An Ode to Podcasts
If you hang out here long enough, you’ll learn pretty quickly how much I love podcasts. Half of my sentences begin with, “So I was listening to this podcast…” and I’m sure my friends are sick of it by now. Any podcast enthusiast will tell you how wonderful they are. These delightful shows serve up the very best storytelling, the funniest jokes, the purest motivation, the saddest realities, the most profound epiphanies, and everything in between.
Something else you’re gonna learn about me is that I can get sentimental about anything, and podcasts are no exception. I fell in love with podcasts as I was starting college. In a lot of ways, they accompanied me into adulthood. There are a handful of shows that I have subscribed to for a few years now. Like ticks on a door frame, I charted my growth along with their milestone episodes. I have been guilty of talking about podcast hosts like I actually know them, but I can’t help it! On Girls Night, Stephanie May Wilson greeted me as her friend with such kindness and conviction that I really started to believe it. The attachment is real—when Meghna Chakrabarti announced that she would no longer be hosting the Modern Love podcast, I probably could’ve written a Modern Love essay on that heartbreak. I have many memories of eating in the Student Union by myself, but I wasn’t really alone. I had the hosts of The RELEVANT Podcast to keep me company and make me laugh out loud between bites. I bet giggling into my Chick-fil-A was a great look for me.
While I have plenty of light-hearted memories connected to podcast listening, they’ve also lowkey saved my life. There was a specific day during my sophomore year of college when a season of depression had pulled me down lower than I had ever been. I was sitting in my empty apartment, blinds shut and lights off, with too many hours to fill. I just remember thinking, How am I possibly going to make it through another day like this? When I picked up my phone, God had mercifully sent me a podcast. One of my favorite shows at the time had put out a new episode, which was a miracle in itself because of their sporadic posting schedule—no shade. I love you guys. (In case you’re wondering, it’s this obscure, magical One Tree Hill recap podcast called One Tree Will. It gives me life.) That day, they delivered a new episode for the first time in months, and it was the very day that I needed it most. God’s funny that way, isn’t he? He demonstrated his mercy for me through a podcast about a cheesy CW teen drama. It was pretty beautiful.
Podcasts have rocked me to sleep. They have connected me to fellow listeners. On road trips back home from college, they have kept me safe. In so many ways, they are gifts.
Even so, the greatest gift that podcasts have given me is a deeper capacity for empathy. Nothing in my life has stretched me more than listening to podcasts created by people who look, believe, and live differently than me. Something important to keep in mind: this didn’t happen by accident. With any media outlet, echo chambers are so enticing. We curate our social media feeds, news sources, books, and even friendships to perfectly align with our own ideologies. Podcasts are no different. For a long time, all of my podcast subscriptions were very safe. Very apolitical. Very Christian. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with listening to any of these shows, but I wasn’t growing. Even though I was learning new things, each idea fit a little too perfectly into my rigid filing system. They could be labeled easily, ready for painless consumption.
Slowly but surely, though, my podcasts did start to branch out. I was being gently introduced to all of these new ideas that I had never—and would have never—bumped into before. Thanks to these beloved audio files, I met different kinds of people, heard new ideas, and tried on new eyes to see the world through.
Here is the beauty of listening to a podcast: you can’t talk back. It turns out that when you are literally incapable of responding to an idea, you have no choice but to listen, and what a gift that is. From these seeds, empathy sprouted up in my life with the ferocity of a weed and the quiet beauty of a rose bud. Hand in hand with my blooming friend, I became a lot more comfortable with facing new ideas about culture, politics, and even faith. Podcasts were a safe space to challenge my ignorance. They rarely ever felt like lectures or arguments. Instead, they were interviews, stories, and beautiful narratives woven from the truths and experiences of other people’s lives.
As Knox and Jamie like to put it on The Bible Binge, this post has reached its own “So What, Who Cares?” segment. What it really comes down to for me is this overwhelming sense of gratitude. It’s way too easy to find the flaws in the media we consume, and of course, there is plenty of harmful content out there to avoid. At the same time, though, I love finding the blessings in it too. The joy of the Lord can show up anywhere. He is there when you’re watching your favorite band in concert and the bass in your bones reminds you that you are alive. He is there in the movie theater (remember those?) as strangers connect through the beauty of collective laughter. He is even there when you’re curled up in your sad apartment, listening to a podcast in an attempt to feel less alone.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
James 1:17
Podcasts have been so many things for me. They have taught, challenged, shaped, encouraged, buoyed, and saved me in so many instances. Above all, they’ve reminded me that my Father in heaven loves me so.
I hope you are reminded of every good gift the Lord has given you, all the way down to the dumb joke you heard today that made you laugh. His presence really is everywhere. All you have to do is look.
Until next time, keep looking in and looking up (and listening to podcasts!). <3
—Lexy
