You know that feeling what you’ve just binge watched a box set and you have the urge to tell everyone about it and dissect it? (The gems that saw me through this very strange year: Ozark, I May Destroy You, Better Call Saul, Love Life). One of the podcasts we created at Mags Creative celebrates that bond we have when we’re sharing great content with one another.
The idea came to my business partner Hannah and I in a lunch break discussion about the great podcasts that we’d recently listened to, the Desert Island Discs of podcasts if you will. Apply that to very principle to celebrity podcast recommendations and you get CASTaway.
Hosted by Laura Whitmore, us listeners get to hear the favourite podcasts from A-listers such as Niall Horan, Clara Amfo, and Dermot O’Leary (often learning something we didn’t know about them in the process). And the good news is that Laura is back for Season 3 with more podcasts recommendations from the likes of Rosie Ramsey (true-crime obsessed), Irene Agbontaen (championing brilliant black hosted podcasts) and Deborah Frances-White (sharing juicy sex and relationship podcasts). Check it out - and if you feel like sharing your top pods with me, drop me an email to [email protected].
So from a podcast about top podcasts, to a column about top podcasts – these are some more new season releases and shows to add to your listening list this week:
For the vegan curious. Hosted by Harry Potter actress Evanna Lynch along with co-hosts Robbie Jarvis, Momoko Hill and Tylor Starr, The ChickPeeps is a friendly, fun and free-flowing ethical vegan podcast. Whilst the show is driven by a quest to be more compassionate towards animals, the beauty of this is the gentler, more inclusive approach they take to activism or as Evanna explain “attractivism”. She said: "We like to call our style of activism on the podcast 'attractivism' which means we are anti-shame and focus on providing inspiration and education. We take an optimistic and compassionate approach to activism, sharing the joyful aspects of being vegan and trying to reach people wherever they're at on their vegan journey."
What Planet Are We On? with Liz Bonnin
A new environmental podcast to add to your list; Liz Bonnin speaks to environmentalists, leading scientists and familiar faces about the impacts and the solutions for climate change. Launching the series with celebrated broadcaster and arguably the father of the environmental movement, David Attenborough - he shares some of his concerns for the pace of change in conservation. He also expresses his dismay at how the economic system in the western world has encouraged our need for greed, saying that “Ordinary people worldwide are beginning to realise that greed does not actually lead to joy”. Check out this wise, profound and moving first episode.
Having recently watched the Social Dilemma, I was staggered at how tangled our lives have become since we’ve owned our smartphones. Whether it’s email, social media, or just feeling the need to carry around our phone all the time, we’re always ‘logged on’. This is exactly why tech ethicist, author and host of It’s Complicated, Tanya Goodin is encouraging us to think more about untethering from our tech. On the show, Tanya speaks to people about their complicated relationships with technology and explores how we can reclaim more time in our day, away from mindless scrolling. Guests have included Instapoet and illustrator Nikita Gill on being kind online, the founder of Hinge Justin McLeod on what smartphones have done to dating and Kristina Karlsson, founder and Creative Director of global Swedish design and stationery business kikki.k. Thought provoking and absolutely worth the listen if you, like me, find switching off hard.
