Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Escucho un podcast sencillo sobre cada temporada de mi serie favorita. - I listen to a simple podcast about each season of my favorite series.

Escucho already means I listen (1st person singular).
Yo escucho is also correct, but it adds emphasis, like I listen (as opposed to someone else).

In normal, neutral sentences, especially in Spain, people typically drop yo and just say Escucho.

Why is it escucho and not oigo? What’s the difference between escuchar and oír?

Escuchar = to listen (an intentional action)
- Escucho un podcast sencillo… = I listen to a simple podcast…
Oír = to hear (perceive sound, not necessarily on purpose)
- Oigo un ruido = I hear a noise.

In your sentence, you’re actively choosing to listen to a podcast, so escucho is the natural verb.
In Spain, oír would sound wrong here unless you mean you just happen to hear the podcast in the background.

Why is it un podcast sencillo and not un sencillo podcast?

Most adjectives in Spanish go after the noun:

un podcast sencillo = a simple/easy podcast (neutral, normal word order)

Putting sencillo before the noun (un sencillo podcast) is grammatically possible but unusual here and can sound stylistically marked, poetic, or emphatic.

For everyday speech, noun + adjective (podcast sencillo) is the standard order.

Why is sencillo used here? Could I say fácil or simple instead?

All three are understandable, but there are nuances:

sencillo: simple, straightforward, not complicated. Very common and natural to describe language level or style.
fácil: easy (focus on how easy it is for you).
simple: simple, but can sometimes sound a bit more negative (overly simple, simplistic), depending on context.

Un podcast sencillo is a very natural, positive way to say the podcast is straightforward and not too complex, especially for learners.
Un podcast fácil focuses more on it being easy for you.
Un podcast simple is OK but slightly less common in this context.

What gender is podcast in Spanish? Why un and not una?

In Spain, podcast is almost always treated as masculine:

un podcast, el podcast, este podcast.

The Royal Spanish Academy recommends el pódcast (masculine, with an accent), plural los pódcast, but in practice you’ll see podcast without an accent and still masculine.

Una podcast sounds wrong to most speakers.

Why do we use sobre to mean “about” here? Could I use de or acerca de?

In this sentence:

sobre cada temporada de mi serie favorita = about each season of my favourite series.

sobre is very commonly used in Spain to mean about / on the topic of.

Alternatives:

de cada temporada de mi serie favorita – also correct and very natural.
acerca de cada temporada de mi serie favorita – correct, a bit more formal or “schoolbook-ish”.

Here, sobre and de would both sound perfectly normal. acerca de is fine but slightly more formal.

Why is it cada temporada and not todas las temporadas? What’s the difference?

cada temporada = each season, one by one; emphasizes the idea of going season by season.
todas las temporadas = all the seasons as a whole group.

Your sentence:

…sobre cada temporada de mi serie favorita
suggests the podcast has content dedicated to each individual season (e.g., one episode per season).

If you said:

…sobre todas las temporadas de mi serie favorita
it would sound more like a general podcast about all the seasons overall, not necessarily season-by-season.

Could the sentence be Escucho un podcast sencillo de cada temporada…? Does de mean something different from sobre here?

de and sobre can overlap, but here the nuance changes:

…un podcast sencillo sobre cada temporada…
= a podcast about each season (the content discusses each season).
…un podcast sencillo de cada temporada…
can sound more like one simple podcast for each season (as in: one episode per season, belonging to that season), or a bit ambiguous.

To clearly mean “about each season,” sobre cada temporada (or de cada temporada) is best.
In practice, sobre keeps the focus on topic, de is slightly more flexible (topic, origin, belonging).

Why is it mi serie favorita and not mi favorita serie?

Most adjectives in Spanish go after the noun:

mi serie favorita = my favourite series (natural, standard)
mi favorita serie is ungrammatical.

The correct order is:

possessive
- noun
  - adjective
    → mi serie favorita, mi libro favorito, mis películas favoritas.

Favorito/favorita must also agree in gender and number:

mi serie favorita (serie = feminine, singular)
mi programa favorito (programa = masculine, singular)
mis series favoritas (plural feminine).

Why temporada and not estación for “season”?

Spanish uses different words for different kinds of “season”:

temporada = season of a TV show, sports season, sales season, etc.
- la primera temporada de la serie = the first season of the series.
estación = season of the year (spring, summer, etc.) or train/bus station.
- las cuatro estaciones = the four seasons (of the year).

For a TV series, you must use temporada.
Estación would be incorrect in this context.

Could I say Estoy escuchando un podcast sencillo… instead of Escucho un podcast sencillo…? What’s the difference?

Both are correct, but the nuance differs:

Escucho un podcast sencillo…
→ can express a habit: I (regularly) listen to a simple podcast…
It can also be used for something you’re doing now, especially in context.
Estoy escuchando un podcast sencillo…
→ focuses on an action right now / currently in progress: I’m (in the middle of) listening to a simple podcast…

In Spanish, the simple present (escucho) is used more often than in English for habits and sometimes even for actions happening now, especially if the context makes it clear.

If you want to match English I’m listening… (right now), Estoy escuchando… is the closest equivalent.

Do I need the un? Can I say just Escucho podcast sencillo…?

You need the un here. Spanish usually requires an article with singular countable nouns:

✅ Escucho un podcast sencillo…
❌ Escucho podcast sencillo… (sounds wrong/unnatural)

Without un, podcast would sound more like a mass noun, which it isn’t in this context. So keep un.

How do you make podcast plural in Spanish? Would the sentence change if there were several podcasts?

For plural, there are two accepted forms:

los pódcast (invariable plural, preferred by the RAE)
los podcasts (with -s, very common in practice)

In Spain, you’ll hear both. To talk about several podcasts, you’d say:

Escucho unos podcasts sencillos sobre cada temporada de mi serie favorita.
or
Escucho unos pódcast sencillos sobre cada temporada de mi serie favorita.

Notice the changes:

un → unos
podcast → podcasts / pódcast
sencillo → sencillos (to agree with the plural noun)

Could I use programa instead of serie or podcast? What’s the difference between podcast, programa, and serie?

They refer to different things:

podcast: the audio program you listen to (like on Spotify, iVoox, etc.).
serie: a series (usually TV or streaming; episodes and seasons).
programa: a broader word for a show/program (radio or TV).

Your sentence:

Escucho un podcast sencillo sobre cada temporada de mi serie favorita.
→ I listen to a podcast about each season of my favourite series.

If you changed it to:

…de mi programa favorito,
it would be “my favourite show/program” instead of “series,” which is a bit vaguer and not necessarily divided into seasons.

You wouldn’t normally replace podcast with programa here, because podcast specifies the format (on-demand audio), while programa is more general.