I sit in a cubicle 50 hours a week, so to keep my sanity I listen to a massive amount of podcasts. It’s not something I can manage to do when I’m working on things that require a lot of mental horsepower, but anything repetitive and I tune in. I also tend to listen to them when I’m in the car rather than the radio or spotify or whatever music app you use. I probably go through 20-30 hours per week in content.
What makes podcasts so amazing is that they allow you to tune in to the most fascinating conversations happening around the world between peopel you would be unlikely to ever meet otherwise. And unlike tv interviews, there are no soundbites, talking points, or anything contrived. You get to listen in on multi-hour conversations as if you were in the room, with people that you otherwise would never get the chance to talk to, on pretty much any topic imaginable.
Do you want to hear about the life of artists, musicians, and celebrities? Hear behind the scene stories that the average person would never find? Check out Mark Maron. Do you like to talk about psychedelics, ancient architecture, and MMA, there’s a 3 hour Joe Rogan podcast to remedy that itch? If you just like to laugh, almost every major comedian today has their own podcast. No matter what you are in to, somebody is talking about it.
Podcasts give me the opportunity to learn vastly more in a week than I’d ever had the chance to do from the amount of time I have to devote to reading in an average week.
I talk about podcasts a lot, so a question I get a lot from friends is what do I listen to? I thought I would put together a list of my favorite below:
Current Events / History
- No Agenda – this is my all time favourite, but you need to give it 3 or 4 episodes. Lot of inside jokes and ongoing commentary and it make take a couple weeks, but it’s legitimately best one.
- Dan Carlin – Common Sense – great current events
- Dan Carlin – Hardcore History – arguably best podcast on internet. They’re basically incredibly fascinating history audiobooks.
- Slate’s the Gist – short current events and pop culture
Interview based
- Tim Ferris – good interviews wide variety of people
- James Altucher – good interviews, wide variety of people (also a daily podcast called Ask Altucher)
- WTF with Marc Maron – arguably the godfather podcast of interview shows. Mainly actor/comedian/musician interviews. Really fascinating if you like the guest
- Joe Rogan – good interview. I choose carefully which ones I listen to based on guest and their background. If the guest doesn’t interest you, don’t listen.
- Nerdist – good interview with celebs, actors, musicians, etc.
- Star Talk Radio – fun with Neil Degrasse Tyson on science
Story based
- Serial – Phenomenal podcast we discussed
- This American Life – awesome weekly one. Story based.
- Radiolab – same as this American life
- The Moth – people telling personal stories. Pretty interesting
- Reply All – similar to This American Life but only 20 minutes
- Love & Radio – Story based.
Finance / Entrepreneurship
- DH Unplugged – stock/finance podcast. Pretty dry.
- Mixergy – great interview show of entrepreneurs
- Smart Passive Income – mix interviews and solo shows on entrepreneurship
Fitness