Top 2 podcasts that you should not miss!
The best podcasts in over 100 titles I’ve listened to!
Podcasts have seen a surge of interest, particularly after Covid hit us, where people had to be confined to small spaces with not a lot of things to do. These days, you can see tonnes of podcasts covering everything under the sun. I’m not sure of the exact reason of this sudden spike in interest in podcasts, but my love for them started almost 8 years back.
I listen to songs, but I’m not one of the avid fans who listen to them a thousand times over and over. I get bored easily and found that by listening to podcasts or TED talks, I got to listen to various titles without them getting repetitive. I love doing chores, driving or habitual tasks while playing a podcast on my Alexa or my headphones and I wanted to create this list for people who would like to start somewhere in the endless and confusing podcast maze or for existing listeners to find new titles that they can listen to.
The Happiness Lab
Are you someone who likes listening to the various ways in which our mind works? Would you like to increase your happiness levels in a tried and tested method? Do you think that your success or money or any of the material stuff does not give you lasting happiness?
If your answer is ‘Yes’ for the questions above, then this podcast is for you. If I can rank all the podcasts that I’ve listened to so far, this would hold the number 1 spot. This is not some voodoo or some pseudo-science which has no proof of existence, but thoroughly researched and factual data which is presented by a Yale Psychology Professor, Dr. Laurie Santos who studied the science of happiness.
It might not sound appealing from the description and might sound like a science class but trust me, this podcast can change your life, and it’s presented in a format that would not be boring at all.
Favourite episode of the podcast:
Modern Love
This podcast is based on a popular column with the same name in New York Times which has an avid fan base. This is a relatively popular podcast and even has a show on Amazon Prime Video revolving around the stories (Kit Harrington plays a role in one of the episodes if you are a fan of Game of Thrones). It talks about love stories of people from all over the world, and it’s not stories about sappy romance but has stories on attraction, stories that survived more than 50 years, first love, domestic violence, stories on LGBTQ and a lot more. Famous personalities like Daniel Radcliffe, Alicia Keys etc. narrate some of the stories and you’d love them if you are a fan.
The production of this podcast is amazing, and they’ve put in a lot of efforts to make it as pleasing as possible. Not all the stories might be your cup of tea, but if you are lucky, you might come across some amazing stories that might melt your heart and make you tear up by just listening to them.
Favourite episode of the podcast:
Special mentions:
- The Michelle Obama Podcast — Absolutely loved and adored each and every episode in this podcast. Michelle is one of the best storytellers out there, and you would find yourself laughing, making notes and smiling to yourself in all of the episodes.
- The Huberman Lab —Yet another science based podcast that talks about how our brain works and how to optimize our lives by Dr Huberman who is a Professor at Stanford school of medicine. It’s not in the list but in the special mention because of the format in which the data is presented which is very straightforward and even though the content is absolutely fantastic, sometimes, I’ve felt that it’s a bit too fast and flat. But, the content is worth it and with patience, you can learn so much about our body and mind.
Regional podcast recommendations ( Tamil ):
- Kadhai Osai — A podcast of Tamil audiobooks by Kalki, Pudhumaipithan, Jeyamohan and many more which is wonderfully read by Deepika Arun that it gives the vibe of listening to the top-notch radio shows from the 90s, and you’ll fall in love with her narration as much as the story itself. An excellent choice to listen to at night as a bedtime story for adults. Listen to her narration of Ponniyin Selvan if you’ve always wanted to read them and thank me later!
- Nallanna Murukku —I’ve listened to RJ Balaji ever since I was in college and I hated listening to him in radios because of the infinite amount of ads that would play. So, I would listen to recordings like cross talk and other talks by him that gets passed on between fans. (At some point, there was an app in play store having just his hilarious talks which was very famous) When he came up with a podcast, I was really happy, and I expected some hilarious comments and funny conversations but each and every episode is deep and talks about the issues in society like equality between men and women, being assertive and the value of friendship which was quite surprising in a good way. Do give it a shot if you like the way he talks a lot too!
