5 Podcasts Every Artist and Art Lover Should Be Listening To

These are weird times to be trying to be a person who likes to learn.

Sitting down with a 500-page book sounds lovely in theory. You imagine yourself with a cup of coffee, a quiet afternoon, maybe a little bookmark sticking out of the pages. Then real life happens. There are emails to answer, work to finish, messages to reply to, errands to run, and approximately 47 things competing for your attention at any given moment.

And then there is the other option: doomscrolling.

You open Instagram or TikTok for “just five minutes” and, somehow, forty minutes later, you have watched a woman reorganize her kitchen, three people make pasta, a video about a celebrity you don’t even know, and approximately 17 reels that you will never remember again.

So what do we do when we want to keep learning, stay connected to art, and actually put something interesting into our brains, without necessarily sitting down for a three-hour reading session?

Podcasts might be one of the nicest answers.

They don’t demand your complete attention in the way a book does. You can listen while commuting, cooking, cleaning your studio, going for a walk, getting ready in the morning, or simply lying in bed pretending you are going to sleep early. And unlike mindless scrolling, a good podcast can leave you with an artist you want to look up, an idea you want to explore, or a completely new way of looking at something you thought you already understood.

For artists especially, podcasts can also become a kind of informal education. You hear other artists talk about their process, failures, careers, doubts, influences, exhibitions, and the strange realities of trying to make a living from creativity. You begin to realize that there isn’t one correct way to be an artist.

So, if you want to replace at least some of your scrolling time with something that actually feeds your creative brain, here are five art podcasts worth adding to your routine.

1. The Great Women Artists — Katy Hessel

If you are interested in women artists, this is probably the most obvious place to start.

Hosted by art historian and curator Katy Hessel, The Great Women Artists grew out of her Instagram project of the same name, which she started in 2015. The podcast launched in 2019 with the same mission: bringing the work and stories of women artists into conversations that have historically been dominated by men.

And there is a lot to explore.

Rather than simply giving you a biography of an artist, Hessel often brings artists, curators, writers, historians and other art-world figures into conversations about the women artists who matter to them. The result is much more personal than a traditional art-history lecture.

Over the years, she has spoken to and about artists ranging from Marina Abramović and Tracey Emin to Barbara Kruger, Dorothea Tanning and countless artists whose names you may not have encountered before. Her guests also include writers and cultural figures, so the conversations aren’t limited to studio practice alone.

What makes the podcast particularly enjoyable is Hessel herself. She has an infectious enthusiasm for art, and the conversations feel accessible even if you aren’t someone who has studied art history formally.

It is also a great podcast to dip into randomly. You don’t have to start from episode one. Pick an artist you already love, or choose an unfamiliar name and see where the conversation takes you.

The podcast is available to listen to for free on platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as through Hessel’s website.

Best for: discovering women artists, art history, feminist art, and finding artists you somehow can’t believe you didn’t know about already.

2. Stories of Art — HENI

If you like your art history with a little more storytelling, Stories of Art is for you.

Produced by HENI, the podcast brings together art historian Dr. James Fox and art critic Alastair Sooke. The two explore the lives of major artists, the stories behind famous works, important turning points in art history, and the sometimes surprising circumstances surrounding the people who made the art.

This is not really a “quick facts about famous paintings” kind of podcast. The episodes go properly into the stories.

One of the things that makes it especially interesting is the way the hosts connect artworks to the lives and circumstances of their makers. Recent episodes, for example, have explored artists including Alberto Giacometti, Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh, often through multiple episodes rather than trying to squeeze an entire life into 40 minutes.

And there is another reason art lovers might enjoy this one: it is available as a video podcast too.

You can listen to Stories of Art through Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but HENI also makes the episodes available to watch. This is particularly useful because when an artwork is being discussed, you can actually see what they are talking about rather than having to pause everything and Google the painting yourself.

The podcast is a relatively new addition to HENI’s catalogue, beginning in 2026, but it already has dozens of episodes and is updated regularly.

Best of all, it is free to watch and listen to.

Best for: art history, famous artists, masterpieces, hidden stories, and anyone who wants their art education to feel more like a really good conversation than a textbook.

3. The Love That Loves You Back

This one feels a little different from the others, and that is exactly why it deserves a place on the list.

The Love That Loves You Back comes from First Floor Gallery Harare and is hosted by Valerie Kabov and Jonathan Freemantle. The two have been talking about painting for years, and the podcast grew out of those conversations.

The focus is contemporary art, but particularly the ideas, conversations and realities surrounding painting and the art world.

