Gone are the days when we were forced to listen to content according to a radio station’s schedule. Since its inception back in 2004, podcasting has become one of the biggest phenomena that’s increasingly dominating the digital-streaming space.

As podcasts continue to grow, your auditory pleasure is at the touch of a button, with content curation up to your tastes. South Africa’s podcast landscape is full of interesting shows that cover various topics and are uncensored and unfiltered.

Here are five we think are worth a listen:

The Journey Kwantu

If you’re looking to up your spiritual and cultural knowledge, this is the podcast for you.

Host Vusumzi Ngxande aims to help listeners better understand their place in the world by exploring questions around beliefs and their history to figure out what they mean within our society.

You can expect to hear topics such as the secret lives of surnames, spirituality, parenting, mental health, and much more. 

The Cheeky Natives

This podcast is perfect for bookworms.

Hosts Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane and Dr Alma-Nalisha Cele have insightful conversations with authors to talk about their books and to discuss the literary landscape as a whole.

Expect to hear reviews, thoughts, and interviews about locally published books.

Remember When… with Andile Ndlovu

Andile Ndlovu revisits significant moments in South African pop-culture history and how they changed perspectives.

Through in-depth conversations and interviews, he examines what these mean to us now. Expect to hear about Yizo Yizo, Miss SA Teen, Penny Heyns, Manning Rangers FC, Soul Buddyz, and many more.

Available wherever you get your podcasts.

The Mashstartup Podcast

This podcast is perfect for entrepreneurs and small-business owners who love hearing inspirational and informative stories about entrepreneurship.

The host, Mashudu Modau, interviews successful entrepreneurs to find out how they did it.

Moments in South African History

The SABC gets a lot of flak, but we’re happy to give credit where it’s due. Its podcast, Moments in South African History, tells us the stories of places, events, and prominent people who have shaped the country’s history.

Nadine Gordimer, Dolly Rathebe, and Fatima Meer are just some of the important South Africans profiled on this journey through the national broadcaster’s archives.

Available wherever you get your podcasts. 

This article first appeared in the May/June 2021 print edition of S Mag.