Your morning workout, a long drive and unloading the dishwasher—avid podcast listeners know these stretches of time are opportunities to fill your earbuds with everything from TV show recaps to daily news roundups. But podcasts can also allow you to listen and think about growing and deepening the relationships in your life.
You’ll find a lot of variety in this category: There are podcasts focused on romantic relationships, from finding a partner to strengthening your connection with one, as well as podcasts that take aim at friendships and connections in the workplace. Here, a look at some of our favorite relationship-focused podcasts, so you dive into meaningful, potentially life changing, conversations.
1. Best podcast for navigating coworker relationships and growing your career: The Art of Charm
- Available to stream on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify
In The Art of Charm, hosts AJ Harbinger and Johnny Dzubak, who are coaches and founders of the company The Art of Charm, delve into how to “master human dynamics” along with relationships. The podcast offers best practices and advice, along with insights into human behavior. Expert guests add further depth to the conversations between the hosts. Topics of podcasts include how empathy can strengthen relationships, networking advice for introverts, and tips for building high-value relationships. The podcast’s explicit goal is to help listeners strengthen their communication, connection and confidence. If you’re looking for a podcast to further your personal development, give this one a listen!
Honorable mentions
The podcasts below will help you up your success at your workplace, covering tough topics involving communications, burnout and more.
- Modern Mentor: On Modern Mentor, hosted by Rachel Cooke, you’ll find insight about communication and leadership. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.)
- The Lazy Genius Podcast: Not every episode from this podcast, hosted by New York Times bestselling author and time management expert Kendra Adachi, is focused on work and relationships. But several have meaningful insights that are easily applied to the workplace, such as “5 Steps for More Ease at Work” and “Dealing With Differences on How Something Is Done.” (Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.)
2. Best podcast for learning to network: Travis Makes Friends
- Available to stream on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The quest to grow your network is one that lasts a lifetime. But how? On the podcast Travis Makes Friends, host Travis Chappell offers networking strategies that aren’t cringey or uncomfortable. Chappell, who is the founder and CEO of Guestio, a booking service, interviews leaders who share networking strategies and tips. On any given episode, you might be able to listen in on tips to build your brand with guest Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team, discover how to negotiate with a narcissist with lawyer Rebecca Zung, or uncover the keys to success in Hollywood thanks to filmmaker and production company founder Adhrucia Apana.
Episodes offer a variety of perspectives, in many different fields, and there are a lot of them, since the podcast comes out three days a week. Chappell offers a three-pronged goal for listeners: building a network, leveraging and giving something valuable back to those in your circle.
Honorable mentions
For more perspectives on networking and generally advancing your career, turn to these podcasts:
- WorkLife With Adam Grant: On its sixth season, this podcast hosted by organizational psychologist Adam Grant continues to delve into topics that illuminate the workplace, such as why meetings suck and how to improve them, mentoring myths, and more. Conversations with entrepreneurs and leaders also offer insight into how to be successful. (Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)
- Smart Business Revolution Podcast: Hosted by John Corcoran, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, this podcast shares networking tactics (even for those who cringe at the world) and features interviews with entrepreneurs and authors. (Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)
3. Best podcast for making new friends: Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata
- Available to stream on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
With the podcast Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata, listeners can get an earful of thriving friendship. Zamata is an actress and comedian. Byer is also a comedian, as well as being the Emmy-nominated host of the TV show Nailed It and an author. Needless to say: This podcast is funny. But it’s also warm and big-hearted, providing an earful of the small moments that make up a friendship (like Zamata’s quest to transplant a hive of bees discovered in her home), as well as answers to listener questions about friendship, including how to make work friends with someone who is the opposite sex, the best way to introduce a partner to the friend group and more.
Honorable mentions
Explore more podcasts that turn their lens on friendship, covering everything from friendship dilemmas (e.g., why weren’t you invited to that party?) to making and nurturing these relationships:
- Call Your Girlfriend: While this podcast is no longer airing new episodes, the backlog of eight years of episodes is worth exploring. In this podcast, hosts Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, co-authors of the book Big Friendship, talk pop culture and politics with each other and an array of guests. (Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)
- Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship: This long-running podcast features Nina Badzin talking about adult friendships, and answering listener questions, often with help from guests. (Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)
4. Best podcast for finding new romance: We Met at Acme
- Available to stream on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
No single podcast can connect you with love—but it might help you get ideas about new places to meet someone and how to open yourself up to new love. Plus, podcasts about dating can help you identify red flags, and green ones, too. On We Met at Acme, you’ll gain wisdom from experts, celebrities and influencers alike. After all, nearly everyone has a story about dating to share. Host Lindsey Metselaar steers these conversations with wit and humor, laying out best practices and things to look for in early relationships. Episodes feature topics like how to improve date night, dating habits to put a stop to and the ways dating changes with age.
Honorable mentions
Here are other dating-focused podcasts to accompany you on the journey to finding love:
- Why Won’t You Date Me?: Yes, this is comedian Nicole Byer’s second appearance on this list. As a long-term single person, Byer interviews guests about their dating history in an effort to understand her own. Get ready to laugh! (Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Sirius XM, and Spotify.)
- U Up?: From Betches, this podcast is hosted by Betches co-founder Jordana Abraham and comedian Jared Freid. The pair gets into the nitty-gritty of dating, including what’s going on in the world of dating apps and answering listener questions. (Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)
5. Best podcast for improving your romantic relationship: Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel
- Available to stream on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify
Psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author Esther Perel hosts this weekly podcast, which features Perel in a session with a couple. The author of Mating in Captivity, a book about desire, Perel is a skilled couples therapist, and the podcast sessions offer a glimpse into wide-ranging (and often common) relationship pitfalls, such as having difficult conversations, affairs and repeated arguments.
Along with getting the opportunity to eavesdrop on other couples, this female-led podcast also features interviews with other relationship experts. Listening to this podcast on your own is valuable and illuminating, but you might also consider listening to it with your partner and using it as a way to open up conversations.
Honorable mentions
There’s no shortage of relationship-focused podcasts available. If eavesdropping on couples therapy isn’t your preference, or if you already have Where Should We Begin? on your listening queue, explore these other options:
- The Endless Honeymoon Podcast: This podcast features married comedians Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher answering questions from listeners, interviewing guests and sharing details from their relationship. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.)
- Modern Love Podcast: Each week the New York Times posts a Modern Love column, telling a story of a relationship moment. This weekly podcast, hosted by Anna Martin, shares stories and conversations based on the column. (Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)
Get more out of relationship-focused podcasts
The first step, of course, is to listen. Here are some other tactics to consider:
- Include a listening partner. If you’re intent on improving a relationship with a romantic partner, keep in mind that’s a two-person task. Try listening to relationship-focused podcasts together with your partner. Or, listen separately, and make a date to discuss the episode together. You can also use podcasts as conversation-starters with colleagues and friends; talking over what you hear can lead to even more insights.
- Take notes. If you hear a great nugget of wisdom, open up your note taking app in your phone, or scribble it down on a piece of paper. That’ll help it stick.
- And, take actions. In many cases, you may hear things that prompt you to consider doing something differently. Maybe it’s the way friends co-hosting a podcast ask about each other’s week, or a great networking tidbit from a CEO. Go to the next level by starting to change your own behavior, integrating the advice you hear into your own day-to-day relationships.
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