The 17 Best Walking Podcasts (2026)

Dave Paul records every episode of Walking is Fitness while he himself is out walking, and that simple decision shapes the whole show. You hear footsteps. You hear wind sometimes, or a passing car, or a bird. It feels less like a produced podcast and more like a friend calling you up to keep you company on your own walk. Episodes run about 15 minutes, which is the perfect length for a quick loop around the block or the back half of a longer route when you need a little push to finish. Dave talks about why walking works as exercise, shares small form tips, covers research on step counts and heart health, and spends a lot of time reminding listeners that showing up every day matters far more than chasing some ideal pace or distance. The tone is friendly, never preachy. He is clearly someone who walked his way into better health and wants other people to know it is possible. New episodes drop daily, so there is always something fresh queued up. If you are trying to build a walking habit and want a voice in your ear that actually understands what you are doing, this one earns its spot on the playlist.

Helen Ryan designed this show to do one job, and it does it well: get you out the door and keep you moving. Each episode is built like a guided workout for walkers, with Helen cuing you through warmups, pace pickups, and cool downs while chatting about whatever is on her mind. Sometimes that is motivation for beginners who have been stuck on the couch. Sometimes it is how to walk consistently when life is falling apart. Sometimes it is mindset stuff about progress versus perfection. Helen has written books on walking for weight loss and she is refreshingly honest about her own ups and downs, which makes the advice land harder than the usual fitness platitudes. You can follow along indoors on a treadmill or outside on a sidewalk, and the cues work either way. Episodes usually land in the 20 to 30 minute range. It is the kind of podcast you queue up when you don't feel like walking but know you should, and within five minutes her voice has you past the hardest part of starting. A quiet standout in the guided walking category.

Carolyn Cohen built Wellness While Walking around a single idea: the walk itself is the appointment. She hosts the show as if she is out there with you, and episodes are paced so you can actually finish one on a normal 30 to 45 minute route. Topics jump around in the best way. One week it might be sleep hygiene, the next it is protein targets for women over 50, then gut health, then how to talk to your doctor about a nagging symptom. Carolyn reads research carefully and translates it without dumbing it down, and she is quick to flag when something is oversold or when the evidence is shakier than the headlines suggest. She also brings on guests who actually know their stuff, from registered dietitians to sleep researchers to physical therapists. What keeps people coming back is her voice. Warm, a little wry, never pushy about any one approach. She treats listeners like adults who can handle nuance. If you want company on your walk that leaves you a bit smarter about your own health, this show delivers week after week without ever feeling like homework.

Clare Balding has been walking the British countryside with interesting people since 2007, and Ramblings is the beautifully produced BBC Radio 4 show that captures those conversations. Each episode runs about 23 minutes and follows Clare as she hikes through different parts of the UK with a guest — authors, adventurers, app developers, people working through personal challenges — talking about whatever comes up naturally on the trail. The format embodies the Latin phrase "solvitur ambulando" (it is solved by walking), and you can hear how the physical act of moving together loosens conversation in ways a studio interview never could. With over 300 episodes and a 4.9-star rating from 149 reviews, the show has built a deeply loyal audience. What really makes Ramblings special is the ambient sound design. You hear footsteps on different terrain, wind through hedgerows, sheep in distant fields. It places you on that walk in a way that feels immersive rather than gimmicky. The guests come from wildly varied backgrounds, and Clare's interviewing style is warm but direct — she asks real questions and gives people room to answer honestly. Recent episodes have featured everything from discussions about literature and wildlife conservation to deeply personal stories about overcoming illness and loss. The show works equally well as something to listen to on your own walk or curled up at home when you wish you were out in the hills. It's one of the longest-running walking shows out there, and the quality hasn't dipped.

Carrie King created The Healing Mile for people who need their walk to be more than just movement — they need it to be medicine for their mind. This mindful walking podcast blends guided meditation, affirmations, and motivation into episodes that help you release stress, calm anxiety, and build confidence while you put one foot in front of the other. With 136 episodes and a perfect 5.0-star rating, the show offers real variety: full-length guided walks that run 20-plus minutes, quick "Mini Mile" resets for when you only have a few minutes, and evening unwind sessions for winding down after a long day. One detail listeners consistently praise is the absence of background music. Carrie's voice comes through clean and clear, and reviewers describe it as "down-to-Earth" without any of the breathy, new-age affectation you might expect from a meditation-style show. The sound quality is genuinely excellent, which matters when you're listening through earbuds on a busy street. The show runs ad-free, supported entirely through listener memberships and one-time contributions, so there are no jarring sponsor reads to break the mood. Carrie also sells companion guides and affirmation decks for people who want to extend the practice beyond their walk. She's currently working on Season 3 while re-sharing listener favorites from earlier seasons. If traditional walking podcasts feel too chatty for what you need, and pure meditation apps feel too passive, The Healing Mile occupies that sweet spot where movement and mindfulness meet without either one taking over.

