When we first brought LJ home from the hospital and I was transitioning to life as a stay-at-home mom, I quickly began to crave a little adult interaction in my days. Don’t get me wrong, I loved being LJ’s mama and was so grateful to be able to spend my days with him, but I did still want a little mental stimulation beyond baby everything. Since we couldn’t always leave the house, I started listening to podcasts while LJ napped and I picked up around the house. Then I started listening to them during drives or when we went for a walk together. It didn’t take long before I was hooked and now whenever I find myself doing a fairly mindless task like loading the dishwasher or folding laundry, I start a podcast episode.
Today I thought I would just share a list of some of my go-to favorite podcasts, as well as some honorable mentions. Enjoy!
This is the first podcast I ever listened to and to this day, it is my favorite. I’ve said it many times already, but I absolutely love Gretchen Rubin’s writing. Her books (The Four Tendencies, The Happiness Project, Better than Before, etc) have made a serious impact on my life and I find her research and work completely fascinating. This podcast is one she does with her sister Liz Craft, a TV writer and producer in LA. The podcast focuses on tips and strategies for building healthier habits and happier lives. It is just a fun podcast! They always have practical tips to try and I enjoy their sister dynamic. I highly recommend checking this out – I think people young, old, male, female, single, married, with kids or not, would take away something each episode.
This one is geared towards mamas and I’ve really enjoyed listening to it. It’s hosted by Allie Casazza and her mommin’ philosophies are pretty darn similar to my own. She is a minimalist mama who likes to keep things simple and she shares tons of tips for streamlining routines, living with less, and other random life/mama tips. She talks about having less toys (preach, girl!), decluttering, living with intention and home school (I don’t always listen to those episodes because they don’t apply to me but I’m sure they’re helpful to mamas who do). My favorite tip she gave is to do one “micro” load of laundry every day – while I don’t have quite enough laundry to do one each day, it did inspire me to not wait until the laundry mountain piles up. This is a great one for mamas looking to, eh-hem, simplify the chaos of motherhood. 😉
This podcast is hosted by Dave and Rachel Hollis and is centered around marriage. It’s a fairly new podcast (started in July) but already has a lot of really great content. Dave and Rachel are funny and relatable – it feels like I’m just listening in on an enjoyable conversation they’re having. They talk about everything from resolving conflict to relationship habits, to sex, to growth in your relationship and more. I enjoy listening to their tips and experiences and always feel like I take at least one great point away from each episode.
If you don’t know Jenna Kutcher, you should. She is a photographer turned business guru who shares tons of tips for helping you build your dream career. I have to admit, I don’t listen to every episode but I pick and choose ones that I think apply most to me and I’ve always enjoyed them! I especially think people who are trying to get a business or side gig going would really appreciate her insights but even if you don’t, there are lots of episodes about other things. I especially appreciate that she speaks so openly about body positivity and hard topics like miscarriage (she’s had two and shares her experiences to help others). She’s relatable and easy to cheer for and I enjoy listening!
Honorable Mentions
I feel like many people have heard of Dave Ramsey, and you either love his plan to financial freedom or you don’t. I do like listening to his podcast occasionally, although I don’t listen to every episode (there are thousands of episodes) and I feel like I gain more insight into finances work and ways to “live like no one else” so our little family can meet our financial goals.
This is a podcast that binges out on one thing in pop culture at a time. Right now, they’re binging on the Harry Potter franchise but they’ve previously binged Game of Thrones. I really love Harry Potter and I enjoy listening to them analyze the franchise; however, this is in the honorable mentions category because I haven’t listened to tons of episodes. This podcast is a commitment – when I say they binge, I mean they BINGE. The first episode of discussing Harry Potter was 82 minutes long and only got the the first five chapters of book ONE. So you can imagine, this is hours upon hours of intricately discussing every aspect of the books and movies. Don’t get me wrong, I love it and I wish I had this back in the days of my long commute to work. It’s just not one I can devote tons of time to right now. But if you love Harry Potter, it’s worth checking out (and I don’t watch Game of Thrones, but I’m sure their season binging that is good too!) There are spoilers though so keep that in mind if you haven’t read everything!
What other podcasts should I be listening to? I’d love to hear about what the ones you enjoy!
simplify the chaos 
4 thoughts on “Things I love: Podcasts!”