Now, I have three podcasts. The first is about history—not dates or wars, but people: how they lived, what they ate, what they thought about. I listen to it while making breakfast, and the world suddenly feels bigger—not the small, jittery world of today, but a vast one that has spanned many different eras. It’s very grounding.

The second is about books—just two people talking about what they’ve read. There’s no snobbery, no "have you read this?" posturing. They might say, "I didn’t get it," "I quit halfway through," or "It made me cry." It’s honest. I listen to it in the car on my way to work; sometimes I laugh out loud, and sometimes I jot down the title of a book.

The third is about people—just stories. Someone talks about their grandmother, someone else about their job, or perhaps about how they left everything behind to start over. No moralizing, no neat conclusions—just life itself. I listen to it in the evening while doing chores around the house, and it reminds me that the world is truly inhabited—that there are people all around us. Real, diverse, living human beings.

I won’t share the titles—not because I’m being stingy, but because everyone’s tastes are different. Find your own. Five minutes of searching is all it takes to discover something that speaks directly to *you*—not to just anyone, but to you.

What do you listen to? Or is silence an option for you, too?

Natalya