Listen to these laugh-out-loud podcasts, including Normal Gossip, Friends Will Be Friends, Sentimental Garbage, Daddy Look At Me, Nobody Panic, The Receipts and London, Actually. We guarantee that they will brighten up the darkest times.
It’s fair to say that there are a lot of negative events to navigate right now. What with ongoing Covid concerns, the rising cost of living and a looming recession, the intensity of the news cycle can be a recipe for anxious thoughts.
Amid the chaos of the world, it’s never been so important to take time for yourself and switch off. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, though.
Laughter is one of the best forms of medicine for self care: it’s a potent endorphin releaser, it fosters brain connectivity and is even proven to protect your heart. But where can you find a good laugh these days?
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Luckily, there are plenty of very funny women who have excellent podcasts. Best friends Cat Deeley and Edith Bowman, former Stylist cover star Deborah Frances-White and agony aunts Joan and Jericha are just a handful of them. If you’re in need of a big old belly laugh, take a look at the best female-led podcasts out there right now.
Normal Gossip
Whether we admit it or not, we all love a bit of juicy gossip. And just as its name promises, the Normal Gossip podcast delivers strange, funny, and utterly banal gossip about people you’ll never know and never meet. Host Kelsey McKinney recites reader-submitted comedic gossip with guests, diving into the lives and decisions of complete strangers, bringing the hilarious anecdotes to life.
Trust us when we say that you’ll find yourself oddly invested in tales of girls’ holidays gone wrong, One Direction fandom fights, nosy neighbours and cheating lovers.
Listen to Normal Gossip here
Mads World
Don’t you just love when a podcast feels like a big sister? Tackling dating, relationships, feminism, sex and life in London with boldness and humour, Mads World is the perfect listen for anyone navigating the trenches of modern life (read: all of us).
Featuring guest appearances from the likes of author Annie Lord, feminist influencer Aileen Barratt and comedian Fran Bushe, there’s never a shortage of cringe yet relatable stories to enjoy.
Listen to Mads World podcast here
Shady Shit with Casey Balsham
Wait, can true crime be….funny?
If the usual gore is too much for you, Casey Balsham’s Shady Shit is the perfect marriage of comedy and creepiness. Billed as a one stop shop for wild stories that all find comfort under the shady umbrella, laugh along to stories from internet dates gone awry to self-help groups that may be cults to living in a haunted house. Thank us later.
Listen to Shady Shit with Casey Balsham here
Friends Will Be Friends with Cat Deeley and Edith Bowman
Funniest podcasts by women: Friends Will Be Friends with Cat Deeley and Edith Bowman If you’re a firm believer that a good group of friends are foundational to a happy life, then you’ll love Cat Deeley and Edith Bowman’s new BBC Sounds podcast Friends Will Be Friends.
In the show, the pair, whose friendship has survived time, distance and working together for 20 years, go on a double date with a well-known personality and their best friend. Each week, they’ll share friendship highs and lows, swap happy memories and exchange funny stories with guests such as Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Fun, feel-good, and filled with heartwarming stories, this one is like eavesdropping on two best friends having a brilliant catch-up.
Listen to Friends Will Be Friends with Cat Deeley and Edith Bowman here
Sentimental Garbage
Funniest podcasts by women: Sentimental Garbage Sentimental Garbage describes itself as being “about the culture we love that society can sometimes make us feel ashamed of.” Hosted by Caroline O’Donoghue and featuring the likes of Dolly Alderton and Juno Dawson, guests wax lyrical about the value of their favourite guilty pleasures – from Bridget Jones and Moulin Rouge to Titanic and the word “Like”. Truly funny (and informative) listening for culture vultures who want to deep dive into our most ‘trivial’ but tender obsessions.
Listen to Sentimental Garbage here
Dear Joan & Jericha
Funny podcasts: Dear Joan and Jericah. Dear Joan & Jericha is the satirical women’s advice podcast by comedians Julia Davis and Vicki Pepperdine. They play Joan Damry and Jericha Domain, two agony aunts and self-professed “everywomen” who “have between them worked in the fields of life coaching, female sexual health, psycho-genital counselling and sports journalism”.
Each episode, the two women read out letters sent in by their “listeners” asking for life advice. Joan and Jerricha’s answers are dark, cruel, sexist – which, weirdly, is what makes them absolutely hilarious.
With Davis and Pepperdine behind the podcast, we’d expect nothing less than a black comedy at its darkest and most delicious.
