10 Top Podcast Picks: Our Ears Have Been So Spoilt

It's safe to say we're living in the golden age of podcasting and as such, the sheer quantity of content out there is vast and our choices as a listener are limitless. Many is the podcaster who, having discovered wellness or how to build a six-figure business, can’t wait to share their journey to enlightenment with the masses. I’ve listened to them all, from industry disruptors to CEOs, culture changers, creatives and leading thinkers.  

We love how accessible they are to help start new conversations but it can be a minefield out there so here is a list of my current favourite 10 podcasts, from entrepreneurial-centric to health focused and just great conversation to help narrow things down.

Happy Place

British radio and TV presenter Fearne Cotton created Happy Place and it really is just that! She has developed a successful side job to her presenting, complete with recipe and self-help books as well as this brilliant podcast in which she, “shares advice from experts on how to work through feeling blue and finding joy each and every day”. These experts include actress Chessie King, Alexandra Shulman, Dawn French, Olympic diver Tom Daley and more recently, journalist and writer Poorna Bell who, with great magnetism, open up about their life experiences and what they have learnt from them.

Unstyled by Refinery29

UnStyled is a weekly podcast hosted by Global Editor-In-Chief and Co-founder of Refinery29, Christene Barberich. One of the best interviewers out there, she explores the funny, inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love with a unique twist as they’re told through the things that we wear.

Each week she explores the perspective of what being a strong woman means today and that ‘style’, which is defined differently by each guest, doesn’t have to be perfect, so long as you make it your own. It’s a fantastic listen, full of real women’s voices and great visual storytelling to create a new lens through which to be inspired by style, how it can enhance a woman’s life and new attitudes towards what luxury means today.

Well, Actually

This is a relatively new podcast to launch this year and it’s refreshingly succinct and straight-talking. Presented by Jane Alice Liu, the Communications Officer for the European Food Information Council, she explores exaggerated media health claims and talks to leading experts to get their take so that we can be better informed.

The wellness industry shows no sign of slowing in terms of its steep trajectory of growth and whilst this is fantastic, there is also a lot of what can become overwhelming noise as to what we should and shouldn’t be doing. This podcast clearly cuts through all that and gets straight to the point! The first few episodes discuss iron deficiency, pre and probiotics as well as gut health with the truly brilliant Gut Health Doctor, Dr Megan Rossi.

Ctrl Alt Delete

After one listen of Ctrl Alt Delete I was hooked and really look forward to my weekly dose. Created by author and business columnist Emma Gannon, she asks all the right questions and talks with palpable excitement about how her guests have got to wear they are today. 

It’s to Emma’s credit that she creates an atmosphere of real openness and intimacy with her interviewees. Ctrl Alt Delete is less about self-help clichés and much more about real, honest, no-nonsense and engaging conversation about how we can navigate through our careers, mental health and everything in between.

Innovaters by The Current

What I love about this podcast is how it easily breaks the future of future of technology and e-commerce down into digestible, informative slices.

Emotion holds huge value for modern business and the technology we use as consumers is only continuing to emphasise the bond of our overall experience. Hosted by Liz Bacelar and Rachel Arthur, Innovators by TheCurrent is a podcast about the leaders pushing the boundaries of fashion, beauty, and retail. Each episode is a frank conversation about the challenges and opportunities faced by top brands and retailers around the world today, through the lens of technology. It feels like you’re sitting in the same room, listening to a great conversation that gives brilliant new insights.

Some of the brands they have featured on the podcast include H&M and their goal to become 100% sustainable and renewable while maintaining prices low and keeping quality up. YOOX Net-A-Porter, L’Oreal, Equinox, the brilliant Clare Press sustainability editor-at-large at Vogue Australia. The list of great content goes on. This one is a must if you’re looking to innovate and be ahead of the curve.

Table Manners

Table Manners is now in its fifth season with new episodes arriving each Wednesday and it’s easy to see why. It’s warm, totally charming and a bit rough round the edges (they do actually eat dinner and just have a couple of mics on the table) with great guests most of us would only dream of inviting over for dinner.

She presents with her social worker mother, Lennie which only adds to the charm. It’s a pleasingly simple concept: a guest is invited over, her and her mother both cook dinner, and then it’s time to eat. She has invited the likes of Ed Sheeran, Gregory Porter, Sam Smith, Nigella Lawson, Yotam Ottolenghi, Tom Kerridge… the list goes on!

Boss Files

CNN’s Poppy Harlow does a deep dive twice a month with business and global leaders to seek advice about what it really takes to rise to the top. It is brilliantly curated, intimate, reflective and wildly inspirational. Poppy is enormously charismatic and articulate. What I love the most is that she’s conversational whilst not afraid to ask the tougher questions we all want to hear the answers to!

Feel Better Live More

Feel Better, Live More by Dr Rangen Chatterjee is simply brilliant. Simply being the operative word as Dr Chatterjee is on a mission to simplify health.

When we are healthier we are happier because when we feel better, we live more and Dr Chatterjee is testament to making this much easier amongst all the noise these days.

He brings together stories from exciting personalities and leading health experts who offer easy health life-hacks, expert advice and demystify common myths so that we get great insight into tools that can help revolutionise the way we eat, sleep, move and relax which mirror the four pillars in his book, ‘The 4 Pillar Plan’ which aims to inspire, empower and transform the way we feel.  

How I Built This

I would consider How I Built This to be the first podcast I ever got well and truly hooked to. Perhaps it spoke to the entrepreneur in me or perhaps it’s because the host, Guy Raz interviews the most brilliantly inspiring innovators and entrepreneurs about the true stories behind their brands and actually how they managed to build them. It is jam packed to the brim with useful insights. My favourites include Emily Weiss of Glossier, Jenny Hyman of Rent the Runway, and Joe Gebbia of Airbnb and Melanie Perkins of Canva.

Her Money

Freedom, joy and liberation are what we all strive for when it comes to money. Viewing it as a positive energy and talking about it more is important. Having tried and tested a few financial focused podcasts, I personally find this one fantastic as Jean Chatzky who presents it, includes a really great mix of professional advice with a nice side of relatable humour. A subject which has never come naturally to me as a creative, this podcast adds the colour I need to get on board and feel more confident about the subject as a whole.

Jean covers a vast number of topics so there’s a really varied library now for you to cherry pick which topics you need most help and encouragement with.