Top 10 Podcasts to Listen to Today (2017)

A couple of months back, my wife turned me on to listening to podcasts. With over an hour drive to and from work, this was something much needed that I had the ability to do every day. Prior to podcasts, I had been listening to a lot of book on CD, but was tired of changing the discs and how lengthy they were. Because of this, I have been listening to a lot more podcasts these days. Here are my "Top 10 Podcasts To Listen To Today" as of April 2017.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out my suggestion for 10 more podcasts to listen to (Fall 2017) after you read this! And 10 more from 2018!
Update #2: Check out the fourth installment from October 2018
Update #3: Check out the newest 20 at Let’s Talk Podcasts #6 and Singular Story #5

10. The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
"All good stories have a twist, and all great storytellers are just a little twisted. Join me for a different take on the people and events that you thought you knew, from pop culture to politics, Hollywood to history… The Way I Heard It is a series of short mysteries for the curious mind with a short attention span."

I really enjoy these short stories by Mike Rowe. Each 9-12 minute episode begins with an ad, but each ad is actually a story in itself, so it is pretty enjoyable to listen thru. After that we get to the actual episode which is usually 5-10 minutes long. Mike is a great story teller and I really appreciate how quick these podcast episode stories are.

 

9. Embedded
"Hosted by Kelly McEvers, Embedded takes a story from the news and goes deep. What does it feel like for a father in El Salvador to lie to his daughter about the bodies he saw in the street that day? What does it feel like for a nurse from rural Indiana to shoot up a powerful prescription opioid? Embedded (EMBD) takes you to where they're happening."

Although this is less than 10 total episodes, Embedded listens like an interactive news story. Each story does what the description says, they go deep, into the specifics and details of each specific topic they cover. The latest season is covering police videos. Listen up for a story from the front lines of the action.

8. All Songs Considered
"Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton spin new music from emerging bands and musical icons."

A great way to discover new music and learn about the origin and details of the newest festivals/bands of today. This is a must listen for anyone who has the slightest interest in the music scene. Episodes range from just a few minutes to over an hour long depending on the topic.

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7. This American Life
"This American Life (TAL) is an American weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass."

This weekly program tells fantastic stories about specific events happening in the world today. Each episode has it's own theme that these journalists do a lot of research on, then providing us with a quick 60 minute story.

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6. TED Radio Hour
"The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, new ways to think and create. Based on Talks given by riveting speakers on the world-renowned TED stage, each show is centered on a common theme – such as the source of happiness, crowd-sourcing innovation, power shifts, or inexplicable connections. The TED Radio Hour is hosted by Guy Raz, and is a co-production of NPR & TED."

Interested in new technology and ideas? This is the show for you, as each episode explores new inventions and new ways to think about things in today's world. This show will provide you with an hour of fresh material every week.

5. The Moth
"The Moth Radio Hour features our most beloved tales and the stories behind the stories. The series debuted in 2009 and is now airing on more than 400 stations nationwide. The Moth Radio Hour is co-produced by Jay Allison at Atlantic Public Media and presented by PRX."

Listening to others tell stories can be happy, sad, inspiring, depressing, and even get your skin crawling. The Moth podcast provides the listeners with a variety of stories from stand-up shows happening nation wide. Even some of the stories in episodes are recorded right here in Chicago. Check out and be inspired by other people's stories, and maybe even have the courage to tell your own.

4. Up and Vanished
"Up and Vanished is an investigative podcast that explores the unsolved disappearance of Georgia beauty queen and High School teacher, Tara Grinstead, an 11 year old mystery that is the largest case file in Georgia's history."

If you've heard of Serial, you're going to love this podcast. This podcast is told by a former Youtube rapper (Right Side of the Tree), and video producer Payne Lindsey. This is Lindsey's first podcast and he ends up hitting it big, as his investigative work leads to the eventual solving of this murder case that had gone cold over 10 years ago. Some may say he didn't have anything to do with it, but his work brought the interest of this case to a national level and uncovered many long forgotten details. Although there are some extra episodes with interviews and case evidence that I found repetitive and skipped over, the main episodes are quite the treat. Funny to hear the voice of a kid who was making hilarious rap videos back in 2007, but if you don't know Payne from his YouTube days, you will be able to take this one more seriously right away. One of my favorite podcasts of 2017.

3. Serial
"Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story—a true story—over the course of a season. Each season, we follow a plot and characters wherever they take us. We won’t know what happens at the end until we get there, not long before you get there with us. Each week we bring you the next chapter in the story, so it's important to listen to the episodes in order."

