✍️ How Podcasts about Writing Sparked My Creativity (and 6 Writing Podcasts That Can Do the Same for You)
Or, How I've Stayed Sane While Mowing for the Last 19 Years
I like listening to music, but not 24/7.
So, when we bought a semi-rural house with a semi-large lawn back in 2006, I needed to find something to keep me occupied while mowing for six hours a session. The thought of endlessly circling the yard twice a week made me nauseated with anxiety. My wonderful wife bought me an iPod Nano to help lessen the pain, but I knew music wasn’t going to cut it all the time. Luckily, with the iPod and iTunes came podcasts.
A podcast, if you haven’t heard of them yet, is basically a cable-access version of radio. It’s more exciting than that comparison sounds. I immediately jumped onto shows like Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo, which featured professional comedians sitting around, shooting the shit. You see it all the time now with YouTube shows like Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Of course, podcasting itself sprung from actual radio shows and late-night talk show segments, except they take more time and are (perhaps) less scripted.
It took a while, but I think podcasts are finally coming into their own as a legit medium. I suspect COVID had something to do with it. A lot of famous people wanted to find something to do during lockdown, and launching podcasts was an easy way to reach people from the comfort of their own home (studio). Smartless with Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes is a great example. (Smartless recently signed a $100 million USD deal with SiriusXM, so if that’s not proof of podcasting’s coming of age, I’m not sure what is…)
I like to be informed as well as entertained, so it took an embarrassingly long time for me to ask the question, Are there any podcasts out there on writing?
Spoiler alert: the answer is yes. Way yes!
How Podcasts Help (and Maybe Not in the Ways You’d Guess…)
Even though grass-cutting season is nearing the end, podcast season isn’t. I also listen to them while walking, which I’m trying to do more of lately. I’m on Spotify, and often I listen to audiobooks. But the number of audiobook hours is limited, and I run out weeks before the end of the month. So, that means more and more podcasts – and lately I’ve been diving in to see what writing podcasts are out there.
Honestly it’s a mixed bag, quality-wise. I’ve tried many writing podcasts and stuck with a few. But I’m still exploring – in fact, in doing research for this post, I stumbled on even more that I’d never heard of before! It’s like going on an adventure… lol
For me, they don’t tend to be the “how-tos” like, how to build plot or how to write characters. It’s not that I’m against the how-tos, it’s just that the ones I’ve listened to so far haven’t been my favourites. I enjoy the conversations with authors, whether it’s about their new book, their writing life, or how they tackle(d) certain writing-related problems.
For example, the other day I listened to a podcast episode by Slightly Foxed about William Golding. We all know him from Lord of the Flies and possibly Pincher Martin, but he wrote several novels. In fact, the panel was split on what might be his best novel: The Inheritors or The Spire. (If you’ve never heard of them, don’t fret too much – I hadn’t either…) The episode featured “very special guest” Judy Carver, Golding’s daughter. She provided some really interesting insights, including his feelings of self-doubt – a perennial topic in these pages, too. (This post on Helmet Fires was particularly well received, and would have mentioned Golding if I’d known at the time…)
Those insights sparked an idea for another post, coming soon to a newsletter near you!
I’ve also gotten tons of ideas for my current WIP while walking and listening to podcasts. Those I can’t share with you yet, but I can say this: podcasts give me new perspectives and make me think in new ways, sparking ideas and scenes and themes to explore. Sometimes, these ideas are tangential. In other words, just by merely engaging my mind with stories about writing triggers creativity.
Sound like a good deal? In the next section, I’ll share some of my favourite podcasts (so far…)
The Non-exhaustive, Uncomprehensive, and Interesting List of 6 Writing-related Podcasts I Like (So Far…)
Bookends with Mattea Roach – You may know Mattea Roach as one of the all-time Jeopardy! winners. They now have a CBC radio program, Bookends, that is also released as a podcast. Mattea interviews authors about their books, where the ideas came from, and what those books are important.
Slightly Foxed – I stumbled on this company a year or two ago, and its podcast a week or two ago. Slightly Foxed is a publishing house in London, UK that has a quarterly literary magazine and also publishes special editions of meaningful books. The podcast is eminently British, which may or may not appeal to you (it does to me). Like, you picture the group drinking tea and eating scones (pronounced “scawns”, bee-tee-dubs) as they chat about Golding’s alcoholism and JD Salinger’s prickly agent. Although this podcast is aimed at readers, I’ve gotten a lot from it already as a writer.
London Writers’ Salon – Despite the name, this is much less “British” than Slightly Foxed, above. The co-hosts consist of an American and a Brit, and both are younger. This podcast is also aimed directly at writers. The three-way conversation with the guest of the week is sort of a Q&A, usually revolving around a topic. For example, one episode with Dr. Benjamin Hardy discussed how he grew his readership on Medium and (eventually) made millions (one assumes).
Canada Reads American Style – Canada Reads is a CBC radio program and web page that discusses – you guessed it – books by Canadian authors. That’s the launching pad for these two hosts, one Canadian and one American, in a podcast that is focused more on readers. However, these two are hardcore readers. So when they talk about what they like, I find it’s worth listening. A friend and local writer Marion Agnew was featured in a couple of episodes, which I think is kind of cool, too!
Take Four Books – Another British podcast (I didn’t realize how many of my favourites are British…). This one, from BBC4, is a one-on-one Q&A with writers – much like Bookends above, but with British authors and British interviewers.
Brothers in Media – I talked about Craig Colby here recently. This podcast with his brother Scott talks about media in general, especially with the rise of disinformation. If you are a media writer, this one’s a must. But even if you’re not, they touch upon many ideas that writers writing today should think about.
Honestly, this is a short list of writing podcasts I’ve listened to. But finding your own next listen is as easy as Googling “writing podcasts”.
Key Takeaways: Podcasts about writing can be informative, providing discussions on the nuts-and-bolts of writing. Writing podcasts can also provide insights into certain books and even the writing life. I like them in particular because they spark my creativity, providing me with ideas and directions for my WIP – and this newsletter – that I may not have thought of otherwise.
Over to You: What Writing Podcasts Do You Listen To?
I’d like to know! Please add your favourite podcasts in the comments below so we can all take a listen.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a video of the a Slightly Foxed episode interviewing Joanna Rakoff, who wrote the memoir My Salinger Year about her internship with a literary agency that represented JD Salinger. The book was later turned into a movie of the same name.
Until next time, keep writing with wild abandon!
~Graham
email me if you get lost.
Six hours to mow a lawn?! That’s madness Graham. Mine takes an hour and a quarter and it feels like a lot. But I do get to listen to podcasts as well. I’m a sucker for an interview with an interesting person (which I’l confess usually means smart, not famous), so I gravitate toward “People I Mostly Admire,” “The Ezra Klein Show” (though it gets more political than I’d like and I sometimes skip those), and “The Interview” (hit and miss, but the one with Sean Penn was oddly interesting).
Hey, thanks for the shout-out—I love Tara and Rebecca on Can Rds Am Style!
AND Slightly Foxed, not just the podcast but the whole enterprise—I’m behind on my subscription to their journal, and I’ve dropped a ton of money on their reprints of classic books. SO awesome.
I consistently listen to two book podcasts: Women Writing, an interview with authors podcast by Sudbury writer Liisa Kovala; and Scriptnotes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, with hosts John August (Big Fish, Aladdin) and Craig Mazin (Bachelor franchise, Chernobyl, The Last of Us).
I get something fun out of every episode, even if not necessarily what the point of the episode was!