I listen to a ridiculous amount of podcast; I mean a *ridiculous* amount. Considering I also listen to audiobooks I seriously have no idea how I find the time to listen to everything that I do. My tastes in them are just as wide ranging as my tastes in genres in books – I listen to everything from true crime to pop culture to political but some of my favorites are the ones that talk about (and I’m betting you guessed it) BOOKS! I mean, put books and podcasts together and you have the best of EVERYTHING in my opinion. And then throw in some convo about Broadway…it’s like I’ve died and gone to some kind of introvert geek girl heaven.


So first I’m going to just list what I listen to so you have a taste of what I mean when I say wide ranging. TED Radio Hour, Invisibilia, Serial, Cato Daily News, Code Switch, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Freakonomics, Pop Rocket, Criminal, Bitch Sesh, NPR Politics, 99% Invisible, Atlanta Monster, Moth Radio Hour, This American Life, and Savage LoveCast. So when I say my interests are wide and varied I’m completely serious. That list does not include the many that I’ve tried that didn’t last or didn’t keep my interest long enough to make my rotation. What I love about podcasts has already been covered in a multitude of articles singing their praises – I listen while I’m in the shower, while I’m sweeping the floors, or doing some other random arbitrary task. It makes the time go faster and I feel as if I’m either being entertained, keeping informed, or expanding my knowledge depending on which podcast I’m listening to.

That brings us to the book related podcasts – the mother of all which is Smart Bitches. This one spun of off the super awesome Smart Bitches reviewing website that I love. Every Friday they either interview authors or each other and just have really amazing dialogue around romance books. It’s where I can find great discussions about new authors I’ve never been exposed to or new releases. A small detail that makes me happy is that I can go to their site afterwards and they have links to every book they discussed so I don’t have to scramble looking for a pen while I listen! I was lucky enough to do a panel with them at RT last May and all the Bitches were there in person. They are just as funny and personable up close. I highly recommend this one.

This next one is much newer to me but I’m almost up to date on it because I’ve whipped through their entire backlist of episodes! The Wicked Wallflower Club premiered late last year and is another focused on romance books. So far they’ve interviewed some of my favorite authors, talked about one of my favorite genre defying series (A Discovery of Witches) and interviewed my bucket list bookstore (The Ripped Bodice) I want to visit.

Teen Creeps is a podcast I just discovered randomly but has been around for awhile. I’m not sure how many of you read Christopher Pike as a kid but I LOVED his books. These two hosts re-read a ton of his books and other horror stories like Stephen King and the like and discuss them in podcast format. I’ve mainly only listened to the Pike episodes so far but I’ve been delighted with the discussion and the memories they’ve been bringing up.

Imaginary Worlds is only book adjacent but I feel like I’d be remiss in not mentioning it here since they visit many books in their episodes. They did a mini-series on Harry Potter. They’ve discussed Lord of the Rings, etc. This podcast like to delve into world building and looks a lot at movies as well. It’s fascinating to hear them talk about imaginary languages and how the authors developed them. Pop Culture Happy Hour is also only book adjacent but occasionally they discuss books in their What is Making me Happy or they’ll do a whole feature on books. My all time favorite episode was when they discussed romance books. Besides that – it really is one of my favorite podcasts I listen to!

I know podcasts have been a trend for a while now but I’m hoping they don’t go anywhere anytime soon. I’m always in need of anywhere from 20 – 60 minutes of great content to fill my time and sometimes I just can’t do that short of a time in my current audiobook. So – any good recs for me in the comments?

~ Melinda