I’ve been hard at work on lots of new projects lately, but I haven’t been able to share much just yet. So, I decided to share with you some of my favorite illustration podcasts and some extras that are fun to listen to while you’re illustrating. I hope you can find something new that you enjoy and you can get a little insight into my personality.
Paper Wings Podcast: This inspiring podcast is less focused on illustration specifically and more on storytelling and personal projects. Chris and Lora have such great insight into the way artists’ and storytellers’ minds work and they want to help you be successful in whatever avenue you choose to pursue. They give advice on portfolios, pitching, getting out from under creative block, and how to find ways to monetize your personal project. And stick around for the end-of-the-podcast bloopers.
In the interest of full disclosure, you may or may not already know that I am working with Chris Oatley as a Paper Wings apprentice. I was, however, listening to this podcast long before I joined forces with them.
Escape From Illustration Island: Thomas James has managed to interview some of the biggest names in illustration and art direction. I learned so much about building and editing my portfolio, designing my website, and promoting my business and I heard it from professionals with many years of experience. Thomas is building a great site full of resources for freelance illustrators.
Big Illustration Party Time: Listening to Josh & Kevin chat about the illustration industry, their work weeks, and other illustration & cartooning topics is both entertaining and informative. It’s a very casual podcast and feels a lot like sitting around and talking with your artist friends, which is extra valuable when you’re working at home alone.
Chris Oatley’s ArtCast: This podcast is a bit broader than just illustration. Chris Oatley (the same Chris from Paper Wings) works in animation at Disney so his ArtCast covers all things art and business related. He has a unique and inspiring perspective as well as some great interviews.
The Illopond Pondcast: This is a brand new podcast! It is spearheaded by Samuel Kirkman and is a part of the Illopond illustration collective. I am a part of this collective of talented and determined illustrators who have been collaborating on short story and comic anthologies for children. Check out the site and the Pondcast and you can see some of our books for sale too.
Honorable mention goes to Art & Story and The Ink Panthers Show. These two are much more comics heavy. I enjoy them but find I just don’t listen to them as often as the ones above.
I would also like to share some of my favorite non-illustration podcasts. I listen to podcasts for most of my day, so it’s important to have a few that are pure entertainment. Everything here should be available on iTunes. A lot of these have some rough language, so be aware of that in case you prefer to steer away from it.
Comedy:
The Adam Carolla Show
WTF with Marc Maron
Mike & Tom Eat Snacks
This Week with Larry Mill
The Nerdist (just discovered this yesterday and I love it!)
Informative:
Radiolab (a MUST listen for people who are curious about everything)
This American Life
Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me (Can you tell I like NPR?)
Savage Love
I hope you enjoy these! Share some of your favorite podcasts (illustration or otherwise) in the comments below!
Michelle Kondrich Illustration 
Great list, thank you Michelle! I haven’t heard of half of these, I will definitely add them to my list.
One of my favorite podcasts of all time is Sidebar (http://www.sidebarnation.com/). Dwight, Swain, and Adrian are hilarious and great interviewers. Some of my favorite artists in the world are interviewed on their show, which you can browse in the Barchives: http://sidebar.typepad.com/my_weblog/barchives.html
Also, the Moth Podcast (http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast) is real raw storytelling from everyday people. Great stories.
And my favorite music podcast: http://www.npr.org/programs/all-songs-considered/ (Woot NPR!)
Thanks, Margaret! I hope you enjoy them and I’m definitely going to look into the ones you’ve recommended.
I love listening to Savage Love, Escape from Illustration Island, and WTF with Marc Maron though I haven’t listened to that comedian in a while.
I tend to listen to Bobby Chiu interview people on his youtube channel as well though it’s a video chat, it’s usually just on in the background, do the same with new tv shows I’ve never watched like The Wire.
Thanks for this, I had been looking for new podcasts to listen to.