How School Sparked My Love of Podcasts

Before fifth grade, I rarely listened to podcasts on my own. I would sometimes listen to educational kids podcasts during long car rides, but that’s about it. Then my fifth grade teacher decided that instead of doing a novel study, we would listen to an audio drama podcast. 

To start our podcast journey, our teacher chose The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, an award-winning podcast created by Gen Z Media (GZM Shows). We listened to all three seasons and I was not the only one who was captivated by Mars Patel. My friends and most of the class were too. GZM Shows created a cast of relatable characters and the storyline paired with the audio effects had everyone hooked. Next, my class listened to another Gen-Z Media show, Six Minutes. This audio drama follows the story of Holiday, who was found floating in the water by the Anders family. As the story progresses, Holiday searches for the truth of who she is, while running away from an evil organization. After a week of listening, we finished somewhere between 10 and 15 episodes. But by that time, I was already listening ahead, immersed in the world that GZM Shows had created.

As a class, we finished all two seasons (205 episodes total) of Six Minutes relatively quickly. Even when COVID-19 sent us to online school, we persisted in finishing the audio drama.

I have a distinct memory of lying on my bed listening to the 56-minute season two finale with the rest of my class via Zoom. Of course, I knew what was going to happen already, but it was fun to listen with the rest of the class. Listening to this audio drama as a class created inside jokes and fond memories that most, if not all, of my classmates will remember in high school and beyond.

After we finished Six Minutes, we listened to Becoming Mother Nature, then Cupid and the Reaper, and finally Treasure Island 2020. Looking back with an eighth grade perspective, most of the podcasts we listened to were cheesy. But for a bunch of fifth and sixth graders, the podcasts were a fun way to engage students in something other than screens. 

To this day, I still listen to podcasts. What makes podcasts so good and why are they so popular? I have come up with two reasons for this: listening to podcasts is a great way to pass time and there is a podcast out there for everybody.

For starters, podcasts are a great way to kill time. Whether it’s a long car ride, doing chores, exercising, cooking, or painting, listening to podcasts is a great way to pass time.

Everyone knows that long car rides can get boring, so why not spruce them up with an episode of a podcast?

My family started listening to podcasts on long car rides when we went to Italy last summer. A podcast that we listened to a lot is HISTORY This Week. Each episode recounts a moment in history that happened that week. This is now our go-to podcast for long car rides, as it is well-made with a variety of events discussed.

Like movies, TV shows, and novels, podcasts have a wide variety of topics to choose from. There are podcasts on practically every subject. True crime, audio dramas, history, sports, self-improvement, music, news, fan-fics. You name it, there’s a podcast about it! The sheer number of podcasts may be intimidating for first-time listeners, but podcast apps make it easy to find new favourites. For example, both Spotify and Apple Podcasts sort them by category and have search bars to easily find a podcast about a specific topic. Where podcasts are concerned, the sky’s the limit. 

If you’re not convinced enough to try a podcast, here’s another example. About a year ago, I chose to start a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. As these types of puzzles tend to take a long time, I decided to listen to a podcast. Since all my other nostalgic shows from grade five were done, I took a friend’s advice and listened to a podcast called Tara Tremendous. It is another audio adventure podcast, so I thought, I’ve got time, I’ll try the first couple of episodes. Why not? I would go on to listen to around two seasons while completing the puzzle. Yes, I also listened to episodes while not doing the puzzle, and conversely, I did some of the puzzle while not listening to Tara Tremendous. After each episode ended, I instantly clicked the “next episode” button, eager to listen to more. 

My fifth grade teacher sparked my love of podcasts and to this day I am grateful for that. It is not that I was unaware what a podcast was beforehand, but I had not yet found the right one. The world of podcasts is huge, so it is highly likely that you’ll find a new favourite podcast. My favourites include Ologies, HISTORY This Week, Nightingale, and Tara Tremendous but there are so many more than those that I’ve listed. So put on your headphones and start listening to a podcast. Who knows? It may be the one that makes you fall in love with podcasts.