I recently found myself talking two of my favorite subjects: podcasts and personal finance (nerd, much?). I found myself speaking about them because I was raving about one of my favorite podcasts that focuses on money, Bad With Money with Gaby Dunn!

Gaby’s podcast is a refreshing entry into the money podcasts genre. She approaches subjects that can seem super basic, but always finds a way to entertainingly engage the listener. Beyond that she shares some of her own struggles with money management in the past, and some key takeaways from her learnings. I highly recommend Gaby’s Bad With Money podcast to anyone just entering the personal finance world, and for veterans if you want a little humor along with your financial knowledge!

Expanding beyond the podcast world, Gaby is actually publishing the ‘Bad With Money‘ book (“The Imperfect Art of Getting Your Financial Sh*t Together“) on January 1st of 2019 (preorder link)! Gaby’s podcast is now 55 episodes in and I eagerly await each and every download! So much so that I desperately want to share it with the world, so here we go… My top 5 favorite episodes (so far):

1. Start from the beginning: Episode #1 – Jagged Little Bills

The first season of Bad With Money has a markedly different tone than the latter seasons. With a much more personal take, Gaby explores her relationship with money, how it came to be, and what forces had influence over its formation. She is honest, raw, and (at times) heartbreakingly real about her bank account, credit card bills, student loan debt, etc. It’s like getting a peak inside your besties’ finances… you’re dying of curiosity and sometimes cringe at the results, but I think there needs to be a lot of applause for Gaby’s openness and honesty on such a tough subject.

2. Get into the darker stuff: Episode #36 – What If You’re F*cked? (aka No, Seriously — What Then?)

Speaking with a variety of guests about what happens when the worst happens, Gaby uses this episode to show a darker side of personal finance. Delving into long-term freelance work, identity theft, and how mental illness and substance abuse recovery can affect finances, this episode is heavy but great.

3. The darker stuff continued?: Episode #47 – The M-Word (aka Amazon)

This episode spoke to me on a deeply personal level. I’m an Amazon Prime member and use it fairly often… but often have thoughts of what the economic impact of such a convenience is. Probing the American consumer experience and how the retail giant has affected it, Gaby shows off her journalism chops in this one.

4. How to pass it on: Episode #48 – Health is Wealth (aka Personal Finance Education)

I love a lot of Gaby’s episodes that bring on a variety of guests to talk about a central theme with varying viewpoints. This one speaks to the ways we can learn (and teach!)  about personal finance from a younger age. I empathized with some of those learnings, as I think my mother did an excellent job introducing money and some of its related tasks when I was a kid; however, I also picked up on some tips to hopefully employ in the future. I can’t count the number of friends and coworkers who have said something along the lines of, “Why don’t they teach this in school?!” and this episode tackles that very idea.

5. An alternative viewpoint: Episode #12 – The New American Dream

Back to one of the oldies but goodies, this episode talks about how “the American dream” is interpreted by a woman who grew up as an immigrant without a lot of expendable income and how that affected her career and financial choices growing up and starting the journey of “adulting.”

You can find Bad With Money on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, on the Panoply Network, and anywhere else podcasts are broadcast (I happen to love Overcast).

Need some more podcast recommendations? We’ve got this post, this post, and you can see a whole ‘favorite podcasts’ section on this page!