I love podcasts. i mostly listen to NPR shows. l like Fresh Air, The Moth, This American Life, Hidden Brain, The Bittersweer Life, TED Talks, How I Built This and a new one by Ju lia Lo uis Dreyfuss whereshe interviews older women.

Atlas Obscura is a fun listen - they're short, so I save them up and listen to 5-6 at a time.

I've decided my favorite music to listen to when walking is Brazilian - it has the best beat for it.

Have you tried audiobooks?

Yes. I have a huge library on iTunes of audiobooks. Just none interest me at this moment.

Check what you can get from your library online

We like "The Officer Tatum Show". He's political....but....has some good points. Link

I also like current music: Link

I listen to podcasts when working out, like dedtired, most are NPR...the Moth, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Invisibilia, Hidden Brain. If you haven't listened to Bagman (about Spiro Agnew) or Ultra (about N@zis in America during WWII) podcasts by Rachel Maddow at MSNBC, they are great insights into historical events and told in an interesting way.

The other thing I used to do is read while I walked...if I was walking on a safe trail or a wide quiet street, I would read. I found this especially helpful when I was reading text books for school as the walking distracted me just enough to keep my mind on what I was reading. If I just sat and read, very often the eyes would keep going but the mind would be elsewhere. I've done this with NYer magazines too that are easy to hold in one hand while walking....though they now have podcasts of their stories too.

First, congrats on walklng 2.5 hours per day! that a long time! how miles do cover in that time? where do you find 2.5 hours a day! i am impressed!! i like to go for at least an hour but strive for 1.5 or 3-4 miles at least 4-5 days a week, so CONGRATS!

i either catch up on phone calls or listen to SIRIUS XM. mostly POTUS. or TC after Dark podcast..she does some good ones on wide range of topics. she drops one a week but you can listen to all of them... range about 20 mins or so....

FWIW: for 2.5 hours daily, i would do audio books. i lean toward political drama (fiction or non-fiction) or historical fiction. yes, check out the library books, only have 2 weeks to borrow

FWIW, the OP's request was no politics.

I was thinking about the stories podcasts that I like - This American Life for sure, and The Moth is great - and there's a lots and lots of episodes too. Criminal is a very different kind of crime podcast that covers more esoteric, not always violent, crimes and and the people involved. A recent one was about the woman who ran a Ponzi scheme before Ponzi was even around. The host has a nice soothing way of speaking too.

Another one I've enjoyed for years is Useless Information - which is super nerdy - the host is a high school teacher and he unearths very strange old news stories from news archives. He has a couple of books too.

I really enjoyed Michael Lewis' Against The Rules podcast series - he makes things extremely fascinating - the ones about coaching are really, really good, IMO.

I hear the new Abraham Verghese book, The Covenant of Water, is wonderful on audio. The author narrates the book himself.

Not sure if acquiring a new language would be of interest to you. If I had that much time to pay attention to audio of something, I would try to learn conversational French beyond my rudimentary skills. Also, perhaps, brush up on the German I studied and the Dutch I acquired when we lived in the Netherlands. Hoping to go back to those countries again for long stays. This would probably involve speaking outloud to practice pronunciation, so if anyone was within earshot during your walks, you might appear eccentric lol.

I usually listen to audiobooks, but there are a few non-political podcasts that I like:

Tapestry, from CBC radio - it's the podcast of their radio show that delves into spirituality and humanity, but in a rather unique way. One episode was on how some people see spirituality in Dungeons and Dragons, or the way creating something with your hands - even hand writing, can lead one to a spiritual and human connection. Some are about maintaining hope in untenable circumstances (using the women's revolts in Iran as a starting point), or spiritual lessons from horror books and movies. It's not really religious, but various religions do come up from time to time - there was an interesting episode on Ramadan, and one about the return of a centuries-old traditional Passion Play after a break during Covid. It's more about fulfilling one's soul, not about any particular deity.

Why is this Happening, with Chris Hayes: I know you don't want any politics, and he's known for his political commentary show on MSNBC, but this podcast also does a lot of non-political things that he wants to take a deep dive into. One of my favourites recently was about the growth in sports betting, and how that's changing people's relationships with sports, and I enjoyed the episode about how more dads are taking pay cuts or stepping off the corporate ladder to spend more time parenting. There will be episodes about political issues that you'll want to skip, but there are also some really interesting topics in their too. Topical, but not always political.

sprtphntc7a , its 6.66 miles, 15000 steps. I work 5pm-5am, and when my fitbit resets to zero at midnight, I go outside and walk around my office building until I reach my step goal, which takes that long. At home I get on my treadmill, not necessarily at midnight, but I do not need things to listen to at home, as I can watch my shows on my kindle when on my treadmill at home.

Seagrass, the people that I work with are used to my weirdness, lol. Nothing I do really phases them anymore. And I already look like a dork walking around in a circle for that long, they have seen me dance along to music and laugh to myself while listening to comedy, so I am sure if I had an interest in speaking other languages, me randomly spouting out words or phrases in other languages with no context probably would not even warrant a side eyed glance my way. Not anymore.

Say nothing of my festive outfits that I wear during the holidays......glow in the dark pumpkin dress anyone? My point is, no one pays attention to me anymore. LOL

Some more I think are both entertaining and enlightening: Planet Money and The Indicator from Planet Money - they make learning about economics fun - and it turns out practically everything and anything is related to economics.

I do appreciate well produced podcasts, with engaging, well spoken hosts. I really don't like to listen to people giggling and cracking themselves up over their own cleverness. Voices matter to me.

