All Things Great & Small: A Playlist of Short Podcasts
Being a podcast fan can sometimes feel like an endurance sport for listeners. Of the top 100 shows on Apple Podcasts, an average episode is 52 minutes long, and the median time — cutting out the marathon lengths of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History and The Joe Rogan Experience — is a not-inconsiderable 40 minutes.
These sprawling episodes are perfect for road trips, long housework sessions, or true crime addicts who need a minimum ten hours of serial killer content a week to function. But all of this must-listen material is risking exhausted ears. Overloaded listeners have started speeding-up shows in the name of efficiency, listening at 2x speed just to keep on top of their queues.
Media organisations have picked up on the demand for shows that are more like a radio-friendly pop tune than a Wagnerian song cycle. A new wave of short, newsy programs like NPR’s Up First and the Washington Post’s Daily 202 are jostling to fill up the spare moments you have between brushing your teeth and leaving the house.
If you’re blessed with a quick commute, want to avoid headphone hair, or are just trying to conquer your podcast queue, try some of these short shows that never outstay their welcome.
Shows No More Than 5 Minutes
Retropod
Mike Rosenwald’s snapshots from history comes out near daily, which should take a toll on quality. Instead there’s a touch of 99% Invisible’s eye-opening wonder at the world’s oddness, and every show is a tidy four minutes a pop.
60 Seconds Adventures in Thought/Economics/Religion
From the UK’s Open University, a minute’s worth of education in big subjects, drily delivered by Peep Show’s David Mitchell.
For a Bad Time, Call…
You wouldn’t want more than five minutes of this show, which lets callers record a rant against the awful things in this world (politicians, greed, inequality, dudes who think they’re the next Aaron Sorkin). But in fun-sized doses, the assembled rage feels cathartic and heartening.
Martini Shot
In the time it takes you to drink a martini — or two, if you’ve had a really tough day — you can listen to former Cheers writer Rob Long spill on the secret business of Hollywood.
60-Second Science
Scientific American is ruining any excuses you have for being scientifically illiterate with these short, sharp reports from the front lines of research.
Coming In Under 10 Minutes
Professor Buzzkill
This series on debunking historical misunderstandings has some longer episodes, but the Mini-Myths episodes call BS on various legends in just a handful of minutes.
The Life of a Song
From 2015 to mid-2017, the Financial Times was the unlikely home of an excellent show revealing the hidden stories behind well-known songs. The selection was surprisingly catholic, from When the Levee Breaks to Misirlou, through to the likes of Ice Ice Baby. Of course, having an almost-perfect format with succinct writing wasn’t good enough for the producers, who turned it into a digressive and baggy half-hour long show late last year. But there’s always the archives.
Dear
Listening to these loopy audio stories, some less than 90 seconds long, has the intimate jolt of hearing other people’s unsent letters.
The Indicator
So, This American Life (which generally runs an hour plus) led to the creation of NPR’s Planet Money (20 minutes or so per episode) which then brought forth The Indicator, a 9-minute daily dose of “Economics, but sexy!” If this pattern continues, a 30-second show about finance in haiku form is due by 2020.
Little Tiny
From Australia’s ABC Radio, a bunch of rollicking yarns from history. Sweary and unexpected, these are more like really good pub stories than lectures.
Filling Out 15 Minutes
The Way I Heard It With Mike Rowe
Stories from Mike “Dirty Jobs” Rowe, who spins improbable-but-true tales in coffee break-sized time.
Blank on Blank
There’s a lot of great audio archives out there. Lucky for us, this show’s producers have gone digging for the best bits. Between conversations with Nina Simone, Hunter S. Thompson, and Sally Ride, it feels like being invited to the world’s greatest dinner party.
¿Qué Pasa, Midwest?
Tales from Latin communities across the midwest. Join the hosts on journeys tracking down tins of the ancient Aztec drink pulque in Indiana, navigating immigration laws with a college historian, and talking to a family where some relatives prefer pretending to be Italian instead of Mexican.
Robot or Not
Take a big, head-spinning stoner question like, “What is death?” Or, “How do you solve the Trolley Problem?” And, “What makes pasta pasta?” But instead of hours of tedious discussion over a bong and stale beer, hosts Jason and John reach a definitive answer in a little over ten minutes.
Living with the Gods
From the British Museum team who created A History of the World in 100 Objects, art historian Neil MacGregor strolls through the world’s belief systems, peering up at the ineffable through a selection of religious artifacts. It’s a short show that makes its way from heavens to hells, and all that connects us between them.
The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.
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