Listen… What do you hear or not hear?

With much of the globe under lockdown, seismologists- those who study the vibrations of the earth and essentially listen for earthquakes have noticed that it’s been easier to hear due to a sharp decrease in vibrations caused by human activity. As quarantines become more widespread, and the world gets quieter, I wonder what people are doing to occupy themselves.

 I’ve been really mindful of what types of media I’m consuming because I don’t want to get caught up in all of the grim reporting on COVID-19, because it can take a toll, especially since I’m here in New York City the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. So I make sure that what I watch and listen to consists of a mix of things that are reliable and informative, uplifting, entertaining or just lightens my mood and makes me laugh.

I’ve been using this time to focus on producing regular content for the Talking Taiwan podcast, and so it should come as no surprise that I’m really into listening to podcasts.

Here are some of the podcasts (in no particular order) that I’m listening to these days.

COVID-19: What You Need to Know, an ABC News podcast published on weekdays. The podcast reports on the latest news and developments with the Coronavirus. ABC’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton and other experts responding directly to questions submitted by listeners and viewers.  

The Daily podcast, hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by New York Times journalism, also publishes five days a week. I find this to be a good source of U.S.-related news.

On Being with Krista Tippett features deeply meaningful conversations about what it means to be human. Krista Tippett is a highly skilled listener and interviewer. In listening to her interviews, it is obvious how well researched and prepared she is. She is a master conversationalist. Her impressive knowledge about her guest’s body of work, undoubtedly contributes to her ability to dive deep in her conversations with them.

Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations is a podcast that in the words of Oprah is designed to “Awaken, discover and connect you to the deeper meaning of the world around you.” It is a selection of Oprah’s interviews with thought-leaders, best-selling authors, spiritual luminaries, as well as health and wellness experts. I’ve found this podcast highly uplifting, and inspirational.

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers. Her TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 45 million views. This podcast offers a combination of insightful conversations and practical tips on how to handle anxiety and difficult situations.

Hidden Brain is an NPR podcast hosted by Shankar Vedantam, who uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. This podcast covers a broad range of topics related to human behavior, psychology, social psychology, and socioeconomic status. I’m always learning something new from this podcast.

Death Sex & Money, a WNYC podcast hosted by Anna Sale, is about the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation. It’s about the things that we all care about and have opinions on but don’t normally talk about. What sets this podcast apart from the others is how engaged they are with their listeners. They often solicit comments and feedback from their listeners for episode topics (as they did with the recent episode titled, "We Are The Glue": Stories From Essential Workers). The podcast also features voice messages and emails from their listeners expressing their opinions and reactions to controversial episode topics.

Invisibilia, Latin for invisible thing is an NPR podcast that fuses narrative storytelling with science. Many of the podcast episodes are about the interaction of science and humanity, which will make you see life differently. I’ve often been captivated by the stories and topics covered in this podcast. One such episode is the one titled, The Remote Control Brain.

Nancy, a WNYC podcast with Tobin Low and Kathy Tu. The podcast is described as: “Stories and conversations about the queer experience today. Prepare to laugh and cry and laugh again.” Every time I listen to this podcast, I find it refreshing. The hosts are hilarious and the stories they share are actually quite relatable.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the podcasts that I listen to, but these are the ones I’ve been tuning in to most often these days. I hope that you might find something to your liking from this list.

There are nine podcasts on this list, so if I were to add a tenth recommendation, I suppose it would have to be the Talking Taiwan podcast, which by the way is now available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Deezer.

We are working on getting Talking Taiwan on Google podcasts and iHeartRadio. Visit www.TalkingTaiwan.com to listen to all episodes and for show notes.