Some Podcast Recommendations for High School Students (and the Rest of Us)

Here are a few ideas for podcasts that go beyond celebrity and gossip:

Stuff You Should Know: Learn about everything from numerology, free speech, the Magna Carta, and how embalming works. Josh and Chuck also cover teen favorites like true crime.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/

Freakanomics: A favorite of science afficianados, focusing on the science/technology/economics crossover. Host Stephen Dubner sometimes features Angela Duckworth (UPenn psychology professor/writer of Grit as a guest.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519

How I Built This: succesful entrepreneurs like Peloton’s John Foley share their failure (s) to success stories.

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

Radiolab: Mind-opening stories that inspire, often science-based.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab

TED-podcasts: Browse through 45 often-inspiring podcasts on positivity, design, mental health, business, science, climate, whatever makes us human. Everything you can imagine, mostly short, some long.

https://www.ted.com/search?page=1&q=podcasts

It Was Said/Hope Through History: Historian John Meacham presents short, inspiring, snapshots of history, featuring excerpts of speeches from the likes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK, Muhammad Ali, and Tim Tebow.

https://www.history.com/it-was-said-podcast

https://www.history.com/hope-through-history

The Argument: NYTimes podcast features experts respectfully debating two, or sometimes three, sides of major issues, moderated by libertarian columnist Jane Costin.

https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-argument

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!: Test your news and entertainment knowledge quiz show.

https://www.npr.org/2010/12/10/110997427/about-wait-wait-don-t-tell-me

Two of my personal favorites, not recommending for all unless they pique your interest:

Uncomfortable with your information being manipulated by social media companies?

See Tristan Harris’s film The Social Dilemma and listen to his podcast Your Undivided Attention

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast

The Ezra Klein Show:

The liberal, advocate of “doing the reading” author of Why We’re Polarized offers polite discussions of big issues, often challenging himself while staying true to his ideas.

https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast

Feel free to share your suggestions with me.