Listening to podcasts is a great way to find personal growth, especially when you are multitasking with mundane tasks like driving to work or doing laundry.
There has been a lot of debate if listening to something passively will make you smarter. You have probably heard someone suggest listening to Mozart while you sleep.
You’ll have to read the scientific studies to make your own mind up on the subject but I am confident that listening to podcasts is a great way to learn, challenge what you know, and seek personal growth and development. No matter which personal growth category you are looking to improve you can find a podcast about it.
Let’s look at some of the most popular personal growth and development podcasts. My goal for this post is to introduce you to your next favorite podcast.
The Minimalists Podcast
Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus help over 20 million people live meaningful lives with less through their website, books, podcast, and documentary.
The podcast will help you declutter your life and find your inner strength. You will become conscious of your actions and it can help if you feel pressured by social expectations.
They share great advice about life and the choices you make. At the end of the episode, you can add tips for the previous episodes.
Check out the minimalists’ podcast here.
Here is a good episode to start with.
The Mindful Kind
In this podcast, Rachael Kable shows you how can you implement mindfulness in every sphere of your life. She shares her personal growth experiences and also talks about actionable tips you can implement in your life.
Described by her listeners as “genuine, down-to-earth and encouraging”, Rachael is passionate about empowering people around the world to live more mindfully in fun, simple and meaningful ways.
Check out The Mindful Kind here.
Optimal Living Daily
I love the format of this podcast. Today, our world is full of clutter and noise. Everyone has an opinion, a product, and something to push. But Optimal Living Daily saves you time by curating and reading a list of popular blog posts. This is a great podcast to listen to while driving.
The podcast is hosted by Justin Malik, who publishes the podcast every day and reads a number of blog articles to let you optimize your life. He talks about minimalism, money, productivity, and mindfulness.
Through the podcast, you will also discover a number of amazing bloggers. It’s a great place to find some amazing personal development content in one place.
Check out the Optimal Living Daily Podcast here.
Happier With Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s known for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas with humor and clarity, in a way that’s accessible to a wide audience.
She’s the author of many books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers The Four Tendencies, Better Than Before, and The Happiness Project. She has an enormous readership, both in print and online, and her books have sold almost three million copies worldwide, in more than thirty languages. (The Happiness Project spent two years on the bestseller list.)
On her top-ranking, award-winning podcast “Happier with Gretchen Rubin,” she discusses happiness and good habits with her sister Elizabeth Craft.
The Lavendaire Lifestyle
I don’t listen to this podcast but am including it on this list because the topics grabbed my eye.
The podcast talks about how to live an ideal life through personal growth and aims to help people improve their lives. New episodes are released weekly and it is hosted by entrepreneur Aileen Xu.
It covers a range of different topics and helps you in building a dream life for yourself. The podcast focuses on personal growth and lifestyle design. The episodes are nice a short so you can consume a lot of content at once.
You can check out the Lavendaire Lifestyle Podcast here.
On Being
The podcast is about answering meaningful questions in life. Krista Tippett, the host of the podcast interviews scientists, artists, musicians, teachers, etc. during her three-hour long podcasts. To be honest, 3 hours is a little long for a podcast but if you have a great podcast player you can always pick up where you left off.
From the podcast’s about page I found this nice succient blurb
The Confidence Podcast
Your one-stop-shop for all things confidence, this is the show that inspires personal momentum in every aspect of health, business and life so that you can literally conquer life with confidence and courage. Trish Blackwell is the original Confidence Coach in the field of personal development and will help you finish what you start. Over 1.5 million downloads agree that The Confidence Podcast is the perfect weekly source to help you take massive action in life.
The host aims to inspire the listeners and encourage them to follow their path to success without delay. Whether you want to achieve business goals, solve relationship issues or become fitter, the podcast can help you stay motivated and keeping the blocking thoughts out of the way.
Check out The Confidence Podcast here.