This podcast has gone through two seasons. While season one was significantly better, discussing the arrest of Adnan Syed for the murder of his ex-girlfriend back in 1999, which he ensures us he is innocent of. Season two focuses on a army soldier Bowe Bergdahl who leaves his outpost in the middle of the night, eventually being captured and needing rescue. This podcast is by far one of my favorites of all time. I highly suggest this one, especially if you enjoyed Up and Vanished.

2. How I Built This
"How I Built This is a podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. Each episode is a narrative journey marked by triumphs, failures, serendipity and insight — told by the founders of some of the world's best known companies and brands. If you've ever built something from nothing, something you really care about — or even just dream about it, you'll love this podcast."

A very inspiring podcast that I enjoy listening to on my morning commute. Each episode is about a particular company, and covers it's evolution through a 20-40 minute epiosde. This gets the creative juices flowing and will surely make you think you should drop everything and start your own business. It is awesome to see how so many famous companies today started from nothing so long ago. If you are an innovator or have your own business, I highly suggest this awesome podcast. One of my favorites of 2017.

1. 99% Invisible
" 99% Invisible is about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world"

My number one podcast to listen to in 2017 is 99% Invisible. Roman Mars and the rest of the staff at 99PI do an incredible job of putting together a new story every week. This is my favorite podcast for a few reasons. One, each week every topic is super interesting and they have a unique way of telling the story that keeps me entertained and listening. Two, episodes are the perfect length and ads are at the end. Podcasts with ads at the very beginning and very end are perfect because you don't have to do any unnecessary listening. 99 PI does just that, which makes it easy to hear nothing more than the 20-30 minute episode. Number three, I genuinely enjoy listening to Roman Mars tell each tale every week. Whether it is Roman or the other guests on the show, I find the amount of content they present perfect and it is told in a way that really catches my ear.. If you are interested in architecture or design at all, I highly highly recommend this podcast. If you aren't like me, but are looking for a great podcast, I suggest this podcast!

I hope that you can take some time out of your busy lives to listen to these wonderful podcasts. Each production crew has done an amazing job to make the stories unique and an enjoyable experience for their listeners. And above all, they are FREE! Just download them on itunes, listen on their website links which I provided above, or listen through a Podcast app on your phone like me.

Know of some great podcasts that I didn't mention? Let me know about them in the comments as I would love to listen to some new material on my way to and from work.

Until next time.

Josh

UPDATE: Be sure to check out my suggestion for 10 more podcasts to listen to (Fall 2017)

Beginnings and Endings

First blog with the new format, which means I will only be covering larger events that happened during February. Let's start it off with Thursday February 2nd when Dario came to work and we strung up a Mikey Powell Voyce, McDonald's themed stick. Hot. Off to a great start of covering only larger events.

That night I picked up Rachel, Torie, and Nikki from Alex's place in Andersonville and drove everyone home. Chauffeur status.

The next day on Friday February 3rd, our new couch arrived and the guys who delivered it were so nice they helped me take down the old one to the garbage. Later that day I heard the garbage truck out the window and was able to capture the final moments the couch had before being violently crushed. Check out the Vlog to see it! During the day I watched the movie Crimson Peak directed by Guillermo Del Toro. A solid and spooky film. I met up with Rachel for dinner that evening at Hopcat where we enjoyed some pizza and beer. That night we watched the movie Groundhogs day, in honor of groundhogs day. I can't recall if I had actually seen this Bill Murray classic, but it was pretty funny. Check it on Netflix.

On Saturday February 4th, Rachel and I enjoyed steak lettuce wraps before meeting up with John, Melissa, and Beth at Begyle Brewing in Ravenswood. After enjoying a brew at Begyle, we walked down the street to Dovetail brewing and had a drink there as well. Cool little microbreweries right in the middle of a neighborhood. We finished the night off at Fountainhead, which is a restaurant/bar near where Beth lives that has a huge list of beers and liquors. I went with a whiskey flight for the end of the night. We stopped at Beth's place for a little bit before finally heading back to our place at 1:30a. John and Melissa slept over. Funny thing about this whole event was that Torie and Tim went to the same Breweries earlier in the day and we had no idea. Great minds think alike.

