I wasn’t really ever a fan of podcasts up until last year. You see, working from home comes with its perks, but also with its fair share of loneliness. I like being the king of my castle and working in my pajamas, but for most of the time I spend working, I stay alone. I’ve been listening to YouTube videos in the background for a while now, but I only installed my first podcast app in 2018. Over the last two years (primarily 2019), podcasts have been my way of surrounding myself with informative (and sometimes comedic) chitchat. Podcasts are a great way to pass time while you’re sketching, or searching Pinterest for mood-board images, or selecting multiple edges and faces of a solid to apply a complex variable fillet on. I personally love listening to them as I eat, travel, edit images I need to add to my articles, or while tinkering around with design software. They keep me engaged, entertained, and constantly aware of what’s happening in the world of design, culture, tech, politics, and more… so I decided to handpick a few carefully-curated creativity-boosting podcasts that are perfect for the designer looking to broaden their horizons while in the middle of a long workday. Along with the aforementioned ten podcasts, here are few personal favorites I really wanted to add to the list… – This is arguably the first podcast I ever found myself listening to. Someone at my internship introduced me to TWiT back in 2012, long before I even knew what a podcast really was. Released every Sunday (Monday if you’re in Asia), the show is hosted by Leo Laporte, one of tech’s first-ever journalists. Leo brings his wisdom and humor together along with a panel of the who’s who in tech journalism. Add this to your list if you like a slice of technology news along with your design breakfast every week, – Hosted by some remarkable designers and friends of YD, Minor Details is a podcast about designers in the big city, sweating the small stuff. New York-based Nicholas Baker and James Connors talk about a variety of topics, sharing their opinions and stories about living and working in the Big Apple. The show was originally on my list of top ten podcasts, but was sadly taken off because it’s currently on an indefinite hiatus. – Hosted by Melvyn Bragg and his honey-coated voice for over 20 years now (long before the word ‘podcast’ even existed), BBC In Our Time is a weekly radio show that takes one single topic each week and has a variety of experts weigh in with their learnings. Covering a wide plethora of topics from the life of Julius Caesar to the content of Saturn’s rings, In Our Time is literally an on-air encyclopedia for anyone who’s looking to expand their mind. – The final slot was a close battle between 99% Invisible and JRE. I finally decided to give Rogan a shout-out for just being a remarkably talented host, and for the way he approaches any and every topic without biases and conducts a discussion with his guests in a constructive and productive way. Rogan talks a lot about news, conspiracies, politics, comedy, martial arts, and nutrition, and the show has seen a literal who’s who of guests, from Elon Musk to Bernie Sanders and from Neil deGrasse Tyson to Mike Tyson!