Listen to Dear Joan & Jericha
London, Actually
Funny podcasts: London, Actually. Following her run at Edinburgh Fringe earlier this year, London Hughes’ To Catch A Dick show is available to watch on Netflix (and we seriously advise you do!). And last year, she launched her own podcast, London, Actually.
Hughes is very much single and on a quest to find a relationship via this “dating podcast with a difference”. She is joined by celebrity friends (Francis Boulle, Phil Wang) to help hook her up, as well as helping single listeners find love too.Her mother is also on hand to dish out relationship advice, and she performs sketches about her “disastrous” dating history.
It’s a must for anyone with RSI from swiping left too much post-lockdown.
Listen to London, Actually here
The Receipts
Funny podcasts: The Receipts. No topic or word is off limits on The Receipts. The podcast’s unfiltered discussions and advice on sex and relationships is exactly what gives it such a refreshingly unique selling point.
From dating to race and everyday millennial situations, this is the unadulterated “sisterhood” talk that we need. And, of course, it leads to some frankly hilarious conversations that we feel we’re a part of when listening.
Listen to The Receipts here
Daddy Look At Me
Funny podcasts: Daddy Look At Me. It takes a certain type of person to work in showbiz, and it’s often clear from a young age that they were destined to end up on stage. Comedians Helen Bauer and Rosie Jones probe their funny peers on the pivotal moments in their early life.
From childhood to romance and everything in between, they want to learn the highs and lows that make it so obvious that this craving for attention ensured their guest was a born entertainer. Past guests have included James Acaster, Joe Lycett, Catherine Bohart and Sophie Duker.
Listen to Daddy Look At Me here
So I Got To Thinking
Funny podcasts: So I Got To Thinking. So I Got To Thinking is the hilarious podcast from bestselling author and journalist Juno Dawson and editor of QX Magazine, Dylan B Jones. Each week, the friends (and “sexperts”) rewatch the classic HBO sitcom Sex And The City and then attempt to answer Carrie Bradshaw’s soul-searching, and occasionally ridiculous, questions for the modern day.
Listen to So I Got to Thinking
Nobody Panic
Funny podcasts: Nobody Panic. Comedians Stevie Martin and Tessa Coates co-host their much loved podcast, Nobody Panic, a guidebook to being a fully functioning adult without screaming all the time. Expect to laugh and totally relate.
Listen to Nobody Panic
The Guilty Feminist
Funny podcasts: The Guilty Feminist. This list wouldn’t be complete without Deborah Frances-White’s The Guilty Feminist podcast. Its huge success is thanks to Frances-White’s hilarious, insightful and unifying conversations with her incredible guests. With over 240 episodes under its belt, TGF just keeps on getting better.
Listen to The Guilty Feminist here
Table Manners
Funny podcasts: Table Manners. OK, so Table Manners might predominantly be a foodie podcast, but the sweet relationship between Jessie Ware and her mum, Lennie, creates some seriously funny (and relatable!) moments. Listening to mother and daughter squabble in the kitchen and recall family memories is a pure joy.
Listen to Table Manners here
Open House
Funny podcasts: Open House. Housemates Clancy Ryan and Mel Lowe know first hand that the ‘oh so British!’ mentality of sweeping problems under the rug doesn’t do anyone any good. They’ve hashed out family drama and questioned their gender identity over late night G&Ts, and spent hours putting the world’s wrongs to rights.
Sometimes these conversations can be really tough, so they’ve birthed Open House, a podcast all about having difficult conversations with the hope of dispelling the fear around awkward and confronting situations. And, as we all know, there’s always space for humour in difficult conversations.
Listen to Open House here
Telling Everybody Everything
Funny podcasts: Katherine Ryan’s Telling Everybody Everything. Anyone who’s watched Katherine Ryan on shows such as 8 Out Of Ten Cats and The Duchess will know that the outspoken comedian never minces her words.
In Telling Everyone Everything, we hear more of her straight talking through candid chats, phone calls, a bit of pettiness and some serious stuff too.
Listen to Katherine Ryan's Telling Everyone Everything here
Fortunately With Fi And Jane
Funny podcasts: Fortunately With Fi And Jane. Jane Garvey and Fi Glover have built quite a following with their Radio 4 podcast, Fortunately With Fi And Jane. The hosts take a frank look at life with guests from radio, TV and podcasting, who share stories they probably shouldn’t.Listen to Fortunately With Fi And Jane here
Images: from individual podcasts/Getty
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