Podcasts: Women at the Helm
Traci Thomas from The Stacks podcast / Photo credit: Claire Leahy
Podcasts have become a fun form of entertainment and an informative arm of culture and media. Podcasts are radio shows reimagined, and there are shows on every topic under the sun — books, education, music, relationships, mental health, business, sports, sex, parenting and the list could go on into even more niche topics and subjects. Now audiences have a more extensive selection on what they’d like to listen to in broad and deep fields with the option to listen whenever they want to instead of a designated time and day. Thank you, technology! Women are spearheading captivating content that educates listeners in their perspective fields. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
The subject of books is dense and the podcast The Stacks hosted by Traci Thomas covers the gamut of fiction and non-fiction. Traci has engaging conversations with authors about their work, their process, and the best question of her show: “What word do you misspell every time you use it?” This one question absolutely humanizes each author as the listener is likely saying, “Yeah, that word trips me up too.” The podcast grew from Traci’s love of reading and she decided to create a show where other book lovers could congregate to converse, learn from the authors and grow their TBR list.
Mental health is a major discussion and is covered in mainstream news daily. Host of The Homecoming podcast, Dr. Thema Bryant discusses various subjects of life on her show. As a licensed psychologist, ordained minister and sacred artist, she can escort her audience to and through various doors that could completely change the trajectory of their life. Her voice alone is like a soothing balm to an emotional and mental wound. Dr. Thema also highlights poets and other creative writing artists at the top of most episodes.
As an award winning journalist who began her professional writing career covering sports, Jemele Hill is guiding and building the podcast industry via her own show Jemele Hill is Unbothered and through her recently launched network of the same name. The Unbothered Network is a platform for other women to also discuss other subject matter such as faith and spirituality, such as the podcast Sanctified hosted by Deborah Joy Winans and Lyvonne Briggs. The interviews and information flowing from this unbothered well is outstanding! From Jemele’s ‘Word of the Week’ segment to her ‘This or That’ game she plays with every guest, you are sure to have a takeaway from the show. You can listen to Jemele and her Unbothered cohorts exclusively on Spotify.
Women are doing incredible things in fields across the professional and personal spectrum and you can tune in and listen wherever you get your podcasts. If you are looking for a podcast service, Apple podcast, Google podcast and Spotify are good places to start building a que. Happy listening!
Brittany is a book lover with a continuously expanding To Be Read (TBR) List. She lives in an Atlanta suburb with her husband and two daughters