Many college students struggle to find time for themselves, especially with finals and end of the semester projects looming in the near future. One way college students can work on themselves while not falling behind in school is by tuning in to podcasts. Spotify has about 3 million podcasts available for anyone to listen to. When I mention podcasts, you may roll your eyes and think that they are boring, but there are many captivating genres that are enticing to the younger college age audience. Here are 8 podcasts that you can listen to in hopes of helping you start the new year off right.
Educational
TED Talks Daily
This podcast posts content everyday (excluding weekends), and covers a variety of different topics ranging from “life-altering questions about the end of the universe” to “how Dolly Parton led me to epiphany.” There is a different speaker giving each talk and everyday is exponentially different from the last, keeping things interesting and fun. This podcast can help better you by keeping you knowledgeable and possibly assist you in finding a topic that will come in handy for you or someone you know in the future, all while giving you some good entertainment.
Listen to TED Talks Daily here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VXcH8QHkjRcTCEd88U3ti?si=a6965c4c90724778
Life Kit
The podcast, Life Kit, is run by National Public Radio and has the goal of teaching the listeners many different life skills and lessons that may help them through life. In each episode a professional in a specific field gives advice about the things that they know the most about. The helpful topics that this podcast covers include things such as “5 tips for transferring colleges”, “how to wake up early, even if you’re not a morning person,” and “how to reframe jealousy in relationships.” Overall, Life Kit can help you learn how to do things that you need help with, as well as things you didn’t know you wanted to learn.
Listen to Life Kit here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5J0xAfsLX7bEYzGxOin4Sd?si=5212602b58034eeb
Mental Health
Let’s Talk About Mental Health
Let’s Talk About Mental Health is a podcast that posts weekly content explaining different things that listeners can do and strategies they can use to help improve their mental health and enhance their general wellbeing. In each episode host, Jeremy Goodwin, uses his own experiences and quality research to discuss a unique topic pertaining to mental health and tips you can apply. This podcast will help better your mental health and in turn will positively affect other aspects of your life.
Listen to Let’s Talk About Mental Health here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kH3ec1ljTia7VmwYsm8Xt?si=8a1aae23c6f849da
The Butterfly Effect: A Mental Health Podcast
The podcast, The Butterfly Effect, aims to help listeners learn more about their mental health and provide them with ways that they can help themselves to improve it. It features individuals from all backgrounds that discuss their mental health journeys and provide listeners with wisdom that they have gained from these experiences, that may help others currently going through similar struggles. Listening to this podcast can help you begin a transformative journey to healing, and their mini-series Metamorphosis Monday will help you start off your week with a positive mindset.
Listen to The Butterfly Effect here: https://open.spotify.com/show/4W5LEoAIELfsrFgF5rAoEM?si=a9ba8292b01b404b
Physical Wellbeing
The Health Code
Hosts Sarah and Kurt discuss health, fitness, life and many other topics in their charming podcast The Health Code. This podcast informs listeners about different health trends and tips having to do with diet and exercise, while also incorporating entertaining banter and stories. Not only does this podcast talk about physical health, it also dives into topics relevant to girls in our generation including issues such as body image, confidence, and social media comparison. By taking some time to listen to this podcast, you are choosing to take time to work on yourself both physically and mentally.
Listen to The Health Code here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1dlfl4rDkWMQTGPOfRdcLQ?si=a66bcf90bcd64abd
Healthier Together
Healthier Together is a podcast hosted by Liz Moody, featuring different guests speaking on a variety of different subjects. Physical health matters such as acne, weight loss, dental health, and insomnia (as well as many more subjects) are covered as well as mental health topics including depression, anxiety, and learning to love yourself and your body. If you choose to invest your time and attention to this podcast you are choosing to invest energy into your ideal future self, and that is definitely something worth doing.
Listen to Healthier Together here: https://open.spotify.com/show/6dBAMh1qc4ML7xxbYwYwNj?si=73c585662b3040f1
Relationships
Relationship Advice
In the weekly episodes by Relationship Advice, listeners are given an insider look into different struggles you may face in a relationship as well as ways to navigate them. Tips to do this are given by couples, therapists and relationship experts. The topics covered in this podcast all have to do with advice for people in relationships, but the specific topics include things such as “unfair relationship expectations” and “the impact of family dynamics on relationships”. Listening to this podcast will help you to form new relationships, better current relationships, and understand past relationships.
Listen to Relationship Advice here: https://open.spotify.com/show/31O8IX7WlZBup23cFlxFYB?si=19e3f71f9cd247af
Friendshipping!
Friendshipping! is a podcast hosted by best friends Jenn and Trin with the goal of helping listeners learn more about the ins and outs of friendship, and teach them how to better navigate the struggles they may encounter that people don’t usually talk about. This podcast is particularly interesting because in each episode they answer specific questions sent in by listeners and talk about the unspoken rules of friendship that we all have wanted to discuss. By tuning into this podcast, you will gain important knowledge and tools that you can use to sustain healthy and happy relationships in the new year!
Listen to Frienshipping! here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5FT92tkwgeJhaCFqAX5EcM?si=2435d0b0893045d5
These are just a few of the many amazing podcasts out there for you to listen to, but hopefully they will help you begin your track to a better you in the new year!