Hi there,
Since travelling an awful lot on trains, coaches and the occasional overpriced Uber over summer, I finally began to jump onto the podcast bandwagon as my way of helping the time pass. Being such a fan of YouTube creators, I had always been quite visual and wasn’t sure that podcasts would entertain me in the same way videos did. If video wasn’t available, I had since always reached for music as my travel entertainment so again I saw no need for podcasts. But, with all of the travelling I was doing and not getting into much new music at the time, I got tired of listening to the same playlists over and over (plus unreliable signal on trains often prohibited me from watching YouTube), and finally gave podcasts a go. I have now found some that I really enjoy and that I will now often choose over music or video when on my daily commute.
Banging Book Club - Hannah Witton, Lucy Moon and Leena Norms
This is the first podcast that I really stuck my teeth into and have now listened to every episode available on Spotify (it has unfortunately come to an end now but still exists on all the usual podcast platforms in its entirety).
I was aware of this podcast for a while before I listened as these three girls each have YouTube channels that I have watched and enjoyed in the past. I was interested to see how the dynamic between the three would work as their channels tend to somewhat differ in content. Out of the three, Hannah Witton was who I had since watched the most and she does indeed run a very informative channel focused on sex and relationships. However, she was sometimes a bit annoying and full-on to watch (sorry Hannah) for me personally, so I was pleased to find that I much prefer her very strong and opinionated voice in conversation between two other opinionated voices, as it feels less intense than her videos.
The premise of this podcast was to be a book club focusing specifically on books that cover the topics of sex and gender, which encompassed a plethora of both fiction and non-fiction texts on all kinds of topics such as homosexuality, gender fluidity, transgender issues, the pick-up artist community, toxic masculinity, sexual fetishes and feminism.
This podcast is extremely informative and does not assume any kind of in-depth knowledge involving these often complex and difficult-to-discuss issues on sex and gender. The three women constantly acknowledge their white, cis, straight female privilege and the conversations always feel like you are learning with them, rather than them being total experts on each issue that is covered. They don’t claim to know it all and it is very reassuring to hear them stumble over terms and comments that refer to these difficult topics and they often come to very important conclusions once their understanding grows.
Whilst sticking to a nice focused structure due to each podcast referring specifically to the book they (and a lot of their dedicated listeners) have read that month, there is also a very natural, conversational aspect to their discussion which often reaches off-topic, but still very interesting tangents that mirrors a ‘girl-talk’ many of us will have had within our own friendships. It stays fairly light-hearted whilst also addressing very serious issues.
I am much more informed on issues that I never would have thought to research myself and even though I began listening after they brought the club to an end and have not read the books in question, I still gained a good understanding of each of the books and took away different,
equally important things from each episode. If you feel like some of the issues mentioned above are things you wish you knew more about whilst avoiding specialist, over-complicated conversations, then this is the podcast for you!
VIEWS with David Dobrik and Jason Nash
Sorry for including another podcast that I found through YouTube lol (you can tell it used to be my main source of entertainment before I discovered podcasts).
David Dobrik and Jason Nash are two of the most popular YouTube creators at the moment and momentum does not seem to be slowing down. David began vlogging his life a few years ago and has since built up an enormous viewership who adore his unique trailer-style vlogs which capture the best and funniest moments from his crazy life. Along the way to the success he boasts of now, David pretty much recruited a number of personalities to appear in his vlogs, some friends from home and some he has since met living in L.A. who now go by the ‘Vlog Squad’, in which each member now boasts a similar level of success to David himself in their own right.
Within this group of primarily young, attractive L.A. personalities, perhaps a more unlikely recruit is 46 year old divorced dad of two Jason Nash, who David discovered in a comedy club, failing to make it as a stand-up comic in Hollywood, and took him on board to introduce him to the vlogging world.
