Best shows and podcasts to learn German

Austria's public broadcaster reads the daily news in slow, simplified German, ideal listening practice for early learners.

The Goethe-Institut's series with Ida, one short subtitled episode per hour of a German day, mixing grammar with the small things nobody teaches you about living here.

Germany's international broadcaster runs a full A1-to-C1 course on YouTube, including the drama series Nicos Weg, so you can keep climbing without ever leaving the channel.

Unscripted street interviews with people all over the German-speaking world, dual-subtitled in German and English so you can follow real speech long before you could handle it unaided.

Street interviews with real Austrians, subtitled in German and English, so beginners can follow authentic speech.

Unscripted, slowly spoken monologues about everyday life in clear Hochdeutsch, with gestures and repetition doing the work instead of translation.

Tobi works through one knowledge topic per episode with a child asking the questions, at the same gentle pace and clarity as the Maus.

The children's classic explaining how the world works — how a toilet is made, how Lego is made — in simple German with unusually clear pronunciation.

The Austrian daily's weekly podcast on living better: sleep, food, exercise, habits. Journalists and experts talk one question through per episode, in clear everyday Austrian German.

Cari and Manuel pick topics for learners and stop to explain the hard words as they go. Transcripts, vocabulary lists and the practice platform sit behind their membership.

The day's news read slowly for learners. You already know what happened, so instead of decoding the meaning you can listen to how it is said.

Longer general-knowledge episodes made for teenagers and young adults, so you get everyday German and a fair bit of slang along with the facts.

A channel dedicated to Austrian and German dialects, for when standard textbook German meets how people actually talk.

Pronunciation and authentic German pulled apart clip by clip, using films, series and news the way a teacher would in a lesson.

A German linguist taking on the things that stay hard at B2 and beyond: idioms, register, and writing that sounds like a native wrote it.

Two words an episode, each turned over in four example sentences, with a full transcript and vocabulary list. Slow, deliberate vocabulary building for the stretch above B1.

The German edition of the animated science channel. Made for Germans rather than for learners, but the animation carries so much of the meaning that it stays followable while the narration runs at full speed.

Austrian short-form comedy reels, colloquial German and current slang.

Everyday-life reels in casual Austrian German, good for picking up conversational rhythm.

Short, funny reels from an Austrian comedian, real everyday German at natural speed.