Bulletproof Radio
Have you heard of bulletproof coffee? If not, you have probably heard of Dave Asprey. The author of the Bulletproof diet and many other works has a podcast.
Bulletproof radio is more than just a personal development podcast. It’s hosted by a tech entrepreneur, Dave Asprey who can really charge you mentally, emotionally and physically. He brings out the proven secrets from the minds of biochemists, nutritionists and other experts from various fields to his listeners.
I love Bulletproof Radio because they bring on high profile guests and talk about super interesting topics.
If you are into biohacking, personal growth, and how to optimize your life you should check out this podcast.
You can check out the Bulletproof Radio here.
The Art Of Charm Podcast
Jordan Harbinger focuses on the struggles and problems you might be encountering in your dating life, business, or social life. It features a guest speaker in every episode, such as a motivational speaker, a scientist, an author to offer their opinion on hot-button topics.
The show focuses on the social dynamics and offers you a lot of different points of view to bring out the best advice for you.
Check out the Art Of Charm Podcast here.
The Secret To Success Podcast
The podcast by Eric Thomas and CJ can help you cross the hurdles in your life and clear your path towards success and happiness open and clear. Eric Thomas’s words have the power to charge you up and motivate you to take action right now. He is ready to share his secrets and tips towards success.
From homeless, high school drop out to Entrepreneur, C.E.O. and Ph.D.! Hear first hand how Eric was able to defy the odds, and single-handedly break the negative generational cycles that plagued his family for decades. Join the conversation with ET and co-host Carlas Quinney Jr. and learn how you too can create the life you deserve.
Check out the Secret To Success Podcast here.
The School Of Greatness Podcast
Lewis Howes, a former athlete, an entrepreneur and an author is happy to share his relatable and insightful thoughts on motivation and self-help. He advises that you should dream big and seize the opportunities given to you.
The podcast is highly inspirational and it features a guest speaker who shares his secrets of success happily with the listeners. It will leave you hungry to achieve more and it is beneficial to make the podcast a part of your daily routine.
Lewis brings on amazing guests and is really good and pulling stories out of the guest. I highly recommend this podcast.
You can check out The School Of Greatness Podcast here.
Good Life Project Podcast
Jonathan Field, the host of the podcast talks about a range of different topics from love to spirituality. He talks to a guest speaker on various themes and takes time to listen to the stories of everyday people. The podcast is highly inspirational, motivating and it leaves you motivated and energetic every time you listen to it.
Check out the Good Life Project here.
The Rich Roll Podcast
Rich Roll’s host Josh Lajauine lost 200+ pounds and reinvented himself. From this experience, he shares his thoughts on mindset, habits, and giving back
The podcast offers you a number of tips proven to work. It features the top endurance athletes in the world. By tuning to this weekly podcast, you can listen to the interviews of athletes, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers.
Check out the Rich Roll Podcast here.
Podcast Players
If you listen to podcasts regularly then you likely have a podcast player that works for you. But if not, I wanted to take a minute and recommend a podcasting app I have been using for the last 2 years and haven’t seen anything better in the app stores.
Overcast.fm
- Overcast.fm is easily my favorite podcast player. Here are a few reasons why.
- Their search feature to find podcasts is amazing
- You can speed up podcasts and save that setting just for that podcast
- You can have the podcast skip short pauses which saves a ton of time
- It will automatically download the next episodes for you (great if you travel on planes without service)
- It’s super user-friendly and has a clean design.
Final Words
To achieve your personal growth goals and grow as a person, it is very important for you to remove the mental blocks and clear your way towards success. It can be quite overwhelming with how much information is out there.
I would suggest you pick 1 or 2 of these podcasts and consume a lot of their content. Try and focus on pulling 1-2 actionable tips or strategies out of each episode. If you are able to successfully do this you will notice a huge increase in your personal growth knowledge and skills in the next 3 months.
Remember that personal growth is a journey and it’s important to stay patient and always keep learning.