Podcasts come in mainly two forms – audio and video. To find out more about what a podcast is read our guide, What is a podcast?. You can listen to podcasts on a variety of different devices, or download an app to listen to podcasts from a particular service, for example Spotify. This great guide for beginners covers how to listen to a podcast for various devices.
Various types of podcast
- Professional podcasts such as those produced by the BBC or newspapers are easily available and often free.
- A lot of insight on topical news stories is available from podcasts, which often give a different slant from the output of the main broadcasters.
- Comedy and quirky content is constantly being produced. There’s a huge demand for novelty items. A well-used website for finding new sources of podcast entertainment is StumbleUpon.
- Another very useful type of podcasts is how-to tutorials.
- Travel podcasts can provide helpful tips from impartial reviewers.
- Podcasts from experts in the fields of science, business or psychology provide access to the ideas of great modern thinkers.
- Recommended podcasts
If you’ve downloaded iTunes, you’ll find a very good list of the most popular podcasts there. To access this, open the iTunes program on your computer, click Store in the left-hand column, and then click Podcasts from the list at the top.
Here is a hand-picked selection to get your podcast journey started:
- BBC Podcasts - the BBC’s official list of the hundreds of podcasts they’ve produced.
- The best travel podcasts - article in the Travel section of the Telegraph, listing podcasts that provide excellent travel advice and tips.
- Ted podcasts - Offer a wide variety of podcasts from science podcasts to lifestyle podcasts and to arts and entertainment podcasts. All delivered from leading experts in each field.
- The Naked Scientists – A great source of science news and science discussions that is also available on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
- Happy place by Fearne Cotton- a great lifestyle podcast that discusses life, loss and love as people discover what happiness means to them.
Comedy is very personal, but the following are great fun:
Also see our list of the Best Mental Health and Wellbeing Podcasts.
Happy listening!!
Last updated 21/08/2020.