Podcasts We Love

Podcasts We Love

You might find this hard to believe, but sometimes Kerry and I are NOT busy writing the blog. Don’t get me wrong, we’re pretty much always busy, but we try to squeeze in some time for our own entertainment. One of the ways we both do that is listening to podcasts. My commute to work is … let’s just say “a little longer than I’d like” … so I have a lot of time every day to listen to podcasts. On the days that Kerry works, her commute is even longer than mine, so she puts in some good listening hours every week too.

The podcasts we listen to are all over the map. Kerry’s are a little more oriented towards the things she, and this blog, are interested in. My listening taste leans more towards making me laugh. So, here’s what we listen to.

Andy:

The Best Show! – This show describes itself as “Three hours of Mirth, Music, and Mayhem.” It’s technically not a podcast, it’s a three hour radio show (on the internet) that airs live every Tuesday at 9pm. However, I’ve never listened live, so I download the podcast version the next day. Host Tom Scharpling is an entertainment industry veteran and he’s been hosting this show for about 16 years now. Each week he takes calls, and usually one of those calls is from Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, who takes on a character from a fictional town of Newbridge, NJ.  There’s something so honest and real about Tom and his style of comedy is right up my alley. Also the theme music is one the best songs ever. It’s stuck in my head all the time.

Judge John Hodgman – John Hodgman, who I unfortunately always have to describe to people as, “the PC guy from those Mac vs PC commercials a while back,” dishes out Internet justice to people who have real life disputes. Shows generally have two people call in to have John make a ruling on a dispute they’re having, like, “Why should I buy my wife a mother’s day card, isn’t that’s my kids’ job?” John and bailiff Jesse Thorn (who has two other shows) hear the disputes, ask a lot of questions, and attempt to find the crux. This is like a comedic intro to psychology class for me, and the judge’s ruling always seem to surprise.

Magic Lessons – When I told Kerry that I was listening to this, she said, “That doesn’t sound like something you’d listen to.” She’s right. I like to listen to things that make me laugh while driving because I find that it passes the time quicker. I gave this a chance because Michael Ian Black was a guest on an episode and since then I’ve been hooked. Magic Lessons is hosted by Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat Pray Love, which I never read. She wrote another book called Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (also did not read). This podcast is a follow up to that book, and she talks to regular people who are, for whatever reason, not following a creative passion in their lives. As someone who tried to start an ice cream business and failed, her advice is nice to hear. It can lean a little obvious — “just get over your fear and do it” — but also realistic. She never tells people to just quit their jobs and abandon everything, which is a helpful take that I find inspiring.  

Kerry: 

Elise Gets Crafty – As Andy mentioned, I started listening to podcasts for the first time last year when we moved and my commute got a bit longer. I never thought I’d like them since I just can’t stand talk radio, but I’ve found a few that I really enjoy. And they’re way better than hearing the same song on the radio five times each way! Elise Gets Crafty is the first podcast I enjoyed listening to. It’s about creative small business, and the host Elise Blaha interviews a wide variety of guests, like artists, bloggers, writers and small shop owners, about everything from how to manage your time to the best way to use Pinterest. I’ll admit I haven’t been listening to this one much lately, but I still find it inspiring and interesting.

Young House Love Has a Podcast – Most of you probably already know John and Sherry Petersik of the long-running home reno blog Young House Love. RIP. The blog, not John and Sherry. If you aren’t familiar, for many years they blogged daily about their DIY home renovations. They renovated and blogged at a pace Andy and I can’t even begin to replicate, or even want to try, because our pace at B&B is a lot more like, oh we didn’t do a single home thing this weekend except manage to turn the dishwasher on once, and even that seemed like an accomplishment at the time, because we maybe had a bit too much fun at our friends’ wedding on Saturday (and are still feeling the effects on Monday morning, #old). So anyway, John and Sherry eventually burned out and quit their blog, as you do, which was a huge deal at the time. And they recently came back with a weekly podcast where they talk about home projects, life, design, and sometimes interview interesting big-time designers like Jonathan Adler, Emily Henderson and Sabrina Soto.

Chris Loves Julia –  So the other podcast I listen to is also by a couple who renovate and blog together. (Um, couples who blog together, stay together, right?) Chris and Julia Marcum are the couple behind the blog Chris Loves Julia, which is also about home reno, DIY, design and family. This is actually hands down my current favorite podcast. At first I wasn’t so sure about it, to be honest. I didn’t actually read their blog regularly (I do now) and the co-host Preston Pugmire, well, I thought that was a fake person with a fake accent, ha. I ended up sticking with it and now I just love this podcast. It constantly has me cracking up laughing and I’ve also learned a ton about home design, which is awesome. These guys really know their stuff, and I kind of secretly wish we could be best friends!

(This photo has nothing to do with this post, but Joey is just SO CUTE and is getting SO BIG!)