There is a certain appeal about hearing a story. From the dawn of mankind, we, humans, have sat around a fire and told stories to one another about virtually everything. Stories have been woven to explain our beginnings, middles and ends. Maybe that’s why there is a certain appeal to listening to a good Podcast. You can sit yourself down with a cup of tea next to a cozy fire, close your eyes and let someone tell you a story. It can be a story of their daily lives, an anecdote that will make you laugh, a spine-tingling tale or a legend of long ago. Whatever the story is, I think Podcasts have been such a great way to revisit one of the oldest traditions in our history.

I started getting into podcasts with the first season of Serial. While the first season was so enticing, I must admit that the second season left me wanting to find other things out there. Hence, I started branching out.

If you need some inspiration of podcasts to listen to, here is a small selection of some interesting ones!

1. Tea and Tattle:

This is a relatively new podcast hosted by Miranda Mills of mirandasnotebook.com and her friend Sophie Perdita. Every week, they post a new podcast and it’s always a pleasant break from my workday to listen to them. The topics they discussed have been quite interesting. Many of them have been things I have not yet heard about, including the Scandinavian philosophy/lifestyle of Hygge, different books, fashion and even party etiquette.

2. Lore:

I have been subscribed to this podcast for quite some time, but I didn’t start listening to it regularly until right before Halloween. It’s perfectly creepy – full of murder stories, curses and even legends of vampires. The cool thing is all of these stories actually happened. Not only are they small tidbits of history, but they all give you that horror-movie fix, without the screaming girl running from an ax-wielding murderer. The stories are well presented, so even the people who aren’t fans of scary stories can appreciate the tale!

3. Garance Dore’s Pardon My French:

I’ve recently started listening to this particular podcast. Garance Doré is an intriguing character. She is a French photographer, illustrator, blogger and author. I think part of me is a bit envious of all the creativity she gets to be involved in on a daily basis. The episode I’ve recently listened to was called For the Love of Books. She additionally has interviewed Gwyneth Paltrow, Phillip Lim and controversial topics such as plastic surgery and even sex. It’s also really refreshing to hear the experiences of a French person living in NYC.

4. This American Life:

This is one of the podcasts I’ve actively listened to for the last several years. This is the podcast of podcasts. They post episodes with compelling real life stories (and excellent journalism) about unusual or interesting life events of Americans. Some examples of their top episodes are “Switched at Birth” and “What Happened at Dos Erres”.

5. The British History Podcast:

Even though I took something resembling British History in High School, it was all very general and I don’t remember much of it. I was always a history buff, so since I’ve moved to the UK, I thought I might brush up on some of the local history, and learn a thing or two. I particularly like medieval history, or even older. The region I currently live in was pillaged by the Vikings, so learning about some of this history has been really interesting too!