I recently went on a solo road trip to Northern Virginia for a wedding and I decided that I needed to spice up my music collection before the four-hour trip. Well, as I was going through Apple Music and deciding what to add and what playlists to make because if you are anything like me, you absolutely detest driving especially if you are alone.
While I was searching for the perfect songs, my grandmother came in and made a remark about a podcast that she had just read about on The Washington Post and how it was centered around the powers that the president actually had.
Interesting, right? While intrigued, I downloaded the Podcast App for iPhones and as soon as I clicked to open it, my world unraveled.
There is a whole world out there that you, Podcast Virgins, have no idea of. You click on what you're interested in and then bam, they give you all of these choices of who and what you want to listen to.
I quickly forgot about making my ultimate, kickass playlist for my road trip and instead, began to download podcasts from "Can He Do That" by The Washington Post to "Surgery 101" which is a series of podcasts compiled by the University of Edmonton in Canada.
If you can't already guess the tremendous offers that podcast listening has to offer you, let me break it down.
The main offer that I love that podcasts give you is the fact that you can be doing anything while still learning. Do I sound like a nerd yet? Well, good thing I don't care. Like I said before, I was going on a four-hour road trip and really wanted nothing more than to be simply entertained while weaving in and out of traffic and let me tell you, listening to multiple podcasts did just that.
During my road trip, I learned the signs and symptoms of an expecting mother who would need a C-Section if nothing else was done for her and her unborn child. I also learned that there are very few women in the medical field, especially in the pediatric field because there is this myth going around that we won't make it because we have "too much empathy".
Well, it's a good thing I'm going into pediatric neurology — let's prove them all wrong. *cue eye roll*
Another thing that podcasts allow you to do is stay up to date on current events. If you are anything like me, you hate reading the paper or reading a news article on the computer screen. I don't know what it is but there's something about it that makes me frustrated. Could it be the content of which I am reading or my horribly slow reading speed? Who knows! But what I do know is that podcasts offer an easy fix for this!
On my way back from Northern Virginia, I was listening to "Can He Do That?" and they were discussing whether or not President Trump could actually send more National Guard soldiers to the border in order to keep the migrants out. The short answer? Technically no but if you want the long and drawn out answer then you're going to have to try out podcasts! Ha, see what I did there?
That same podcast also talked about current events that are affecting our gas prices and government like the murder of the journalist in the Istanbul Embassy. I would have never known that a man had risked his life to tell America the truth that happens in Saudia Arabia if I hadn't tuned into that podcast.
Do you see all of the information that you are missing out on because you haven't jumped on the podcast bandwagon?
We are the future of this country and let's be honest, the future relies on us. Podcasts are the easiest way to stay up to date in the government. But they are also the easiest way to learn about what you love.
For me, I love learning about medicine so most of my podcast library will consist of, you guessed it, medicine. But that might not be the same for you and that's O.K.!
The number of podcasts out there today is endless, I'm serious, there are so many that you can't even count them.
So, switch it up on your next solo road trip and download a podcast.
Who knows, you might learn something.
