The majority of the students here at CSUSM are commuter students. Whether your commute is twenty minutes or over an hour, sitting in morning traffic, only to sit in more in evening traffic, becomes draining and repetitive. Anything to entertain us or enrich our knowledge in any way makes driving back and forth a little bit easier.

Podcasts are ideal for making your daily commute a little more enjoyable. Each podcast has its own take on enriching us with wisdom, and allows us to think deeper and reflect on ourselves. These podcasts, while all entertaining, vary from informative self-help to comedy to align with any mood that you’re in during your commute to class.

“Just a Tip” hosted by Megan Batoon: Comedian and YouTuber Megan Batoon hosts this podcast with varying content creators to help give advice to listeners with their problems. While this podcast has no particular structure, this allows every episode to be interesting and opens it up to new ideas. Because of the varying guests, it’s interesting to see how various people would handle different situations.

While this is an advice podcast, Batoon and her guests’ real-life experiences help bring a realistic viewpoint to going about listeners’ questions. While the podcast tends to go on tangents, it still helps listeners with wisdom that allows us to reflect inward.

“Getting Curious” hosted by Jonathan Van Ness: One of the members from Queer Eye’s Fab Five, Jonathan Van Ness, created a podcast simply to answer the various questions he has about everyday life. This comedic and casual conversation podcast is very informative, and helps its listeners understand the world a little bit better.

Whether it’s about global warming, or how politics work, Van Ness uses his platform as a way to promote human rights on many different subjects. Regardless of his personal beliefs, Van Ness is open to new ways of thinking and allows guests to promote an unbiased point-of-view on subjects that can be sensitive to some.

“Lavendaire Lifestyle” hosted by Aileen Xu: YouTuber and influencer Aileen Xu, otherwise known as Lavendaire, created this podcast with the goal of helping its listeners become their best selves. Aligned with the motto “Artist of Life,” Xu helps listeners feel motivated and inspired to create their dream life. With a variety of different subjects mentioned in each episode, the conversations between Xu and her guests bring a meditative, calming tone to morning commutes.

“Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations” hosted by Oprah Winfrey: Rather than feeling drained and tired, Oprah’s podcast leaves listeners feeling inspired and ready to start their day. Her conversations with insanely inspirational people, from Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda to former First Lady Michelle Obama, brings a new level of wisdom from these people who have had different life experiences.

Because of the varying guests on the show, this opens up listeners’ minds by allowing new perspectives to be presented.

The fact that these people featured have done amazing work in people’s lives helps inspire aspiring creators to create new things and explore more of what could be done. Listening to the conversations between meaningful people enriches our minds in the way that we view the world.

Your daily commute will be a little more entertaining if you listen to these podcasts, or the many other good podcasts that are out there.