I love sewing, but there are stages in every project that can be tedious. Stuffing a softie, for example, or pressing seams open. When faced
with these tasks it’s easy to make an excuse to set the project aside and go get a snack, or check Facebook, or really do anything but finish the annoying parts
of the project.
This is when I put on my headphones and listen to something interesting. Podcasts get me through many repetitive sewing tasks. In fact I look forward to these tasks now knowing that I’ve got something fascinating to listen to.
I also run 3 miles a day and I couldn’t do it without podcasts. I’m not a natural athlete and exercise has never been my favorite activity, but I’m convinced great audio can get me through anything!
Here are 20 of my favorite podcasts, as well as some notes on other places to find engaging audio recordings online.
Bullseye– This show is a curated guide to culture. Formerly The Sound of Young America, this show began as host Jesse Thorn’s college radio show. It’s now been picked up by NPR. Jesse is an incredible interviewer and through this show I’ve learned about countless awesome things that I never would have found on my own. I’ve listened to every singe episode Jesse has ever made. Yep.
After the Jump– Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge conducts fantastic interviews with all the indie designers and makers you want to hear from. I find myself cheering and smiling with every episode. This podcast is amazing. Go get it.
99% Invisible– Roman Mars sees the beauty in design everywhere he looks. This beautifully produced podcast explores architecture, design, and public spaces in ways you’ve never thought of. Lovely from start to finish. Looking for a reliable architect for your upcoming projects, then you may want to check a place like Archute for more info!
Here’s the Thing– This is a WNYC show hosted by Alec Baldwin. I know nothing about Hollywood actors, but I now love Alec Baldwin. He’s incredibly smart and well-read.
Alec talks to artists, singers, actors, comedians, and public policy makers. He has a terrific interview style and an insider’s perspective that is unmatched anywhere else. I love that he reads the commercials on the show, too. He always mentions about Jeremy Piven that if you’d like to learn more about acting especially comedy then he might be your best option to approach.
The Moth– True stories told live without notes. This is like listening to the really good parts of This American Life without the twee.
Yarn Thing– I don’t knit or crochet, but I love Yarn Thing. Marly Bird is an upbeat and down-to-earth podcast host and I enjoy hearing the stories of designers even if they aren’t in my field. I particularly liked the recent show with the founders of Craftsy.
Risk!– True stories you never thought you’d dare to share. Risk! is definitely not for young ears. It can be raunchy at times, but it’s also very real. It’s like The Moth and This American Life, but wild.
Makers in Business– Liz Smith has a community television show in Lowell, MA, in which she interviews makers about commerce and creativity. This is the audio feed of her show. Liz has a very supportive and encouraging interview style and you get to hear the stories of creative people that live and work near her. The show just turned a year old!
Good Food– KCRW in Los Angeles creates this show. I love food and cooking and I learn a ton about unusual ingredients and how to use them from this show’s host, Evan Keliman. Plus I drool over all the awesome restaurants in L.A. This is like The Splendid Table without the annoying parts.
The New Yorker Out Loud– A weekly conversation about what’s in the New Yorker. Much to my mother’s dismay (she’s a lifetime New Yorker devotee) I don’t have time to actually read the New Yorker. I love hearing from the reporters how they approached their stories. Look mom! I’m kinda listening to the New Yorker!
The New Yorker Fiction– The New Yorker fiction editor, Deborah Treisman (who has the greatest voice and sounds like one of my college professors), asks an author to choose a favorite fiction story from past issues of the magazine to read and discuss. Get lost in terrific fiction.
The Tobolowsky Files– Actor Stephen Tobolowsky is a fantastic storyteller. He recounts stories from his life that are profound, moving, and hilarious. Stephen has had smallish parts in one million movies and he’s got great stories to tell. Sadly I’ve listened to every episode. I need more!
BBC Radio 4 Bookclub– Want to hear J. K. Rowling? Or Art Spiegelman? Or Jeanette Winterson? Or any of your favorite authors talking with a super well-educated British audience about their books? This is the podcast for you. And there are thousands of episodes.
Gweek– Gweek is made by the editors of Boing Boing and hosted by the awesome Mark Frauenfelder. Learn about the best in new and obscure comic books, video games, movies and science fiction. This show is totally quirky and real and I love everything about it.
BackStory-Created by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, BackStory is hosted by three historians who examine a particular topic in American history in each episode. I was a history major in college so there you go.
Aloud at the Los Angeles Central Library– Live recordings of author readings at the library. New books you haven’t heard of. Favorite authors you’d like to hear more from. Here you go.
Free Library of Philadelphia– Live recordings of author readings at the library. Same as above, just on the East Coast.
The Seattle Public Library– Can you tell I like hearing from authors? Yep. Everyone’s creative process is fascinating to me.
