For advanced I would like to suggest 故事 FM – This is for native speakers – tons of episodes (over 800) and you get exposure to so many accents, as he interviews / lets people from all over China share their stories, many of which could be considered sensitive topics e.g; one episode a woman shares what it was like for her to have a same-sex marriage in China and how she had to keep it hidden – so I think its a very engaging podcast even if it’s a bit above my level. I think upper-intermediate could understand a good bit as well.

Thanks for sharing! I have that one on my watch list already, so I will take a closer look next time. Having video is a clear benefit in general, although I can’t really demand that when the article is about podcasts. Still a bonus, nevertheless! Thanks again for sharing!

This monthly podcast is also available in video form:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoccM613pT_b2Hu6eGiQX0iwGOhtWi8j0

Watching the video format is optional, but I it adds a bonus to her podcast — manually-annotated pinyin and transcription, so you can improve both your listening and reading skills.

Great, thanks! I’ve added it to my list of podcasts to check out!

Thank you for the recommendation! I checked out more than 50 podcasts when writing this article, but I somehow did not find 打个电话给你. I note there’s a whopping 419 episodes, which is big advantage in and of itself. I’ve added this to my list of podcasts to check out!

I’m not sure if you have recommended this podcast before, 打个电话给你 One Call Away Podcast, but I would like to leave it here as a recommendation any way! As an advanced learner, it is one of my favorite podcasts for a few reasons. It is completely in chinese, the episodes are about 40-50 min long, and the content is very engaging to me, and easy to follow. The episodes are spontaneous dialogues between the two female hosts, who talk mainly about daily life stuff, like their careers, relationships, trips, movies they watched, etc. Each episode is centered around a topic, and their conversations are always casual, funny, but also deep sometimes, and they often leave me thinking about something they mentioned. I never get bored mid episode and I often laugh with them. Given that their content itself is not really complex, I would say it’s suitable for intermediate learners too. Hope more learners can listen to it! (Transcripts are available too, through subscription)

What do you mean? Nothing in this article is sponsored. I listened through many episodes from all the podcasts mentioned here when writing this article and I did not need to pay for anything. Only MaoMi Chinese has some locked episodes, all the others are completely free, at least when I checked. Please note that I’m reviewing podcasts here, so if you go to their websites, there might very well be paid content behind a paywall. Most podcasts charge for transcripts, exercises and so on, but that’s not what I’m reviewing here. If you click the links on your phone or search for them on any podcast platform, you’ll find that almost everything is freely available!