Podcast Favourites—A.T.Bennett

There are a ridiculous number of hours in a day spent not writing.

There is the “crawl” that comes with getting to and from work. If you don’t have a long commute, there is always something to make that journey a tad more tedious than it should be. (Either the bus breaks down, or a series of increasingly colossal sinkholes suddenly plague your relaxing drive.) Time will slow to an absolute snail’s pace when you’re working hard to pay the bills—that’s just a quirk of physics. And home life isn’t much better! You got to budget out enough energy to tackle those chores, which are unrelenting.

But just because you’re not banging out a best-seller on your keyboard doesn’t mean you can’t keep inspiration going.

Podcasts are a perfect way to research, flush out a character, get ideas for sprints, or creatively reset. Whether you’re a mystery lover, true crime fanatic, or a budding author, there are many podcasts available to you. Like, literally millions.

And I thought it might be nice to share with you my top five favourites.

Please add or suggest your own in the comments as I am always on the hunt for new programs.

The Writer Files

Hosted by Kelton Reid, The Writer Files is a wonderful podcast if you want to get a snapshot into the writing habits and productivity of a variety of best-selling authors and publicists. He chats to each guest about their processes, how to avoid burnout and writer’s block, and how to get started in the industry.

Notable interviews include Andrew Grant, who is in the process of taking over for Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files and the Cinder Spires. And fantasy/romance author Laurell K. Hamilton, perhaps best known for her Anita Blake series.

Buried Bones

This has to be one of my favorite podcasts (but then again, I’m an absolute sucker for historical true crime cases). The premise is simple—journalist Kate Winkler Dawson presents retired investigator Paul Holes with a murder (or sometimes several murders) and Paul tries to puzzle them out using modern forensic techniques.

Naturally, as most of these crimes are turn of the century plus, there is only so much evidence left to investigate, but each case is well researched. And not everything is tied up neatly at the end with an arrest or conviction.

Some cases are solved, and some are still cold…which gives us armchair sleuths something to puzzle about.

This Podcast Will Kill You

Curious about the nitty-gritty of anthrax? Does your historical detective suffer from hemophilia? Or dengue fever? What are the symptoms of lead poisoning?

Or maybe you’re wondering what exactly happens when you’re hit by lightning?

This Podcast Will Kill You is hosted by Erin Welsh and Erin A Updyke, both of whom are absolutely brilliant presenters. Their website introduces them thus—"The Erins are one-two punch of infectious disease knowledge.” The research that goes into each episode is not only in-depth but approachable, especially to those of us without PhD’s.

They try to include firsthand accounts of individuals who have experienced the topic in question and encourage listeners to write in with their own medical stories.

My Favorite Murder

Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are a legend in the true-crime podcast community, with a legion of fans known affectionally as “Murderinos”. They effortlessly blend humour, historic events, and homicide—My Favorite Murder is the go-to podcast for many people. And there are weekly viewer minisodes!

From a writer’s perspective, these little slices of life are surprisingly valuable, especially if you’re looking for quirky characters or unique writing prompts. What do I mean by that? Well…Minisode 373 featured an individual who was nice enough to lend out a futon, but who also worked for the mob. He ran a shoe store as a front and ended up killing a complete stranger in an insurance fraud racket.

Fun guy!

Naturally, the law caught up to the scheme, but before he fled the country, he made a slight detour—to retrieve his futon.

…..Why would he do that? WHY? (I do not know, but wouldn’t it make a helluva prompt?)

Writer’s Detective Bureau

Did you want to know in the ins and outs of a phone warrant in a homicide case?

How about disaster fraud, or the legalities of eavesdropping?

Well, writers of the world rejoice, because veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson has you covered. Not only is his podcast invaluable for keeping your mystery/thriller factual but his entire podcast centers around answering questions from like-minded authors/screenwriters.

The only caution I would give is that his last post was in October 2023, so I am uncertain whether or not this podcast is still active. Regardless, there is a significant amount of invaluable backlog one can browse through.