Blogcast FM– A podcast about blogging. The host, Srinivas Rao, annoys the crap out of me, but there are some useful interviews here.
Radiolab– Another WNYC production, Radiolab is a beautiful, creative, informative show about the intersection between science and culture. Incredible work with sound. Always informative and entertaining.
I have a subscription to audible.com. I think it’s reasonably priced and the readers and production quality are top notch. I get books for myself and for the kids. We listen to audiobooks in the car wherever we go. We enjoyed The One and Only Ivan recently and I loved listening to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
You can get audio recordings of books that are in the public domain on Librivox. The books are read by volunteers so the quality is not consistent, but I’ve enjoyed some great books for free this way. I loved listening to Silas Marner and Frankenstein.
And, of course, I’ve recorded quite a few interviews with softie makers and experts on creative business practices. You can find my
recordings here.
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Do you enjoy listening to any of the podcasts I’ve listed here? Have any other favorites? Please share in the comments. Great audio is key to great crafting, at least in my opinion!
Great list! Thanks, I hadn’t heard of some of these. I also like NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and A Prairie Home’s Companion: News From Lake Wobegon. Another is The Chaos Chronicles by Lian Dolan about motherhood.
Thank you for such a wonderful list. I’ll be looking into quite a few of them.
Thank you! I drive a ton for work (in-home therapist) and this list is going to improve my days a lot!
I listen to a bunch of comedy podcasts – they’re also about comedy sometimes when they talk about the process of creating a set or a movie or a book. The Nerdist, Sklarbro Country, Totally Laime, Alison Rosen. I also enjoy Joy the Baker and Spilled Milk. I listen to podcasts to help me fall asleep and the splendid table is great for that because I don’t care if I miss any of it 🙂
This is awesome – I must check them out!
I must check some of these out. I cannot live without BBC Radio 4. I’m totally hooked…LOL I listen to it on my laptop when I’m working on my dolls and such. I love that they have famous actors read stories or that they have actors do audio versions of books. Love it:)
Thanks for the great list, Abby. I am really wanting to subscribe to Audible too. Too many books from the library not mp3. I like the new age podcast from Sounds True. Tammy asks good questions.
Thank you Abby, there are many of those I don’t know yet!
My current favorite is Design Matters (not a very convenient website, though http://designobserver.com/author/debbie-millman/617/).
Except the link is broken because of the parenthesis, so here it is again: http://designobserver.com/author/debbie-millman/617/
Thanks for this, I have been looking for some new podcasts. My favourite craft podcast is Electric Sheep, which is a knitting podcast but has lots of other interesting trivia too, and comes from London.
I know your blog is mostly about your soft toys and business, but – as someone else who is not a natural athlete but wants to start running – I’d love to read about how you got started with your running program.
Thanks!, I’m taking a trip to vt soon and I’ll need some “company” when I run out of my regular podcasts that I’ve been saving for the trip. Oh also what great company in the garden too!
Thanks for the great suggestions! I’m definitely looking into the ones I haven’t heard of. And, by the way, I love how you can recommend a podcast while at the same time admitting that the host annoys you. 🙂
My faves are Back to Work (or almost anything by 5by5.tv ) and Roderick on the Line. I also find myself listening to past episodes of Craftsanity all the time.
Oh, looks like Elizabeth is a fellow Merlin Mann fan 🙂 Back to Work and Roderick on the Line are great! If you like offbeat humor, then you should check out You Look Nice Today (although it’s not being updated anymore).
Another favorite is TWiT – weekly tech news by some pretty knowledgeable people (the guests vary week to week).
I’ll be looking into your list – thanks for posting these 🙂
Oh, thanks for the good suggestions! I sew at home every day and podcasts have gotten me through it all. I always listen to This American Life and if I am desperate, they have a handy archive. I love the Good Food show and I listen to it live when it’s on KCRW because I live in L.A. Someone above suggested Nerdist and I concur, it is a great site with many wonderful podcasts! Abby, I think I have a hidden gem for you! My favorite podcast is the J.V. Club. It’s on the nerdist site and it is hosted by Janet Varney. She’s an actress, but not a pretentious one and she interviews other women in the business. What’s great is that they focus a lot of time on what it was like to be a teenager and their formative years. Janet should have her own talk show someday. She’s that great! I recommend that you start at the beginning of her podcasts. There are some really great guests there such as Connie Chung, Gillian Jacobs, Christina Hendricks etc. I also very much enjoy Marc Maron’s WTF, but it’s not necessarily for tiny ears some of the time. Enjoy! And thanks for the recommendations!
Jenny 🙂
I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has left a comment with audio suggestions. Yay! I’m going through and adding them all to my podcast app on my phone. I also wanted to add that I love Craftsanity and have listened to every single episode, some several times. And if you want to hear me talking in your ears, Jennifer interviewed me for episode #100 and #123. Thank you all so much and if new ones comes to your attention, please keep sharing!
great list Abby!!