Michelle Mahoney brings serious credentials to a format that feels anything but serious — she's coached Junior Olympic racewalkers, but Walk with Me sounds like you're out for a stroll with your most encouraging friend. Each episode runs about 35 to 40 minutes and is structured as a complete walking workout you can follow in real time. The variety keeps things fresh: some episodes are beginner-friendly, others push into HIIT walking intervals, and there are treadmill-specific sessions for bad weather days. Michelle also mixes in themed episodes where she'll chat about her European travels or share personal stories while guiding you through the workout, which keeps the format from feeling repetitive across her 54 episodes. Listeners call her a "virtual walking buddy" and praise her friendly, motivating banter — she has that rare ability to push you harder without making you feel nagged. The show aligns with CDC guidelines recommending 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, and Michelle is upfront about making exercise accessible to everyone regardless of fitness level. Her coaching background shows in the way she structures workouts — the pacing cues are clear, the warm-ups are proper, and the cooldowns don't get skipped. With a 4.2-star rating from 23 reviews on Apple Podcasts, she has a solid following of regular walkers who treat her episodes like their gym playlist. If you want actual guided walking workouts rather than just walking-themed conversation, this is one of the few podcasts that delivers structured training sessions you can follow step by step.

Frank S. Ring discovered walking's power the hard way — a severe back injury left him out of work for four months, and walking became his path back to both physical and mental health. He turned that experience into an Amazon bestselling book and then this podcast, which now has 38 weekly episodes covering everything from practical topics like foot care and stretching to bigger questions about mindfulness and goal-setting. Frank's approach is refreshingly measured. He's not trying to get you to run a marathon or overhaul your entire life. He talks about consistency, accountability, and the kind of small daily habits that compound into real change over months and years. Recent episodes have tackled some surprisingly specific subjects — recovery after cancer treatment, nervous system regulation, and managing anxiety through deliberate walking practice. The topics range wide, but they all circle back to the same core idea: walking is the most accessible form of exercise on the planet, and most people dramatically underestimate what it can do for them. Frank's delivery is calm and conversational, more like a thoughtful mentor than a hyped-up fitness coach. He draws on his own recovery story frequently, which gives his advice a personal weight that generic health content often lacks. The podcast has a 4.3-star rating from listeners who appreciate his grounded, no-nonsense perspective. It's particularly well-suited for people starting from scratch or coming back from an injury who need encouragement without pressure.

Ricki Friedman records Steps Forward while she's walking, and the show captures that raw, unfiltered energy of someone literally working through their thoughts in motion. With 114 episodes released weekly on Mondays, the podcast covers personal growth, mental health, entrepreneurship, addiction recovery, and the messy, nonlinear process of becoming a better version of yourself. Ricki is radically honest about her own life — she's talked openly about experiences with Ayahuasca, plastic surgery decisions, and quitting Adderall — and that vulnerability is exactly what draws listeners in. Episodes range from quick 10-minute reflections to longer 38-minute deep conversations, all solo, all recorded during walks. The show carries an explicit content rating, which makes sense given how candid Ricki gets about personal struggles and trauma. She's also a life coach, and that professional perspective shows up in how she frames challenges — not as problems to fix but as experiences to learn from and move through. The 4.7-star rating across 84 reviews reflects a community that values authenticity over polish. Reviewers consistently highlight how relatable her stories are, particularly around entrepreneurial struggles and healing from difficult experiences. Steps Forward isn't really a walking fitness podcast — it's a personal development show that happens to be recorded while walking, and the walking itself becomes a metaphor for the forward momentum Ricki talks about. If you appreciate raw honesty and want someone who treats their daily walk as a form of therapy and creative processing, Ricki's energy is hard to match.

