I don’t read much for pleasure and we don’t have broadcast TV, so I’ve become kind of a podcast addict. I use podcasts to bribe myself to go to the gym (here’s a Freakonomics podcast on temptation bundling, if you’re interested in that technique), my family listens to podcasts when we’re driving to go skiing or mountain biking, I listen to podcasts on airplanes, on the bus, while I’m washing the dishes or waiting for my daughter at her music lessons or sports practices, and on and on.
Claire Harmer just wrote a post about podcasts for translators over at The Deep End, and I agree with all of her suggestions (and not just because she tagged Eve Bodeux’s and my podcast, Speaking of Translation). So here are some suggestions for your iTunes or Stitcher queue.
For translation-related podcasts, I listen to pretty much every episode of Tess Whitty’s Marketing Tips for Translators, and I always learn something new! For general freelance info, I listen to Ed Gandia’s Smarter Freelancing Podcast, because I think it’s good to glean tips from other freelance-heavy industries.
To keep up my source language skills, I listen to French Voices (if you’re an advanced speaker, the exercises are pretty basic but the interviews are really interesting), and occasionally Native French Speech.
When I want some brain candy, I listen to StartUp (technically a business podcast but very entertaining) and its spinoff, Reply All. Not exactly brain candy, but if you became addicted to the first season of Serial, you can follow the same story on a totally different podcast, Undisclosed. Warning: Undisclosed is awesome, but in an “am I getting three graduate credits for this?” kind of way. It will make no sense if you didn’t listen to every episode of Serial, and even if you did, you’ll still have to think back over some stuff (what’s the importance of the cell tower near McDonald’s? why is it important whether Jay was at Kathy’s at 3:12 PM?). And Freakonomics is always fun too!
I’ve also gotten my husband and my daughter addicted to some nerd podcasts, which we now listen to on car trips. Our absolute favorite is Futility Closet, described by its creator as “an idler’s miscellany of compendious amusements.” My daughter is 12, and it’s surprisingly hard to find podcasts that are not specifically for children but don’t contain a lot of swearing (for example I think that lots of tweens would find Reply All interesting, but pretty much every episode has a language warning), so Futility Closet gets a special shoutout for being PG. Many of the episodes cover interesting historical events, including lots of unsolved mysteries. I would especially recommend The Wizard of Mauritius, about a French naval officer who claimed to be able to see ships beyond the horizon, and The Lost Colony, which has a lot of information about the Roanoke colony that you probably didn’t learn in history class! We also really like You Are Not So Smart, which focuses on current research in psychology and behavioral economics (great subject matter but the episodes are often an hour or longer, and I tend to prefer 20-30 minute chunks), plus the NPR news quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
I’ll end this with a little call to action: if you’re a podcast addict too, make a habit of donating to your favorite shows. I figure that not having cable TV saves us a good chunk of money every month, so I force myself to donate to NPR, our community radio station and to my favorite podcasts, since they’re our major media consumption. Readers, any other fun or educational podcasts out there?
Thank you Corinne for mentioning Marketing Tips for Translators podcast. I am so glad you get lots of value from it. I would also like to thank you for mentioning donating to your favorite podcasts. I have donated to some and I am now also offering the possibility to donate to Marketing Tips for Translators, to cover some of the costs of producing it.
I will definitely check out the PG podcasts you mentioned. We are leaving on a 2,5 week road trip on Thursday and these will come in very handy for the long car rides. I have had a hard time finding podcasts that my teens enjoy too. The only ones we sometimes listen to as a family so far has been “This American Life”.
Hi Tess! I don’t know what app you use to listen to podcasts, but since you mentioned an upcoming trip, I though I would recommend Downcast. I just used it for a road trip myself. It makes it really easy to put together playlists, which is perfect for long drives. Thanks for all the hard work you put into Marketing Tips for Translators. It’s been so helpful to me in the early years of my translation career!
Hi Corinne! Another one that I like a lot is called A Way With Words. It’s a show that has listeners call in to ask questions about the origins or explanations of certain words, phrases, dialectal variations, etc. I highly recommend it!
I’m a podcast addict too. If you like Wait Wait you will probably also enjoy Ask Me Another, which is a nerdy fun quiz show. Radiolab is always intriguing as well.
Thanks for the mention, Corinne! These all sound great and I really like the sound of French Voices. Will have to download some of the episodes this weekend. I agree with Nicki and Kelley about Radiolab and A Way With Words, I love both of those. I think my all-time favourite is Stuff You Should Know:). Serial has a huge following in the UK too, but have still never listened to it! Definitely one for the iPod:).
Hi, what a great post. I love when podcast enthusiasts write about their passion. I’ve been listening to podcasts since 2005, really a flexible alternative to live radio.
Will definitely check out the podcasts you mention, thanks for sharing.
I wrote a few blog posts about the tech/IT podcasts (ok, podcasts for geeks in English, French and German!) I listen to, on the blog I recently started (posts in French: http://www.lingtech.fr).
Just recently started to be interested in France Culture’s podcasts, which are very diverse.
As for donations, some podcasters use Patreon, a great site to support content creators such as independent podcasters, but i am not using it yet.
Hi Corinne! I’m thrilled you like my podcast, French Voices! I listen to podcasts all the time. In French, I love “Au coeur de l’Histoire” (by Franck Ferrand for Europe 1). It’s about history and I adore his voice plus he’s so fascinating and knowledgeable! I also listen a lot to “La tête au carré” (Radio France), which is more about science, anthropology, psychology, research, envionment, etc (but for a general audience).
Thanks Jessica! I listen to every episode of your podcast and *love* it!!
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned “Stuff You Should Know” and all its sister podcasts by the company How Stuff Works. All of the podcasts are family friendly and the epitome of edu-tainment. (Note: The podcast “Stuff Mom Never Told You” discusses gender issues, including sex. You might want to screen this podcast to see if it’s suitable for your child, as some of the topics can be adult in nature, though they are always presented in an academic and respectful manner.)
“Working” is also a great podcast that interviews people about their jobs. This one is not always family friendly though, with occasional (or frequent) F-bombs depending on the interviewee, and one interview of an XXX actress.
Finally, Invisibilia is also very good and thought-provoking.
Thank you for sharing Corinne!
I also came to recommend “Stuff You Should Know”, but it looks like other people beat me to it! I also love Freakonomics and Start Up (and Marketing Tips for Translators, but that’s a given 🙂 )
Thanks for the other recommendations, Corinne!
I listen to things on my phone through Android apps. My interests are more general interest stories and news than some of the techy podcasts Fred Condette lists at his blog. I’ve recently been experimenting with how to listen to stuff on my phone through my car speakers and computer speakers…
For English, like others here have posted, I listen to the NPR app–specifically the general hourly news and then the program RadioLab (I’m with Nicki and Clair Harmer). But I’m impressed with the app because you can listen to any local station live as well as many recorded programs.
For German, I just this week downloaded the German equivalent to the NPR app called “Das DRadio” app. It is a nicely designed app that offers three similar live stations/programs/channels–Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and DRadio Wissen. The only problem is the weird English-language Euro pop that they play between breaks. Then just switch over to one of the other three channels.
I’ll put a plug-in here for YouTube video channels, which offer similar things to podcasts. I like listening to AlmostDaily (think The View but with hipster guys) and SRSLY.
For motivation, I like to listen to podcasts from Gretchen Rubin (“The Happiness Project”) and Leo Babauta (“Zen to Done”). Two short, but inspirational podcasts. And Tess Whitty’s is my favourite professional podcast.
Thanks for your suggestions, Corinne!