Where do you work? Where do you want to work? These thoughts often plague us in this capitalistic society where work connects us to everything and is hardwired in us. For a healthier relationship to work and ourselves at work, we must be conscious about what we do, what we want to do, and the environments we interact in. And sometimes, doing that type of introspection is hard. That’s what this roundup of the best business podcasts is here to help listeners do.
At least, that’s what I aimed to provide with this list: a grouping of business podcasts that look at working, the workplace, and building a career from a healthy place internally. Yes, you’ll learn how to start a business, invest, and donate in a way aligned with your values, but more importantly, you’ll learn how to find out what you want and deserve in the workplace. Not only that, but there are also business podcasts for at-home creatives and people interested in designing their workplace to be a better place.
Well Workplaces features interviews with health and wellbeing leaders who help listeners find a sustainable work-life balance. They focus on all aspects of communication, wellbeing, and workplace ethics. Experts get into subjects like gamification, architecture, and even workplace design. Listeners who want to work healthily in this modern world will find a home in Well Workplaces. Well Workplaces is a great business podcast for both freelancers and in-house workers because it genuinely tries to push past barriers to make our connection to work better. I got a lot out of several episodes surrounding working from home and incorporating healthy systems to take care of my body and mind. There are also episodes surrounding addiction, mental health, and self-care that make Well Workplaces the perfect podcast for listeners interested in working in a healthier way.
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Own It: Starting a Business after Prison focuses on helping people who were incarcerated understand how to start their own business. Through interviews with business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders who were previously incarcerated, Own It: Starting a Business after Prison offers something that many business podcasts don’t. The business podcast provides real-life advice from formerly incarcerated people on how to build a career and a business after not only a long time away from the workforce but with a record. Though the last episode aired back in June, Own It: Starting a Business after Prison is still a relevant and vital business podcast. My favorite newly discovered podcast is coming from the standpoint of how entrepreneurship can help recently released people find security, careers, and purpose, Own It: Starting a Business after Prison.
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For listeners interested in startups and building their own companies based around unique ideas, Startup Stories-Mixergy gives behind-the-scenes interviews with the minds and people behind startups in a wide variety of industries. While Startup Stories-Mixergy doesn’t give listeners tutorials on how to start their own business. What Startup Stories-Mixergy does do is provide interviews with founders, business leaders, and executives where they drill into their origins and processes to give listeners tools, advice, and insight into how startups live and die. There are many multi-million-dollar businesses and startups featured, which made it seem unapproachable for the everyday worker since many featured people came from some sort of money. However, a lot of the information beneath the rich and luxurious lifestyle was helpful, like building sites that customers love or marketing sustainably.
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While Startup Stories-Mixergy didn’t offer tutorials, The $100MBA Show does! To say there are a plethora of lessons on The $100MBA Show is an understatement. Everything from how to build a business, level up your career, work as a freelancer, or even money management is covered on the business podcast. There are even a few episodes on reentry and moving from working full-time to owning your own business. As a freelance creative, I do want to note that there were a fair number of episodes useful to me and other content creators or writers. I also love that all the episodes were short, quick, and actionable. In under 20 minutes, I left The $100MBA Show with new strategies for my business and writing, which is my top marker for a business podcast.
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Let’s Humanize the Workplace is a business podcast about building a better workplace for yourself to work and live in a way that satisfies you. The host gives both employers and employees tips on incorporating more soft skills into how people interact within business spaces. Using both social justice and behavioral science, Let’s Humanize the Workplace advocates for better work conditions inside and out. For new listeners, I’d recommend the spring 2021 episode “George Floyd’s Impact on the Workplace.” For people curious about the impacts of systematic racism in the workplace and how they can fight against it to create a truly safe and inclusive, that episode is a treasure trove of complex discussions and tools for the workplace.
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For listeners with their own business, Duct Tape Marketing provides advice from marketing experts on reaching customers and retaining them. Each episode gets into particular topics using a different expert to help listeners learn the lesson. I love that Duct Tape Marketing releases a new episode every couple of days and keeps each one relatively short. For both freelancers and in-house workers, Duct Tape Marketing teaches business owners ways to use copywriting, content marketing, and more in an easy-to-learn way. I found the episodes geared more toward people new to marketing, but Duct Tape Marketing does get into more advanced territory every now and then. There are also a fair number of episodes on general career advancement and specific workplace issues.
