What I’ve Learned from Podcasts

5 Things I’ve Learned From Podcasts

1. Start Small, The Lazy Genius

Something that I’ve learned and implemented into almost every part of my life is from one of my favorite podcasts of all time, The Lazy Genius, and that is to start small. One thing I’ve learned about myself (and I think a lot of people are similar in this regard) is that I’m a go big or go home kind of person. I like to have grand plans that drastically change my life in some way. But I’ve learned that those rarely work, because I either don’t finish the project or I give up on the big habit before it can make a difference in my life. This is why I’m trying to take advice from Kendra Adachi, the host of The Lazy Genius podcast and start small.

When you start small you actually follow through, and when you follow through you make real change. For example, Scott, my partner, and I have been meaning to read the book Why Won’t You Apologize by Harriet Lerner, which is a book about how to heal big betrayals and everyday hurts through giving and receiving apologies (I’ll put a link to it in the show notes if you want to grab it, we’ve really enjoyed it). It sat on our bookshelf for a whole year, because we never found a large amount of time to sit down and read it together. So we decided to read one page every Sunday night, we’re now about halfway through the book! It’s taken us a while, but we’re making progress and learning along the way.

2. I Don’t Have to Stay in the Mom Box, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books

This next thing was more of a reminder than a brand new concept, but it was a reminder I needed. Zibby Owens, the host of Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books helped me remember that moms don’t have to be stuck in the mom box when it comes to books or any other aspect of your life, just because we’re moms doesn’t mean that becomes our entire identity.

As a new mom, I thought that now that I was a mom, I could only do things that related to being a mom, only read books about being a mom, only wear “mom clothes”, and only listen to mom podcasts
I’ve learned since then that my life doesn’t have to be consumed by motherhood, but I got a much needed reminder when I interviewed Zibby for my podcast. In the Friendly Podcast Guide episode all about her podcast, Zibby talked about how she wants moms to know that we can have passions and curiosity outside of parenting.

My Guide to Finding a Podcast You Will Love

I hope you’re excited about one of the podcasts I’m talking about today, but if you’re not sure if any of them are a good fit for you I have a guide that can help you find a podcast you’ll love. The guide has 9 different types of podcasts, like history, parenting, and health and wellness and under each type of podcasts there are links to 3 different shows. That’s 27 podcasts for you to choose from. If you try a couple and you don’t like any of them I put my email at the bottom of the guide, so you can get in touch with me and I will personally help you find a podcast you will love! You can grab this guide at the link in the show notes.

3. Japanese Internment Camps During World War II, Here’s Where it Gets Interesting

I learned more about a part of US history through the podcast Here’s Where it Gets Interesting. Sharon McMahon the host, did a series on Japanese Internment Camps during World War II. I’d heard about these camps before, when the US government sent all Japanese Americans to internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. There was even an internment camp in Utah (where I currently live) called Topaz that I knew about, but I didn’t know much other than the very basics.

Last fall Sharon did a series all about these camps and it was enlightening. She started with background, she talked about people moving to the US from Japan and the prejudice against them and followed Japanese Americans as Word War II unfolded including the attack on Pearl Harbor and the government’s decision to relocate all Japanese Americans to internment camps away from the coast. She talked about what the camps were like and how the Japanese Americans dealt with living in these incredibly difficult circumstances. She ended the series with an interview with George Takei, from the Star Trek television series, about being a young boy who went to an internment camp.

The series was very well researched and brought humanity back into this part of history that many Americans usually only know about through text books.

4. Roth IRA vs Traditional IRA, How to Money

Something practical I learned from a podcast is that a Roth IRA is a better fit for me than a Traditional IRA and I learned this from the podcast How to Money. Money is one of those things that both fascinates me and is super intimidating. The podcast How to Money helps me understand money, without having to pull out a dictionary.

One of the things I’ve learned from hosts, Joel and Matt is that it’s a better fit for me to use a Roth IRA for my retirement money instead of a Traditional IRA, because I want to be taxed on that money right now, instead of being taxed when I start taking money out of it several years from now. I don’t have all of the right words to go into more detail than that, but I’ll link one of their episodes all about IRAs so that you can learn from the experts.

5. John DeLorean, Stuff You Should Know

Someone random, but very interesting I learned about from the podcast Stuff You Should Know was John DeLorean. If I’m being completely honest I didn’t even know that the car from the Back to the Future movies was named after a person, let alone named after the person who created it.

In this episode of Stuff You Should Know I learned all about John DeLorean from his upbringing to his rise to fame in the car world to his demise which included getting arrested and charged in a 24 million dollar cocaine deal. This guy was smart, but also not the best person overall. I don’t know if I’ll ever use this information, but it may come up in a trivia night in my future, so I’ll be ready!