It's a nice summer evening, about seven o'clock, and I am out for a walk before the sun sets with earbuds in and a steady pace. It's 9:20 a.m., and I'm backing out of the driveway after plugging in my aux cord; I'm on my way to work. Birds are chirping, my shoes make footfall on the sun-warmed sidewalk as a woman passes with a baby in a stroller. On the drive out of the neighborhood, I pass an older man on a bike. "Oh, kids these days and their pop music," these two fictional characters think 14 hours apart. Little do these imaginary figures know, I'm just a huge nerd.
No it is not everyone's favorite Canadian pop-icon that fills my white, Panasonic earbuds or the cabin of my silver, four-wheeled chariot. Podcasts fill up the time during my commutes, evening-strolls and spontaneous cleaning sprees. "What," you might ask, "is a podcast?" The strict definition of a podcast is "a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically" courtesy of Dictionary.com. To me, however, podcasts are the pinnacle of my life as a card carrying nerd. I've learned so much from tuning in every Tuesday and Thursday and received more useless information than I know what to do with.
Here are a couple of my all-time favorites. Over the years, I've test run many-a-podcast, but these are the ones that have just stuck.
"The Story Collider"
"Story Collider" features real stories about how science affects day to day life. Maybe it is my joint love for stories and science, but ever since I found this podcast, I have devoured every archived story. From a patient's medical tale to a PhD candidate's research stories, there is a genuine representation of how science has integrated into everyday life within every single release. Some stories make me laugh out loud while others leave me with sober tears. There is no topic or emotion or field left unexplored by this nine-person production team of Erin Barker, Brian Wecht, Liz Neely, Ben Lillie, Rose Eveleth, Shane Hanlon, Ari Daniel, Christine Gentry and Skylar Bayer.
"Stuff You Should Know"
This "How Stuff Works" produced podcast will forever hold a special place in my heart as the podcast that got me into podcasts. The dynamic duo, Josh and Chuck, who host "Stuff You Should Know" have been a constant on my list for years with their broad range of topics. After eight years of podcasting, they have explained diplomatic immunity, panic attacks and so much more.
Maybe you too can be sucked into the wormhole of podcast-land.