Podcast Corner: Unpacking the theme music to some of your favourite shows

An episode of Switched On Pop looks at some of those familiar tunes and jingles that open your favourite podcasts

Tue, 29 Jul, 2025 - 01:00

Eoghan O’Sullivan

There’s something comforting about pressing play on your favourite podcast and hearing the familiar intro music playing, whether it’s Corduroy by “our friends from Pearl Jam” on The Bill Simmons Show or, closer to home and amid similarly familiar sporting soundbites, My God is the Sun by Queens of the Stone Age soundtracking Second Captains.

That’s not to mention all of the original music that has been created for myriad podcasts over the last decade plus. The jingles that intro Serial and Welcome to Night Vale sound like old friends and feature on episode 429 of Switched on Pop - ‘How podcasting got its sound’. A podcast about the making and meaning of popular music hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding, we’ve featured this show in the past and it’s one of those that’s always great to dip into - you always learn something.

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