In the moment when you are sitting down for a cafe in the morning and you turn to your friend to recount a piece of gossip you learned the night before, “Did you hear what so and so did…!” STOP.  REWIND.

What if, instead of worrying about that small piece of gossip in your small little world that you exist in, you decide to voice all your opinions, beliefs, controversial thoughts, and have meaningful conversations? What if you start the conversation like this, “Did you hear about the 19 year old Syrian refugee Doha’s story on Ted Talks last night?! Can you believe she abandoned everything to escape by boat to Europe, and watched as men sank the boat, feeling helpless and fearful because she knew she couldn’t swim? Then having to enter the water to a sea of corpses as she waded through them to get out of the way. Wander what we could do to help refugees get to safety and find jobs? How would we solve a global problem on such a large scale?”

You think there’s nothing you can do? Check out some of these non profit organizations, Pencils of Promise, Falling Whistles, This Bar. Most of them started with one person and one idea and now they are all attempting to save lives, and they are doing it every single day. All. Across. The World.

If there’s one way to just think creatively and to listen and learn about the world we live in, its through podcasting. I’m a big advocate of podcasting! On any long road trip there’s always time for the car window’s down, music up, and hair loose, but I always get quite excited about the prospect of multiple hours of podcasts. In fact, the time flies by when I’m engrossed in deep thought as I listen and critically think about what I’m being told and how I feel about it.

Below are a few of my favorite podcasts that I keep updated regularly, especially so I have something to do on down time while I’m on travel 🙂

You can click any of the photos below for a link to the website.

1. TEDX Radio Hour

TED Radio Hour is definitely one of my favorites. Its really cool because they take one common theme, such as Why We Lie, and they look back to a grouping of TED Talks that have occurred with this theme and compile them together so you get the best of all clips over about an hours time.

This normally leads me to go listen to all the full TED talks at the end, because they are normally that good, but I like the way they splice them together for the radio hour podcast.

2. This American Life NPR

This American life is always at the top of my list because you never know what you are going to get, but it is always extremely interesting and good for thinking. Normally there are 3 different stories during one episode and I guarantee you, you’ll learn something you never did in each one.

3. Serial / Undisclosed: The State Vs. Adnan Syed

If you are into podcasting at all then you probably have listened to Serial. It started last year and follows the case of convicted murderer Adnan Syed from a variety of different angles. This podcast got extremely popular extremely fast and in one report I read had over a million listeners by the time it reached the end.

With 12 episodes you get to weigh in on the case as Sarah Koneig tries to find evidence that makes the case stronger in either direction, than it was when they made the convication. Those 12 episodes weren’t enough. There’s a spinoff podcast called Undisclosed where a group of lawyers dive into the weeds of scanty evidence even farther as they try to find something to get to the bottom of this case.

Everyone is dying to know which case will be next up!

4. Rooster Teeth

Ahh video games. I started listening to this podcast a good while ago when it was still in the 100’s with their episode number. Now they are at #349 and its the creators of Red vs. Blue (The video game Halo TV show) where they talk about life, current events, stories that happened over the week, and none other than Video Games.

If you go to the podcast button on your smart phone you could look up any genre that interests you.

5. Intelligence Squared / Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates

Originally British, they find 2 subject matter experts for a movement and 2 subject matters that are against it, and they take turns trying to prove their point in front of an audience. At the beginning they take a poll of the audience on where they stand when they enter and after the debate and a questions from the audience session, they take a second poll to see who swayed the most votes.

Either way the subject matter experts are very smart (almost too smart sometimes!) and it always comes down to how well you can present your case.

But wait! There’s an American version too.

6. BYPU

As a part of the Blogging Your Passion University I am a big advocate of this podcast because its something I love, hence the fact that this article is even in existence. Jonathan is very successful in his ability to teach people about blogging and although not everything always pertains to me because its not niche specific, its always helpful and letting me take shortcuts that save me time and energy in the blogging world every day.

7. TedX Talks

TED Talks! How can you not love them? Where experts of specific topics take to the TED Stage and talk about what they know in approximately 18 minutes time. Although I will say some of them should be seen on their website or youtube for the visual experience, most are perfect for the long road trips.

8. Ask Me Another NPR

If you are feeling like you’ve taxed your brain too much in one day, then this is a light podcast that has people go head to head in rounds using different games, riddles, and polls. All with a common theme of course, and is pretty fun and helps you learn about things, even when you don’t realize it, because its fun.

9. Stuff to Blow Your Mind

Does just that. Blows. Your. Mind.

10. Freakonomics Radio

Stuff that Blows Your Mind, that’s Freaky! Always full of crazy facts from research you have always wanted to know, but didn’t want to go out of your way to find out.

11. The Moth Podcast

If Ted Talks are ideas worth spreading, the Moth podcast is the storytellers you want to listen to. People that have controversial, surprising, and crazy stories that they are very good at telling. Keeping you on the edge of your seat, laughing or crying, its very rare you’d be disappointed.

If you do want just take a peak into the podcasting world, look for the symbol below on your smart phone, and enjoy 🙂

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This article appeared first on Dynamic Soarer.