Weekend Reading is a weekly collation of 3-5 articles that have caught my attention, published on Saturday mornings. Previous editions can be found here. 

I decided to switch things up for this edition of Weekend Reading — so here’s Weekend Listening instead, with a list of five podcasts I enjoy and think maybe you would too:

1. The Great Books Podcast: Host John J. Miller “discusses classic works within the Western literary canon” with a variety of guests, who are generally professors of English and suchlike. It’s a thoughtful and entertaining listen, and has prompted me to revisit a number of these texts. Episodes are around half an hour long.

2. Messy Parenting: Mike and Alicia Hernon have ten children which makes them, if not experts, at least more experienced than most of the rest of us. Messy Parenting bills itself as “Catholic conversations on marriage and family”, where the Hernons invite us into their own conversations about family life. It’s full of wisdom and discussion-spurring food for thought, and you don’t have to be Catholic to glean useful things. Episodes are about 20-30 minutes long.

3. Team Human: Douglas Rushkoff hosts an interview-based podcast focused on “helping redefine what it means to stay human in a digital age”.  Episodes are about an hour long and are always, always fascinating. Rushkoff is a great interviewer. I’ve been listening to this one all out of order, as different topics grab my attention.

4. Top 40 Philosophy: This podcast is “living proof that philosophy can be fun and pop music can be deep (even when it’s trying it’s hardest to be shallow)”. Philosopher Micah Tillman uses Top 40 songs to explore philosophical themes and ideas. Episodes are about 30 minutes long; although no new episodes have been posted in several months, there are still around 40 to listen to.

5. History Honeys: This is a podcast by a husband-wife team, Grant and Alaina, who take turns teach each other (and us) about “cool stuff from the past”. Episodes are about an hour long and the topics are fairly wide-ranging. Listener caveat: there is a fair amount of dorky banter involved which I know is not everyone’s cup of tea. But I like it fine.