The Best Podcasts for College Students

One of the best parts about college is having interesting conversations with interesting people about interesting ideas. Podcasts package that experience into grab-and-go portions. Just by listening, you can connect to broader discussions and gain new perspectives that will help inform your studies.

We combed discussion boards and top 100 lists, and consulted podcast aficionados on the BestColleges team, to find the best podcasts for college students. The shows we selected combine vibrant storytelling with insights on student life, real-world issues, and money.

Another benefit for college students: podcasts are (mostly) free. All of our recommendations are free to download to your device, allowing you to listen offline at your leisure. Podcasts can fit neatly into your commute, but also make great company while doing chores or working out. And because many of our top picks have impressive back catalogues, get ready for a good binge.

Productivity hacks, studying tools, thoughts on the best reading position — “The College Info Geek” is equal parts educational and entertaining, thanks to the cheerful collegiate snark of its co-hosts, Thomas Frank and Martin Boehme.

Get stuck in with “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?”, an episode that explores the personal utility of answering the cliched question. But never fear — this isn’t a podcast for students who have everything figured out. Quarter-life crises, meandering career paths, and burnout are also on the agenda.

We’ve all heard the idiom, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” but the second half of the idiom is more meaningful: “but they were laying bricks every hour.” While personal development is a hefty subject, making changes and achieving goals is actually day-to-day work.

That’s the premise of “Tiny Leaps, Big Changes,” a podcast by Gregg Clunis. The focus is broad, covering wellness (start meditating), work (stop procrastinating), and wisdom (balance your rational and emotional minds). But the advice and the run time are both bite size: Clear the clutter from your workspace. And listen to this 15-minute podcast.

Get started with the five-episode series “How to Overcome Procrastination.” Understanding why we procrastinate — lack of interest plus lack of confidence — is a revelation in itself.

You know about TED Talks — the conference series on technology, entertainment, and design (“TED”) that morphed into a diverse, hugely influential media organization of online content, independent events, AND even a prize and fellowships. The podcast “TED Talks Daily” distills its incredible repertoire of talks into generally short (about 10 minutes) audio hits.

Timely information and inspiring ideas straight from experts — there are worse ways to spend 10 minutes. Start a positive new habit by tuning in every morning, or while you eat lunch. New episodes are released every weekday. Or get started with one of the show’s most-downloaded episodes, “Why It’s Worth Listening to People You Disagree With,” in which once-student activist, now author Zachary R. Wood, encourages thoughtful engagement with controversial ideas.

Reading the news today, it’s hard to know what’s true or false. The same is true with history. The historical events we all take as common knowledge are often shaped by political agendas, and because of this, we may fail to learn important lessons about the modern day.

In comes NPR’s popular podcast, “Throughline.” The goal of this podcast is to show the deeply interwoven nature of history and the present, and to challenge conventional historical perspectives on seminal periods and events throughout history.

For example, in the episode, “1918 Flu,” co-hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei explain how — despite being known as the Spanish flu — the virus had probable American origins. The episode goes on to explain how the global pandemic was politicized in much the same way as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2005 book, “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,” ignited the blogosphere and hit #2 on The New York Times Best Sellers nonfiction list. Co-authors Stephen J. Dubner and TK treated a far-ranging set of subject matter to economic theory, finding new insights into everyday phenomena and niche activities — from sumo wrestling to drug dealing.

The podcast version, “Freakonomics Radio,” hosted by Dubner, has been going strong since 2010. The show explores the underside of current issues (will COVID-19 result in a baby boom?) and interrogates policy, systems, and the vaping crisis. To get your mind blown close to home, sample “Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 1,” A.K.A., “Is College Really Worth It?”

Consider everything you think you know. Then, turn it on its head. That pretty much sums up the podcast, “You’re Wrong About.” Co-hosted by journalists Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall, you are sure to have your conventional wisdom challenged by this hard-hitting podcast that investigates the truth behind the headlines.

The episode, “Human Trafficking,” is a good example of how what we take to be fact — like the crisis of human trafficking — is actually not what it appears to be. Like many highly politicized issues, public hysteria fueled a panic of “stranger danger” proportions that simply isn’t supported by facts or data.

Chatty, earnest, as ready to pursue ridiculous truths as cable TV jokesters are to pull a prank, PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman tell stories about people and the internet. Put broadly, “Reply All” explores all the interesting ways those two things come together. The show started in 2014, a spin-off of sorts from the hosts’ earlier effort, “TLDR,” another deep dive into the internet age.

Get hooked with “Long Distance,” in which the hosts track down a tele-scammer from India. Things escalate so much they wind end up in India meeting the guy. Other topics that first obsessed them, and then obsessed listeners: a pop song no one remembers, a camera left in a New York City cab, and the market for hacked Snapchat accounts.

History — if the subject brings to mind an aging historian, discussing dry and dreary matters in droning monotone, you may be floored to encounter “Hardcore History” by Dan Carlin. Carlin is not an academic. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history, but had a career as a radio host before launching his mind-blowingly popular podcast series (and their spinoffs).

From Spartan battles to biblical coups to the Nuclear Age, Carlin questions the known and assumed by asking far-out questions. “Blueprint for Armageddon” reflects on world war in the 19th century, its massive cultural and technological transformations and its unique horrors.

Carlin’s absorbing “theater of the mind” story-telling style makes history come alive for even non-history buffs. The podcast is for all, but not all of it is free. Some topic series and extra material sets cost $5-$10 on Carlin’s site, or you could snap up the entire podcast collection for $75.

Interested in the evolution of cuss words, the Southern accent, the death of language? Check out “Lexicon Valley,” a linguistic podcast from Slate, the online current events magazine. The podcast’s exploration of language roams between the minute and bizarre (the origin of slang terms for male genitalia) to the vast: To what extent does the language we use shape our world?

English, in all its incredible irregularity, provides plenty of fodder for the show’s clever investigations, but the trip isn’t constrained to Anglophone countries. The show’s host, linguist John McWhorter, also explores the shared roots of Arabic and Hebrew, and the tonal languages that by and large developed in the world’s hot, humid climes.

A gastropod is a mollusk, often seen beating a glacial retreat from nibbled garden veggies, a sticky trail left in its wake. In short, a slug or snail. Gastropods, from the Greek “stomach foot,” are so called because they effectively scoot around on their bellies.

Now, deep in quarantine, you may relate. But who wasn’t already a foodie, at this point? Sample the food/history/science podcast that is “Gastropod” to bone up on the culinary knowledge that gives you a right to the name — foodie, not gastropod. Co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley explore polarizing flavors (licorice, kimchi), strawberry fumigation, how menus manipulate, and the rise of the bagel in America.