Safe for work: 10 podcasts you can stream on the job

The podcasts on this list are absolutely safe for work and might make your day fly by faster. Check out a series about the intersection of scammers and con artists, a delicious food podcast, and a weekly news quiz show.

For beautifully-crafted episodes, check out “This American Life,” “99% Invisible,” and John Green’s classic “The Anthropocene Reviewed.” Also on our list, you’ll find a history podcast, an exploration of interesting sounds, and a deep-dive into some books that hurt co-hosts’ brains and contributed to misinformation.

ReThinking

TED Audio Collective presents “ReThinking,” sharing insights from bright minds. Host Adam Grant chats with creators, achievers, thinkers, and leaders as they share their thoughts. Hear from guests like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brené Brown, Mark Cuban, Olympic medalists, Nobel laureates, and Oscar winners on weekly episodes.

Scamfluencers

Scammers and influencers collide on “Scamfluencers,” a Wondery series diving into webs of deceit and sharing stories from social media, fashion, finance, health, and wellness industries. From financial insiders to dating gurus and charming healers, episodes look at why these con artists succeeded and thrived. Hear about cases like the Black Swan Murder, a fake social media influencer, and a Hollywood Ponzi scheme.

If Books Could Kill

Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri analyze “airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds” while encouraging misinformation and “American stupidity.” “If Books Could Kill” dives into titles like Freakonomics, The Secret, The Game, and Outliers.

This American Life

Every episode finds true stories focusing on a weekly theme and interviews many guests. Hosted by Ira Glass, “This American Life” is the recipient of nearly every broadcasting award you can imagine.

Everything Everywhere Daily

“Everything Everywhere Daily” is for intellectually-curious listeners. Tune in and learn new things in new, daily episodes about fascinating people, places, history, and things across the globe. Topics cover science, geography, and culture.

99% Invisible

Roman Mars’ “99% Invisible” examines design elements of everyday objects, places, and symbolism that often flies under the radar. In weekly episodes, hear about the Walk of Fame, the first American flag, cultural artifacts, The Punisher Skull, and office design. Check out over 570 informative episodes to learn more about things we use or see but might not think about very often.

Twenty Thousand Hertz

“Twenty Thousand Hertz” highlights the history of interesting sounds, sound inventions, songs, and developments over time in over 150 sonically-rich episodes hosted by Dallas Taylor.

The Anthropocene Reviewed

An oldie but goodie, “The Anthropocene Reviewed” is still beloved. Author John Green rated human activities and different parts of our world out of 5 stars in episodes. Tune in to hear Green tackle plagues, sports rivalries, an orbital sunrise, gingko biloba, mortification and civilization, the notes app, velociraptors, and more in over 30 episodes.

The Sporkful

The James Beard and Webby Award winning podcast “The Sporkful” is for eaters, not foodies. This Stitcher series is hosted by Dan Pashman, who also happened to invent the new pasta shape, cascatelli.

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me

Test your knowledge and laugh along with NPR’s weekly news quiz show, “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” Host Emma Choi, comedians, and other guests join the podcast’s hilarious weekly format where they chat about current events. Past guests have included Mariska Hargitay, Dana Carvey, Gayle King, Sean Hayes, Slash, and many more. If you can’t get enough of this podcast, check out the mid-week episodes, “Everyone & Their Mom.”