Why You Should Listen to Podcasts
A guide to discovering and accessing podcasts as a democratic tool for learning. The writer argues that podcasts—serialized audio programmes distributed via subscription—offer young Cameroonians access to world-class mentorship on business, technology, and entrepreneurship, and provides a curated list of platforms and shows across multiple disciplines.
Amongst some of the best things the internet has done for us is that first of all, it has made the process of learning a democratic one. Everyone has the opportunity to learn whatever they want to. Also, it has brought us closer to people and things that would have been otherwise inaccessible. Today I can write to Elon Musk on Twitter, and he replies a minute later. Just 10 years ago that would have been impossible.
So, given that dynamic, you can either choose to let the internet make or break you. You can either choose to read articles about Warren Buffet and Bill Gates’ business philosophy and get some edification in the process, or you can choose to spend your day scrolling through the gossip column on Kiki’s page. The ball is in your court.
No offense to Kiki.
But if your choice is the former, then permettez-moi de vous souhaiter la bienvenue au monde merveilleux des PODCASTS.
A podcast, according to Google, is “a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.”
To put in Lamnso, as Tino would say, it’s pretty much like having Jovi’s music on your phone. Except that you subscribe to Jovi’s channel first in order to receive his new album and every day, or every week, or every month you receive a new Jovi song from the album. Think of it as a radio programme that has episodes uploaded to the internet rather than broadcast over the airwaves.
There exists a large number of Podcasts on the internet covering a wide range of topics from fashion to technology to architecture. Some of them are so popular that you have famous people appearing on them. One of my favourites is “Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman.” Popular guests on the show have been Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Netflix’s Reed Hastings.
So have I been able to convince you to give Podcasts a try? Ok. Let’s do it then.
To be able to access Podcasts, you first have to download an app that permits you to subscribe to them. Here is a list of five free Podcast Apps you can download.
1. STITCHER (iOS and Android) 2. SPREAKER PODCAST RADIO (iOS and Android) 3. OVERCAST (iOS only) 4. PODBEAN (iOS and Android) 5. BeyondPod (iOS and Android)
You can add Google Play Music to that list for those who have insufficient storage capacity and wouldn’t want to download any of the aforementioned apps.
Now, I’ll give a list of different Podcasts which you can subscribe and listen to. I’ll group them under a number of topics. If you do not find any topic that you have an interest in amongst the list I am going to give, please go to Google and search for a podcast(s) that tackle(s) that particular topic.
BUSINESS – The Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman / The Knowledge Project / The GaryVee Audio Experience /Planet Money by NPR / The Tony Robbins Podcast
TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE – The Anatomy of Next / The Future of Everything / Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria/ The Guardian’s Science Weekly Podcast / NPRs’s TED Hour / The Naked Scientist/Free Code Camp Podcast
HEALTH, FITNESS & WELL-BEING – Found My Fitness / Ask The Doctor
SOCIETY – The Joe Rogan Experience / On Being with Krista Tippett / Freakonomics Radio / Cult/ Dear Sugars/ Rants and Randomness/ Jesus and Jollof
MARKETING & ENTREPRENEURSHIP – The Pitchwerks Podcast / Marketing School with Neil Patel and Eric Siu / Seth Godin’s StartUp School. / The James Altucher Show / How To Start A StartUp / Mixergy
FINANCE & INVESTMENT – Money For the Rest of Us / The Tim Ferris Show
FEMALE EMPOWERMENT – Girls Boss Radio / Stuff Mom Never Told You
EDUCATION & LIFE – Unregistered with Thaddeus Russell / Strangers
PHILOSOPHY – The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast / The Art of Manliness / The Human Experience Podcast / Philosophize this
ART & DESIGN – Savvy Painter Podcast with Antrese Wood / Design Matter with Debbie Millman / 77.99% Invisible
PRODUCTIVITY & SELF HELP – Beyond the To-Do list with Erik Fisher / Happiness Podcast by Dr Robert Puff / The Secret To Success with CJ and Eric Thomas
HISTORY – Stuff you missed in history Class / In Our Time by BBC / Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History.
As you may have noticed, I put a good number of Business, Science and Entrepreneurship podcasts. It is simply because I believe that we, young Cameroonians, need this quite a lot. A lot of us are opening our own businesses and we need a guiding hand that helps us learn from people that have succeeded in business.
I did not include podcasts about fashion, for example and other topics unfortunately. But thank the heavens for Google, right? This list is certainly not exhaustive and if you find that my recommendations are not to your taste, you can certainly google some other ones.
Have you been listening to any other Podcasts you would want us and the readers to know about? Please share in the comment section. Tell us the title of the Podcast and the field it covers.
- Wandji Wilfred.
In 2019, podcast consumption was rising globally, but awareness and adoption in francophone Africa remained uneven. The piece reflects a moment when digital self-education was becoming a viable alternative to formal institutions, and when figures like Elon Musk's Twitter accessibility symbolized a flattening of hierarchies. The writer speaks directly to young Cameroonians beginning to build businesses and seeking knowledge beyond what local institutions offered.
The piece is a straightforward pedagogical intervention—unpretentious instruction in a medium that has only grown more central to serious learning since 2019. It reads now as a snapshot of optimism about the internet's democratizing power, before widespread concerns about algorithmic curation and content saturation. Its greatest claim is modest but enduring: that intentional consumption of quality audio content can be a discipline of self-improvement accessible to anyone with a phone.