Podcasts: the non-fiction audiobook revolution!

After what feels like years, a few months ago I finally gave in and listened to my first Podcast. For years I didn’t understand what a Podcast was. I didn’t understand why there was a Podcast app on my phone and iTunes. To be honest, the idea of them annoyed me.

I started by subscribing to one podcast consisting of one half an hour episode a week. This quickly escalated and I now subscribe to over fifteen podcasts, some which upload multiple times a week, others whose episodes are consistently over 90 minutes long. I have even found myself drawn to audiobooks since discovering Podcasts.

I find myself learning about topics and events that I normally would never explore left to my own devices, topics that I would normally overlook as I believed that I wouldn’t find them interesting. I was never one to spend a lot of time pouring through non-fiction books but I feel like this is the audio version of this. I now listen to Podcasts while I am driving, cooking, cleaning and even while I am trying to go to sleep.

Let me share some of my favourite FREE Podcasts with you:

No Such Thing As A Fish
Frequency: weekly

No such thing as a fish is brought to you by the QI elves, the research team behind the BBC show QI. The elves gather around the microphone to share the most interesting fact they have learnt that week. Facts over the years include that it would cost $850 quadrillion to build the Death Star, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S.Lewis both went to a party dressed as polar bears - it was not a fancy dress party- and the world puddle jumping championships bans fizzy drinks in case they improve the participant’s performance.






Stuff You Should Know
Frequency: a few episodes a week

Josh and Chuck cover a wide variety of topics from how manhunts work to how Tupperware works and how internet censorship works. Josh and Chuck have a great chemistry which makes them easy to listen to as you make your way through the over 300 topics they have already covered.









Explain Things To Me
Frequency: weekly

Each week Anna and Brad invite a special guest onto the show to help explain their field of expertise to their audience. Previous guests include an alternative mortician, TV news presenters, chefs, reverends and even a NASA engineer.










Dear Hank and John (with John and Hank Green)
Frequency: Weekly

Hank and John Green are YouTube superstars with millions of viewers, and John is an award winning author in his own right. In this podcast Hank and John answer listeners’ questions and give them dubious advice as well as giving listeners all the latest news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon (the player owned 4th tier British football club).