kitschy void the series left in me. They go through the series book by book, starting with “Double Love” and I laugh/cringe constantly. If you listen to nothing else I suggest, listen to this one.
Attitudes! Erin Gibson and Brian Safi are so fun to listen to; you can tell they love and respect each other so much. They talk about women’s issues and LGBTQ+ issues, serious issues, but do it with so much humor and outrage you can’t help but laugh and nod at their commentary. They also do a spinoff podcast called Groceries that I just adore, in which they review different local supermarkets—the business history, the atmosphere, the unusual items available, and their general experience at each one, and I absolutely love it. Try both podcasts.
Dirty John. This was a limited-series podcast that I was HOOKED on and binged wildly for a few days. There was a TV show starring Eric Bana made out of this true-crime case, but listen to the podcast first if you can. It’s gripping and mind-blowing. It’s about a middle-aged, wealthy woman who falls in love with someone who turns out to be—not who he seems to be.
Write-Minded. This is a weekly podcast hosted Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month and writer Brooke Warner. They have a writer on weekly and discuss various topics related to writing and finishing your novel. It’s usually about 30 minutes, and I do prefer a short effective interview to a long and rambling one, so I really enjoy it.
Write Now. Author Sarah Werner’s writing podcast is a really good one, and she feels like a friend who really “gets” your mindset as a writer.
The Creative Penn. Joanna Penn’s amazing podcast is full of interviews, publishing news, and various information. I learn something every time I listen.
Helping Writers Become Authors. K.M. Weiland’s amazing, amazing, amazing podcast. If you’re a writer and you’re not listening to this one, what the heck are you doing with your life? Go listen NOW.
Various true-crime podcasts. There are a lot of them out there, and I love them, and here are my favorites right now: Killer Queens, Not Another True-Crime Podcast, Generation Why, and Housewives of True Crime.
Hello from the Magic Tavern. Arnie fell into a magical portal behind a Burger King and landed in the magical world of Foon, where he podcasts weekly (using the poor Burger King WiFi signal) in an attempt to reach his family back on Earth. Meanwhile, he hangs out in this tavern with Usidore the wizard, Chunt the talking badger, and various other D&D types that wander in and out.
I hope you find something new to check out from this list. What are you guys listening to right now? Tell me! I love finding new voices to listen to …
