“So what’s your favorite podcast?” This question is the latest icebreaker and pick-up line, and heavy podcast users are eager to find great shows that will captivate and educate.

What we love most about podcasts is their convenience. Being able to listen to a niche-topic radio show at any time gives the platform and audience much more creative flexibility.

Podcasts have been around a while, but the popularity of the medium has skyrocketed in the last two years. Now podcasts are one of the most talked-about entertainment channels and content marketing opportunities available.

Forget what you knew about podcasting in 2004. A lot has changed since then, and now every individual and company can benefit from today’s version.

Starting with the early days of radio, audio has evolved into a digital landscape for the educators, creatives and the amateurs. One of the first podcasts aired in 2004, when the only way to access the different episodes was through iTunes on a computer. Then the listener still had to transfer them to an iPod to make them portable. The quality was poor, and it was hard to seek out and find niche shows. A year later, in 2005, Wired  fueled excitement and curiosity about podcasts by saying, “It’s still too early to say what would make a hit podcast, but for enthusiasts, the possibilities seem limitless.”

Podcasting has gone mainstream, and is definitely one of the best content-producing platforms today. But what we really love about listening to podcasts are the opportunities to learn and inspire creativity no matter where you are. From professional to personal, here’s a list of some of our favorite podcasts right now:

Content marketing, strategy & digital marketing

– This Old Marketing Podcast

We have to start with one of our favorite (and one of the most popular) content marketing podcasts. “The Godfathers” of content marketing, Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose chat for a good hour about content marketing trends, lessons learned, and some rants and raves about recently executed strategies.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: When Will LinkedIn’s Purchase Run End?

– The Lede

Hosts Jerod Morris and Demian Farnworth answer questions about copywriting, content marketing, email marketing, and optimization.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015

– Amy Porterfield’s Online Marketing Made Easy

Learn how to monetize your online marketing and blogging efforts with Amy.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: How Your Subject Line Could be Killing Your Emails

– Six Pixels of Separation

A podcast by Mitch Joel, is dedicated to helping listeners learn how to close the gap in digital marketing, and offers insightful dialog and questions with real online influencers. What is unique about this podcast are the concrete digital marketing tips that listeners can research, implement, and/or test immediately.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: How To Get Consumers Hooked With Nir Eyal

Storytelling & educational podcasts

– Invisibilia

Hosts Lulu Miller and Alix Spiegel (who joke that their voices sound exactly the same) produce a brilliant podcast about the unconscious actions that fuel our lives. It’s all about human behavior, and the show’s goal is to help you start to see your life differently.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: The Secret History of Thoughts

– 99% Invisible

Host Roman Mars presents bite-sized (15-20 minutes) design-focused episodes. Take a journey with Roman and learn how design influences everything in our lives.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: Vexillonaire

– Strangers

Host Lea Thau’s weekly podcast features stories about strangers making connections, and how paths intertwine.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: Love Hurts 3

– How Sound: The Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling

Content is all about storytelling. The stories in this podcast demonstrate how audio can create an authentic and dramatic connection with experience, and then provide a peek into the craft of audio reporting.

The Wordsmithie Recommendation: Hard to Say