Katy Bowman holds a master's degree in biomechanics, and Move Your DNA is her long-running podcast about why human bodies need far more movement than most of us get — and why walking is the foundation of everything else. Running since 2014 with 200 episodes released monthly, the show pairs Katy with co-host Dr. Jeannette Loram, a biologist, and together they translate dense movement science into advice you can actually apply to your Tuesday afternoon. Walking comes up constantly because Katy sees it as the most fundamental human movement pattern, and she has strong, well-supported opinions about how modern life has stripped it away from daily routines. Episodes cover specific topics like knee health, winter movement strategies, and exercise recovery, but they always connect back to bigger questions about how our environments shape how we move. There are solo episodes, guest interviews, and listener Q&A segments that keep the format varied. With a 4.8-star average from 609 ratings, the audience is clearly engaged and loyal. What makes Katy's perspective different from a typical fitness podcast is her emphasis on natural, varied movement rather than structured workouts. She'll talk about why walking on uneven terrain matters more than logging miles on a flat treadmill, or why your shoes might be changing your gait in ways you'd never notice. The science is rigorous but the delivery stays accessible and often funny. If you've ever suspected that the way we live and sit and move is fundamentally at odds with what our bodies need, Katy will confirm that suspicion and give you practical ways to fix it.

London Walks is the oldest urban walking tour company on the planet, and their podcast translates that expertise into audio form with surprising effectiveness. The show covers London history street by street, and their Jack the Ripper content draws directly from decades of leading actual tours through Whitechapel. When a guide describes the corner where Mary Ann Nichols was found, they are standing on that corner regularly — and that physical familiarity with the geography comes through in the storytelling.

The format is short and varied. Most episodes run 10-20 minutes, covering a single location, person, or event from London's past. The Ripper episodes sit alongside pieces on Dickens, the Blitz, Sherlock Holmes, and dozens of other London subjects. With over 300 episodes updated daily, it functions almost like a London history encyclopedia in podcast form. The guides rotate, each bringing their own style — some theatrical, some academic, all clearly passionate about the city.

Rated 4.8 stars on Apple Podcasts, the show is particularly valuable for listeners planning a trip to London or wanting to understand the actual physical spaces where the Whitechapel murders happened. It is not a true crime podcast in the conventional sense, but it fills a gap that more traditional Ripper shows cannot: the lived, walked, breathed geography of 1888 London and how those streets have changed — or have not changed — in the century-plus since.

Emily Dean takes celebrity guests on actual walks with her Shih Tzu, Raymond, and the result is one of the most genuinely charming interview podcasts out there. The outdoor setting does something to people. Without the pressure of a studio and a microphone stand, guests open up in ways they usually do not. You get real conversation instead of rehearsed anecdotes.

The premise is simple: Emily and a guest walk together, Raymond trots along, and they talk about life. Past guests have included Anthony Horowitz, Jeremy Paxman, and a rotating cast of comedians, writers, and performers from the UK scene. Emily has a gift for making people comfortable. Listeners frequently point out that she lets guests steer the conversation naturally rather than forcing them through a rigid question list. Sometimes Raymond steals the show.

With over 340 episodes and counting, the back catalog is enormous. Episodes run 30 to 45 minutes, which makes them ideal for a brisk walk or a lunchtime stroll. The show is produced by Goalhanger and hosted on Acast, so the audio is reliably good. It carries a 4.7 rating on Apple Podcasts. There is something meta about listening to a walking podcast while you are walking yourself. You start to feel like a third person on the path, just keeping pace and listening in. Even if you have never heard of some of the UK-based guests, the conversations are engaging enough that it does not matter.

Rachel Wheeley built Walk the Pod around a simple promise: lace up, press play, and you'll get exactly ten minutes of gentle company. That's it. No long intros, no ad breaks that stretch into three minutes, no pretending every episode will change your life. Just a short walk with a friendly voice. For people who are trying to build a daily movement habit but keep bouncing off longer fitness podcasts, this format is almost cheating in how well it works. Ten minutes is short enough to fit into a lunch break, a school pickup, or that awkward gap between meetings. The back catalogue is enormous now, well over 500 episodes, which means you can string a few together on days you feel ambitious and still keep the bite-sized structure. Rachel's tone is calm and a little wry, more reassuring neighbour than drill sergeant. Topics range across wellbeing, slow living, small observations about the outdoors, and the occasional guided breathing prompt. It isn't trying to coach you into a marathon. The show assumes you already know walking is good for you and just needs someone to nudge you out the door without making a production of it. If you've fallen off your step goal more times than you can count, Walk the Pod is the easiest re-entry ramp I've come across. Start with one episode tomorrow morning. You'll probably queue up a second before you've finished the first.

