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Using podcasts to learn Spanish is effective and FREE! Check out these recommendations for the best podcasts to learn Spanish.
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If you’ve ever made a goal or New Year’s resolution to learn Spanish, only to fall short after a few weeks, a podcast could be just the thing to help you learn faster and start speaking fluently.
I studied Spanish for eight years back in high school and college (I even got a Bachelor's degree in it!). Then, after graduating and going out into the real world, I didn't practice speaking or reading Spanish, and a lot of my knowledge slipped away.
I wish podcasts had existed back then, because they’ve been a lifesaver to me and my husband as we work on (re)learning Spanish now.
Spanish podcasts are great for:
- Discovering new vocabulary
- Hearing proper pronunciation of words
- Practicing all-important listening skills
- Learning Spanish on-the-go
Unlike with Spanish textbooks and videos, a good Spanish podcast can be listened to while you're in the car, at the gym, walking the dog, or doing the dishes. You don’t have to be sitting still or even looking at your phone or computer.
How Spanish Podcasts Helped My Husband Learn Spanish
My husband took a couple of Spanish classes in high school, but didn't make an effort to learn the language beyond that.
Then, a couple of years ago (because we fell in love with Spain), he really wanted to improve his vocabulary and speaking skills. I told him to try listening to Spanish podcasts.
I kept explaining to him that in order to speak Spanish, it was important for his brain to hear the words being spoken, and to learn to identify them. And that the most accessible and free way to do that was with podcasts.
It wasn’t until I went away to visit my family for two weeks that he actually tried it. By the time I returned home, he was a whole new man, speaking Spanish and obsessed with listening to podcasts daily. He still listens to a Spanish podcast every night, in bed, just before going to sleep.
The Key To Finding a Good Spanish Podcast
The key to finding a good Spanish podcast is to find one by a native speaker, someone who was born in a Spanish-speaking country and speaks Spanish as their first language.
Native speakers are especially important when listening to a Spanish podcast because you will be trying to mimic how the podcast host sounds. You want your Spanish pronunciation and accent to sound authentic.
(Beware: there are a lot of podcasts out there hosted by people who have become fluent in Spanish...as their second language. I can hear their Scottish and American accents, and that's not how I want to sound when I'm speaking Spanish.)
It’s best if the native Spanish podcast host is also still living in a Spanish-speaking country. You want a host who knows all the latest slang or common phrases being used in Spanish.
It's also important that you consider what kind of Spanish you want to learn. Who do you want to communicate with, or where do you plan to visit? There are some significant differences between Spanish that is spoken in Spain and Spanish that is spoken in Mexico, Central America, or South America.
Save these podcasts for later! Click here to get a PDF of this post sent to your inbox.Spanish Podcasts for Visual Learners
Even if you’re a visual learner (like me), you can still use podcasts to learn a foreign language.
All of the Spanish podcasts recommended below have some visual companion tools that are available on the internet. The companion tools might be written transcripts of podcast episodes, worksheets, or quizzes. Some of the visual resources are free, others require a free or upgraded account.
All of the podcasts I recommend below also have YouTube channels. I've found that watching a few YouTube videos from these podcast hosts helps me to get comfortable with their accents and pacing, and seeing them on the screen improves my listening skills for the podcast.
The 5 Spanish Podcasts I Recommend
I’ve tested out A LOT of Spanish podcasts over the last year, but I’ve found five that I listen to regularly. These shows get my stamp of approval because they:
- are hosted by native Spanish speakers
- are paced for Spanish learners & cover topics and words new learners need to understand
- I always learn something new that I can use in conversation
Check Out These 5 Podcasts to Learn Spanish Like a Native
1. SpanishPod101
There are a lot of reasons to love SpanishPod101. First, because the content is made for all levels of Spanish learners, from Absolute Beginner to Upper Intermediate and Advanced.
There is also a mix of different types of Spanish, from Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, and Spain. This is important, since there are some major differences in Spanish words and phrases between regions and specific countries.
SpanishPod101 also has great companion tools to the podcasts, so you can follow along with the audio and save new words to study later.
You get access to a lot of the companion tools just by signing up for a free online account (I totally recommend this). As your Spanish starts to improve, you can upgrade to a Basic ($4/month) or Premium ($10/month) account, which gives you access to bonus audio, PDFs and ebooks, themed vocabulary lists (like, At the Gym and Renting an Apartment), and more.
To get started, you can find about 50 free podcast episodes in just about every major podcast player. Every time a new lesson is released, they move an old lesson to their huge online library.
After you create your free account, the easiest way to access the other hundreds of podcasts is to download the Innovative Language app (they’re the company that makes SpanishPod101). From the app, you can access so much extra podcast content.
2. The Unlimited Spanish Podcast
This podcast is intended for learners who already know the basics of Spanish and are at an early intermediate level. The host, Oscar Pellus, conducts every episode entirely in Spanish, but speaks at a pace that is pretty easy to follow.
Unlike a lot of Spanish podcasts, Oscar doesn’t walk you through verb conjugation by repeating a verb three times and telling you to repeat it. Instead, every episode has a different theme, and he presents vocabulary and cultural references that help you understand the language better.
In every episode, Oscar tells a story one or two different ways, which allows you to really identify the words he’s saying, put the vocabulary in context, and identify the differences between the stories. The whole concept is done in a really casual way. If you get completely lost, you can go to his website and download a podcast transcript.
The Unlimited Spanish Podcast is perfectly suitable for pre-teens, teens, and adults.
Try The Unlimited Spanish Courses
If you're ready to really take your Spanish to the next level, check out Oscar's courses. They include hours of audio, as well as PDFs of the written lesson transcripts.
My husband and I had such great success with the Unlimited Spanish podcasts that we purchased the Curso Magico, which is based on the story of The Wizard of Oz, and we love it!
