By Maddy Lockwood, Assistant Features Editor
In this horrid, cold, sludgy Buffalo winter, I usually find myself hiding from the outdoors and trying to entertain myself without scrolling on TikTok for hours. Lately, I have found myself going on Spotify and listening to a range of different podcasts to entertain myself as I go through the monotonous tasks of my day. I’m not going to lie, I like some of the most niche podcasts that I can find. But here are my current top-three podcasts that are getting me through the winter.
1. “Two Hot Takes” with Morgan Absher
Morgan and her closest friends sift through thousands of Reddit posts from multiple different subreddits to read and blind react to some of the most unhinged stories from real people’s lives. Morgan takes the time to curate some of the most engaging themes with the most interesting stories. “Two Hot Takes” is released every Thursday, but if you are interested in reading the stories without their own personal takes or just find some wacky stories to read by yourself, you can find them in the “Am I the A**hole?” subreddit.
2. “30 for 30 Podcasts” produced by ESPN
There are multiple different seasons of this podcast. All of these stories and audio documentaries follow sports and important people in sports history, so if that doesn’t interest you, then this might not be for you. Depending on the season of this podcast, one story can span an entire season or only a single episode. Some of my favorite episodes are “YANKEES SUCK” (even though I am a born and raised Yankees fan, and my father may be incredibly disappointed in me after reading this) and the entire “Heavy Medals” season that follows the iconic USA gymnastics Karolyi coaches throughout their entire career from their start in Romania to their defection to the USA and the end of their legacy being tarnished by Larry Nassar’s horrific sex abuse scandal. Another favorite episode is “JUICED,” which follows Jose Canseco through his admission of using steroids and the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs in the early 2000s.
3. “Ologies” with Alie Ward
This one was recommended to me by a close friend. Every episode dives into some “ology” whether that be somnology (the study of sleep) or oneirology (the study of dreams). The list of hyper-specific studies continues forever. I usually scroll until I find something that piques my interest. Ward also brings in experts on almost each topic to give you some current information and fun facts to throw out during your next dinner party. I definitely pick and choose which episode I want to hear and don’t care for every episode, but the ones that interest me are always fantastic.
These are my current big three, but I have a list of fantastic podcasts that I can share with any of you readers. This is your sign to listen to a podcast on a walk or help give you inspiration to clean and tidy your space a bit.