X is for an Xtra podcast

At the beginning of this challenge I listened to an edgy news podcast, and I felt so uncomfortable whenever I thought about sharing it with you. I knew it wasn't an accurate representation of who I was. There were good things about it did that made it hard to give up, but there were so many other things that it did that I didn't like that I determined I couldn't share it, even though it was something I listened to every day. 

But why did I listen to it every day? Because it was a moderate voice in a polarized world. Because it was short--I could get a pretty good idea of what was going on in the world in less than 15 minutes.  Because it was entertaining. 

Surely I could find some other news podcast that would do all of that without making me uncomfortable. This one search has made April such a whirl-wind of podcast listening. 

Yuck.

There's a lot of left and right leaning news out there. There's a lot of super in depth coverage, which is less yucky, but more likely to sit in my queue and gather dust. 

But I found something, and of course it was right in front of my nose the whole time. It's slightly left-leaning, but it's close enough to moderate for me. I recommend it to you as well, if you are looking for a way to stay caught up on the news without it consuming your life.

Up First is a news podcast produced by npr. Each episode lasts from 15-20 minutes and it comes out every weekday. 

You can listen to it here or wherever you listen to podcasts.