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A little while ago I was listening to one of my podcasts and they discussed a thing called ‘letter of recommendation’.

Which is basically just an excuse to talk about something you enjoy. I liked the format so much that I decided I was going to borrow it. 

So this is going to be a thing I do. My letters of recommendation.

So since this is inspired by a podcast in particular, I am going to talk about podcasts.

I started listening to podcasts a long time ago. I think it was when I was nineteen, working in a comic book store, and I started listening to a little podcast called The Watchtower Podcast. They were Canadian, they talked about comics and various comic related things, and it was hilarious. It introduced me to podcasts, and I’ve been listening ever since. Over the years I have listened to many podcasts, with so many varied topics. 

One of the things I love so much about podcasts is that they are a fantastic place to learn things. It can be hard to learn, and not a lot of people have time to take out of their busy lives to learn. Add to that, these things can be hard to learn. Science does not make itself accessible. Information is locked behind paywalls and even if you can access them, journal articles are not easily understood. It’s the modern day equivalent of medical information being written in Latin so that only permitted people can learn the information. Podcasts do so much to make that information accessible to people that wouldn’t be able to access it. Podcasts like This Podcast Will Kill You which educates about diseases, infectious and otherwise. They do such a brilliant job of explaining very complex diseases - I’ve never fully understood Mad Cow Disease until they explained it. Podcasts like Science Vs which breaks down scientific research, and examines issues that are of concern to all people. Sawbones which deals with medical history - educating people about how far we’ve come, and helping to make people more health literate.

There are other podcasts that bring attention to areas that might have been forgotten. There have been investigative podcasts that bring attention to things that slip through the cracks. I’ve listened to crime podcasts, news podcasts. There is a case that has gone to trial in Australia because of an Investigative journalism podcast. The Daily is a wonderful podcast for news, and while it will often do things which are relevant to the current situation (mostly in USA, but also in the world) they also deal with big issues - the issues that brought me into it were about Ethics in using DNA in the criminal justice system, and the state of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. The First Degree and The Murder Squad are both podcasts that deal with murder, and give a voice to crimes that otherwise might not get attention. In the case of The Murder Squad this also includes ways to have people get involved and hopefully help solve crimes - some crimes that have had people looking for answers for years.

And then there are podcasts that are just for fun, for amusement and to spend some of our time, and that is just as valid as anything else. For me No Such Thing As A Fish is one of these - it’s from the team behind the QI TV show, and they share facts, but at the end of the day, this is a podcast that at the heart of it, is for entertainment for me.

Podcasts serve many purposes, to educate, to promote, to entertain, and sometimes a blur of all of these, but one of the things I truly love is that they are accessible. You don’t need to pay for these podcasts, you don’t need to pay for an application to access them.

Anyway, I love podcasts, and these ones in particular. 

Are there any you love?