Listening to podcasts has become a worldwide pastime, more so than watching TV, tossing a ball around in the backyard, or even reading a magazine or book. And hosting your own podcast seems to be almost as popular an activity for many therapists as listening to them. For listeners and creators alike, podcasts of all kinds can provide a bevy of mental health benefits.
With so many to choose from—and recommend to clients—finding the right one to enjoy can be challenging. The best podcasts offer validation, creative solutions to common problems, and new perspectives on current issues or events, often garnished with a healthy dose of humor. We asked six therapists for their listening recommendations. Here are the ones that made the cut.
Laughing It Out
As a fan of comedians and how they think, the You Made It Weird podcast ranks as one of my favorite podcasts. The host, Pete Holmes, is hilarious! When he’s most on point, you can hear my guffaws echo throughout the house. But he’s also highly intelligent and sincerely interested in a broad range of topics. One week, he’ll interview a fellow comedian; the next, he’ll feature an author on Stoic philosophy. A week or two later, he’ll talk to a rabbi or Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Pete asks the kinds of questions that push for real depth and insights, and he has the kind of vulnerability and relatability that makes listening feel like you’re sitting around enjoying coffee with a good friend.
Another good one is Good One: A Podcast About Jokes with Jesse David Fox. E.B. White apparently once said, “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better, but the frog dies in the process.” Fox disregards this warning and devotes Good One to deconstructing jokes with many of the best comedians in the world. With all due respect to E. B. White, even after they’ve been picked apart, the jokes remain funny!
Pro tip: According to research, laughing before bed helps us sleep better.
Adam Dorsay, PhD
In-Depth Therapy
I love being a work-a-day therapist and seeing clients. But for those times when I’m looking to tap into my inner grad student and dive into some of the more challenging topics in the field, David Puder’s cerebral but engaging podcast Psychiatrist and Psychotherapy Podcast always gives me with something to chew on.
Popular enough to now have 220 episodes that cover topics like the unconscious, free will, the Goldwater rule, and the finer points of psychiatry treatment, Puder’s show leans into areas I already appreciate, like depth psychology and existentialism, and expands my understanding of topics like psychopharmacology and ethics. He has plenty of his own wisdom to bring to discussions of these topics but invites experts in to unpack them with him.
When I listen to the conversations he’s had with Judith Beck, Jonathan Shedler, Steven Hayes, and many others, I not only gain deeper insights into their perspectives, but get tips and inspiration for how to frame my own interviews for Psychotherapy Networker’s Point of View column.
Ryan Howes, PhD, ABPP
Cozying Up with the Nervous System
Sarah Baldwin’s podcast You Make Sense is one of the most skilled somatic experiencing practitioners I’ve heard discuss her craft. She has a real gift for helping people understand and work with their nervous systems. I’m loving her new podcast, where she helps clients feel less alone, confused and stuck by making sense of their psychology.
I’m also a fan of All There Is with Anderson Cooper, a podcast that focuses on grief. I love how brave and honest he is about his own grief. His interviews will help anyone who’s grieving feel less alone.
Vienna Pharaon, LMFT
Unpacking the Enneagram
As an enneagram teacher and practitioner, I’m a big fan of the Fathoms podcast, helmed by Seth Abram and several other bright and creative co-hosts (Seth Creekmore, Lindsey Marks, and Drew Moser), who do a brilliant job of guiding us into the deeper aspects of applying the enneagram’s ancient wisdom to help ourselves and clients. The wide-ranging conversations and interviews with experts in the field of spirituality, psychology, and the enneagram do an excellent job of taking the conversations far beyond type.
Katie Gustafson, MA, LPC
Ryan Howes
Ryan Howes, Ph.D., ABPP is a Pasadena, California-based psychologist, musician, and author of the “Mental Health Journal for Men.” Learn more at ryanhowes.net.
Vienna Pharaon
Vienna Pharaon, LMFT, is the author of The Origins of You.
Katie Gustafson
Katie Gustafson, MA, LPC, is a psychotherapist, Enneagram expert, and popular speaker. Her new podcast Mid-Sentence will launch in April, offering a heartfelt and at times irreverent exploration of being a woman in mid-life.
Adam Dorsay
Adam Dorsay, PhD, is a psychologist, Silicon Valley-based executive coach, host of the award-winning podcast SuperPsyched, and author of the bestselling book Super Psyched.