And because the hosts are themselves deeply involved in the art world, the conversations don’t feel like someone standing outside the subject explaining it to you. They feel more like listening in on an ongoing discussion between people who genuinely spend their lives thinking about art.

Episodes have covered everything from portraiture and artistic practice to art criticism, art fairs, access and opportunity, cultural identity, success, mentorship and the realities of building an art career.

There is also a refreshing amount of space given to artists from Africa and beyond. Guests and conversations often bring in perspectives that can be missing from more mainstream Western art podcasts.

The podcast began in 2024 and is available for free through Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms, with episodes also available online.

If you are an artist yourself, this is one worth listening to when you want to think beyond simply “how do I make better work?” It asks bigger questions about what it means to participate in an art world in the first place.

Best for: contemporary art, painting, criticism, art-world conversations, and hearing perspectives from outside the usual Western art-history canon.

4. Honest Art with Jodie King

Not every artist needs another lecture about art history. Sometimes you need someone to tell you how to actually survive being an artist.

That is where Honest Art Podcast with Jodie King comes in.

Hosted by Australian abstract artist and art educator Jodie King, the podcast is much more focused on the practical and emotional side of having a creative career. Her episodes cover making art, finding your creative voice, overcoming creative blocks, building an art business, selling work, social media, galleries, money, confidence and all the uncomfortable things artists don’t always talk about.

The podcast launched in January 2023 and has since grown into a substantial library, with more than 160 episodes.

One thing I particularly like about this podcast is that it doesn’t pretend the artist’s life is just about waiting for inspiration and making beautiful things. There is a lot of discussion about the less glamorous side of creativity too: perfectionism, comparison, burnout, imposter syndrome, marketing, pricing your work and figuring out how to actually build a sustainable career.

And the topics are extremely practical.

There are episodes on everything from how to host your own art show to gallery representation, artist websites, selling art through Instagram and what to do when you’ve completely lost your creative momentum.

You can listen to it for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and full episodes are also available through Jodie’s website and YouTube.

It is particularly useful for emerging artists who are trying to figure out the part nobody necessarily teaches you in art school: what happens after you make the art?

Best for: emerging artists, creative careers, art business, motivation, creative blocks and anyone trying to turn their practice into something sustainable.

5. The Jealous Curator: ART FOR YOUR EAR — Danielle Krysa

And finally, we have ART FOR YOUR EAR, the podcast from Danielle Krysa, better known as The Jealous Curator.

This is the one to put on when you want art conversations to feel a little less formal.

Krysa started the podcast in 2015, inspired partly by her own experience studying art history. She has said that one of her favourite parts of studying art wasn’t necessarily the academic side, but hearing the stories behind artists: why they made certain decisions, what was happening in their lives, and the funny, strange and sometimes completely unexpected details surrounding their work.

That spirit runs through the podcast.

The show features conversations with contemporary artists about their practices, careers, inspirations, failures and everyday lives. It is less about presenting artists as distant, untouchable geniuses and more about getting to know the actual people behind the work.

And that can be surprisingly comforting.

You hear successful artists talk about uncertainty, weird career decisions, creative struggles, finding their voice, making a living and simply figuring things out as they go. For someone sitting alone in a studio wondering whether everyone else has their life together, that can be a very useful reminder.

The podcast began in 2015 and has a substantial back catalogue of interviews. The most recent episodes currently listed date from 2025, so while it isn’t updating as regularly as some of the newer shows on this list, there is a lot to go back and listen to.

Episodes are available to listen to for free through podcast platforms and The Jealous Curator’s website.

Best for: contemporary artists, studio stories, creative motivation, behind-the-scenes conversations and a little bit of art-world gossip.

Give Your Ears Something Good

There is something quite nice about making podcasts part of an ordinary routine.

You don’t need to announce that you are going to “study art history” every evening. You don’t need a perfectly quiet room, a notebook, or three uninterrupted hours. Put on an episode while you’re making breakfast. Listen to an artist interview while you’re working. Play an art-history episode on your commute. Take a walk with a podcast in your ears instead of opening another reel.

You might not remember every single thing you hear. That’s okay.

Sometimes learning is just collecting little pieces of information that stay somewhere in the back of your mind. An artist’s name. A story about a painting. A new perspective on creativity. A sentence that makes you look at your own work differently.

And maybe that is the best thing about podcasts: they make learning feel possible again.

In a world where our attention is constantly being pulled in a hundred directions, you can still make space for art. Sometimes, all you need to do is press play.