Tatyana Simms takes one of the most unglamorous forms of exercise and asks the question most fitness content skips: what does the research actually say? Why Walking Matters works through peer-reviewed studies on cardiovascular health, cognition, blood sugar, joint wear, mood, and that 10,000-step number everyone quotes without knowing where it came from. Spoiler: it came from a Japanese pedometer marketing campaign in 1965. Episodes tend to run 20-30 minutes, which is the right length for a walk itself, and Tatyana's delivery is measured without being dry. She reads like someone who genuinely enjoys unpacking a study, not someone performing expertise. What sets the show apart from generic wellness content is the willingness to sit with nuance. When a study is small or funded by an athletic shoe company, she says so. When two papers contradict each other, she explains why. You won't walk away with a single miracle protocol. You will walk away understanding why a brisk 12 minutes after a meal does something different from a leisurely hour in the morning, and why both matter. With around 40 episodes so far, the back catalogue covers a surprising breadth: everything from walking and dementia risk to the specific mechanics of how pace changes hormonal response. Useful for anyone who wants evidence behind their movement habit rather than vibes.

Walk To Wellbeing is a British-made show built on a charming premise: record the conversation while the guest is actually walking. Host Richard Stebbing heads out with a rotating cast of coaches, therapists, GPs, and regular people working through their own health stories, and the background wind and footfall stay in the mix. It sounds like what it is. That audio texture does something interesting to the interviews. Guests tend to loosen up after the first ten minutes, and the conversations drift in the slightly meandering way real walk-and-talks do. Episodes hover around 30-45 minutes and cover topics like menopause, anxiety, grief, sleep, and the practical mechanics of rebuilding fitness after illness. The back catalogue is modest, roughly 33 episodes, so it won't swallow your week. Richard asks thoughtful questions without steering every answer toward a neat takeaway, which I appreciated. Some episodes are more memorable than others, as you'd expect from an indie production, but the best ones have a quiet honesty that polished studio interviews rarely match. It's the kind of podcast you queue up on a grey Sunday morning walk and find yourself still listening an hour later, headphones in, with no particular destination. Recommended if you prefer slow, human conversations over structured advice segments.

Jon Mooallem is a New York Times Magazine writer and the author of several books, which means you'd expect his walking podcast to be a polished essay series. It is not. The WALKING podcast is exactly what the title threatens: Jon turns on a microphone, walks somewhere (often a trail near his home on Bainbridge Island), and describes what he sees. Sometimes he narrates the trees. Sometimes he just breathes and you hear gravel under his boots for two minutes. Sometimes he has a small observation about a banana slug. That's the whole show. It started as a minor joke during the early pandemic and became a cult favourite among people who find most podcasts too loud, too produced, or too eager to sell them a mattress. There's no structure, no guests, no ads, no takeaway. Episodes drop irregularly and run anywhere from ten minutes to nearly an hour. What makes it work is Jon's actual voice, which is funny and self-aware without trying hard, and the willingness to let long silences stay in. Listening feels a bit like borrowing a friend's attention for a while. I'd recommend starting with any episode, really, since they're interchangeable by design. If you hate it after five minutes, you'll hate all of it. If you don't, you might find yourself subscribing for good.

LEJOG stands for Land's End to John o'Groats, the 1,200-ish mile walk from the southwestern tip of Cornwall to the northeastern tip of Scotland. It's the British long-distance hike, and thousands of people attempt some version of it every year. David Felton's LEJOGcast documents his own crossing in episodic form, mixing route notes, gear decisions, logistics for bed-and-breakfast stops, and the small miseries and joys of doing a multi-week walk through unfamiliar countryside. Only five episodes deep so far, which makes this more of a work-in-progress than a finished reference, but that's part of the appeal. David records with the raw urgency of someone who is currently sore, slightly behind schedule, and unsure whether the next pub has rooms available. If you're planning your own LEJOG, or any long-distance UK walk, this is invaluable because he gets into details other travel podcasts skip: how he planned resupply, which maps actually worked offline, where the waymarking goes vague, how his feet held up. Even if you have no intention of walking across Britain, there's something genuinely enjoyable about following one person's slow progress up the country, week by week. I'd recommend starting at episode one and letting it unspool. It's short enough to binge on a single weekend walk of your own.