As we go from labeling our time in quarantine in days to weeks — and then months, surely — we continue to look for ways to stay sharp while also passing time.
[Related: A Fun Feminist Playlist to Cure Your Work-From-Home Blues]
If you’ve already tackled your reading list and exhausted all of the shows you wanted to stream, we suggest popping on some headphones and listening to one of these great podcasts. We’ve grouped them by mood:
When Your Mind Needs Something Light…
1. Bitch Sesh
Women comedians Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider (two female comedians) team up to talk about a favorite televised guilty pleasure: the “Real Housewives” series on Bravo. It consistently makes us laugh out loud.
[Related: JJ Ramberg Launches New Podcast App for Those Stuck at Home During Pandemic]
2. Pop Culture Happy Hour
Pop Culture Happy Hour — or as we like to think of it, the intellectual version of “Entertainment Tonight” — gives listeners a sense of normalcy. Host Linda Holmes is, like the rest of us, struggling to maintain that in such trying times. But episodes like “Family-Friendly Crowd Pleasers: Three Things to Stream Your Whole Family Can Enjoy” do the trick.
3. Binge Mode
The Ringer hosts this pop-culture offering, which dives extra-deep into franchise fan favorites like HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” and the internationally beloved Harry Potter books. Detail-oriented podcast fans and self-proclaimed nerds alike will love it.
When Your Mind Needs Nourishment…
4. The Daily
This podcast from The New York Times gives listeners insight into the news of the day in 20-minute bursts. (The April 10 edition featuring Jaiyang Fan — “I Became a Person of Suspicion” — is a thought-provoking, if sobering staff favorite.)
5. Throughline
This NPR offering seeks to explain our present reality by looking at our shared past. No subject is off-limits — topics range from mosquitoes and the U.S. census to, appropriately for our times, the 1918 flu epidemic.
6. In Our Time
This BBC podcast takes a big-picture look at a range of historic, scientific and literary matters. Episode themes range from Jane Austen’s “Emma” to dark matter.
[Related: Small Businesses Nervously Wait for ‘Dollars in Hand’]
When Your Mind’s on Your Business…
7. 21 Hats
This podcast is all business — literally, as its focus is on entrepreneurship. Host-slash-friend-of-TSE Loren Feldmen recently wrote about how the project has been transformed by the coronavirus crisis.
8. How I Built This
This favorite-among-business-owners from NPR journalist Guy Raz gives listeners a look at the startup stories behind some of the world’s most recognizable companies. Entrepreneurs in need of a lift might look to this recent episode featuring Sarah Krause of reusable bottle company S’Well.
9. The Story Exchange Podcast (of course!)
Not to toot our own horn, but we do have an award-winning podcast of our own to share. We aim to provide listeners insights into the lives and work of women business owners who have found success in a wide range of industries.
[Related: Launching a Business From Home? Here Are 9 Socially Distanced Startup Ideas]