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Read more: Upgrade Your Writing Business in 2021 with These Podcasts
The Mind Your Business Podcast is a unique business podcast focused on the metaphysical, physiological, and emotional aspects of being an entrepreneur and professional. The Mind Your Business Podcast dates back to 2016, and with over 500 episodes, it’s a business podcast with a lot to offer listeners trying to align their mind, heart, and body with their business ethics to work smarter and happier. Billing itself as a non-business business podcast, The Mind Your Business Podcast aims to take a holistic and spiritual approach to work, business, and finding a career that fuels your soul. While The Mind Your Business Podcast won’t be for a lot of people, I think it is worth a listen. Like The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast, The Mind Your Business Podcast is all about authentic and intentional work. I found the episodes I listened to interesting, but not my spiritual style.
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From The Smart Passive Income Blog comes the companion business podcast, The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast. Another long-standing podcast on how to grow your own business from home, The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast combines interviews and the host’s own experience to help listeners scale their online business. As a freelancer, The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast was another one of the extremely informative and helpful business podcasts. But even if you’re not a freelancer, The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast is really aimed at full-time workers who want to make their side hustles lucrative so they can build secure futures. I appreciate the push for authentic business and behavior to bring in the clients and business you want.
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Shopify has its own podcast all about using the platform to drive continued success for business owners who use it to conduct their business. Shopify Masters offers both inspiration and practical tips for business owners involving marketing, behind-the-scenes analytics, and more. Business leaders, CEOs, and startup founders take to the mic to get down to what they did to build their business and change the game using Shopify to propel their careers. Even if you don’t use Shopify, the episodes and subjects discussed on Shopify Masters go beyond just using Shopify. While listening, I felt like Shopify Masters was a general entrepreneurial business podcast for people who want to build their businesses or pick up lucrative side hustles.
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Unsatisfied at work? Happiness at Work is a business podcast for the unhappy worker. They provide interviews with authors, business leaders, and coaches to help listeners find happiness at their jobs. Both employers and workers can find episodes and lessons on Happiness at Work. Out of all the business podcasts that I listened to, Happiness at Work was my least favorite. But I’m willing to say that it could have been the episodes I chose and the guests featured. There are a lot of hot button topics and hot takes that I always feel should be done by underrepresented voices due to the fact that they will often shine more of a light on the subject and say something new. But just because I didn’t like Happiness at Work doesn’t mean that it’s a bad business podcast or that many listeners won’t find it helpful, engaging, or thoughtful.
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Instead of giving listeners tips on growing their business or reaching better satisfaction in the workplace, Spacecraft—The Workplace Design Podcast looks at how the design of workspaces influences all those factors. The last episode aired back in September, but there are enough episodes in the back catalog to dive into. With the unique subject matter placed on design, architecture, and the way people are affected by the spaces they inhabit, Spacecraft—The Workplace Design Podcast is a must listen to for any business owner, leader, or human resource representative. Especially those who want to change their employees’ environment to something more inclusive, accessible, and aimed toward healthy work options. As a huge fan of how design and architecture play into our emotions, mental state, and wellbeing, I was super psyched to find Spacecraft—The Workplace Design Podcast. It also focused on a business topic that isn’t often discussed on other business podcasts, making it a refreshing listen.
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Being Freelance is a business podcast for freelancers of all types. Through interviews and introspections from other freelancers, Being Freelance gives listeners tips and advice to run their freelance business. Not only can experienced freelancers learn how to level up their business and get new clients, but I think a few of the episodes are helpful for beginning freelancers or people who are curious about how to make freelancing work for them. A few episodes also get into marketing and UI tips to help freelancers express themselves and their services better online that I found extremely helpful. New listeners are lucky, Being Freelance began in 2015, so there are TONS of episodes to catch up on. And new episodes are still dropping!
Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | Transcripts
(Transcripts available by clicking on each episode)
From one of the authors of Get Good with Money, Brown Ambition gets down to the real brass tacks of what it means to be money smart. Brown Ambition teaches listeners how to budget, save, and manage their money so that they can create a sustainable business model or work toward quitting their day job or becoming an entrepreneur. Brown Ambition stands out from the other business podcasts on this list because they have over 200 episodes to get listeners in the right money mindset to handle their finances and turn their earnings into more. On top of that, they focus on helping Black professionals and highlight issues related to investing as a person of color.
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Aimed at business leaders and managers, Being [at Work] tries and help listeners center themselves in their business and practice. The business podcast also gives listeners tips, inspiration, and tools to help leaders in the workplace. Focusing on solving specific issues leaders and managers face, Being [at Work] blends interviews, real-world stories, and the host’s own experience to make leadership easier. Most episodes are short (under five minutes) and deliver quick and practical strategies to tackle workplace issues from the mindful leadership standpoint. For the interview portion of the show, check out the longer episodes and get a deeper look at the topic. Being [at Work] felt like one of the perfect business podcasts for small moments when leaders need a quick reality check and info throughout the workday.
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There are a couple of business podcasts on this list for honest conversations about working as a woman and women-related issues in the workplace. Each one I highly recommend because they offer unique perspectives on gender inequality in the workplace based on real experiences. The Broad Experience not only focuses on working women and issues of interest to them, but they also get into being a person in the workplace and dealing with other aspects like neurodivergence, working with your partner, and so much more. I really liked The Broad Experience episode “Power and Body Language,” which dug into how to hold yourself in the workplace and its connections to gender and communication. While dealing with the harsh reality of gender inequality, The Broad Experience builds toward a positive and inclusive future for everyone.
Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | Transcripts
Black Tech Unplugged is a business podcast about Black people working within the tech industry. Instead of giving listeners tips on how to work better, though there is some of that, Black Tech Unplugged interviews and spotlights Black tech workers and their journeys in the industry. Listeners can learn strategies, tools, and advice to work better through their stories and honest responses to the host’s questions. Starting back in 2017, Black Tech Unplugged is candid and a business podcast that I found unique. Most business tech podcasts don’t give Black people the tools and inspiration they need to enter the industry or continue working within it. Black Tech Unplugged does. And all from other Black professionals working within the technology industry.
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Like The Broad Experience, Women at Work focuses on issues relevant to women in the workplace. While The Broad Experience and Women at Work both give listeners more than just topics on women at work, Women at Work from the Harvard British Review is more about actionable steps to end discrimination in the workplace and offer women tools to face common hurdles. But again, I highly recommend both! Listening to Women at Work was even helpful in providing me tools as a solo freelancer. Similar to many business podcasts on this list, Women at Work gets into the personal and vocational. And with episodes dating back to 2018, there are a lot of episodes to choose from to help workers take charge of themselves and their careers.
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Part creativity podcast and part business podcast, The Unmistakable Creative is all about helping creatives work better at their careers, side-hustles, and passions. Using interviews from professional creatives from every industry, The Unmistakable Creative is a one-of-a-kind business podcast for understanding how to make money and live as a creative. Over 1,000 episodes make up the enormous back catalog of information available, and a new episode is released every couple of days. I found The Unmistakable Creative to help center me in my craft and business and learn how to blend my life with my creative work. If you’re at a point where you’re not sure how to be creative at work or in a career, The Unmistakable Creative has quite a few episodes focused on helping beginners.
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Don’t be put off by the name; Workplace Hugs is a comprehensive workplace podcast centered around business and work topics related to workplace culture. Fun and upbeat, Workplace Hugs dives into recent reads or topics that the hosts have discovered. Together they explore the topic and go into their personal experiences. Some of the episodes are really eye-opening, while most of them are simply interesting topics to hear the hosts talk about. While not focusing on providing listeners business or work advice, Workplace Hugs is more of a workplace talk show for people who can’t get enough of talking about how they work, where they work, and what’s out there in the world.
