Making time for yourself often involves doing things you love and talking about topics close to your heart with people who share those interests. This goes some way to explaining the popularity of podcasts, which are listened to by millions globally

Whether you’re into movies or mental health, true crime or trail running, books or business development, podcasts can help you connect with an audience of like-minded people, keep up to date with things that interest you and potentially even meet your heroes. Research estimates that there are more than 5 million registered podcasts available across the world and by the end of 2024, the number of people who listen to them is predicted to reach 504.9 million. A survey by Statista found that in the UK, 31 per cent of people listen to podcasts – meaning there might be someone out there who’s waiting to connect with a story and interests just like yours. As well as being an accessible and often free way to find information, opinions and entertainment, they’re relatively easy to set up. You don’t have to be a celebrity or thought-leader, and you don’t need an existing platform. Almost anyone can join the worldwide community of ‘podders’ – ordinary people who create content about subjects that interest them.

Understand the platform

Podcast-hosting platform Castos describes a podcast as ‘a digital audio program consisting of a series of episodes that you can download or stream from the internet’. You can subscribe to podcasts you enjoy, and listen to them any time you want, making them popular with people on the go. Most podcasts have a host or multiple hosts, and many feature guests.