Listening to podcasts I find podcasts really helpful and enjoyable for learning English. I discovered them just a while after I started to study the language. Browsing the Internet for some useful listening material like audio books, I came across a website mentioning podcasts in English. I didn't have a clue what it was and tried out one called ESL podcast and was fascinated by how fun the learning can be. Despite the fact I was an intermediate student at the moment, I understood the most of what the host spoke, partly because he pronounced all the stuff at half the speed of normal speech. Then I switch to other podcasts with normal speed and even to ones for native speakers like Radiolab, Hidden brain and others. I don't know what podcasts came from, how they were invented. They might have emerged from radio shows, acquiring the ability to be saved on servers and downloaded any time by listeners. Nowadays, we can find a plethora of various podcasts on the Web, covering lots of topics, even fiction podcasts played by actors. One of them, called Homecoming has become a basis for a Netflix TV series.