The Best Storytelling Podcasts

If you want to be a killer storyteller, then one of the best things you can do for yourself is absorb good stories. And with technology being what it is today, your options extend well beyond sitting down with a good book.

Podcasts are proving to be some of the best storytelling vehicles around, presenting compelling tales that engage, inspire, and motivate. Plus, you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to listen to them—they’re a great companion while driving, cooking, cleaning, or checking off any of your other endless tasks for the day.

But just like anything else, some storytelling podcasts are better than others. If you’re aiming to fill your ears with moving stories that’ll make you a better presenter and storyteller, then check out some of the best storytelling podcasts out right now.

This American Life
There might be no better storytelling podcast than the longstanding staple that is This American Life. Each week, the host, NPR’s Ira Glass, takes you through a series of compelling stories that are designed to move and inspire you. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel all the feelings, but most of all, you’ll learn how to tell a spectacular story.

The Moth
The Moth has been a traveling live storytelling show for over 20 years, and it’s since made a seamless transition into a phenomenal podcast. The stories are told by an ever-diverse group of people who cover the gamut of topics from love to loss to success to failure. But the beauty of this podcast is that the stories are as relatable as they are diverse, speaking to the universal experiences we all face as humans fumbling our way through the world.

Love + Radio
This award-winning podcast is equal parts compelling, heartwarming, and disturbing. Each episode showcases interviews from a wide range of people that deliver emotionally-complicated and complex stories of life and humanity. It doesn’t preach, there are no life lessons being taught; it’s simply storytelling in its rawest form and it’s every bit worthy of your time.

Welcome to Night Vale
Welcome to Night Vale is podcast fiction at its very best. The twice-monthly show chronicles a fictional sleepy town in the desert called, of course, Night Vale. You’ll learn stories of mysterious lights in the night sky, hooded figures with unknown powers, and peculiar events that are designed to simultaneously compel you and creep you out.

The Memory Palace
A finalist for a 2016 Peabody Award, The Memory Palace masterfully tells weird, wonderful, and absurd stories of history. History buffs will love it for all the facts it drops, but it does so in a rich, narrative form that can teach anyone about how to tell an excellent story. Plus, each episode tells its own story, so you can pick and choose the topics that interest you most.

Radiolab
Radiolab has been a crazy popular podcast for years, and for good reason: it’s awesome. Merging science, philosophy, and the human experience, these impeccably-produced episodes are designed to make you think and feel in ways that you never have before. And it always delivers. Whether you’re looking for pure entertainment, to learn something new, or to become a better storyteller, you need this podcast in your life.

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