As hundreds of platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, and Youtube continue to promote podcasts on a daily basis, they have quickly become the hottest new media trend for younger generations. Podcasts typically consist of audio episodes that cover a wide variety of topics, providing entertainment that ranges from comedy, sports, true crime, politics, and global news. If you are interested in exploring this new phenomenon for yourself, here is a diverse list of some of the best podcasts out there!

Song Exploder is a podcast featuring musicians who take apart their songs and explain how they were made piece by piece. Created by producer Hrishikesh Hirway, the podcast hosts a variety of artists across every genre and has been called “possibly the most perfect podcast” by Quartz News. Listeners will enjoy gaining insight into the creative process, directly from artists and their collaborators. Each episode is around 15-20 minutes, with lyrics played between discussions and the complete song played at the end of the episode. 

Artists featured include Lorde, Hozier, Selena Gomez, Billie Eilish, and most recently, “Girl in red.” In Episode 208, Marie Ulven (girl in red) discusses the story behind the song “serotonin,”with the same insightful commentary as artists in previous episodes.

Generally speaking, we liked the idea of Artists/musicians talking about their passions and what went into making their songs. When someone talks about their passion, they light up, you can just feel their energy, and it brings out the best in them. While listening to songs, it’s almost like talking to the artists because the song tends to have a deep connection to the artist and once you know the meaning behind the song, you know a little more about the artist. We believe that once you know the meaning behind the song and what it means to the artist, you will appreciate the song so much more.

Views by David Dobrik and Jason Nash is a comedic podcast that is mainly targeted at teenagers and young adults. David Dobrik, a young celebrity prospering from his youtube career, and Jason Nash, a middle-aged stand-up comedian and YouTuber, tell funny stories and discuss pop culture. New episodes drop every Tuesday and often include celebrity guests.

 One of the recent episodes, “Charli and Dixie On Being Famous Sisters,” featured up-and-coming influencers, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, and the inside scoop to their lives. Another episode, “Asking David’s Dad a Personal Question,” discusses a variety of topics in its 40-minute span, including personal stories and a fun game with David’s father. A February episode, “Surprising Natalie With Halsey,” is a hilarious podcast on David surprising his assistant, Natalie, with her favorite music artist and discusses the Superbowl streaker.

Students and young adults will appreciate the vitality, modernness, and humor of this podcast. Jason and David grasp the listeners’ attention making the podcasts seem shorter than their 30-40 minute span. Views is a comforting podcast to listen to on your way to school, working out, or just hanging around. 

Ted Talks Daily provides listeners with valuable and easily digestible speeches from different speakers, covering a vast range of topics. The podcast releases a new episode every weekday, typically ranging anywhere from five to 10 minutes long. Even within this short amount of time, each speech has an impact on its audience, often leaving them with an entirely new perspective on different subject matters. In its latest episode, “Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable” Luvvie Ajayi Jones speaks on confronting fear in both her career and personal life. She describes the uncomfortable risks that many must take in order to reach their goals. 

Considering that Jones herself has gone down many different career paths, she can relate to the fear associated with finding one’s purpose in the world. However, through her thought-provoking speech, listeners learn that although new territories can be scary at first, you should not let the initial discomfort deter you from pursuing your dreams. Like this episode, each weekday allows listeners to gain a new life lesson or insight through informative and engaging presentations. 

Since each episode consists of entirely new content, the TED talks do not need to be followed in chronological order. Thus, listeners can scroll all the way back to clips from April 2020 in order to find a certain topic that sparks their interest. For instance, a few particularly popular episodes date back to October of 2021, in which members of big companies discuss their efforts toward taking real, lasting climate action. In an episode titled “Amazon’s Climate Pledge to be Net-Zero by 2040”,  Dave Clark, Amazon’s chief of consumer retail, and Kara Hurst, head of the company’s sustainability efforts, sit down to present plans to reduce their carbon footprint. Just days later, an episode was released in which Lisa Jackson, Apple’s environment and social VP, and Liz Ogbu, a spatial justice activist, shared their thoughts on Apple’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. Building a greener economy is just one of many important issues that has been examined through Ted Talks Daily, allowing listeners to be more educated about specific and relevant topics. 

The Part-Time Genius is a  podcast where each episode is unrelated to the others. They talk about weird and absurd questions and give random but intriguing fun facts. This is a good podcast for listeners that get bored easily because each episode is on a different topic. It ranges from, “9 Surprising Things Invented by Women” and “Weird Things Hiding Underground,” to “What is the Correct Way to Eat a Banana”.  One of the surprising things a woman invented was a kitchen that cleans itself. Also, a woman created coffee filters by accident.  Each episode averages around 20-30 minutes but this time passes by in the blink of an eye. This content change and lively speaking keep the listener reeled in.

Grand central terminal March 1- Many students often complain about history and ask why it’s so boring. With podcasts like Stuff You Missed In History Class you get a taste of what you might have missed in US history 1. The episodes focus on important figures in pop culture, historic times, and basically why everything is the way it is. Some of the topics covered were The Rum Rebellion, one of the Star Wars creators Ralph McQuarrie, Immigration laws and Ellis island, and the Chinese exclusion act. They can go into parts when it comes to a certain person’s life and focus on their most recognized works. Mostly they speak on historic events that were brushed away and how certain events lead to each other.

The Socially Awkward podcast is a podcast by Justin and Zac Weber, also known as, “The Weber Boys.” The podcast is formally based on teenagers and how they live through life in certain situations. Some of the titles are things such as “Stage Fright,” and talking through how to get through stage fright as a young teen. Many people can have their moments where they are socially awkward, but these podcasts really help teenagers connect to others on a deeper level, understanding how to work through it. Other topics involve sports, fights, what is going on in the outside world, for those socially awkward kids who might not be in the loop.

Hosted by Andrea Rene, Brittney Brombacher, and Kristine Steimer, What’s Good Games is a podcast  about the events that take place in the video game industry. The podcast includes events such as news articles, opinions on specific events, and video game reviews. The hosts are enjoyable to listen to and know their environment well and how to react to specific situations that occur. The hosts are also knowledgeable about the industry and are pretty entertaining as well. They also talk about basically anything that is related to video games such as a lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games that could dramatically affect not only the video game industry but the whole foundation of markets such as the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. On one of their most recent podcasts, they were also talking about a new game that was being released called “Resident Evil Village.” Their podcast might gain the interest of many students in Wayne Hills because of the video game interest that they have in common with the ever-growing video game industry’s popularity.