As EPs and allied professionals working in education, we’re always on the lookout for thought-provoking topics to prompt self-reflection and practical strategies to pass on to the children, families, and education settings with whom we work.
Podcasts are an ideal medium to facilitate these forms of low commitment CPD. You can listen to podcasts during the commute between schools, as the background to your gym workout, or to accompany you on a leisurely stroll.
In this series, I spotlight three podcasts per blog (plus one more, for fun!), to illustrate the breadth and quality of information that can be accessed completely free on whichever podcast platform you choose to use. The intention is not to pick out ‘the best’ or ‘the most relevant’ podcasts, but to inspire readers to develop their practice by listening to and learning about something new.
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‘The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast’ hosted by Dr Marianne Trent
Unsurprisingly given the name, The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast is aimed primarily at informing and supporting people who are interested in training as a professional psychologist in any discipline, including educational, clinical, health, and occupational.
Dr Trent is a clinical psychologist who aims to offer both practical advice about applications and interviews as well as conversations with other professionals on psychological topics and experiences of psychology training. Episodes focus on topics that will feel relatable to many aspiring psychologists, such as the difficulty of securing an assistant psychologist job; interviews with professionals from different fields of psychology about what their roles involve; and intriguing conversations about unusual experiences such as a young professional who turned down an offer from a DClinPsy course.
There are plenty of topics here that would interest and inform more experienced professionals too, such as an episode with a lawyer about HCPC investigations and an episode with a leadership consultant about how it might feel to start a new job only to realise it wasn’t what you were expecting. Since June, some episodes of the podcast have featured slick video editing so we can see the host and guests as they talk as well as fun mini-explainer sections at the start of episodes.
Published once a week, ‘The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast’ has 207 episodes to enjoy and learn from, at time of writing.
‘The Psychology Podcast’ hosted by Dr Scott Barry Kaufman
Dr Kaufman’s podcast has been going for over a decade, making this an incredible resource for exploring a huge variety of psychological topics discussed by a wide range of researchers, thinkers, and people with lived experiences. Dr. Kaufman is a professor of psychology at Columbia University, director of the Center for Human Potential, and among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for his research on intelligence and creativity – some pretty impressive credentials!
Many episodes of the podcast take a positive psychology approach, looking to explore both how people can overcome challenges in their lives, and how they can achieve self-actualisation. Just a couple of episodes that would be of particular interest to education professionals are the conversation with Angela Duckworth discussing her research on grit (passion and perseverance for long-term goals), and the conversation with Robin Ince about the relationship between neurodiversity and anxiety.
It might feel a little daunting to work out where to start with such a vast library of content from this podcast, but take a couple of minutes to scroll through the back catalogue and see if there are any researchers or topics you recognise – or, even better, any you don’t recognise but that intrigue you to find out more.
Launched in 2014, ‘The Psychology Podcast’ is published once a fortnight and has 479 episodes to enjoy and learn from, at time of writing.
‘The Educated Guess Podcast’ hosted by Dr Cora Sargeant and Dr Dan O’Hare
Experienced podcaster Dr Sargeant and edpsy founder Dr O’Hare (Cora and Dan) come together to discuss topics in education, psychology, and society. The show is light-hearted at times but is not afraid to tackle serious topics that, so far, have included the history and future of education, health, and care plans (EHCPs); the difficulties faced by children and young people who are trans or gender diverse; and the psychology of sleep.
Cora and Dan have great chemistry as hosts, whether they’re catching up about each other’s recent lives at the start of an episode or delving into the scientific research on a given topic to explore what it really means and how it is relevant to broader society. The use of video adds to the feeling of a personal conversation that develops as an episode goes on; you get the sense that (although they’ve definitely prepared!) Cora and Dan also develop their thinking on the fly, in response to the other host’s perspective, which makes for an exciting dynamic.
Bravely, Cora and Dan recorded their second ever episode of the podcast live at the edpsy festival of psychology in September. They are not afraid, either, to outline the limits of their knowledge and experience on a given topic, hence the humble title of the podcast. In future, there are plans to interview ‘educated guests’, so it will be exciting to see how the podcast develops once this dynamic is introduced.
First released just a few weeks ago in September 2025, ‘The Educated Guess Podcast’ is released roughly once a month and, at the time of writing, has 4 episodes to enjoy and learn from.
One for fun! ‘How Do You Cope?’
This time, the ‘one for fun’ is of direct relevance to the worlds of psychology and mental health, with a dash of celebrity glamour.
In ‘How Do You Cope‘, Comedian John Robins sits down with well-known entertainers and others who are prominent in their fields, to discuss challenges they’ve experienced in their lives and how they have coped. Just to pick out a few I’ve enjoyed: comedian Sophie Willan discusses growing up in the care system, fitness coach Joe Wicks discusses what it was like being the child of an addict, and comedian Pierre Novellie describes his experience of an adult autism diagnosis. After each main episode, there is a short follow-up where the guest outlines their ‘gratitude list’ of things for which they are grateful. Robins does a great job of asking insightful questions that often take guests aback with their profundity and lead to some powerful emotional conversations. Overall, this is an ideal combination of entertainment and psychology.
