18 Road Trip Podcasts We Loved for Long Drives

In the last few months, Denver and I have logged somewhere around 75+ hours driving in the car and the RV. That’s right, SEVENTY FIVE HOURS of road trip podcasts. And even before that, I was constantly doing drives to and from Dallas that would rack up my listening times.

So we wanted to put together a list of some of our FAVORITE podcasts for you guys to listen to on your own drives! Denver and I have very different listening habits, so these are the ones we found we both enjoyed (ish, some aren’t) so your vehicle is likely to like them too.

Breaking these down into categories to make this easier too!

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The Daily

The Daily is the podcast both Denver and I listen to to kick off our day! This New York Times podcast focuses on the top story f the day and does a deeper dive to give you all the facts and information. They do a fabulous job of being pretty impartial and really asking more questions instead of sharing opinions. They bring in the experts in the field, so you’re getting real information from real pros. Cannot recommend enough!

Snacks Daily

Snacks Daily is the Robinhood podcast focused on the 3 top financial business stories of the day. They move VERY quickly when they speak, but it keeps the podcast pretty short and usually under 15 minutes. I often end up googling the story to get more information out of curiosity! But if you’re big on keeping up on business news, this is a great resource to do so. Also, their jingle is my favorite thing and I randomly sing it all the time.

Up First

Another NPR news focused podcast (much like the Daily) but instead of deep diving into ONE major story of the day, they cover a whole range of topics that are going on right now. It’s like reading the first paragraphs of every headline in a newspaper, is the best way I can describe it. You’re definitely going into work knowing what’s going on in the world, but not a ton about it. Still love this as my quick pre-work informational!

Pod Save America

Pod Save America is actually the first podcast I ever listened to, and introduced me to the world of Podcasts! They’re “a no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor.”

What I especially love about Pod Save is how FUN it is to listen to. But the reason Denver isn’t a huge fan is because the hosts are obviously pretty liberal and biased. You aren’t getting the most impartial news stories but you are getting the most fun stories and perspectives of people who have ACTUALLY worked on capitol hill.

Political Gabfest

Where Pod Save America is my biased media news podcast, Political Gabfest is Denver’s! They’re definitely more on the impartial side and news focused side, but I find them to be way less fun to listen to. It’s produced by Slate, and the hosts are all well renowned reporters.

Dr Death

I had a friend recommend this one and I was SO INTO IT. It’s a mini series of just several episodes, but it’s fascinating. It’s the story of a Texas surgeon who was convicted of gross malpractice after either leaving seriously injured or murdering 31 (THIRTY ONE) of his patients. It is absolutely insane, and really showcases how corrupt the system is that this man was able to get away with this for so long. If you’re a junkie for crime stories, totally recommend.

The Dropout

Have you ever heard of Elizabeth Holmes? The woman that invented the finger prick blood test that can detect thousands of diseases? And how…that entire story was a fluke? Well if you haven’t, you’re going to be taken on a wild ride. The Dropout gives the entire story of what went down in Silicon Valley, and talks to tons of people right at the source.

This American Life

I feel like this used to be one of the BIGGEST podcasts out there. Every episode is a deep dive into a random day-in-the-life of some piece of America. They’ll pick a story, a little slice of life, and dive into everything about it and all the gritty details you never thought of.

I recommend you start with 129 Cars episode, one of my favorites that got me hooked on this podcast in the first place!

The Dream Podcast

If you’re part of an MLM or a fan of MLMs, then this one is either going to make you mad or give you some much needed realism. If you are aware of the insane scam that MLMs are, then this is for you. The Dream dives into how MESSED UP the MLM industry is and exactly why it is so messed up. Send help to these women.

Crime Junkie

Big fan of true crime? Then Crime Junkie is going to be the place to look! It’s also a great place to start if you’re into True Crime but aren’t super sure which podcasts you’re going to enjoy most. From here, you can find plenty of other favorites! But they dive into the details of the most insane crimes they can find, from major high profiles cases to missing persons to crazy conspiracies. The best part of this is how incredible the hosts are at storytelling, in my opinion!

Office Ladies Podcast

If you’ve never seen the Office, then this probably is going to be one you skip over. Otherwise, Office Ladies is the actresses that play Angela and Pam discussing every single episode (by episode) of the Office! You’ll hear some behind the scenes, get the inside scoop, and basically rewatch the show for the 20th time?

Reply All

This is one of Denver’s FAVORITE podcasts, and I am totally into it too. Reply All episodes are basically deep dives into all the insane internet trending topics you kinda sorta heard about but really do not understand. I highly recommend starting with their Pizzagate episode, as it’s one of the biggest internet topics out there and most of us have NO clue what it’s actually about. They’ll give you the entire low down story.

Last Podcast on the Left

If you’re looking for deep dives on some of the MOST RANDOM pieces of history, start with Last Podcast on the Left. I started with their series on Mormonism as a recommendation from a friend, and then moved into tons of their other series. You can learn more about cults (omg y’all I love cults) to zombies to aliens and whatever else.

Total disclaimer: Denver hated these hosts and did not enjoy this podcast. He is definitely not a fan of chatty hosts that put in their personalities, he typically opts for hard facts and information! I, however, love a good dirty joke.

Call Her Daddy

This one has been MAJORLY in the news lately, due to the scandal that brought two hosts down to one. Our head daddy is someone who, if you can’t handle some crass human, you’re probably not a fan of. But Alex Cooper is here anyways to dive down into the intimate sexual details of her life and everything you could ever want to know about. It’s like the song WAP in a podcast? Does that make sense? Definitely listen to an episode for 10 minutes and you’ll quickly gather if this is you jam or not.

My Brother, My Brother, and Me

This is basically a podcast of jokes, to be honest. I happened to really like the first episode I listened to so I kept getting into it, but overall it’s more Denver than it is me. These brothers find some HILARIOUS Yahoo Answers questions, and spend the whole episode discussing them and the answers. If you need a good launch, try out one of their episodes!

How I Built This

One of my FAVORITE podcasts, as someone who really loves a good How I Built This story. Each episode of this NPR Podcasts breaks down a different company and brings in the creator to tell us how they got this thing off the ground and into the major company it is. You hear stories of grit, of luck, of breakdowns. You hear success and a whole lot of failure. Every episode ends up inspiring me, and I love it for that!

My Favorite Episodes?
Sarah Blakely on Spanx
Jonah Peretti on Buzzfeed
Herb Kelleher on Southwest Airlines
Joe Gebbia on AirBnB, Ben Cohen And Jerry Greenfield on Ben & Jerrys
Jimmy Wales on WikiPedia
(also probably the Bumble one but I, being from Austin, have heard her story like 50000x times so I was whatever on it)

Stuff You Should Know

Another podcast on, you guessed it, Stuff You Should Know! Basically if you want to learn and grow on your drive, this is another solid one to listen to. My enneagram three is really showing here, I get it. I cannot even recommend an episode because there are SO many interesting ones. What you should probably do is just scroll through the list, and pick out one of the titles that makes you go “Wait….what”

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown

This is one of the only ones I am recommending purely on the HYPE I have heard from friends, though I have not listened to it myself. I really hate self help podcasts and so does Denver. But if that’s your thing, then her podcast is definitely one of the best rated ones around for those topics!

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and there you have it, some of our favorite road trip podcasts to listen to on long long drives! We hope you check out these guys and find some you enjoy. And definitely let me know if there are more that you think others should listen to!