Podcasts worth checking out on Spotify

Spotify has gone beyond streaming music and entered the podcast scenario, being the first runners up in the podcast race. In just a couple of years, Spotify podcasts have garnered a substantial audience. Podcasts are now in the limelight more than ever considering people's lives have come to a standstill as a casualty of the pandemic thus confiding in apps like Spotify. Here are our picks for some Spotify podcast recommendations.

The Joe Rogan Experience

Commencing with probably the most famous podcast, the JRE podcast is one of the most heard podcasts on any platform, with episode ratings ranging from 9.7 to 9.8 on a scale of 10 and an overall rating of 8.8/10 on IMDb.

The program is presented by American comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan with Brian Redban as co-host and producer before he was replaced by Jamie Vernon in 2013.

Joe Rogan is among the oldest podcasters, starting in 2019 and hosts conversations with his array of guests, listening from fellow comedians, like Russell Peters, authors, various forms of artists, and public figures like Elon Musk and Mike Tyson.

As of December 2020, the podcast is listed exclusively on Spotify. The tip of the iceberg is that the podcast is powered by advertisements, alluring unsubscribed Spotify users, and podcast admirers.

Stuff You Should Know

Conceived in 2008 by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, the podcast is among the most recommended on Spotify and other platforms. With over 1400 episodes, the podcast hosts elaborate conversations on a plethora of themes, some of which are narcolepsy, drugs and hallucinogens, inflation and its roots, global issues like global warming, chaos theory, and controversial, debated topics like Satanism and cannibalism.

The hosts also dive deep into behavioural subjects and explore how psychopaths work.  The best part about starting this podcast, given that it has 1400+ episodes, is the independent nature of the episodes that allows listeners to start from any episode without a requisite.

Naval Ravikant Podcast

Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur of Indian descent and the co-founder and former CEO of AngleList. Growing up in an unsafe neighbourhood with first-hand gun violence, Naval had to seek sanctuary in local public libraries where he had a fundamental relationship with books of all sorts that helped him achieve exceptional clarity on multiple topics. His podcast is directed towards like-minded young entrepreneurs.

 He offers suggestions on career, cryptocurrencies, managing finances and business, pursuing wealth, simultaneously addressing important mental health issues like reducing anxiety, and talks about life and happiness in his audio show.

Naval's tweet-storm on "How to Get Rich(without getting lucky)" brought him to the public eye making his show one of the most heard podcasts with a staggering fanbase. 

Simple Ken

Simple Ken is hosted by Kenny Sebastian. Kenny is an Indian stand-up comedian who has been in the limelight for playing a pivotal role in bringing the revolution to the Indian stand-up scene. His podcast is only a year old with 28 episodes.

Kenny welcomes other contemporary comedians as guests and covers some invigorating, out-of-the-ordinary matters that are novel like toxic positivity, converse about the new normal,  motivation, and friendship, and sheds light on how to navigate negativity.

The podcast reflects the comedian's unique sense of humour and is refreshing and amiable for the newer podcast audiences. Simple Ken is available on YouTube and Spotify. 

In the Dark

If crime-related mysteries have you spellbound then this podcast is for you. Narrated by Madeleine Baran, the show's genre is Investigative journalism and Crime. The show is structured to investigate real stories and scrutinise the law enforcement system.

In the Dark is a weekly show consisting of two seasons; the first season of 10 episodes analyses the infamous case of kidnapping and murder of the 11-year old Jacob Wetterling that went on for 27 years, and the second season explores the case of Mississippi hailing Curtis Flowers who was tried six times for the same quadruple homicide in 1996 and spent more than 20 years trying to win the case.

It is worth mentioning that the series is a two-time Peabody Award winner.