The best part about these Spanish courses is that you can download a ton of lessons to your phone, or put them all in a DropBox (and probably even Google Drive), to access them whenever you want. Be sure you're on WiFi when you download it all (so you don't eat up your phone's data plan)!
3. Notes In Spanish
This podcast is hosted by husband and wife team Ben and Marina. He’s a native English-speaker originally from the UK, and she’s a native Spaniard from Madrid. They met when he was learning Spanish and eventually decided to create a podcast to help others learn Spanish.
Notes in Spanish has episodes for learners at all levels; they are actually broken out into different podcasts as Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, and Gold.
Episodes in each level include an interesting theme, a conversation between Ben and Marina in English, and then a follow-up conversation between them in Spanish.
Marina corrects Ben a lot, and explains how he is using a word or phrase incorrectly. Although he isn't a native speaker, this dynamic between them is really helpful; it makes you feel like you're not alone in all your Spanish mistakes!
I recently listened to an episode in which they talk about national anthems, and specifically Spain’s national anthem. It was a really easy listen and I learned both some new Spanish as well as interesting facts about Spain.
Notes in Spanish is suitable for teens and adults, but I think pre-teens might get bored listening to the chatter between a husband and wife.
4. Hoy Hablamos
This podcast has been releasing episodes every weekday since 2017, and there are over 900 free episodes!
The host, Roi, is from Spain. He speaks clearly and at a perfect pace for an intermediate Spanish learner.
The average episode length is just 10 minutes, which is ideal for working in just a little Spanish learning every day.
The episode topics are all completely different, so you’ll never get bored. You’ll learn new (useful) vocabulary and phrases.
If you want even more episodes and companion exercises, you can sign up for a Premium subscription on the podcast website.
Suggestion for Listening to Daily Spanish Podcasts
Since Hoy Hablamos publishes a new episode every day, I have my podcast player set up to auto-download this podcast. I also have it set up so that it puts each new episode as the next podcast in my listening queue.
By adjusting my podcast player settings to do this, I'm basically putting my daily Spanish practice on auto-pilot. It makes it harder to skip a daily episode, because it’s already set up to play.
I use PocketCasts as my main podcast player, but the player/app you use probably has a setting for auto-downloading specific podcasts, too. Play around with your podcast app (or search for a YouTube video about how to find the settings).
5. News In Slow Spanish
If you have trouble figuring out what native Spanish speakers are saying (who doesn’t?), then this is the podcast for you. News In Slow Spanish is literally a short news broadcast spoken entirely in Spanish, but sloooowwwwlllyyyy.
My favorite thing about News In Slow Spanish is that they offer episodes for Intermediate and Advanced Spanish learners in a “Spanish from Spain” edition, and episodes for Intermediate learners in a “Spanish from Latin America” edition. I appreciate this so much, as my husband and I have been spending a lot of time in Spain and don’t want to be confused by vocabulary that is specific to Latin America.
When the podcast first started, free episodes were pretty lengthy and provided in-depth news coverage. Now, free episodes are shorter (usually less than 10 minutes), and you have to sign up for a paid subscription for the longer episodes. But don’t let that stop you! The brief, free episodes are great for people who are short on time!
Transcripts for every episode of News In Slow Spanish are available online, and their website has some great free resources and interactive tools.
Becoming fluent in Spanish takes time, but these podcasts can help you get there sooner. Also check out my review of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast.
If you're looking for more podcasts to challenge your brain, check out 5 Fun Podcasts That Make You Smarter.
You can also check out the My Fave Things page for other Spanish language learning resources that I recommend!
Have you listened to one of these podcasts? What other podcasts do you use to learn Spanish? Leave a comment so I can go listen to them.
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Me again! I have been looking around your site, there’s lots of interesting stuff. Have you come across any good history or general culture podcasts in Spanish? I speak Spanish, so I am not so much looking for a podcast to learn Spanish but I think it would be a good way to help keep up my Spanish.
Thanks for poking around the blog! I’m glad you find it useful! Because I’m still an intermediate Spanish speaker, I don’t have too many full-Spanish podcasts that I listen to (that aren’t for learning purposes). I did recently discover Discovering Spain, which is recorded in English by a Spanish woman. She and her guests speak about Spain culture. Towards the end of that show’s run, she did several all-Spanish episodes, which also have transcripts online in English & Spanish. As an off-shoot to that show, she and another podcaster started En Clave de Podcast – a podcast all about the Spanish podcast scene. The episodes are half Spanish-language, half English. As a podcaster, it might be right up your alley!
Hi Nicole, I’ve just come across your blog. How wonderful that you recommended the two podcasts I used to host about Spain, thank you! (Just making sure that Luke looks for “Spain Uncovered”, as the show with the interviews and the odd episodes in Spanish.)
I do recommend listening to En clave de podcast, as well as speaking in Spanish themselves, the guests also recommend another three podcasts at the end of each episode, so you might find that your podcast list just grows and grows…
Hola Pilar! Thanks for joining the conversation and for clarifying about your podcast name. Great tip about finding more Spanish podcasts in your episodes of En clave. (PS – I’m planning to purchase your book, too!)
Hola Pilar,
He estado de vacaciones y no pude responder a estos mensajes. Muchas gracias por las recomendaciones, suenan muy interesantes.
How nice, I hope you enjoy the book – and that you discover more podcasts!
How nice, I hope you enjoy the book and that you discover more podcasts..
Hi Luke, I highly recommend Radio Ambulante. Awesome podcasts from all over the Spanish speaking world, targeting different cultural and political issues.
My husband is also a big fan of Radio Ambulante. It’s great for intermediate & advanced Spanish learners. Great recommendation, Maria.