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From the debut editor of Fast Company comes The New Way We Work, a business podcast about upcoming changes to the world of business. The New Way We Work gets into work culture, money, and diversity in the workplace. Aiming to provide listeners with insight from workers and leaders within various industries, The New Way We Work tries to show business leaders how to create businesses and workplaces that are inclusive, safe, and made for the future. The episodes and topics are genuine and honest, with a hard and unforgiving look at where we are today and where we need to become a healthy work culture. The New Way We Work is for more than just leaders but for workers who want to learn how to see their work and career progressively.
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Transform Your Workplace is a human resource business podcast about creating a healthy workplace and building systems within your business that facilitate care, respect, and inclusion. Like a few other business podcasts on this list, Transform Your Workplace brings together workplace experts, self-help authors, and more to create a rounded view of how to make your workplace a better place to be. Despite the title, many of the episodes were more about how to transform yourself within the workplace, like how to attract good talent, deal with anxiety in the workplace, and take control of your career. It drives home the point that it’s not just about the work you do but the person you bring to your work.
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As always, please go beyond listening or reading these podcasts. If you’ve learned anything from them, consider subscribing, reviewing, and sharing the business podcast. You can even go further if you have the means. Donate or subscribe to the podcast’s Patreon or other paid subscription community.
These business podcasts come from versions of this article past. We still recommend them! They remain some of the greats in business podcasts.
If The Wall Street Journal and Gimlet Media are coming together to make a podcast, you know this is the perfect recipe for a must-listen show. Despite being a fairly new podcast (it was launched in June 2019), The Journal is already one of my top favorites. Hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson, this daily, narrative news show breaks down the top business and financial news of the day with the help of WSJ reporters. And while yes, this harkens back to a format institutionalized by NYT’s The Daily, you can’t ignore The Journal’s impeccable business reporting and insider scoops which makes this show stand out amongst daily news shows. If you want to catch up with the day’s top business news, while also gaining a deep insight into the topic, then give The Journal a listen.
The original podcast that introduced narrative storytelling in business and economics, making a subject that is often associated with mustachioed professors in tweed jackets seem fun. A production of NPR, Planet Money’s famous motto has been: Imagine you’re meeting a friend at a bar and you ask them to explain what’s going on in the economy. The show tackles some of the nerdiest topics in economics and finance (repo market, anyone?) and explains them in creative and eccentric ways. Case in point (and two of my favorite episodes): An episode on negative interest rates explained using…meadows and boxes of gold, and an episode on the 17th century spice trade explained while cooking an actual peacock with a Dutch recipe from 1612.
And if you are pressed for time, but would still like a dose of Planet Money fun, you can turn to their daily podcast The Indicator instead! In 10 minutes (or less) this podcast aims to succinctly explain the day’s top economic and financial news or tackles random, quirky subjects. From discussing the monthly jobs report, exploring if there was a financial crisis the year Jesus died to using a string quartet to explain rising healthcare costs, The Indicator makes keeping up with financial news digestible and fun.
Have you ever been in a restaurant and had to face the audacity of someone offering you Pepsi instead of Coca Cola? *cue ominous organ playing*
Whether you’ve found yourself sweating through the Pepsi taste challenge, or been kicked in the shins during the Nike versus Adidas war, as consumers we have all found ourselves caught between the crosshairs of a business feud. In a 5 to 6 part series, Business Wars looks into each of these rivalries, digging into their histories and breaking down the business tactics introduced by these companies to stay ahead of the game.
And much like in the fashion of many Wondery productions, what makes Business Wars especially compelling to listen to is how it narrates these stories with dramatic music, re-enacting insider conversations and scenes from the past to paint why these feuds became so iconic.
The diesel engine? Paper? The disposable razor? How did these innovations become everyday items that changed our world and the economy? Originally the show was meant to be a short series with only 50 episodes (hence the title), but thanks to its immense popularity, the show has been extended, with new episodes being released weekly. This show will make sure you’re the one person at the party with all the fun facts.
If Terry Gross is the queen of the airways, then Guy Raz is a close second as the king of podcasting.
