Your Weekend Travel Podcast Essentials

This weekend is forecast to be the "most traveled Independence Day holiday," ever. Whether you're driving around the country, heading across town for a cookout, or plotting a mental vacation, spend your travel time wisely and treat your ears to some new podcast finds from NPR.

It's Been A Minute with Sam Sanders: Lena Waithe

Did you binge-watch the second season of Master of None faster than you would have liked? Catch host Sam Sanders talking to producer, writer, and actor Lena Waithe about microwavable pork rinds, powerful storytelling by people of color, and writing and acting with Aziz Ansari.

Invisibilia: Reality

Depending on the length of your road trip, you might just begin to question reality. Follow hosts Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin as they set out to find how it's possible for two people to look at the same thing, but see two different realities. After-episode philosophizing guaranteed.

Wow In The World: Comets, Ice Age, And Human Civilization

Traveling with kids? Connect, look up and discover the wonders in the world with hosts Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas. Join them as they explore why North America was once covered in ice, and how a comet strike helped to shape our planet as we know it.

Hidden Brain: Me, Myself, and IKEA: What Our Love For Swedish Furniture Says About Narcissism

People who share the same birthday are slightly more likely to get married to one another. People named Carpenter are more likely to be carpenters. Those with the last name Baker are more likely to be bakers... and so on. In this episode of Hidden Brain, host Shankar Vedantam explores the IKEA effect: humans' preference for things that are made by and associated with us.

Code Switch: A Prescription For "Racial Imposter Syndrome"

Ever find yourself in a conversation about race and identity where you just get... stuck? Hosts Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby examine feeling fake, or inauthentic, in given identities, along with bi-racial and multi-cultural listeners who shared their own views.

How I Built This: Chef José Andrés

Stressing out about what to bring to your holiday cookout? Work on that potato salad while drawing inspiration from host Guy Raz's interview with Chef José Andrés. As a kid, José Andrés tended fires for his father's backyard paella cookouts. Later, he trained with the best Spanish chefs, and began building a restaurant empire that would transform the way many Americans dine out. By the end of this episode, you may ditch the potato salad in favor of paella.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: When To Break Up With Culture And Advice With Mallory Ortberg

Developing a healthy culture and media consumption diet can present a real challenge. Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson, Linda Holmes and special guests Mallory Ortberg and NPR's Audie Cornish talk about when you hang in with culture until the very end—and when you should quit. "Don't date somebody who thinks that your preference in TV or movies is the same thing as a character trait," quips Mallory.

Emily Sullivan is NPR's summer 2017 social media communications intern.