It’s been a while since I brought you any podcast recommendations. My bad. Especially since, as I’ve already written several times (repeating myself is unquestionably one of my life skills), I’m a huge lover of the genre. Particularly during the lockdowns, but on many other occasions before and since, podcasts have elevated a walk, or a journey, into something altogether more memorable, more times than I can count.

I’m a particular sucker for podcasts which feature people whose life and/or professional experience (and almost always a perfect combination of the two) has given them a degree of wisdom about, insight into and distilled understanding of, life and the nature of our human existence, that they’re able to share in engaging and enduring ways.

These memorable observational nuggets can pop up in the course of a conversation, or be the focus and thrust of an interview. They can chime with you, or open your eyes and mind in unexpected ways.

They can make you nod in furious or resigned recognition, well up from their emotional resonance, or galvanise your spirit and bolster your determination.

They can feel like a quiet arm around your shoulder, or a hefty shove up the backside. A light shining into a dark place, or a trumpet clarion call.

These three podcasts have done all those things for me (not all of them in each podcast, just to be clear. That would be too much even for my greedy life-lessons appetite to digest). There are many others I could have included, but they’ve earned their place by dint of nothing more profound than being the ones I’ve listened, and re-listened, to most recently.

Each one is an episode from a series, and in each case, I heartily recommend you dip into the whole of the series, as well as just these individual ones (though I guarantee you’ll want to without any urging from me).

My latest podcast discovery and listening obsession is 70 over 70, the strapline for which is ‘A show about how we make the most of the time we have left’

In this illuminating, insightful series, presenter Max Linsky interviews 70 remarkable people, aged from 70 to over 100, about the lives they’ve lived and are living now, and explores some of the big questions we all grapple with, whatever our age - how to live well and what that means. What we can learn from our experiences, where and how we find purpose and peace, and what and when we need to let go.

Each episode begins with an, for want of a better word, ordinary person talking about something they have, or are experiencing, and the perspective it’s given them on life.

That’s followed by Max in conversation with his guests (one per episode), who range from Madeleine Albright to Dan Rather, Twiggy (one of the few Brits) to Norman Lear and Dr Anthony Fauci to Dionne Warwick (with many more eminent, successful people who are not so familiar, to me, anyway).

I’ve yet to listen to an episode I haven’t found absorbing, but the one I want to point you in the direction of is the conversation between Max (who is a delightfully curious and thoughtful interviewer) and the Tony-award winning actor Andre De Shields.

What makes this particular episode so particularly memorable for me, and why I recommend it to you as an entry point into this excellent podcast, is a combination of Andre’s fabulously mellifluous voice, and the charming, fervent and at times funny way he shares his life-learned wisdom with Max and all of us.

Max starts the interview by delving into the unusual acceptance speech Andre gave when he won his Tony, at the third time of being nominated, at the age of 73. Rather than the usual litany of thank you’s, Andre chose, instead, to drop what he describes to Max as “a wisdom bomb” by dispensing three tips for longevity to the audience This is what they were:

“Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.”

“Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.” and

“The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing”

In the course of the rest of their hugely enjoyable and illuminating conversation, Andre shares many other equally memorable wisdom bombs. Like these:

On the way we live our lives: “Humanity is on a treadmill that’s moving fast, and if you were to ask “where are you going?” the answer might very well be “I don’t know, but I have to get there quickly” because we have convinced ourselves that life is short. I don’t buy into that. Life is long. It appears short because we are in a hurry. To accumulate things. That is not the meaning of life. Life is for you to realise your purpose.”

On the fear of failure: “Every time you get up in the morning, your ego is standing by your bed saying “why you thinkin’ of getting up out of bed? Aint nothin’ for you to do. Go back to sleep. You’re not worthy” The ego is a virus and there’s no inoculation against it. There’s no vaccine. However, it does have an opponent that can take it down. And that is the small voice that lives at the core of our being - and by small I don’t mean ineffectual, because it tells us only the truth.”

You can find 70 over 70 on most podcast platforms

In the spirit of my unashamed habit of repeating myself, these next two are both podcasts I’ve mentioned to you before. The first is one I introduced you to in THIS BLOG

I won’t reiterate the reasons why the whole podcast is so enjoyable and thought-provoking - there’s only so much repetition even I can serve up, and you can find that out by reading the original blog.

I will, however, sincerely recommend you don’t miss the episode in which presenter Elizabeth Day talks to one of my, and her, life-lesson heroines, the absurdly inspiring Brene Brown.

Presenter of one of the most viewed TED talks of all time, about vulnerability (find out more about that in THIS BLOG), Brene shares the three failures that are the focus of each interview on this podcast, with typically thoughtful candour and humour. She reveals how she fails to prize consistency over intensity, how her first book bombed (she has since written five number one New York Times bestsellers) and how she has started numerous hobbies but failed to get further than enthusiastically buying supplies for them.

Elizabeth says she was furiously scribbling notes whilst they were talking so she wouldn’t forget any of what she describes as the “truth bombs” (there’s a bit of an incendiary theme emerging here) her conversation with Brene contained

I wouldn’t be surprised if you find yourself doing the same. I certainly did

Here are a couple to get you started:

“Perfectionism isn’t what leads you to success. It’s the barrier. Healthy striving is internally focused - striving for excellence….Perfectionism really comes down to one question - what will people think? And you’ve already lost when that’s your driving question. Because there’s no way to control what other people think.”

“What fuels compassion and empathy is the full embrace of human imperfection.”

How to Fail with Elizabeth Day is available on Apple podcasts and Spotify

The third of my trio of life-lessons recommendations is

The apparently unstoppable Holly Tucker, founder of Not on the High Street, and more recently Holly & Co, which champions and provides support, inspiration and information to small businesses, brings her irrepressible enthusiasm and inquisitiveness to the revealing and informative conversations she has with business founders, creatives, entrepreneurs and brand leaders.

The episode that has stayed with me the longest for its deep wisdom and powerful, prejudice-busting passion is the one where she talks to Sir Tim Smit, the founder of The Eden Project.

I was so keen for you to experience and benefit from Sir Tim’s life wisdom, I dedicated a whole blog to the episode. You’ll be glad to know I’m not going to try and find a new way to explain why I found it so profoundly meaningful - I’ll simply say please do READ THE BLOG and then please please do listen to the podcast.

You’ll find Conversations of Inspiration on Apple podcasts and Spotify