8 Wellbeing Podcasts To Give You A Little Life Boost
We all need time to take stock of our wellbeing, especially in an ever more stressful and sometimes worrying world. While maintaining your well being is something you can do on your own, it doesn’t hurt to have others lend a hand, and podcasts allow you to listen to some good advice on your health and life, as well as feeling like there’s someone there talking to you.
We’ve put together a list of some of the best wellbeing podcasts there are, some which focus on happiness, others on relationships and friendships, and some on pursuing our goals, and they’re all there to help make you feel better.
Unlocking Us
Researcher and New York Times best-seller Brené Brown hosts this self help and wellbeing podcast that aims to explain and discuss what makes us the way we are, and the topic of the human experience. She dissects ideas, stories, experiences, books, films, and music in order to piece together this puzzle, and help us learn and improve ourselves along the way. She also interviews celebrities and experts alike on all kinds of fascinating psychological topics, and in particular on Brown’s specialist areas of shame, insecurity and vulnerability- all to help understand how to deal with these feelings.
Listen on: Spotify
Derren Brown Bootcamp for Life
Master illusionist and mentalist has in recent years expanded out further than just tricks and experiments to research into happiness and wellbeing, and he puts this knowledge into his recently started Audible podcast Bootcamp for Life. With the stresses and fast pace of life in the 21st century, Derren sets out to show how modern life need not be so daunting, with the aid of psychology and philosophy. The eight episodes explore themes like stress, anxiety, overwork, decision making and getting older. With his calm and relatable approach to these topics, you’ll feel at ease with Derren’s musings- and you won’t be hypnotised in the process either.
Listen on: Audible
Health Check
Health Check is a bit more of an informative radio programme than a casual podcast, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good listen: The BBC show has hundreds of episodes dedicated to the world of our health and wellbeing. A fair amount are dives into world issues that don’t neccearily affect you, like wars and crises in other countries, but there’s also plenty of episodes about how we can all improve our wellbeing. You can find inspirational stories about battles with mental health, investigations into kindness and how we show it, and how we can make ourselves a bit healthier.
Listen on: BBC World Service
The Michelle Obama Podcast
The podcast of the former First Lady and one of the most popular women in America isn’t explicitly about wellbeing, but with it’s calm and chilled out feel, it may as well be. Michelle Obama chats to celebrities and experts about all kinds of topics in life, and makes you feel truly at ease, with the podcast feeling like a kind of comfort food in these often challenging times. It’s not explicitly about politics (though it sometimes factors in) but there’s plenty of frank discussions with guests about relationships, being a parent, citiznenship and many other topics that’ll help motivate and inspire you to improve yourself and wellbeing. The former President himself does make an appearance, with Michelle interviewing Barack in the very first episode.
Listen on: Spotify
The Happiness Lab
The Happiness Lab is all about being happy, and how we can go about achieving it. Yale professor Dr Laurie Santos invites you to think about about what you think makes you happy, and uses the latest scientific research and inspiring real world stories along the way. “You might think more money, a better job, or Instagram-worthy vacations would make you happy. You’re dead wrong” reads the podcast’s synopsis on the show’s website, and The Happiness Lab promises to change how you think about happiness and challenge you to find your own path to being fulfilled.
Listen on: Spotify
Power Hour
The Power Hour podcast has a very simple, yet useful concept: dedicating one hour each day to improving yourself and your life. Each weekly episode sees host Adrienne Herbert speak to healthcare specialists, coaches, creatives, innovators and more about their routines and habits with the aim of bringing some of those ideas and applying them to our own lives. Motivation is the name of the game here, so if you’re looking to change career, pen a novel or train to run a marathon, the Power Hour podcast wants to help you achieve it.
Listen on: Apple
How To Fail
While Power Hour was all about success and getting there, How To Fail is about failure- though it still helps to teach you about succeeding in the end. The path to achievement is not always easy, and failure is something everyone experiences in their life, even if it isn’t easy to admit or accept it. Journalist and author Elizabeth Day’s podcast aims to discuss failing and how we cope with it, with interviews with people including Dame Kelly Homes and Phoebe Waller-Bridge about how they managed to overcome failures, learn from them, and then succeed.
Listen on: Apple
On Being
The On Being podcast has been running for over two decades since its early incarnation in 2001. It’s hosted by American journalist and former US diplomat Krista Tippet, who delves into the questions humans have been asking themselves for centuries, like who we are, what does it mean to be human, and how should we live? Episodes explore belief, spirituality and other philosophy, and there’s been a wealth of guests in the years it’s been on air, from poets like Maya Angelou, religious figures like Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama and physicists like Brain Greene. The show not only is great way to open your mind and getting you thinking about the big questions in life, it’s also a very easy, relaxing listen.
Listen on: Spotify
