The best thing I did in the past few months was finally learn how to walk my dog with one hand and push a stroller with another—that may sound silly but Ender is a super high-energy pup and if he doesn’t get enough exercise it can be a struggle.
For the first few months of Sophie’s life, I’d wear her in a baby wrap and walk Ender and it was great—we’d get out of the house for 30-40 minutes, sometimes even an hour every day, she would sleep on me, and he would get his exercise; but as Sophie got bigger it became harder to manage them both that way. After a few weeks of trying to walk him early before anyone in my house woke up, I decided to just get over it and walk Ender with the stroller—something I always found really intimidating.
The first few times didn’t exactly go smoothly, but after a few walks we started to get the hang of it, and now we get a good 2-3 miles in pretty much every day, which has been so nice for all of us. Sometimes I’ll call my mom or a friend to catch up while I’m walking, but most of the time I listen to one of my favorite podcasts, which I wanted to share here—which is also why I’m telling you this story about walking the dog.
So without further ado, my five favorite podcasts:
The Bon Appétit Foodcast: I don’t listen to every episode of this show, but the ones I do listen to I always enjoy so much. I consume Bon Appétit content on pretty much every channel they create it for: Instagram, YouTube, I’ll even buy a copy of the magazine if I’m in an airport and my flight gets delayed. So it was only a matter of time before I started listening to their podcast as well. I feel like I know the people who work at BA, and their enthusiasm and passion for food really speaks to me. Who wants to listen to someone talk about rice for an hour? I do.
Getting Curious: Jonathan Van Ness is like my imaginary friend, except he’s real, he just doesn’t have any idea who I am. I think he is so sweet and funny and I love listening to him ask people questions on this show. I love that he is loud and outrageous and has the funniest expressions but also really does his research and leads some super interesting conversations with experts on a really wide spectrum of topics. It’s so interesting, and I’ve learned so much.
Pod Save America: I listen to this podcast first when I’m walking and always when I’m driving anywhere—I’m at the point where this is really the only way I want to hear the news and learn about current events. These guys are funny (never have I ever fast forwarded through one of their ads), smart, and well-connected and I love hearing from them a couple times a week. They’re also in the process of interviewing every Democratic nominee for President right now and releasing them as separate episodes, which is super interesting and valuable to me.
Yo, Is This Racist?: I learned about Andrew Ti on an episode of Getting Curious last year and finally started listening to this podcast last month. He and his co-host Tawny Newsome answer listener questions about racism, and they are so hilarious but also unapologetic about calling out racism even just in our casual, day-to-day lives. I really can’t recommend this show enough, especially if you’re white. There are so many things I used to not notice or—even worse—ignore and this podcast has really taught me so much about speaking up in the face of white supremacy (while making me laugh out loud in the process).
Cafeteria Christian: This was a podcast I really needed. If you’ve been here for a while you know I was raised in the Catholic church but don’t really identify as Catholic anymore. For a long time I wasn’t sure if I even identified as Christian. When this podcast came out and announced that it was a show for “people who like Jesus but aren’t so sure about some of his friends,” I knew I had to subscribe. From forgiveness to prosperity gospel and purity culture to mental health and even abortion, Natalia and Nora tackle everything through the lens of progressive Christian-ish-ity.
What are you listening to these days?
