Top 5 podcasts for women by women

I am obsessed with podcasts. I listen to them while driving, cleaning, exercising and showering. The beauty of it is you can always find something you’re in the mood for, because there is a podcast for any subject you’re interested in. And what could be better? Oh yeah, they’re almost all free. As long as you have an internet connection, you can download them onto your device and listen to them whenever you want.

I know I’m arriving late to this podcast party, but I also know that many of my friends haven’t gotten around to using them yet. So here are my top five female-led podcasts:

Self-improvement: Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is the author of The Happiness Project, Happier at Home and Better than Before. I love listening to her advice on building better habits and changing small things to increase overall happiness. She shares the podcast with her sister Elizabeth, and between the two of them they share their success and failures to make us feel better about our success and failures. Even if I don’t always apply the suggestions for building a happier life, I often just feel happier having listened to it.

Suspense and Intrigue: Serial

This podcast doesn’t focus on women specifically, but it is led by journalist Sarah Koenig. I could listen to her voice all day. Each season focuses on one non-fiction story and each episode reveals another facet of the story. It is gripping stuff! They have completed two seasons so far and I can’t wait for the third. If you’re a fan of soap operas that drip-feed you drama, than this is for you… except this is real life.

Creative Inspo: Magic Lessons

Stuck in a creative rut? Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, released a helpful tome on tapping into your creativity. That book, Big Magic, was then turned into this podcast, in which she answers audience questions and helps them with their creative projects or, more often than not, assists with writer’s, painter’s, singer’s block. What I love most is the tenderness in her voice. She truly empathises with these artists and gives thoughtful and useful advice. It looks as though there may only be one season of this podcast, but it’s still an enjoyable listen.

Kicking business butt: #Girlboss radio

After reading Sophia Amaruso’s memoir #Girlboss I was ecstatic to find out it had become a podcast. Her book details her success in the world of fashion, starting a tiny Ebay shop ‘Nasty Gal Vintage’ and growing it into a multi-million dollar company. In each episode Sophia interviews a girlboss and they discuss lessons in business, fashion and life in general. If you’re running your own business, or are planning to, jump on the #Girlboss bandwagon and get some advice from women who have been there, stuffed it up and did it again.

Fun and Facts: Stuff your Mom never told you

This was recommended to me by a friend and it’s my new favourite. Hosts Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin examine female-focused issues. It’s informative, clever and funny. You don’t need to listen to every episode as they are all independent of each other. This way, you can scroll through the feed and choose ones that interest you. Topics range all the way from the prevalence of UTIs in women to the persistent gender wage gap.

These are the top five I recommend. What are you listening to?

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