7 great podcast recommendation newsletters
Why go hunting for podcast recommendations? Let them come to you!
A recurring question I am asked in relation to my enthusiasm for podcasts is: How do you find decent new ones? The oft-mentioned problem around podcast discovery hasn’t been solved yet.
As a curator of the Non-Fiction Addiction newsletter/event series, I subscribe to a few newsletters that help me find new shows and announcements about upcoming podcasts. Here’s a list for you.
The Bello Collective is a Medium publication and newsletter published by a collective who used to run their own separate podcast recommendation endeavours. Under the Bello brand they flag upcoming shows as well as things they’ve been listening to individually — it benefits from the fact that contributors have their own areas of interest, as it means you get a wide range of suggestions.
Nick Quah created his newsletter to discuss the business/industry side of podcasting. He goes deep, and that depth has seen him tapped up by Nieman Lab and generally acknowledged as a leading industry expert on the economic challenges facing the medium.
If that doesn’t sound appealing, bear in mind that at its heart his output is a result of his passion for narrative audio, and in discussing movers, shakers, strategies and the like, he inevitably also covers publishers and podcasters that will be new to you.
Inside.com is a site where you can subscribe to newsletters on any number of (generally tech-slanted) topics — from drones, to VR, to streaming technology. Inside Podcasting is one such publication, and is an easily digestible but info-packed digest of recent news and articles about audio storytelling. It also has a podcast spotlight section where it goes into a bit more depth about shows that may not have received much exposure.
Sara Weber is a Munich-based technology editor whose podcast recommendation newsletter has been going for a few years now. There’s something quite pure about receiving recommendations from one person, which I like; Sara’s tips often come with asides on how she reacted emotionally to particular stories. You get an insight into her personality, and — here I’m going to assume she’s quite fastidious — she gets extra points for linking to multiple listening sources rather than just iTunes.
The Big Listen, from NPR, is technically a podcast first — ‘the broadcast about podcasts’, as it says itself. It offers interviews, clips and listener tips on what shows to listen to. However, if you can’t fit it into your busy audio schedule it also sends out a regular newsletter with links to all the shows and people it discusses. It’s a simple and effective cross-platform approach.
Every week this email lands in my inbox with the promise: ‘The best podcasts you should listen to this week’. Created by tech journalist Simon Owens, Audioteller pretty consistently delivers on the promise, with recommendations sourced from a wide range of contributors.
The acronym stands for ‘You Should Listen To Friday’, and if you recognise the name of the creator — Sam Greenspan — it may be because he used to be a producer of esteemed design podcast 99% Invisible. His updates can be irregular, but Greenspan’s recommendations benefit from his background — he has intimate firsthand experience of what makes for a good story.
Do you know of a source I’ve missed? Let me know — I’m always looking for more.
Originally published at mintdigital.com.
