So, you’re getting into podcasting, and you don’t know where to start. You browse top rated shows and see plenty of interesting topics, but they are all being covered by skinny white dudes doing their very best NPR voice (bless their hearts). You want something that hits a little closer to home.

This is a curated toolkit for all the black women and femmes who need to break up the hellish 24-hour news cycle with some black girl wisdom, inspiration, healing and, of course, magic.

Here are six podcasts to boost your black woman self-care routine:

1. Gettin’ Grown

Hosts (and homegirls) Jade and Keia are here to help us sort through all the trials of adulting. The show deep dives into all the things that keep us young adults up at night: student loans and education, dating and marriage, how to maintain or end friendships, creating a personal brand, managing finances, and all things regarding growth. When you tune into Gettin’ Grown, don’t expect a lecture. Expect to sit around the kitchen table with Jade and Keia as we work these things out like family.

Recommended episode: The Art of “No”

2. Small Doses

“Self-help from the hip” is how host Amanda Seales (of ‘Insecure’ fame) refers to this weekly seminar. Catch Amanda right in the middle of your week on Wednesday bringing DJ Khaled levels of energy and professorial levels of insight to topics such as fuckboys, platonic friendships, being a multi-hyphenate, the ho phase, and owning a business. If you were looking for the podcast equivalent of a multivitamin, this is it.

Recommended episode: Side Effects of Toxic Relationships

3. Inner Hoe Uprising

A podcast about sex, love, and dating brought to you by a collective of feminist black women and agender hoes living in New York City. The show’s hosts, Sam, Rebecca, Akua, and Rob, traverse the landscape of sexuality with humor, candor, and historical and political contextualization, discussing everything from polyamory, gender, sexual trauma, sex work, asexuality, and how to hoe safely and consensually. If you were looking for more authenticity from your sex-related media, find it with these hoes.

Recommended episode: Trans Heroines

4. Black Girl in Om

BGIO’s mission is to lift up women of color with holistic wellness, self-care, and self-love. The show features discussions of such topics as intuition and magic, meditation and yoga, creative entrepreneurship, trauma, and learning to be loving towards ourselves and others. With guests who specialize in all areas of wellness, hosts Lauren Ash and Deun Ivory walk beside listeners in our journeys to wholeness, providing a safe and healing space in a world that is often toxic for black women and femmes.

Recommended episode: Demystifying Magic and Intuition with Tatianna Tarot

5. On One with Angela Rye

On One grapples with the complex political and cultural phenomena of today, breaking things down in a digestible manner, that prioritizes truth, accountability, and realness. The show features black entertainers, lawmakers, and journalists, all discussing topics such as activism, political unrest, black female leadership, and more. As we heal on the inside, Angela provides a space to understand what is happening beyond our own personal bubbles.

Recommended episode: Black Women are Leading the Revolution

6. Tea with Queen and J.

Hosts Queen and Janicia are two womanist race nerds working to improve the world through discussions of blackness and pop culture. The podcast takes an intellectual, conversational approach to all aspects of the black experience, all in the name of dismantling white supremacist patriarchal capitalism. If Twitter’s algorithm hasn’t yet figured out how to put all the hot takes from smart and funny black women at the top of your feed, Queen and J got you.

Recommended episode: Resistance and Brunch

Taylor Jordan Holmes

Writing since June 2018 · 2 stories contributed