Inspiring Podcasts for A Better Life
By Marnie Kunz
During the pandemic, I became a podcast junkie, living in loungewear with headphones. This new habit has stayed with me, and, through hundreds of hours of listening, I wanted to share my top picks for inspiring podcasts for a better life. I love these podcasts because they include people who have achieved amazing feats and overcome great odds, and they share what they’ve learned and implemented in their lives along the way. Some focus on health and wellness while others focus on entrepreneurship and finding a work-life balance. Others cover human psychology and behavior and offer ways to build on our best habits.
Podcasts are perfect for people like me with short attention spans or who have trouble sitting still because you can listen to them while you do other things — your weightlifting routine, cleaning, running, walking, riding the subway. Finding an amazing podcast can also help you practice habit bundling, giving you an incentive to work out while listening to your favorite podcast.
You can find these inspiring podcasts for free wherever you get your podcasts — Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Audible, or directly online on each podcast’s website, which I’ve linked below. This list is just the tip of the iceberg for inspiring podcasts, so I welcome your suggestions in the comments.
Inspiring Podcasts to Change Your Life
The School of Greatness Podcast by Lewis Howes is a lifestyle podcast that covers a wide range of topics — from eating healthy to anti-aging to mental health and entrepreneurship. This is the first podcast I ever listened to and it has stood up to the test of time — offering me new insights and inspiration for over 5 years now. Lewis Howes is a former pro football player and lifestyle entrepreneur and he’s a humble, relatable and insightful show host. I read his book, “The School of Greatness,” and even got to meet Lewis at a book launch party in New York, and he was really nice and seemed like a warm person. Lewis is from Ohio (and now lives in LA), and since I’m from St. Louis, I can relate to some of his coming-of-age stories in the Midwest. I also appreciate his vulnerability in discussing his own personal and mental health struggles with trauma, and he has a great variety of inspiring guests on the show — from legendary athletes like Kobe Bryant (R.I.P.) to meditation leaders, psychologists, financial investors, entrepreneurs, and more. Lewis releases inspiring podcasts twice a week. Rating (out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hidden Brain Podcast is one of my all-time favorite podcasts, which is saying a lot since I listen to a wide variety of podcasts — including true crime, documentary, and fiction. Hidden Brain is an NPR podcast that “explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.” I have always found psychology fascinating, and as a coach and motivator, I find many helpful ideas and interesting mental phenomena in the episodes. The show includes well-researched topics and information and guests who have experience and credentials in everything from neuroscience to social psychology. The show explores the complexities of human behavior and offers a sense of hopefulness by including practical tips we can use to combat unwanted behaviors or to build upon positive behaviors. New episodes of the Hidden Brain podcast are released every Monday. Rating (out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Rich Roll Podcast is a popular podcast among runners and endurance athletes. I got interested in the podcast after reading Rich Roll’s inspiring book, “Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men and Discovering Myself” (you can check out my rundown on the book here). His book was so inspiring that I was ready for more so turned to his podcast. The Rich Roll podcast focuses on health and wellness and includes interviews with inspiring athletes and leaders in the health world and covers topics ranging from mental toughness to veganism and healthy eating. I enjoy the podcast but it does run long — sometimes up to three hours! — so make sure you have the time and focus to listen. Sometimes I listen to segments for inspiration. As a trainer and runner, I especially like the athletic-focused episodes. Rating (out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Maintenance Phase Podcast by Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes offers insightful and humorous insights into popular health, fitness, and weight-loss trends. The hosts make the show entertaining, offering witty banter and a diverse perspective, which is refreshing in a very crowded world of macho, straight male-dominated fitness podcasters. They also present in-depth research that debunks fad diets and wellness trends, and they present a more accurate, complex picture of health and wellness than what we see portrayed in pop culture. I really enjoy this podcast for its entertaining, refreshing perspective and learning the true facts behind everything from the obesity epidemic to “Supersize Me.” I like to listen to this podcast while lifting weights. The only drawback of this podcast for me is sometimes it gets a little long, clocking in at about an hour an episode, and I do not always finish each episode. The witty and inspiring podcasts drop every two weeks. Rating (out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hello Seven Podcast by Rachel Rodgers is a business and lifestyle podcast aimed at helping women entrepreneurs join the “Hello Seven” Club, which means making 7 digits or 1 million in revenue. This podcast is super motivating to me as a female entrepreneur and Rachel Rodgers also offers a diverse perspective from many of the business podcasts out right now. Her guests offer insightful and honest tales and tips from women who have overcome the struggle of being a female small business owner dealing with everything from lack of capital to lack of time. I love this podcast for motivation and insightful tips, and I also was super motivated by Rachel Rodgers’ book, “We Should All Be Millionaires.” The only drawback of this podcast is that Rachel has put new episodes on pause so right now there are no new episodes. Rating (out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Entrepreneurs on Fire Podcast by John Lee Dumas is a podcast to inspire entrepreneurs to hit new levels in their businesses. The show’s host is a little over the top with things like his “Boom, shake the room!” introduction, but if you can get past his occasionally cheesy one-liners, there are a lot of “value bombs,” as he calls them, in the show, with many inspiring guests who have built innovative and successful businesses. I enjoy the episodes on topics like creating a work-life balance, building passive income, and more. I also appreciate that the episodes are relatively short (do I have an attention span problem?😂) so you can get a lot of insight from the 20- to 45-minute episodes. A great podcast for short workouts and many topic options, as he drops an episode daily. Rating (out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
That is all for now on my top inspiring podcasts that I listen to right now. What are your favorite motivating podcasts? Share in the comments, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter for more content on living a better life.
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Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified Brooklyn trainer, USATF, and RRCA-certified running coach, and the creator of Body by Runstreet and Runstreet Art Runs, which bring together communities through running and street art. She is a Brooklyn resident, trainer, Akita mom, and writer. She enjoys running coaching, traveling, art, and eating messily. You can follow her running and events at @Runstreet Instagram and Runstreet Facebook and follow her on Twitter for more on her running adventures.
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