This is a collaborative post.
Did you know we listened to almost 60 million hours of podcasts every week in the UK last year (up 50% year-on-year)?
What’s more, the growth of podcasts has been rocketing throughout 2022 and, by the end of the year, it’s thought there’ll be an additional 2.9 million podcast listeners in Britain.
Fast forward to 2023, and it’s thought that around one billion of us will be listening to podcasts at lest once a month!
What is a podcast?
Derived from the words ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcasting’, podcasts are gradually becoming a more focal part of our daily lives and routines.
What can you learn from a podcast?
We can learn so much from listening to podcasts. In fact, Babbel – the world’s first language-learning app – has created the infographic “What can a Podcast Teach You?”, to help us to get our heads around all the facts and data that exist around just how helpful podcasts can actually be to us.
They’ve also launched several podcasts aimed at helping us to learn new languages, each of which presents and introduces relevant cultural elements, aims to help us to improve our pronunciation and conversational skills, and explains new linguistic forms of speech.
My favourite food-focused podcasts
Although I don’t speak any languages fluently besides English, it’ll probably come as no surprise that I listen to a lot of food-themed podcasts. From guided recipes and restaurant reviews, to informal talk shows and panel discussions with my favourite chefs, food podcasts can take on many different formats.
Whenever I listen to a food podcast, I usually try to find one that features a varied range of voices and interesting guest speakers, and I’m often drawn to episodes or series that provoke thought and prompt further discussion.
Here are some of my favourite food podcasts to get your teeth stuck into…
At The Sauce
Run by my Bristol-based friend Alex Ryder, At The Sauce focuses on food stories from passionate chefs, restaurant owners, food writers and other iconic foodie figures, both local to Bristol, throughout the UK, and further afield.
Most recently, Alex featured another fellow blogging friend, Torie True, who has recently released her debut cookbook, Chilli and Mint, showcasing authentic Indian cuisine for cooking in British home kitchens. As I know both Alex and Torie very well, this made for a very enjoyable listen for me, although I’m sure it will be just as stimulating for those who’ve never met either of them too.
If you’re passionate about Indian food, you need to make sure you listen to this – and why not pick up a copy of the new Chilli and Mint cookbook while you’re at it, too?
BBC The Food Programme
As you might expect from the BBC, The Food Programme (broadcast on BBC Radio 4) takes a more serious look at food and the role it plays in our daily lives, covering in-depth topics like eco-labelling for food, the ethics of meat and dairy farming, and catering in care homes, alongside interviews with food icons like broadcaster and business woman, Prue Leith and Chef, Angela Hartnett.
I’ve particularly enjoyed listening to The Food Programme’s ‘Eating After Cancer’ episode. Although, thankfully, I don’t have cancer myself, this offered an intimate, informative and inspiring insight into how cancer and chemotherapy treatment can impact on our dietary needs and preferences.
Each episode lasts for around half an hour, and you’ll probably be shocked at just how much you’ll learn during that time.
Farmerama Radio
Another podcast that I’ve really got into over the last year or so, Farmerama Radio is an award-winning podcast showcasing the voices behind regenerative farming.
The podcast is produced by a number of different audio producers, with each episode feauturing a range of new and inspiring voices. Considering it’s not produced by the likes of the BBC, the quality of the output is extremely impressive.
My favourite episodes have centred around dairy and vegetable farmers working alongside restaurants during the pandemic, and a Jamaican woman running a ‘food pharmacy’, as opposed to a ‘food bank’, due to the negative connotations of ‘food banks’ within black communities.
Each episode lasts for around 30-45 minutes.
It’s no secret that food podcasts are my favourite kind of podcasts. Today, however, you can find podcasts covering just about every topic you cant think of, from light and, often, humorous topics, to educational and informative podcasts. In fact, edutainment (education and entertainment) podcasts are really on the rise at the moment.
So, the next time you’re on Spotify or Apple Music, spend some time searching for a podcast that really appeals to you, pop your headphones in, get listening, and you might be surprised at just how much you end up learning in the process!
Do you listen to podcasts? Leave a comment below to let me know which ones you enjoy listening to the most.
This is a collaborative post.