If you’re going on a long roadtrip, you may want to decide what you’re going to listen to while you’re checking off the miles.
Radio? Terrestrial is bad once you leave a market and stations become harder to come by. If you’re in Louisiana on a Friday night, your only option may be high school football. Satellite is good if you have a subscription for Sirius/XM.
Music? Sure. Can’t go wrong with that.
Audiobooks? Good one.
How about podcasts? More and more, podcasts have been my preferred method of listening pleasure. If you don’t have an unlimited data plan, or if you anticipate driving through areas of bad cell coverage, you will need to download podcasts to your phone or tablet.
This is Rammy goes into detail on how to get podcast content to go through your car’s speakers, either with a wired connection or a Bluetooth wireless connection.
Here are my five favorite podcasts for taking the highway, in alphabetical order.
1.) The Adam and Dr. Drew Show
Former Loveline hosts Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky have reunited to host a daily podcast. Like Loveline, Adam and Drew take phone calls about relationships as well as medical inquiries.
Included in the show is discussion between Adam and Drew of daily events. Special appearances do occur occasionally as well.
The shows are 30-45 minutes to length. For longer roadtrips, I download several podcasts in a row and listen to them in order from least recent to most recent. Podcast references do occasionally roll from one episode to another.
In addition, Adam and Drew have their own separate podcasts; the Adam Carolla Show and The Dr. Drew Podcast.
Upload Frequency: Daily. Monday-Friday.
2.) Freedomain Radio with Stefan Molyneux
Freedomain Radio host Stefan Molyneux covers a wide range of topics on this podcast, which has over 3,500 episodes to date. His podcast covers three basic formats:
Monologues, which seldom go over 30 minutes. Interviews, which are usually 45-90 minutes. Call-in shows, which can go over 3 hours, but feature multiple callers and subjects. Individual calls are usually anywhere between 30-60 minutes.
The shows of Stefan’s I really look forward to the most are the call-ins. The calls cover subjects such as children, family relationships, politics, currency, economy, gaming, technology, religion, the paranormal, even eyewitness accounts of recent events.
Shows are not censored or edited for language, so there may be the occasional four-letter word.
Upload Frequency: Though not on a set schedule, new content is available practically on a daily basis.
3.) Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr
Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr is the very first podcast I subscribed to and listened to regularly.
The podcast subject matter is very much typical of Jay Mohr’s comedic material, and he interviews a wide variety of people. Colleagues, actors, athletes, and radio people are the typical interview subjects.
Jay Mohr’s style of interviewing is different and more entertaining than most. Other than a few bulletpoints Jay wants to hit, interviews are very much a two-way conversation–talk you may hear from friends at a bar.
Listener discretion is advised.
Upload Frequency: Weekly. Every Wednesday.
4.) Roenick Life Podcast with JR and Jaffe
Former NHL great Jeremy Roenick hosts the Roenick Life Podcast with broadcaster and former University of Michigan hockey player Billy Jaffe.
Jeremy Roenick is as candid and outspoken on the podcast as he was on the ice.
The show typically features a player interview as well as a discussion of the highlights of the previous week of hockey.
Shows are not edited for language, but cursing is rare.
Upload Frequency: Weekly. Episodes launch mid-week, year-round.
UPDATE (February 16, 2019): Roenick Life Podcast is no longer being broadcast, and episodes are no longer available other than on YouTube. Back episodes are available here.
5.) The Tom Woods Show
The Tom Woods Show is a podcast I discovered about five months ago, but has been informative, entertaining, and helpful.
Woods is politically libertarian, which is reflected in many episodes. Much like Stefan Molyneux, Woods is a man of many talents and pursuits. His podcasts cover higher education, science, international affairs, religion, internet commerce, the economy, and history. Woods has a BA degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Woods has written several books on various subjects.
He brings a polished style to his podcasts, always maintaining civility with guests and keeping debate within the topic at hand.
Unlike most podcasts, each episode of The Tom Woods Show comes with a written set of show notes with a summary of the content, sources, information on people being interviewed, and any products mentioned on the show.
Upload Frequency: Daily. Monday-Friday.
Podcast Player
You may be able to download some of these podcasts individually to your phone, as there may be separate apps available. Mohr Stories, for example, has had its own app since it started. In my Blackberry days, I actually had the app for a few months.
I used to download episodes through iTunes, then transfer them to either an iPod or a flash drive.
Android has an app called Podcast Addict. Simply download the app on your device (or click here), look for the search button, type in the name of a podcast, and hit the “subscribe button. Episodes will appear, pick one from the list, and hit the play button. You can either stream or download to your device (as I said earlier, downloading is recommended unless you have unlimited data and reliable cell coverage).
Is there a favorite podcast or podcasts you’d recommend? Do you like any of the ones I listed? Please feel free to comment in the box below.
