Plug in, tune out: 30 podcasts to get you through the holidays
The holidays are a great time to catch up with friends and family, but it's also a perfect time to completely ignore them, when it all gets too much.
There's nothing like plonking your headphones in and listening to one of the many excellent podcasts out there. And it's the perfect way to get some much-needed alone time in between all the festivities.
While you're probably well aware acclaimed podcasts like This American Life, Serial or How Stuff Works, you might be hungry for something new these holidays.
So, we asked around the Mashable office to find out what people are listening to. Here are our compiled top 30 podcasts might might not have listened to, but definitely should.
1. Science Vs.
If you're curious about fads, trends and dubious claims, Science Vs. pitches fact against what's actually, definitely fiction.
Excellent comedians talk about how terrible travelling is and why you should just stay at home instead.
If you love reality television, this podcast analyses your favourite shows "in a quest for self-improvement."
A musicologist and a songwriter breakdown the making and meaning of popular music.
5. MashReads
Mashable's podcast on new books and the way we read today.
Presenter Richard Fidler is quite the interviewer, and in Conversations he digs deep into the life stories of both famous and regular folks.
7. On Being
On Being looks at our life: What does it mean to be human and what does it mean to live?
Forgotten or secret stories about Hollywood's first century.
Two comedians explore the unjust, or absurd tenets of the U.S. political system.
10. Song Exploder
Musicians take apart and explain their songs, bit by bit.
Talking to artists, performers, musicians and authors that aren't white dudes.
The researchers of the delightful British quiz show QI talk about the fun facts they've discovered this week.
13. Dear Prudence
An advice podcast that deals with life dilemmas such as racist friends, setting boundaries at work or what to when parents write you out of wills.
Community updates from the fictional desert town of Night Vale, complete with Sheriff's announcements, tales of "mysterious lights in the night sky and dark hooded figures with unknowable powers."
15. Code Switch
NPR's podcast about how race, ethnicity and culture play in our lives, and how it's changing.
Explaining the unnoticed architecture and design that's in our world, from inflatable tube men on the side of used car lots to the world's biggest wholesale market for dollar store items.
Dinner party conversation with celebrities like Anthony Bourdain, Nick Offerman and Kristen Bell.
18. The Indoor Kids
It's a mixed-bag of discussion games, comic books, TV and movies.
19. The Read
A weekly podcast about "hip-hop and pop culture's most trying stars."
20. Embedded
Delving deeper into a story that's in the news.
21. Reply All
A show about how the internet affects people, and how we shape the internet.
Drop yourself into a charmingly frank phone conversation between two best friends living far away from each other.
23. The Allusionist
A podcast about language and how words came to fruition.
All the discussion points that get left out of polite conversation, like porn, God and grieving.
25. Story Club
When high expectations and pressure results in a crumbling mess of failure and shame, it certainly makes for a great podcast.
26. All The Best
An entrancing podcast filled with stories around Australia.
27. Blank Slate
Three comedians discuss one film that they've never seen before, like Sylvester Stallone's 1983 stinker Staying Alive.
28. Reveal
An investigative reporting program, which delves into the secrets of the Jehovah's Witnesses in one episode, and has a frank conversation with a white nationalist in the next.
Ordinary things, like weddings, postal addresses and cardboard, are actually fascinating if you dig deep.
30. Sampler
If you can't be bothered listening to all those podcasts, Sampler finds the best bits that you need to hear.
