In the last couple of years, I have fallen in love with podcasts. It’s kind of odd, considering that as a writer and as a visual learner, I always thought podcasts (and audiobooks – I have a whole other post coming on those!) was something I would shy away from. I used to love reading – the physical act of holding a book and feeling the pages. I love seeing the printed word, but in recent years – especially as my ADHD symptoms have become more and more noticeable – I just don’t have the patience or the attention span to read a book anymore. Podcasts have come into my life and swept me off my feet, taking me on a whole new sensory adventure and satisfying my need for new information, and learning more about the topics that I love.

I go through periods of hyperfocus. Some of the ones in recent times have included various periods in history (Tudors, Victorians, WW2), the Holocaust, true crime, natural disasters, Salem witch trials, boarding schools, cults, and the royal family. You can literally find podcasts on anything – which means I am never short of things to listen to.

It blows my mind how a 30-minute podcast can be more valuable to me in terms of knowledge and information than a full-length book. Podcasters know that people’s attention spans are so short these days, and for that reason, seem to have the knack of covering everything in such a short space of time.

One of the great things about podcasts is that they are so portable. I don’t tend to listen to them driving because I would end up being too distracted, but I listen to them in bed, when I’m doing bits of easy work, doing housework or cooking, and when I have the odd moment here and there to sit down and chill. I subscribe to them and follow them on Spotify, so I get notifications when a new one has been dropped, and I can listen to them when I get a chance.

Another thing that surprised me is how much I love listening to the podcaster’s voices. I always imagined hearing someone read something would irritate me, because when I have tried to listen to fiction audiobooks in the past, it has ruined the characters for me. We imagine the tone and the voices in a certain way when we read a story, and someone else putting their voice to it can mess it up. However, it turns out non-fiction podcasts (and audiobooks!) are totally different. In fact, it can help to gain a deeper understanding of a topic, because the person hosting it clearly has a passion for the subject and can impart that in their voice.

Some of the podcasts I listen to on rotation on Spotify include:

• Redhanded
• Disaster Area
• Disaster
• Not Just The Tudors
• Parcast Survival
• Parcast Cults
• When it Goes Wrong
• Medical Mysteries
• Sinister Societies
• The British History Podcast
• Parcast Conspiracy Theories
• QAnon Anonymous
• Talking Tudors

If you haven’t given podcasts a try, I definitely recommend it. You can literally find them about anything, whether fiction or non-fiction is your jam. Let me know which ones you like listening to in the comment section.