We start with an apology… The Christmas period was certainly hectic for both of us this year. I had a major exam just after my 30th birthday in mid December and Hannis had some crazy work deadlines that had us working all the hours of the day. Hannis flew back for the festive period to spend Christmas at home with me and his parents (hooray!) so instead of broadening our horizons with a Broadener in December we decided to spend some quality time catching up with friends and family (and some skiing hooray). So sorry for the radio silence. We’re still here! Warning – this blog post contains no photos!
We resumed the monthly #Broadener in January with one that I was so so excited about: spending an average of 30 minutes a day listening to different podcasts. The rules for this one were pretty lax:
- Listen to a podcast a day
- Aim to average out listening time to roughly 30 minutes a day (they always seem to be 15 mins, 40 mins or an hour)
- Pick anything but try to select a range of podcast shows and topics
- Occasionally choose something you really wouldn’t normally listen to
We created a little group on WhatsApp called “Podcasts” (with just the two of us in it) so that we could share the link for the podcasts we listened to each day and write a short report on it. This just helped us to have it all in one place rather than in amongst our normal daily conversations.
The stuff we listened to definitely fulfilled the definition of broad! Everything under the sun from the design of the first straw (much debate about how evil the straw really is) to adolescent animals to how-not-to-hire-a-psychopath to Islamic anti-semitism to Nigerian hospital prisoners and so much more. At the end of the post is a list of every single podcast we listened to throughout the month!
There’s something so soothing about listening to a podcast. Often when I’m driving I like to have a bit of music playing to drown out the traffic and engine noise. This is fine if I’ve got signal to connect spotify for a playlist but when I don’t, or I’m lacking musical inspiration, I will switch to the radio. Incessant droning and adverts. Ugh. But. Hallelujah! Thanks to Hannis, I’ve discovered the almighty podcast. 3 minute songs played over and over again make a journey feel so slow but a 30-50 minute burst of interesting knowledge is just ideal.
Hannis introduced me to some light podcasts when we travelled around Europe in Nellie. Often we listened to No Such Thing As A Fish, which many people will have heard of. The presenting team is made up of a lovely combination of people whom write the questions for QI. Each week they make the podcast with the favourite facts they’ve come across and it tends to be pretty light, often very interesting and frequently very funny. For this #Broadener however we were going off piste and trying to Broaden our Horizons. So no NSTAAF for us…
We listened to all sorts of stuff but I thought we’d pick some of the favourites below. Hannis and I also chose whatever we wanted and recommended ones that the other person would probably like.
Fern’s Fave Four:
- The BBC Documentary Podcast “Africa’s Drone Experiment“
- 99% Invisible Episode 321 “Double Standards“
- TED Radio Hour “Extrasensory“
- Ologies “Oceanology“
I consistently found the BBC documentary podcast episodes to be thoroughly interesting, well researched and, unsurprisingly, pretty straight laced. Facts galore. The Drone experiment one was particularly fascinating as there is a company called ZipLine who have started up delivery of blood products by drone in Rwanda. The podcast delves into drone delivery specifics, recent advancements, the ethics and intentions of ZipLine, the future of drone delivery and the new hotspots for drone activity in Africa.
99% invisible is well produced, professional and always has me quietly muttering “oh reeeeeally” but has a generally more relaxed feel than the BBC podcast. The premise is about excellent design but I don’t think it’s an eminent underlying theme unless you’re aware of this (perhaps just my poor observation though!). Some other highlights of this series for me are “Orphan Drugs”, “The Shipping Forecast”, “The Vault” and “Fire and Rain” (ok I really really like 99% invisible).
TED radio hour is pretty ideal for someone with a short attention span (like me…). They are compiled of several short TED talks linked along a similar theme and they’re pretty great. I loved the one “Extrasensory” which was loosely based around technological ways of augmenting or replacing our senses. This ranged from building voice profiles with matched “voice donors” for children who use a speech generator to communicate, to prosthetic limb control and finally to wearable tech that turns colour to sound. All pretty inspiring and amazing.
I put Oceanology in there largely because I loved the content more than the production of the Ology podcasts. Don’t get me wrong, they’re well produced, but the woman who presents them I find a tiny bit over the top sometimes. She is full of passion for her craft and quite funny so I’ll give her that (maybe I’m being a stolid Brit)! The oceanology podcast is about the impact of humans on the ocean and vice versa *NB NOT about oceanography. Think plastic pollution, overfishing, rubbish-eating machines with googly eyes and some light ocean based facts – who knew barnacles have the longest penis:body ratio eh. Also, the interviewee Dr Ayana Johnson is really fantastic and inspiring.
Hannis’ Fave Four:
- Feel Better Liver More “The training Secrets of the Hollywood Stars with David Higgins“
- TED Radio Hour “The Person You Become“
- BBC Radio 4 Analysis “The Replication Crisis“
- TED Radio Hour “Transparency“
Now, whilst there were loads of excellent podcasts that were well produced and super informative, there were a tonne of rubbish ones too. It took quite a bit of sifting through and on occasion I’d start three before settling on one I could actually sit and listen to. I’m not sure how much of this was my search for something a bit different. I listened to all sorts of random stuff to try and diversify, including a Utah podcast about avalanches that essentially turned out to be a bunch of friends talking about skiing lines I’d never heard of. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE skiing but listening to the particulars of skiing specific chutes in Utah was a tad tedious… and don’t get me started on the ironically titled “Table Manners with Jessie Ware”. She invites celebrities over for dinner with her mum and then solidly talks over them for half an hour. Ok I didn’t actually make it to half an hour of that one because I couldn’t take any more after the first fifteen minutes…
I think this Broadener has really nourished me. There is so much that the podcast world has to offer and listening to one really improves my mood whilst commuting. And they’re free! Can’t recommend enough.
What’s your favourite podcast? When do you listen to them? Please let us know if you have any recommendations!
Lots of love
Fern and Hannis xxx