Podcasts are a huge thing right now and I never really got it. I think it’s because I’m impatient. I’m also a very visual learner. I have to see things to learn them, and often even write them down.

But lately I’ve been spending a lot of time in a van.

A. LOT. OF. TIME. Seriously upwards of 30 hours a week.

And while our van is a loose democracy, the general rule is that the driver gets to pick what we listen to and I drive about 80% of the time. Since I’m a benevolent dictator (which is what I really mean by loose democracy), I occasionally let the others play their music and one of the girl’s in the van loves podcasts.

She got us all hooked on Serial and a podcast called Nightvale. Which made me think… maybe it’s time to give podcasts another try. I mean, I know they are a thing. I know quite a few podcasters.

So this is the start of a new series that’ll have updates whenever I feel like it (so PODCAST MONDAY!! could just as easily become PODCAST FRIDAY!!) about great personal finance podcasts that you should check out – even if you’re like me and have no patience for podcasts.

Not gonna lie, I also don’t mind that I’m pretty much shoving personal finance lessons down my cast’s throats. So far day one of personal finance podcast listening has provoked quite a few interesting conversations in the van.

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you podcast number 1: Listen, Money Matters

I started out by going back to their first ever podcast: Introducing the Listen Money Matters Podcast.

It’s simultaneously impressive, amusing and alarming that hosts’ initial entrepreneurial schemes were in porn – while in junior high, but it definitely sets the tone for the type of podcast they have. Often irreverent and solidly R-rated for language, they tackle a wide variety of topics in a way that sort of reads as a teaser for upcoming episodes throughout.

Andrew and Matt give off a really personable vibe and clearly play off each other really well with their odd-couple-esque approaches to money. You learn very quickly that you might not want to trust any advice from Matt, but he definitely gets where all the reluctant savers and in-debt-up-to-their-eyeballs folks are coming from and Andrew manages to make good advice not sound obnoxious.

From there we moved on to episode 2: How to Save Money and Automate It

I totally agreed with their premise and heaven knows I advocate the heck out of Mint as well (I mean, I even wrote an entire post about how you should take the one week challenge and set it up).

This was definitely the point where I thought their advice might be a little more basic than I really needed, but in a van full of five other people at varying financial points in their life, we wound up having a pretty good chat about whether or not you should ever trust internet security with your bank information, how to actually make a budget and the danger of overdrafting vs the benefits of automating your savings.

At this point, I let one of the girl’s in the van pick the next episode and told her to pick something in the middle of what they’ve released so far and she went with Taxes 101 with Johnny Horta.

Because she’s a psychopath. Seriously, taxes? Ugh.

Apparently somewhere along the way, there was a host change, but the dynamic is still awesome and thoroughly amusing.

Pretty much we spent the episode learning a lot about what you can’t do with taxes. Can’t say it was my favorite, but it never hurts to know all the things you can’t do. Additionally, it’s good to know who in the van does not get to pick the next random podcast.

Finally we rounded out our drive from Eugene, Oregon to Bremerton, Washington with episode with Should You Start a Side Business? Which was timely because I have also been discussing how to side hustle from time to time with the people of the van.

Should you start a side business was probably my favorite – again, there was a reference to being a porn-preneur as a child by Andrew, and it’s a favorite topic of mine anyway.

Ready to start listening? You can find their podcasts on iTunes for free or check out their website for additional posts (for you visual learners like me) and other great resources for sorting out your own money matters.