You had some new ones for me on there!
here are my favs which range from business to artsy:
Accidental Creative, On Being, Art and Soul Radio, Creative Living with Jaime, Craftcast, Copyblogger Radio, How she Really Does it, Social Triggers Insider, Smart Passive Income, This American Life, Blogcast FM, Stuff you missed in History Class, Design Matters, Make it Happen
I love listening to podcasts so am excited to check out some of your new ones!
Thanks for the awesome list. my to-listen pile has now grown. If you are into food and travel, I am a fan of BBC Food Program and Rick Steve’s travel. BBC Food normally picks a topic and discuss it in details, it could be about tomato, veal, indian food, hot dog, slow food movement, street food, etc. Rick has 1-h talk show about not only travel in Europe but also perspective on how European view and live their everyday life, food, culture, etc. I also like Amateur Travel Podcast where the host have different amateur travelers giving an account of places they have visited.
I would also highly recommend Books on the Nightstand, my favorite books podcast. And, no, I’m not the host.
I created two podcast-related boards on Pinterest.
http://pinterest.com/jeffrutherford/podcasts-i-listen-to/
http://pinterest.com/jeffrutherford/book-podcasts/
Hi Jeff,
Wow! Your Pinterest boards are a super resource. Thank you so much for linking to them here and I'll certainly check out Books on the Nightstand. Sounds really good!
Abby
Great list of many podcasts I had not heard before. Thanks! I also enjoy This American Life, The Splendid Table, On Being, and The Moth podcasts when I am sewing.
I second the recommendation for Spilled Milk. It’s one of my favorites, and just long enough to listen to while I prepare a quick supper.
Also, my husband owns Clarkesworld Magazine, and they publish a few podcasts a month of their audio fiction, if you’re into scifi: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/category/podcast/
I am late to the game, but I really think you guys would also enjoy Pop Culture Happy Hour. It is an NPR podcast, comes out every Friday. They do a great job of talking about books and movies and television shows and trying to figure out why they matter to us! And if you can’t wait for new ones to come out, listen to ALL of the old ones, like I have!
Thanks for the suggestion, Jenny!
This is a fantastic list, and a wonderful way to pass the time while completing the tedious aspects of sewing! I love this idea. My favorite podcast is called Tales From The Swan Hotel. It’s a fictional anthology series about a hotel that recreates the deaths of stars from old Hollywood.
Thanks so much for sharing this list!
I’ve never heard of that one, Sarah! Thank you.
Great list! I’m always looking for something different to listen to. My current favorite is Snap Judgment- it’s a storytelling podcast along the lines of the moth, and the host Glynn Washington is fantastic.
Welcome to Night Vale is my favorite podcast. It’s about a fictional desert town where things follow a very different set of rules. It’s surreal and more than slightly dystopian, but the host — voiced by Cecil Baldwin — grounds the show with his rich voice. This is the perfect thing to listen to when you’re doing something that doesn’t require much attention, or just by itself. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s immensely addicting if you do like it.
I’ve subscribed. Thanks, Jess!
I LOVE podcasts!! I really enjoy Snap Judgement on NPR radio! I will have to check out your suggestions!
Thanks, Paige, and I love those as well.
Another cool one if you like astronomy is Universe Today’s Astronomy cast. 🙂
haven’t seen this one on the list yet, i am totally obsessed with the Strangers podcast from http://www.storycentral.org/ give it a listen!
Yes! Strangers is excellent! Lea Thau, the creator, also recommended Invisibilia, which I just started listening to recently.
Thanks for the recommendations.
That’s a new one and a good one!
Yes, I’ve listened to it and enjoy it immensely.
Wow, this is a great list, both the original blog and the subsequent comments! I’m a papercrafter, and my absolute #1 podcast is the Paperclipping Roundtable.
I’ve never heard of that one! Thank you 🙂
i listen to Norelco Mori podcast. It’s cassette based music for your listening Displeasure!!!
Norelcomori.com
BBC desert Island discs is a good one, listened to it for years
Maybe you could try the blind boy podcast. This is an Irish lad who recommends, in a very amusing way, how to look after your mental health. Thanks for the list!
My jaw dropped when I saw the date of this post! Wow! I’m a podcast blogger, and while I was into podcasts back in 2013, there aren’t many people who were early adopters and wrote blog posts about listening to podcasts. This is a great post, even now in 2019! I, too, fell in love with podcasts while doing repetitive tasks. Then they slowly took over most of my down-time and other activities!. I’m not a crafter, so I’ve learned a lot about the shows for crafters that are out there. In the comments, too!
Instead of Audible you can listen to books for free. Most libraries seem to use Overdrive or Libby. Most you can download and listen to.