It’s a lucky day for the whole world! I’ve been inspired to start a new weekly podcast review. Podcast Round-up is here! (dances across the floor) A place to post a short review of the podcasts I listened to this week. Life is not JUST about reading books, you know. Ok, maybe it is, but there has to be some variety, right? I mean, we can’t have tacos every day, can we? Wait…never mind. Podcasts!

Do you listen to podcasts? I freakin’ love ‘em! I’ve always been a fan of talk radio, especially when I was in college driving from school to my boyfriend’s house and then in my 20’s driving from Woodland Hills to and back from Disneyland every day for work. I’ve always been a fan of driving and, unlike most people, I’m not a big music lover. But I do love talk and podcasts are a great way for me to listen in on some great conversations between intelligent and articulate people while I drive the California freeways. Traffic means nothing to me!

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Practicing Human – Meditation vs Taking Action

These are great five-to-ten-minute bits that add to my playlist between longer podcasts and I have yet to regret listening to them. This one led me to this gem: the point of meditation is to learn to pause, focus, and direct action. Our brains run a mile a minute and if we chase every thought, we get very little done. An action I’m taking directly from this episode is remembering to pause before I react to anything. Social media post, text, comment, anything, take a moment to think, maybe write out a response to myself but then wait a while to send it out into the world.

Dream Big Podcast with Bog Goff – Jon Acuff – Changing Soundtracks

For coming from a Christian perspective, this isn’t a bad podcast. This the second episode I’ve listened to. The big takeaway this time: You’re not stuck. You’re afraid. What’s the fear? For me, it’s criticism. I’m afraid to do or say what I want because I don’t handle criticism well.

The Writer Files – How to Research Historical Fiction with Award-Winning Author Patrick Hicks

“Whatever scares you to write… that’s what you should be writing.” – Patrick Hicks

Dammit.

I always love listening to this guy’s perspective when talking to different authors. I’m not always a fan of the author or their work, but their thoughts on the process are always inspiring. This one was not disappointing.

Freakanomics Radio – 456. How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare

From this I’ve added “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Healthcare – And How to Fix it” by Marty Makary to my TBR list.

The Minimalists – 283 | Sentimental Stuff

This one wasn’t much to crow about today.

The Jordan B Peterson Podcast – Matthew McConaughey

I’m not a fan of celebrity interviews but Jordan Peterson was interviewing so I thought it would be worth listening to. My reaction? Meh. I wasn’t impressed. He seemed to be very impressed with McConaughey’s memoir, Greenlights, but I’m not inspired to read it.

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There it is! My first weekly podcast review. It seems like a lot of listening time, but they were shorties this week mostly. I’m always looking for new and interesting podcasts, so let me know your favorites in the comments! Expand my listening repertoire, I dare you!

The next episode came a little later than expected, but it’s here now and it hopes it’ll come around again soon!

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