Free podcasts to make you laugh, podcasts to make you cry, podcasts to make you smarter, podcasts to inspire you… When it comes to free podcasts, we’ve got plenty of them here at LiSTNR.
In fact, we have so many free podcasts you can listen to on the LiSTNR app, that sometimes even we forget all of the incredible shows, titles and hosts we can tap into. So, with the holiday season fast approaching – and a little bit more free time to dive into shows we didn’t get to earlier in the year – we thought we’d cherry-pick 10 free podcasts you didn’t know were on LiSTNR.
CRIME PODCASTS
It’s been a huge year for crime podcasts with critically acclaimed series after critically acclaimed series dropping seemingly every week. The great news is that a lot of those series live right here on the LiSTNR app. Like…
CRIME JUNKIE
If you can never get enough true crime… Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
So says the Crime Junkie podcast tagline – and the legions of fans who tune in each week to hear host Ashley Flowers tell them about the crime she’s been obsessing over that week. Crime Junkie prides itself on straight-forward storytelling free of rabbit holes and has covered more than 630 stories.
Flowers has also founded a nonprofit called Season of Justice, a foundation designed to support crime fighters and bring justice to the families of the victims.
Listen here.
REDHANDED
This year marked RedHanded’s third Listeners’ Choice British Podcast Award win in a row, an incredible feat not least because it’s the only award voted for by the public.
Hosted by Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala, it positions itself as an “award-winning true crime podcast that offers a weekly dose of murder, wit and ‘WTFs’, delivered with all the facts, anecdotal tangents aplenty, serious societal scrutiny and real BRITISH flavour”.
That said, the free podcast has recently covered the murder of Lynette Dawson alongside Vlad the Impaler, exorcisms and parasocial relationships. All-in-all a broad remit that will keep you on your toes.
Listen here.
COMEDY PODCASTS
There’s absolutely no prizes for guessing why you might fancy turning to a comedy podcast for a light-hearted chuckle or two as yet another big year (what is this, our third? Fourth?) comes to an end.
No matter your comedy podcast preference, we have the show(s) for you. Narrowing this down to two was tricky, but we’ve plumped for…
SAY MORE WITH DR? SHEILA
Amy Poehler + improv + a host of special guests including Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Ike Barinholtz = one of our favourite new podcasts of the year.
Say More with Dr? Sheila is a scripted comedy podcast that sees Poehler step into the role of “world-renowned, self-proclaimed couples’ therapist” Dr? Sheila to offer couples a hefty helping of “strange advice” and “dubious counselling”.
Each week sees a new couple join Dr? Sheila (for legal reasons Dr? must be said with a question mark) to benefit from her many famous techniques.
There are 10 hilarious episodes to gobble up; the perfect holiday treat.
Listen here.
2 BEARS, 1 CAVE WITH TOM SEGURA & BERT KREISCHER
On the other end of the comedy podcast scale we have 2 Bears, 1 Cave, the long-running podcast hosted by best friends and stand-up comics Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura.
It’s rude, it’s crude and you’d be hard-pressed to listen to an episode where Bert’s weight isn’t mentioned so it’s certainly not for everyone. It is, however, one of the top comedy podcasts in the world and has a huge back catalogue – more than 200 episodes averaging 90 minutes each – so if you want to switch something on and then switch yourself off, we’d recommend.
Listen here.
WELLBEING PODCASTS
This was another tricky one to narrow down so we’ve made the executive decision to do a whole other selection of wellbeing podcasts VERY soon. Keep an eye out.
If we had to choose one though, we can’t go past the Queen of daytime television: Oprah.
OPRAH’S SUPER SOUL
With titles like “Build the Life You Want” and “You Can Survive Your Worst Mistake”, Super Soul is designed to help you “awaken, discover and connect” to the deeper meaning of the world around you.
The series is made up of Oprah’s personal selection of interviews with some of the world’s most heralded thought-leaders, authors, luminaries and health and wellness experts, including Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
There’s also a six-part conversation with New York Times bestselling author Dr Abraham Verghese and a special with First Lady Michelle Obama that is not to be missed.
Listen here.
NEWS PODCASTS
Another mammoth year for news is coming to an end and while some might be ready to shut down their current affairs feeds for a couple of weeks to give their brains a rest, some people – not looking at anyone in particular – can’t quite let themselves fall out of the loop.
If that’s you, snap! Here are some news podcasts to tide you over until we crack into a fresh new year.
POD SAVE AMERICA
No-one sums up Pod Save America quite like Pod Save America themselves: A political podcast for people who aren’t ready to give up or go insane.
The “no bullshit” conversations between former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor have scooped a number of awards over the years and have spurned a series of live shows with huge guests including former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
Episodes drop twice-weekly and are a must-listen to as the race for the 2024 US Presidential election picks up.
Listen here.
POLITICS
If you prefer your political updates a little more frequent, The NPR Politics Podcast sees NPR’s best political reporters dropping by each weekday to “explain the big news coming out of Washington and the campaign trail”.
Most crucially, they don’t just tell you when something is happening; they tell you why it matters. For those keeping one eye on the goings-on over the pond, it’s gearing up to be one of the weirdest, most interesting elections in recent memory (which is saying something) as former President Trump remains the frontrunner in state polls – despite having a number of trials to attend at the same time he is running for the White House.
Listen here.
PARENTING PODCASTS
If there’s one thing parents don’t have a lot of it’s free time. So if you’re going to listen to a free podcast it better be a good one, right?
Well whether you’re after a parenting podcast to make you feel less alone, to guide you on how to be a better parent or one to stick on for the kids to have some brief respite from being asked “Why?” 73 times, we’ve got the title for you.
AFTER BEDTIME WITH BIG LITTLE FEELINGS
Hosts Kristina and Deena are founders of one of the largest online parenting communities, Big Little Feelings and now, in this relatively new podcast, have created yet another space for parents to turn to to “find their ‘enough’-ness”.
Each week the pair unpack all the stuff parents put up with but are too ashamed to talk about, running the full gamut from imperfect marriages to infertility, potty training to bodies and everything in between.
After Bedtime with Big Little Feelings is only 14 weeks in but it has already racked up thousands of five-star reviews, with plenty of listeners praising the parenting podcast for helping them feel less alone.
Listen here.
PETER PAN
But before bedtime, why not delve into one of our many BBC audio book? There really is too many to mention – think Matilda, The Wind in the Willows, James and the Giant Peach – but we’ve settled on Peter Pan for the sake of today.
J M Barrie’s classic, magical tale is narrated by Peter Jeffrey, who beautifully tells the story of the Boy Who Never Grew Up and his adventures with the Darling children over the course of nine 15-minute episodes.
It’s the perfect pre-bedtime family listening ritual, guaranteeing an enthralled audience. What we can’t guarantee is that they won’t beg for one more episode/ won’t keep getting out of bed to ask for one more drink of water.
SPORT PODCASTS
‘Tis the season – kind of. Even though NRL and AFL aren’t back on-screens and chewing up our weekends for another couple of months, there’s still plenty going on in the world of sport: Cricket, F1, soccer football, NFL.
Whatever your poison there’s plenty to whet your appetite and keep you in the know. Since it is summer, though, we’ve had to choose…
THE GRADE CRICKETER
A sport podcast that needs close to no introduction, The Grade Cricketer is the satirical take on cricket that listeners just can’t get enough of.
Presented by two former Sydney grade cricketers – and they won’t let you forget it – the The Grade Cricketer podcast is a weekly show featuring news, views and interviews with major names from across the cricket scene.
And it’s available on the LISTNR app. Listen here.