Interested in expanding your worldview, learning something new, and impressing your friends with your inner-archive of information? Look no further! These five educational podcasts will imbue you with the knowledge necessary to sate your curious mind. Well, they would, if they were accompanied by a neat little graph or something – because these are the podcasts that will finally make you realize you’re actually a visual learner.
TED Talks Daily
This podcast brings you the latest TED talks daily, covering a wide range of thought-provoking topics from a plethora of voices and experts. It can teach you something new, change your perspective, and spark your curiosity, which is a shame because, apparently, you require visual stimulation to effectively interpret information. Maybe try Googling it?
Stuff You Should Know
Covering a wide array of interesting and niche subjects, including satanism, true crime, and the food industry – this podcast makes sure you’re highly informed on the hot-button topics of today. However, even though you should know all this stuff, until it’s presented in the form of a detailed, labeled, and color-coded little diagram, you’ll just have to stew in your own ignorance.
This American Life
Ira Glass’s journalism-centric podcast chooses a different theme each week and selects stories around that theme to create a mosaic of voices that illuminate what it really means to be human. Unfortunately, it was only presented verbally through clearly-spoken words into your noise-canceling headphones, so you didn’t really get any of that. If only this were a movie instead.
Radiolab
This Peabody-winning, documentary-style podcast’s self-described mission is “investigating a strange world.” It helps its listeners get to the bottom of some of the most mystifying questions, like, “what is intelligence?” However, that question will have to remain mystifying to you – apparently podcasts don’t offer a printed-out packet of information with the relevant bits highlighted alongside their episodes?
Hidden Brain
This podcast delves into the hidden recesses of the brain and helps us understand why we do the things we do. Or, at least, that’s what it should’ve helped you understand if you hadn’t been zoning out on your walk. Maybe try reading a book the next time.
So, if you’re looking to learn something new – try checking out these podcasts! Then, once you’re done listening, try doing your own research, because you didn’t retain anything you just heard.
