The Longest Shortest Time

Hillary Frank created The Longest Shortest Time back in 2010 as a personal project about her rough experience with childbirth, and it became one of the first parenting podcasts to gain a serious following. After a five-year hiatus, the show returned with new episodes dropping every other Wednesday. Hillary brings her background from This American Life to the format -- these are not interview-and-advice episodes, they are carefully produced stories about the strange, hard, funny parts of raising kids and being raised by them. One episode might follow a parent dealing with an unexpected diagnosis during pregnancy; another might explore how a teenager navigates identity questions their parents never had to face. The storytelling is tight, the production is polished, and the show explicitly says you do not need to be a parent to listen. Recent seasons have expanded to cover reproductive health topics like birth control, consent, and menopause alongside traditional parenting content. With 275 episodes across its run, the back catalog alone is worth exploring. The show also offers a premium tier with ad-free listening and a companion series. If you want parenting content that feels more like narrative journalism than a how-to guide, this is probably the strongest option out there.