Podcasts and Documentaries

• The Allusionist: Explore the English language, with all its oddities! Filled with good humor and levity, this podcast will help you explore the roots of words and phrases that we use every day.

• This American Life: This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast that puts together different kinds of stories on a theme. Mostly we do journalism, but an entertaining kind of journalism that’s built around stories with compelling people at the center of them, funny moments, big feelings, surprising plot twists, and interesting ideas, like little movies for radio.

• Music Blocks (CPR): A music appreciation podcast about the building blocks that make up your favorite sounds. Music Blocks explores how songwriters and composers use sound to express their emotions and share their experiences. Each episode runs about 5 minutes to fit easily into family time, classroom discussion or your podcast queue. Hosted by Luis Antonio Perez and Rebekah Romberg, the show spans genres, cultures and eras to inspire listeners to explore music more deeply. 

• Colorado Matters: CPR News' daily interview show focuses on the state's people, issues and ideas

• Consider This (NPR): Every weekday afternoon, the hosts of NPR's All Things Considered help you make sense of a major news story and what it means for you in 15 minutes. 

• The Daily (New York Times): This is how the news should sound. Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by New York Times journalism.

• This Day in Esoteric Political History (Radiotopia): We’re living in unprecedented times — maybe. Your hosts rescue moments from the entirety of U.S.  history to map our journey through the present, taking on one moment from that day and explores what makes it interesting, and what lessons can be learned.

• The Kitchen Sisters Present (Radiotopia): The Kitchen Sisters Present… Stories from the b-side of history. Lost recordings, hidden worlds, people possessed by a sound, a vision, a mission. The episodes tell deeply layered stories, lush with interviews, field recordings and music.

• Stuff You Missed In History Class (iHeart Radio): Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio.

• Throughline (NPR): The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world. 

• You're Wrong About (Apple Podcasts): Mike and Sarah are journalists obsessed with the past. Every week they reconsider an event, person or phenomenon that’s been miscast in the public imagination.

• 99% Invisible: 99% Invisible is a sound-rich, narrative podcast hosted by Roman Mars about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world. 

• Genius Generation: Join host Danni Washington every week to meet the innovative kids, tweens, and teens who are running their own businesses, making new discoveries, or inventing something new using science.

• Science Friday: Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff. 

• Short Wave (NPR): New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — all in about 10 minutes, every weekday. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join host Maddie Sofia for science on a different wavelength.

• Star Talk: Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about all things space: stars, planets, humans in space, and so much more, bridging the intersection between science, pop culture and comedy with clarity, humor and passion.

• Freakonomics (Discover the hidden side of everything with Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers.

• Radio Diaries (Radiotopia): Radio Diaries tells the extraordinary stories of ordinary life. Since 1996, we’ve been giving people tape recorders and working with them to report on their own lives and histories in a new form of citizen journalism. 

• Radiolab: The show challenges its listeners’ preconceived notions about how the world works. Radiolab provokes, it moves, it delights, and it asks its audience to see the world around them anew. 

• StoryCorps (NPR): Candid, unscripted conversations between two people about what's really important in life. 

Ears itching for more? Here are some collections of podcasts worth exploring:

• CPR Shows and Podcasts: Locally produced, publicly funded podcasts on a variety of topics. 

• NPR Podcast Directory: Find publicly-funded podcasts on just about every topic. 

• Radiotopia: A network of the most innovative, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts in the world. 

Interested in creating your own audio or podcast? Consider these resources: 

• Radio Diaries DIY Handbook