We began the next day, Sunday February 5th with a few breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds to enjoy our hangout session. Later that day, after prepping some food for our SuperBowl party, we headed to Mary and Jeff's for puppy bowl. It was the last time we were going to see Michele and Jordan for some time, as they will be moving to Dallas soon. After the hanging for the puppy bowl and saying our goodbyes to Michele and Jordan, we headed back to our place for the Super Bowl. Brian, Megan, Rachel's parents and Beth all came over for the game. The first half included the Falcons absolutely dominating and mostly everyone being happy. Beth made cupcakes, we had chili cheese dip, cookies, veggies, and some other snacks as well. In the second half, we witnessed what was probably the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, as the Patriots won in overtime after tying the game in the final seconds. Very fitting for this year's sporting events, as we saw the Cavs comeback down 3 games to 1 against the Warriors in basketball. The Cubs comeback down 3 games to 1 against the Indians. And now the Patriots coming back down 28-3 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. Sports can be amazing sometimes. Crazy.

Wednesday February 8th was a significant day, as I decided to shave my mustache. It was a great run of about 2 1/2 months with the stache. It will be back my friends. After shaving the mustache, I met up with  Rach and Becca at Benchmark for a couple of drinks in Old Town. We finished the night off at Angel's Burritos. Splitting a torta and quesadilla.

The following day Thursday February 9th I hit up Buffalo Wild Wings with a couple of my boys after work. Tasty and sweaty with the hot sauces.

Back to the weekend, Friday February 10th was another work from home. Around 5p I headed to Sarah and Colin's before heading to Lucky Strike to do some bowling for Alex's birthday. Bowling was fun, although in 2 hours we only got through about a game and quarter because there were 9 people in each lane, and I also bowled pretty terribly. But hey, bowling in the city! We grabbed some dinner at Chipotle after bowling and my stomach was super upset. Since I was in so much pain, I ended up catching the bus home, while Rachel stayed out with friends. Dumb stomach.

My stomach was feeling better the next day on Saturday February 11th. That night Rachel and I took an Uber over to Becca's for her going away party. She is moving to Arizona for a new job! After playing a few games with friends at her place, we headed out to the River North club, "Untitled." But unfortunately while I was waiting in line, they pulled me aside and said I was not allowed in because I was wearing white gym shoes. We tried to plead the case that it was Becca's last night and seriously? But no luck, so screw that place and we headed to Moe's Cantina instead. The night was super fun, but it is sad to say goodbye to another friend. Becca to Arizona, while Michele and Jordan are off to Texas. Looks like we have some new places to visit in the fall!

The next night, Sunday February 12th, I drove up to Evanston to catch the Robert Ellis (and Jenny O) show at Space in Evanston. Pretty dope and tiny venue in the back of a restaurant. I met John and Melissa there, and also met a coworker of John's as he came to the show with his girlfriend too. Robert Ellis provided an awesome and comical show. He was wearing a NASA space themed suit to fit the venue and he played the guitar like a champ. After the show we met him and talked about seeing him open for Deer Tick in 2013, as well as seeing him at Ancora Coffee in Madison in summer of 2015. He was a really nice and chill guy, very humble. After the show we parted ways and called it another successful weekend. I'll hopefully have his whole show up here (link soon).

February 15th was my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday dad! My mom won my niece and nephew $10k for their school. Here is a picture of my mom accepting a thank you card from the class. Nice work mom!

On Friday February 17th, I picked Rachel up from work and we met my parents out at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. I had the ultimate nacho burger and a beer. Tasty. We hung out with my parents back at their house until about 11p, calling it a night.

The next morning, Saturday February 18th, I broke out my lacrosse ball collection, which has grown quite large over the years, in preparation for the 2017 season. Then around 11a we headed down to Kankakee to visit Rachel's grandpa. After an enjoyable lunch visit with Grandpa, we drove to my Grandma's to visit for dinner. She made my favorite for dinner, roladan. Yummm. We drove back to Chicago that night and hung out with Beth at our place.

Beth slept over that night, so the next morning Sunday February 19th, I drove her home before spending the early afternoon editing The Weeks concert I attended last February.

