Sex Siopa loves Podcasts
Lately I've been devouring podcasts. I've listened to a few over the years, but let's face it, in the mid-noughties they were a bit crap; really rough & ready, not a lot of format and the productions weren't great. I mostly stuck with the occasional NPR and Dan Savage's Savage Lovecast, which I still love today despite being able to predict every piece of advice he gives to people. When you've listened to a podcast for 8 years, that tends to happen.
But it seems that over the past couple of years, a combination of Podcasts and Netflix have become my main source of non-sex-related entertainment. It's become a weekly ritual. On Sundays my partner and I will cook breakfast and listen to John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman on The Bugle. Drives to his family's home down the country have now become excuses to catch up with Savage Love or Serial. I can usually get through a couple episodes of This American Life (I love their shows about education) whilst putting orders together or washing dishes. This morning I started listening to Invisibilia, another great NPR venture about the invisible forces that control our behaviour.
But today I'd like to really recommend a podcast called The Heart. The Heart has been around for a while under a different name, Audio Smut. It's sponsored by Babeland, the female-founded, education-based sex shop in Seattle that inspired my online shop. And it's produced by a whole heap of talented women. The Heart is a wonderful, short podcast (about 20 minutes each) about sexuality, intimacy, and human nature. It's atmospheric and full of well-produced stories that makes the listeners feel like they're having a private conversation with contributors and hosts. Lots of airy whispers and descriptions of intimate moments. Sometimes there's anecdotes that are aching and painful, but still a great listen. This is definitely a rainy day podcast, something to listen to on a wet Spring day in the back of a Dublin bus. I'm not sure if I could listen to a marathon of a show in that style, but it certainly works really well as short 20-minute pieces of escapism.
If you have any good podcast recommendations, please comment below with your favourite podcast and why you love it so much.