My Favorite Personal Growth Podcasts
The last 10 years have seen an explosion in the number of podcasts available. Food, literature, travel - you name it, and there’s a podcast for it. In this blog I want to zone in on some of my favorite personal growth podcasts, and why they mean so much to me.
Personal growth comes in many different forms. Really, that is what my job as a life coach is all about. I am constantly striving to create strategies for self-care, development, and growth. One of my favorite things to do is listen to some of the greats that stand out in this area - and what better way to do that than in a podcast?
There’s no exhaustive list of podcasters that are the “best” in my opinion - it is all about personal preference and what works for you. Saying that, here are three of my favorite podcasters, and why they make my personal list.
The Tim Ferris Show
Tim Ferris’ podcast is the #1 business podcast on Apple Podcasts - and you can see why. While his episodes are varied, touching on everything from morning routines to his famed “4 Hour Workweek”, the real meat and potatoes of this podcast are the long-form interviews with world-class performers of all kinds. He manages to deconstruct a mind-boggling array of renowned individuals: business geniuses like Chris Sacca and Seth Godin, paragons of the arts like James Cameron and Neil Gaiman, and athletic icons like LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger to name just a few.
Ferris knows exactly what to ask - the amount of insight he can mine from a couple of hours’ conversations is phenomenal. And somehow, he makes it all relevant. No matter where your passions lie, you will be able to find something of value from every interview he conducts. Simply put, he finds phenomenal humans and gets them to tell you how they do what they do. It’s not classic personal growth, but if you don’t grow personally from listening to this podcast, I would be very surprised.
The Doctor’s Farmacy
A few months ago, I reviewed The Blood Sugar Solution by Mark Hyman. In it, he takes complex scientific theories and distills them down to action in a revolutionary six-week program. If you haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, I would definitely recommend it. He also has a wonderful podcast, that is fast becoming one of my favorite things to listen to.
If you have read some of my other blogs on nutrition, you will know how important maintaining a healthy balanced diet is to me. The fuel we put into our body is crucial - we can’t be expected to undergo personal growth if we are constricted by an incorrect diet. In The Doctor’s Farmacy, Hyman examines the intricacies of diet and nutrition, and how a natural basis towards health problems can unburden us from illness. I’m a huge fan of this podcast.
The Rich Roll Podcast
Where do I start with Rich Roll? He is a health and wellness icon, ultra-athlete, and master of personal development. His podcast is one of the world’s most popular, with over 60 million downloads to date - and it's easy to see why. He takes a similar approach to Tim Ferris, in that he delves deep with icons of personal development and figures out what makes them tick. I almost went with a different podcast here, due to the similarity, but they are both so great that I couldn’t not include them. Listen to an episode of each, and I guarantee you will see what I mean.
Rich Roll has a slightly more conversational approach that Tim Ferris, who approaches the podcast as more of an interview. This back and forth, examining each topic in-depth with lightness, allows for a fun dialogue that still manages to engage and inspire. It’s hard to describe exactly how Rich Roll treats his podcast until you pick up a few episodes, so I would recommend downloading a few today.
Summary
All in all, there are a bunch of podcasts out there. Each one of these podcasts features interviews and conversations, which perhaps speaks to my style of learning - I get so much out of listening to masters in dialogue and think it is one of the best ways to learn. Definitely listen to a few episodes, and see what you can take from these three icons of personal growth.