Valentine's Day was up on us. Rachel and I started our date night by going to see the new 50 Shades Darker movie. After the movie we headed over to Geja's Cafe Fondue restaurant in Lincoln Park. The dinner was by far the best food we have had since the honeymoon! Everything at this restaurant was fondue style. The actual start was a small garden salad, but that didn't include any fondue so let's skip ahead... So we started off with a cheese fondue accompanied by bread and fruit. The warm cheese on top of the fruit and bread was sooo rich and tasty. After the appetizer, we were brought out the main course. A platter of raw meats that we would cook ourselves in our boiling pot of soybean oil. Chicken, steak, lobster, scallops, and shrimp. Each had a specific time you would cook it for on your fondue stick and it was so succulent and tasty. My favorite was the lobster, just so damn good. The main course also came out with veggies like mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, and onions. After taking our time and enjoying all of the delicious meat, we were brought out the dessert fondue. Hot melted chocolate to dip our pineapple, apples, bread, bananas, and of course, marshmallows. After the best meal we have had in six months, we walked over to the J Parker rooftop bar at the top of the Lincoln Hotel. It wasn't a typical February day, so the rooftop was open and Rachel and I headed out to sit by the fire looking out at the city. We met some people from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Texas while we enjoyed a drink on the rooftop. What a great way to close out an amazing Valentine's Day. I love my wife Rachel!

We took the next day off of work, President's Day, Monday February 20th. My mom had won us 2 tickets to the Auto Show and Rachel and I had never been before, so we decided to check it out. I had also never been to McCormick place, despite driving under it almost every day. We took the "L" there and went straight for the Honda section. The new CRV and the new HRV were looking pretty cool. It is funny, we walked around the auto show looking at all the midsize SUVs as if we were planning for a family soon. Not quite yet, but we learned a great amount about the new vehicles of 2017 including the 3rd row seating that can be folded down, as well as the entire roof being glass in the back of some of the cars. We walked around pretty much the entire auto show for about 3 hours. It was a fun experience and I think we would do it again next year! Favorite cars were the Honda Pilot and Nissan Pathfinder. Can you guess who liked which?

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We took an Uber home from the Auto Show and decided to get some Lou Malnati's pizza for dinner. We were planning on starting a new diet on this day, but chose to push it back by one more day.

The new diet began on Wednesday February 22nd. Rachel and I will be doing the Whole 30 diet which is a 30 day "cleanse". The diet basically prevents us from eating unhealthy carbs and anything processed. No bread, no dairy, no pasta, no rice, no beans for some reason, no artificial sugars, no chips, no pretzels, basically no snacking at all. So what can we eat? Meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Seems like it may be doable. 

Saturday February 25th Alex came over for Turkey Burgers (no bun of course, new diet) before we walked over to Matt and Caitlin's place for Matt's birthday. We played a fun game that connects to your phone called Quiplash before Rachel and I headed back home around midnight. Also be sure to check out The Weeks concert I went to on this day one year ago! Finally got around to finish editing it.

Rachel and I drove over to Beth's on Sunday February 26th for the Academy Awards. Beth made a tasty chili for us, as well as Austin, Christine, and Shanna. The awards were mostly going to LaLa Land, as they had a record tying 14 nominations. Rachel and I were getting pretty tired near the end of the night, this new diet is really throwing us off as we don't have a ton of energy, so we headed back to our place. The craziest part of the night was when they announced LaLa Land as the best picture. There was quite the delay before the award was announced, as the guy presenting the award seemed a little unsure if he was reading it right. The cast and crew came on stage and began giving their acceptance speeches. About 2 minutes in to this, someone grabbed the microphone and said, "Moonlight, come up here, you won best picture." And all of sudden the best picture belonged to Moonlight. What a turn of events! The guy who announced the award then explained how he delayed presenting it because it said, "Emma Stone, LaLa Land." Which was the winner of the award directly before Best Picture. They somehow gave him the same envelope. Mad confusion, but understandable on how this greatest mishap in Oscars history came to be. Good night!

The lacrosse season has officially begun. Monday February 27th was the first day of Cats Tryouts. This years tryout was about 50 degrees warmer than it was last year. It was about 50 degrees out and actually quite nice. We will be doing most of our practices at North Central College before we can use the grass fields. The squad is very talented this year and I believe will do big things. Excited for it all to come together. The focus is for practices to be at a faster pace, since I am officially now the 2nd longest tenured Coach in Neuqua history. Pretty crazy. They have had about 13 straight years of 1 and done coaches. I had 4 coaches when I was there, the guys after me did, the guys after them did, but I am back for a second straight season, making me the first back to back head varsity coach since 2003-2004. Let's do it. Go Cats.

I hope you enjoyed this new blog/vlog. Although now that I am done I realize it is very similar to the old format. Probably unrecognizably different to most. We will see what March brings, as I may change up the format once again. 

Let's do it!

 

Josh