I just remembered LAist Studios has some really good podcasts too - one I found fascinating is called California City - 8 episodes about a real estate scam. The production is superb.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/california-city/id1516664274

You know what I listened to last night during my walk? 90s informercials on YouTube. I used to love to sit up and watch those late night/early morning cooking informercials, having been a night owl all my life, much to my mothers annoyance. I had been searching earlier last night for a specific one, which I still haven't found. They were pots that you sort of dump everything into, put the lid on. then heated it up on the stove to a certain temperature, then turned the heat off and let it sort of cook by itself on the counter. I remember being FACINATED by the idea of that. I CANNOT remember what they were called but I am sure that informercial is on YouTube somewhere. I remember that one of the ladies put the pot in the freezer to show that it would still cook. Anyway, I cant find it. Not yet anyway. In the meantime, I listened to informercial for the Red Devil grill, Magic Bullet, The Ronco Rotisserie, the original George Foreman grill one, some sort of ready,set,go thing that I remember thinking "I would never eat any of that lol". I didn't have to watch the screen. I put my phone in my pocket and I could REMEMBER what they were doing while they were trying to shill these things. Eventually, one of my work friends came to walk and talk with me and I could turn them off before I fell deeper into THAT rabbit hole.

I haven't been lately but I also used to do 5-6 mile walks several times a week. I have a little radio and listen to either the classical station, the NPR/American Public Media/PRX station (with all the shows people have listed above - I particularly like Wait, Wait, Marketplace, Rick Steves, Milk Street, Afropop Worldwide) and a station that plays 1930s-40s-50s pop. I always enjoyed Car Talk - replays are available on NPR.

Look at the web sites of NPR, APM and PRX, they offer many podcasts. PRX seems to skew political with most of their podcasts, but there are several good ones that aren't (including the favorites from the radio.)

This radio also picked up a couple of the local TV channels audio (broadcast by the station, before the digital transition) so if I was out during the "game show hours" I enjoyed listening to those - especially Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

I don't know what the product name is in the 90's infomercial. But the item you are looking for might be called a thermal cooker. Wonderbags have been out for a while. There's a plastic 6 hour bowl. Pretty sure those had ads, but not sure when they were out. Some more modern and more stainless looking versions are out now. Some folks like to use a combo of a pressure cooker to hit temp/pressure and also a wonderbag to do thermal cooking. The concept itself is a really old one.

Found it! Air Core. Oh man its worse than I remember LOL! Some one get these ladies a stocked spice rack!!!!

I've lately started listening to an NPR podcast called My Unsung Hero. Stories of people who made a difference in the caller's life. They're only about five minutes each, but there are scads of them. I turn it on and let it run while I'm on the treadmill.

Just thought of 2 more that delight me - Decoder Ring, about pop culture history, and Detours, from Antiques Roadshow, with behind the scene stories about memorable items over the years.

NPR and everything I've mentioned is in the Apple store, btw - all free.

P. S. I love Marketplace from APM too 😊

Bumping this back up to say how much I am enjoying Wiser Than Me, the Julia Louis-Dreyfuss podcast. The interview with Rhea Perlman was excellent and Jane Fonda was good, too too. Its so hard to find much online entertainment for anyone who is older.

I thought Rhea was particularly wise and Jane, who is 81, admitted that she wasnt the best mother and that she regrets her plastic surgery.

Re audio books to listen to, I really enjoyed Still Foolin' 'Em by Billy Crystal, which he reads. It includes some of his stand up and is really good. I also enjoyed Born a Crime by Trevor Noah which he reads and one part had me LOL. I found Becoming interesting in parts which Michelle Obama reads...especially the ins and outs of transitioning the WH from one pres to the next. Fascinating stuff.

I got Becoming to listen to on a road trip, but the voice was so soothing I had to set it aside for Billy Crystal!

There are a zillion episodes of "Under the Influence", a Canadian radio show with Terry O'Reilly that we heard on PBS. I think everyone should realize how advertising has molded us to think we must have this or that product.

Ages ago I used to listen to bootleg Grateful Dead cassette tapes on my Walkman while riding bike. Apart from that, I can't offer any suggestions because when I take walks or go biking I don't like being cut off from the sounds of birds and other natural sounds.

I was disappointed with Billy Crystal's book. I found his approach to be a bit too self-aggrandizing. He doesn't have nearly as much to brag about as his comments about episodes in his life and the style of how he relates them would lead one to believe.

In its place, I would recommend John Cleese's memoir, So, Anyway. It's not as much an autobiography as it is his sharing of sometimes unconnected incidents in his life. Cleese himself is the performer for the audiobook and I found it very entertaining and endearing when he'd start giggling (it happened a number of times) when reading passages describing funny things that happened to him.

Those who don't particularly like the Python and English styles of humor may not like it as well as I did.

John Cleese never fails to make me laugh!

I love John Cleese. Ill give that one a try!

I recently came across "Alan Roberts Uncensored" podcast. I have know about Alan Roberts through his YouTube channel. He is a bit unhinged but that tends to make me laugh. I find him motivating during a workout, and his random outbursts make me laugh. He is not for everyone, as every sentence pretty much has an expletive, and some people consider him to be a bully. But I do not. I find his straight talk about health refreshing, in an age of coddling people into their graves. I would not be offended if he spoke about ME the way he speaks about the people he talks about. But I am very hard to offend. He tends to promote supplements and the like which I am not interested in, but once you get past that part its a pretty good listen. That is, again, if one is not easily offended either for yourself or on behalf of others.......