There are enough shows out there where an entrepreneur is interviewed about their flourishing business, and is asked the standard question, “Oh, but where did you get the idea for this?” There will be light banter, a lot of humble bragging, a few Pinterest-able motivational quotes, and you will walk away none the wiser. But Raz’s show goes beyond your standard two-way interview. He does not stop at asking about the seed of an idea, he goes on to ask how they went about transforming that idea into a reality. The show digs into the stories and people behind some of the most well-known brands such as Steve Madden, Michael Dell and Eileen Fisher.
Every episode is a narrative, giving us a glimpse of the guest’s personality with beautiful scoring that sets the tone for every interview. Every episode also has a moment, when the interviewee lets his or her guard down and reveals an intimate detail about their life or their views on money, leaving you appreciating the guest, the brand and the story behind how they built this.
A spinoff from the bestselling books, and hosted by co-author Stephen J. Dubner, this podcast aims to uncover the “hidden side of everything.” Didn’t have time to read the latest paper on why minimum wage should be raised? Tune in to Freakonomics instead, where Dubner has riveting conversations with some of the biggest names in academia and in the world of business, uncovering the latest trends, research and findings in the field.
My favorite series from this show was The Secret Life of a C.E.O, where Dubner has candid one-on-one conversations with famous C.E.Os of multinational corporations, such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Virgin’s Richard Branson and Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi. His interview with Nooyi, in particular, became infamous, as she revealed on the show how the company was looking to introduce a new line of Dorito chips designed specifically for female consumers, causing the Lady-Doritos-gate scandal online.
Now I admit, this show isn’t always about money. But for the episodes that does tackle the topic, host Anna Sale uncovers personal stories about how money can affect our lives and shapes our social behaviors. What are we afraid to admit out loud when it comes to how we handle money?
For example, the spectacular 5-part “Opportunity Cost” series, produced in collaboration with Buzzfeed News, tackles how economic class affects people’s daily lives and the kind of decisions they make, from whether one has access to fertility treatments to dealing with a sudden change in financial status after a divorce.
If two-way interview podcasts are your thing, then you should check out Business Casual, a new podcast launched by Morning Brew, a daily business and financial newsletter. In this show, host Kinsey Grant, sits down with C.E.Os and experts to have casual yet intriguing conversations about their work and what it’s like navigating through the ever-evolving world of business. If you want insider knowledge about cryptocurrency, the future of co-working spaces, and how TikTok is changing social media, not from analysts and observers, but from people who actually interact with and are from these industries, then Business Casual is the podcast to listen to.
The reason I’ve included Money Talks into this list, apart from my love for British accents, is because of the breadth of its global coverage. Money Talks is a weekly podcast on markets, businesses and the world economy, and while the tone of the show is very radio-BBC-esque (it is The Economist after all), I enjoy how the show covers global business trends in every episode. This can be especially refreshing after being barraged for weeks by the endless coverage on WeWork and Adam Neumann’s shoulda-seen-it-coming failures — yes, I would instead like to hear about how Nutella is planning to take over the world, thank you very much.
Money is uncomfortable. It’s not just me, even business news behemoth Marketplace thinks so. In their show, This is Uncomfortable, host Reema Kharis looks into how money interferes with life and decisions. The show has tackled topics like: how do you navigate through the awkwardness of asking a close friend about money they owe you? Or how do ‘momagers’ strike that weird balance between being somebody’s parent and manager, and why has the term adopted a negative connotation? (Unfortunately, Kris Jenner does not make a special appearance.)
Let’s be real. The only time business news is genuinely fascinating, is when a scam gets uncovered. Whether it’s an opportunity for us all to collectively raise our fists in the air and rage against an unfair system that privileges a select few and disadvantages the masses, or whether it’s because we suffer from low-key Stokholm syndrome, scams are scandalous and fascinating.
In this weekly show, host Laci Mosley along with a fellow comedian, digs into real-life everyday scams and historic hoodwinks — what she has dubbed “true crime without the death.” Tune in for Mosley’s quick wit and her sporadic comic outbursts, as she breaks down scams people have suffered from (and how we can avoid them ourselves) and digging into epic historic scams pulled off in the past.
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