My top 5 podcasts of 2018

My pick of the five podcasts that have meant the most to me in 2018, featuring: Adam Buxton; RuPaul and Michelle Visage; Michael Rapaport; Cariad Lloyd’s Griefcast; and Tim Ferriss.

Podcasting hits you right between the ears. Podcasting is the most intimate and immediate medium. The most versatile. Podcasters create time capsules. Words, feeling and wisdom waiting to be activated by current or future generations.

I am addicted to podcasts. I’ve spent so much time immersed in the world of podcasts in 2018. I’ve got so much out of it. I’m always looking for my next podcast to love. If you have any podcast favourites or recommendations you’d like to share, please do get in touch and let me know!

Here are the five individual podcast episodes that I have got the most out of in 2018. I’ve tried to limit this selection to podcasts released this year. But I couldn’t leave out my number one pick, which actually dates from 2015. Here we go:

5: Adam Buxton/ Bob Mortimer

I look forward to each weekly ramblechat from Adam Buxton more than any other podcast. I was taken aback in the most delightful way by how lovely and gentle Adam’s chat with Bob Mortimer is. Mortimer speaks with soft, good-natured humour about his 2015 triple-bypass surgery and subsequent recovery process (and generously shares nutritional and medical tips to help others try to avoid what happened to him). You emerge from this podcast wanting to be a better person, and appreciating everything around you so much the more.

4: RuPaul/ Michelle Visage/ Thandie Newton

What’s The Tee? from Rupaul and his Drag Race co-host Michelle Visage is the warmest, wittiest and most welcoming podcast. Ru and Michelle have known each other forever. They have their repartee down. Each weekly episode feels like dropping in on old friends. Most weeks they introduce you to new friends, too, with an extraordinary and diverse array of guests. I love Ru and Michelle’s recent chat with Thandie Newton, who talks so movingly about the debilitating effect of insecurity, and how it can be overcome.

3: Michael Rapaport/ DJ Premier

“You’re making my heart race, hearing these stories.” So says Michael Rapaport in his podcast/”documentary” with immortal hip hop DJ/producer (and Gang Starr alumnus) DJ Premier. This is by far the best music podcast I’ve ever heard. Premier (aka Primo) has the voice of a wizened bluesman. He was right there are the epicenter of so many legendary moments in hip hop history. Rapaport’s enthusiasm is extraordinary. This guy lives for hip hop. This is the hip hop podcast of a lifetime.

2: GriefCast (Cariad Lloyd/ Katherine Ryan/ Emma Freud)

“All that we are is matter and energy.” So says Emma Freud in this special live episode of Griefcast. Presenter Cariad Lloyd was joined by Katherine Ryan and Emma Freud at BFI London for an upbeat and cathartic chat on death, mortality and the grieving process. I was lucky enough to be in the audience for the recording of podcast (and blogged about the experience here). It is just as lovely to listen to again in podcast form. Please do consider letting Griefcast into your life.

1: Tim Ferris/ Naval Ravikant

“What I find is that 90% of thoughts that I have are fear-based. The other 10% are probably desire-based. Any Buddhist will tell you that desire is the other side of the coin to fear.”

This is Naval Ravikant, a deep thinker, and a believer in brutal honesty. In his epic conversation with Tim Ferriss, Naval generously shares a lifetime’s wisdom and insight, covering a dizzying breadth of topics and perspectives. This is a podcast to return to over and over, and to learn from anew each time. It hit me so hard when I first heard it that I had to blog about it right away. I am particularly taken with what Naval says about choiceless awareness, a form of meditation. Choiceless awareness is about taking yourself out of the story. Allowing your thoughts to occur to you as they will, but not judging them. You will soon start to realise that, as Naval points out, “life is pretty good”.

What have been your favourite podcasts of 2018? What are your favourite podcasts, period? Please get in touch and let me know!

IMAGES

• Rupaul detail via Wikimedia Commons.
• Triple picture of the Griefcast live cast (plus detail images of Katherine, Emma and Cariad and of Emma and Cariad) courtesy of Michael-Jason, who originally posted these images on Instagram. My sincerest thanks to Michael-Jason for his kind permission for me to share them here.
• Naval Ravikant picture via Wikimedia Commons.