at a basic level podcasts are simply audio files and, therefore, spoken stories. next time you write a story, read it out loud and think about how it would sound on a podcast. to get some inspiration or to get started, here’s a list of examples of great storytelling via podcast.

1. the moth: true stories told live

the moth is a storytelling podcast and event series that works to “promote the art and craft of storytelling and to honor and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human experience.”

start off by listening to the story a view of earth by michael j. massimo; “an astronaut details his high stakes mission to repair the hubble space telescope.

2. this american life

this american life is one of the pioneers in storytelling podcasts. ira glass and the numerous producers and contributors to the show put together a weekly hourlong podcast centered on a theme. the theme shines through in each act in very creative ways and the show can make you both laugh and cry, all within that 60 minutes. 

start off by listening to the episode doppelgangers; “we got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari, wondered if it could be true, and decided to investigate. doppelgängers, doubles, evil twins and not-so-evil twins, this week. fred armisen co-hosts with ira glass.” 

3. 99% invisible

“99% invisible is about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.” you will find yourself intrigued by topics you have never even considered before. 

start off by listening to the episode holdout; “around 2005, a seattle neighborhood called ballard started to see unprecedented growth. condominiums and apartment buildings were sprouting up all over in a community which had previously been made up of mostly single family homes and small businesses. around this time, developers offered an elderly woman named edith macefield $750,000 dollars for her small house, which was appraised at around $120,000. they wanted to build a shopping mall on the block where macefield had lived for the last 50 years. macefield turned down the money. developers went forward with the shopping mall anyway. the mall enveloped her house on three sides.” 

4. criminal

criminal reports true crime stories that go beyond the murders and police reports of csi. the stories instead focus on “people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.”

start off by listening to the episode pappy; “when it comes to the bourbon pappy van winkle, it doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you have — you can’t get it unless you’re exceptionally lucky or willing to break the law. the pappy frenzy has law enforcement, bartenders, and even the van winkle family themselves wringing their hands.”

5. storycorps

storycorps is a unique podcast on this list, as the stories are conversations recorded at recording stations around the country that anyone can partake in. 

start off by listening to ollie cantos, and then-14-year-old triplets leo, nick and steven argel talk about growing up blind.

6. radiolab

radiolab explores every curiosity in life in depth. they find a way to make the most obscure topics extremely interesting.

start off by listening to the episode i hart k-pop; while extreme nosiness into the lives of celebrities is the norm in the united states, celebrity is completely different in south korea. “a global juggernaut, k-pop garners billions in sales and millions of fans hanging on every note, watching k-pop idols synchronize and strut. and that fame rests on a fantasy, k-pop stars have to be chaste and pure, but also … available. until recently, korean music agencies and k-pop fans held their pop stars to a strict set of rules designed to keep that fantasy alive. that is, until dispatch showed up.”

7. modern love

an essay-focused podcast that is “based on the new york times’ popular series of weekly reader-submitted essays. exploring the joys and tribulations of love, modern love: the podcast adds new dimension to the popular new york times column, with readings by notable personalities and updates from the essayists themselves.”

start off by listening to the episode a millennial’s guide to kissing; “emmy rossum reads a story about a 12-hour relationship. on an airplane.” the original essay was written by a college student. 

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listen for inspiration but do not feel constrained by these examples. continue listening to podcasts and find some of your favorites. there are thousands of podcasts available on itunes, soundcloud and independent websites. 

eating healthy isn’t fair or equal.

when i was in 8^th grade i decided to change my life. i joined the club lacrosse team and became conscious of the foods i put into my body. by the time my junior year in high school began, i had lost more than 50 pounds.

since then, what i eat is a big part of my life. i think before i eat and focus on foods that are healthy and fresh. but not everyone in the united states lives with that luxury: 26 million americans can’t be picky about what they eat. they live in food deserts.

losing weight is already an incredibly hard task, even in the best of circumstances. imagine living in a city with no access to a car, low income and no supermarkets within more than a mile of your home. or, picture yourself living in a rural area with no access to a car, low income and no supermarkets within more than 10 miles from home. some may not even realize they live in a food desert, but will still feel the effects.

