Two podcasts to listen to this week: 'The Bright Sessions' and 'Call Your Girlfriend'

Do you love podcasts, but don’t know how to find new shows? Are you new to podcasts, and don't know where to start? Then this is the column for you.

Welcome to “Thanks for Listening” — a column about the absolute best podcast episodes to listen to this week according to two producers at KUOW who make podcasts for a living.

Every Monday, we'll both suggest a podcast that we really enjoy listening to and tell you why we like it. You’ll hear about shows that span (and overlap) a variety of topics and genres: investigative journalism, fiction, food, feminism, comedy, history, true crime, mental health, Harry Potter, and much more.

Here's this week's spring-filled suggestions:

Clare’s Pick: The Bright Sessions

Suggested Episode: Start from the beginning!

Length: About 20 minutes

Listen while: Sitting on your porch enjoying the longest days of the year.

Brainpower required: 4/5

Family friendly? Possibly. There’s some swearing, but largely OK for kids.

I tend to be skeptical of fictional podcasts, and it took me a long time to finally hit “subscribe” on The Bright Sessions. But I’m so glad I did, and here’s why: You’re listening in on therapy sessions... for people who have superpowers. I’m a sucker for genre fiction, and this is my favorite kind of genre fiction: It's not precious about its fantastical elements.

Instead, it builds a set of deep and relatable characters that also happen to have “abnormal abilities,” as the show calls them. There’s the 16 year old empath who struggles in school because he feels the emotions of his entire class. The shut-in 20-something who travels through time when she has panic attacks. Yes, they have superpowers, but that’s not all that makes them interesting. Often it isn’t even the most interesting thing about them. These characters and the mysteries of their world sucked me in immediately. The series finished recently, so I've been binge listening all week.

Caroline’s Pick: Call Your Girlfriend

Suggested Episode: Spring Books 2019

Length: 1 hour 10 minutes

Listen while: Pondering your reading list for the summer months to come.

Brainpower required: 3/5

Family friendly? No

Confession: I love reading more than I love listening to podcasts. A constant frustration for me as a podcast listener is my desire for a book-related podcast that closely aligns with my reading interests. Alas, that podcast does not exist yet, but the next best thing is an episode featuring talented writers talking about their work and giving great recommendations I would not have found otherwise.

Call Your Girlfriend, a chatty show co-hosted by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman and produced by Gina Delvac, is usually a conversational podcast about the news of the week. However, on this particular episode they brought in a diverse range of authors to talk about their work. Sow, Friedman and Delvac delve into poetry, a graphic novel about identity, friendship and more. I may have added a few of their books to my must-read pile.