バイリンガルニュース (Bilingual News‪)‬ Michael & Mami

This is one of the best podcasts I had the chance to discover in 2014. In fact, it single-handedly made me go back to listening to podcasts on a regular basis, and, of course, it also helped me improve my Japanese listening skills. Mami and Michael are smart and fun hosts who guide you through the latest news, never afraid to share their personal views on the facts. I also love the choice of guests, who can get to talk about their lives and careers in and outside Japan, how they view themselves as having a non-Japanese parent or as having grown up in a country other than Japan, among other things. Hope they continue making more episodes!

The idea of the podcast is fantastic and could be used as a good tool to practice English and Japanese. However, the hosts usually don’t stick to their mother language and, as a consequence, the original purpose of the podcast is completely lost. It often turns into a English podcast, just like so many others in “podcast land”.