obesity is already a problem in america, but it’s an even bigger problem to those living in food deserts. they’re 11 percent to 19 percent more likely to be obese. in a culture that piles on pressure to be thin, it definitely isn’t an equal battle to healthy living.

i can’t imagine how much more difficult my struggle toward weight loss would have been with the added challenge of finding the healthy food necessary to lose weight.

it’s crucial to raise awareness of this hardship facing so many americans in their daily lives. before we make that quick judgment or comment on someone’s weight, think about what challenges they may be against. how can we promote a culture surrounding healthy bodies without making access to the resources necessary to achieve that end available to all?

take it from me: losing weight is a long and challenging process. not having easy healthy food increases that challenge exponentially.

i never thought i would compare the environment to basic economics, but in the scenario of india, the correlation is strong. everyone knows that you can’t spend more than you have: in that same way, with the environment, you can’t use more water than you have.

in some parts of india, that’s exactly the situation the farmers find themselves in. in other areas of the country there is an abundance of water, but the farmers can’t access it and don’t have the tools needed. so what are the suffering farmers to do?

that’s the problem ram fishman, assistant professor of economics at the george washington university, is attempting to solve. he has spent most of his professional career thinking about water in india, and focuses on finding ways for the farmers of india to use water sustainably.

after leaving israel, ram went to columbia university for a phd in sustainable development. with a background in math and physics, ram said he was more interested in the environmental aspects of the sustainable development program than the economics side. he has always had an awareness of his environmental impact, even as a child he said he held strong convictions.

india is a perfect country for ram to focus on. with a population set to overtake that of china’s by 2028, any solutions ram and his team find could have ramifications throughout the developing world. the developing world’s economic systems rely so heavily on agriculture, and as they grow, it is crucial they develop sustainably. not only that, but india’s dependence on the monsoon and having to deal with unreliable water could be close to what we in the us may experience if climate change persists.

as we get closer to 2050, and a population of nearly 10 billion, agriculture will prove to be extremely important in whether we successfully adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change in order to feed the massive population. india could be the place where the solution is found; ram fishman could be the one to find it. 

my dog and i outside of the state capitol which the farmers market surrounds every saturday in the summer. 

i’m worried that i’ll be one of the last to hear that duck voice, and eat that fresh produce – climate change will alter everything. the farmer’s market is one of the defining qualities of madison. it truly brings out the character of the city. there is no better way to spend an early saturday morning in the summer than shuffling around the square from stand to stand. cheese curds, honey sticks and spicy cheese bread: the true staples of a madison farmer’s market diet. but this could all change in the coming decades if we, the city of madison, the state of wisconsin, the usa, the world, but especially us as individuals, don’t change our ways.

human-caused climate change will drastically change the landscape of the us, including madison, and the seemingly endless surrounding farmland that yields the crops we all love at the farmer’s market. according to the national climate assessment, rainfall and storms will increase across the entirety of the midwest leading up to the middle of the century.the nca predicts that this rising irregularity in storms will have a far more substantial effect on crops than that of rising temperatures. crops such as cherries and other fruits are left particularly vulnerable to the heightened storms.

this map shows the increase in frequency of extreme daily precipitation events (a daily amount that now occurs once in 20 years) by the later part of this century (2081-2100) compared to the later part of last century (1981-2000). (nca) 

in 2012, a late season freeze completely decimated michigan’s $60 million tart cherry crop. at $0.59 per pound in 2012, that’s a loss of over 100 million pounds of cherries, enough to make around 50 million pies. replace michigan with door county, famous for their cherries; it could easily have happened there, one of my favorite vacation spots in wisconsin.

climate change is already affecting the agriculture of the midwest, and it is foolish for anyone to say otherwise. but we can change this trend before it becomes too late. we are the generation to make a difference. we don’t want to be the generation walking around the state capitol square in 2050, reminiscing about donald duck at the farmer’s market that used to be, that we had a chance to save, but didn’t.

anna sumi is a sophomore at the george washington university majoring in political communication.