University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS) programs are designed to reach audiences across the lifespan.  Many individuals in the 20-50 age desire to learn about the topics FCS provides but do not attend traditional programming for a variety of reasons: they are too busy, too embarrassed, too intimidated, etc.  To bridge the gap for these individuals, we must pivot and offer research-based information in ways that reach all audiences across Kentucky. On average, 62 % of the US population have listened to podcasts. Out of these listeners, 50% of individuals aged 12-34 and 43% of individuals aged 35-54 have listened to a podcast within the last month.  

Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Agents in Caldwell, Christian, Hopkins, and Livingston Counties recognized the growing interest in Podcasts as a media outlet for educating and reaching new audiences. As a result, the group of FCS Extension Agents produced the Life Simplified Podcast.  

Life Simplified is designed to offer practical tips to assist listeners with applying research-based information to their everyday life. Life can be difficult, and the goal of this podcast is to make the difficult seasons of life a little easier. Agents do this by relating their real-life experiences to each podcast topic. The podcast is structured to focus on the following weekly topics: Mental Health, Physical Health, Resource Management, and Relationships/Parenting. 

Since the launch of the Podcast in January 2023 there have been twenty-seven episodes recorded, edited, and shared on the Life Simplified website. Life Simplified Podcast has been downloaded 804 times. The top five downloaded episodes are: Meet the Hosts-70, Reset Finances-60, Self-Care Reset 58, Reset Physical Health-45, and Organize Space-43.