Podcasts have always been part of my daily life. From the moment I wake up to the moment I close my eyes to go to bed, they accompany me throughout the mundane day-to-day tasks of my life.
Research from The Wall Street Journal on the science of making healthy habits stick (2023) shows that association can help build more consistent habits. Any healthy choice seems doable for a day, but sticking to it appears to be more difficult for most people.
But what easy way to make healthy habits stick than to associate them with a podcast! Here are 5 podcast recommendations that may inspire you to make your habits stick. Before we get into the details, let’s see the mental associations I’ve made with these podcasts.
– I associate The Mel Robbins Podcast with cooking and eating.
– I associate The World at Six with commuting to the gym.
– I associate Huberman lab with “I have two hours to spare right now” – which is very rare!
– I associate Self Obsessed with going for a getting ready to go out
– Finally, I associate Just Sleep – Bedtime stories for adults with winding down before bed.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
She’s known for her famous candid line, “Hi, it’s your friend Mel,” and for months, I’ve found comfort in it. I simply cannot begin to describe how much this podcast has impacted my life in a positive way. Mel Robbins is the world’s most widely booked and followed podcast host and author, yet it always feels like an intimate one-on-one conversation with her.
Robbins created the “high-five method” – a technique I use every day when I wake up to brush my teeth. The simple act of high-fiving ones’ self in the mirror every morning crates a sense of genuine pride and encouragement towards your reflection in the mirror. This way, Mel argues, you are proving to your brain that you are worthy of celebration which leads to the development of positive thought patterns and self-perception that – if repeated – can last a lifetime.
I usually listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast right after I wake up; while making breakfast. I can never go wrong with this podcast because every episode is designed to encourage you to make good decisions in your daily life.
The World at Six
Second up, is news consumption. As you might imagine, waking up and automatically priming your mind to read words on a screen (especially the news) is not the healthiest habit. However, since I am required to be informed on recent events around the world as a journalism major, I found a loophole: audio journalism!
I put on The World At Six right after I finish The Mel Robbins Podcast episode after breakfast, and get ready to leave for the gym. The coverage that this CBC podcast provides gives context, analysis and the day’s top stories from around the world.
The length of one episode usually ranges from 20 to 30 minutes – the perfect way to catch up on news from that day without giving yourself a day-long headache from staring at a screen an hour after waking up.
As someone who just LOVES listening to music, I found it hard to substitute Afrobeat with Canadian politics or R&B with updates on global conflicts. Yet, every time I press play on this CBC podcast, I find it easily digestible and rewarding.
Huberman Lab
This one was recommended to me a year ago by a few friends I know from the gym. They’ve reiterated what I’ve heard many times from different people: that it helped them improve their daily lives by giving them science-based tools for a productive and optimal life.
The Huberman Lab podcast episodes are long and tend to require a lot of mental focus while listening to experts dive deep into the nitty gritty of a chosen topic. But once you finish an episode, you feel like a neuroscientist yourself!
If you want to learn more about how our brain and its connection with our organs control our perceptions, our behaviours and our health, and better yet learn how to navigate and adjust it with your respective external circumstances, this podcast is just for you.
I usually listen to Huberman Lab on days when I have a few hours to spare. This is not the case during the school year, so perhaps it is not accurate to say that this podcast is a part of my daily routine. Nevertheless, it gives me joy to be able to hold a conversation with someone who also listens to Andrew Huberman, a well-established neuroscientist and tenured professor at Stanford School of Medicine.
Self Obsessed
Although the title of this podcast might seem initially off-putting and it might be a little stigmatized to be prideful, after learning about the reason WHY this podcast exists in the first place and why the creator has made the conscious choice to pick out this name, it will change your perception on self-love.
Tam Kaur’s Self-Obsessed is the ultimate guide to everything society doesn’t want you to learn. This podcast is all about changing self-perception, and overcoming all obstacles that are in the way of you being the best version of yourself. It is about learning how to prioritize your self-love, self-care, self-confidence, self-worth and self-growth.
I call it the “Non-BS” podcast because Tam Kaur, the host of this podcast, is so straightforward and to the point when it comes to a lot of the topics being discussed. I just love it. I tend to listen to this podcast when I get ready to go out somewhere or anytime during the afternoon because it tends to motivate me to keep going.
Just Sleep
I listen to this podcast right before I go to bed. Although I usually don’t have any trouble falling asleep at night, sometimes my mind keeps making to-do lists for the coming day. This is why listening to a podcast that has a meditative ring to it is just the way to go.
The tricky thing with this podcast is that if you are a reader you get hooked on some of the stories you are listening to in this podcast. So instead of falling asleep, you are wide awake, anticipating the next move X character is going to make to get revenge on Y. I find it quite hilarious when that happens.
I hope that a few of these podcast recommendations stood out to you. I urge you to use them to your advantage to create structure in your daily routine or to make important habits stick by association.
Yours truly.