Along with their extremely successful videos, Jason and David now have a podcast. A weekly candid, unstructured conversation in which the two very different men discuss their very similar, very fortunate lives as famous vloggers. The vlogs can only give a certain amount of insight into what their lives entail, so I approached this podcast with the intention to learn more about their day-to-day, the boring and the interesting, how they make money, and other fascinating insights that really only few vloggers in the world on a similar level can relate to - and those things are exactly what this podcast gives its listeners.
Its not intellectual or sophisticated and doesn’t follow any kind of real direction or structure. But, it does uncover very interesting insights into their unfathomable world and probably without realising it, the two are educating the masses on how a career on social media can, in very few and fortunate cases, skyrocket a person into a world of wealth, adoration and worldwide fame which is something not many Youtube personalities care to share much on.
Aside from those interesting insights, the dynamic between a 23 year old, attractive guy at the peak of his life, with so much energy and a lust to create, coupled with a 46 year old divorced dad who has a far more realistic, often miserable outlook who took half of his life to make it big, is something unmatched on any other podcast I know. Their exchanges are hilarious and their very close friendship means that they are never scared to hold back criticisms of the other, and what results is a 40 minute back and forth that flies by because you do just feel like you’re hearing two friends chat and discuss their lives.
It may be useful to have some knowledge on their videos and what they’re about as their could be some assumed knowledge that I have not picked up on. But even going in blind with no real understanding of their magnitude in the social media world, you would be hard pressed not to be laughing within the first five minutes.
Charming, funny and often very interesting, this podcast is now a part of my weekly life and I don’t see that stopping any time soon. I cannot help but highly recommend it.
Beyond Belief - BBC Radio 4
Third and final on my list might seem to be specific to the theologian in me, but bare with me.
This Radio 4 item has been running as a weekly half an hour slot since 2002, hosted by Ernie Rea, and is available on catch-up as a podcast. Since showing an interest in the study of religion a number of years ago, this has been recommended to me multiple times by many as a very helpful and interesting source on hot topics in the world of religion. But, like someone recommending music to me, it takes my own agency to actually check something out for myself and it is only recently that I have finally given it a shot.
One of my lecturers at Manchester, Dr. Holly Morse, who is the first young female theologian I’ve ever been taught by which immediately makes me want to be her best friend and listen to absolutely everything she tells me, mentioned that she had appeared in an episode of this show in which she discussed femininity and religion. Since listening to that episode and thoroughly enjoying the discussion and learning a lot more than I thought I would, I have since delved into the archives and listened to many more of the fascinating topics this item covers. Topics include mental health, consumerism, transgender identities, politics, social media, and many more.
I would stress that this is far from specialist and does not require any kind of history in studying religion or being at all religious. The debates, often including multiple representatives of different faith perspectives and Ernie as the mediator, cover a multitude of relevant societal topics and discover how religion responds to these. It is easy to digest and the speakers are always very articulate and well-informed. I come away from each episode with a greater insight into a topic or a religious norm that I previously knew nothing about and I think that if everyone open-mindedly listened to a few of these discussions, they would learn some valuable information and on a bigger scale, there could be less close-minded, discriminatory attitudes towards certain religious norms as a result.
Definitely the more dense and intellectual of the three on this list, but if you are in the mood to learn something new and lose yourself in a topical, fascinating debate, then I would highly recommend. On a more selfish note, I love to recommend this because it really shows how interesting religion is as a topic and highlights all the interesting stuff that I get to learn about at uni on a daily basis. A lot of people question why I study theology and I think listening to an episode or two of Beyond Belief would probably be the first step in showing sceptics what a rich, rewarding and ever-relevant topic it really is.
That’s my list of favourite podcasts at the moment! I hope you gained some info on a podcast you may not have listened to before and hope you will give one of them a listen yourself. If, like I was, you are completely new to this medium of entertainment then I promise you won’t regret giving it a try. Aside from this list, there is a whole world of podcasts covering just about every topic you could imagine so you are bound to find something you’ll love.
Thanks for reading!
H x
Comments
Post a Comment