30 Podcasts

Random Observation/Comment #563: This has been a year of listening to podcasts. I think I’m an official podhead.

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Why this List?

Podcasts are a part of my daily commute. I’m submerged in this audio world of commentary, interviews, and careful dictation. From inspirational thoughts on how to improve my productivity to 3 brothers and a father playing D&D together, it’s all really really good. If I didn’t like reddit so much, I’d say this is my favorite medium.

Exploring Podcasts

This list was written roughly in the order that I was exposed to them. I used to just binge listen to all old episodes for weeks and then get mad that I had to wait a week for updates (cough: Welcome to Nightvale). But now I’m expanding, keeping offline, and actually looking forward to my commute time to catch up across the podcast universe.

  1. Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me – still one of my favorite ways to test my news browsing/reading of the week
  2. Serial – Season 1 got me hooked, but I lost interest in Season 2
  3. Freakonomics Radio – One of my earliest subscriptions and I absolutely love the thought-provoking content, but I’ll be honest – I don’t subscribe to these on a daily basis. I’d often rather listen to something silly.
  4. How To Do Everything – NPR at its best. It took me 3 weeks to listen to all of them
  5. Welcome to Nightvale – one of my faves, but took a few episodes to get used to the comedy. Took me 2 weeks to listen to all of them.
  6. Hello From the Magic Tavern – Following since episode 20. Super funny and love the improv hooks.
  7. The Art of Charm – At first this was advertised as a way to pick up women, but then it evolved into gaining confidence and improving in all aspects of life.
  8. This Week in StartUps – I’m somewhat annoyed at the air of arrogance when listening to this, but the questions and content are on point
  9. Stuff You Should Know – I’ve been reading howstuffworks.com since Computer Center at Cooper. This was a logical continuation of my obsession.
  10. The Adventure Zone – D&D under an hour without the random drunken non-plot advancing stuff from other D&D podcasts. I’ve also grown to love the different characters like Taco and Magnus Burnsides.
  11. Shmanners – I started listening to this from the very beginning (and became one of their first 100 followers). It was from an advertisement on The Adventure Zone (done by the same family of people) and I really like how it generally talks about not being awkward in general grown up situations. I wish I knew some of these when I was growing up.
  12. The Mortified Podcast – Cringeworthy laughter. I wonder whatever happened to my old writing…
  13. Modern Love – Started following this from the beginning and the first episode with the fish deflowered me to crying from a podcast. I’ve been a fan ever since.
  14. Hidden Brain – Took me 3 weeks to listen to all of them. I personally got hooked on the back and forth clever banter in the 60 seconds lightning rounds. I also like how he says Shankar Vedantam.
  15. HBR IdeaCast – I don’t remember how I got hooked to this, but I always like podcasts that are less than 30 minutes and cover great material.
  16. The Innovation Engine Podcast – Related to HBR and Hidden Brain, this podcast is really clever in hosting content about their lessons learned from being service providers.
  17. Star Talk Radio – Sometimes I’ll just listen to this to hear Neil’s velvet voice, but other times I listen to it to feel dumb
  18. Invisibilia – Late bloomer to this, but took me 1 week to listen to all the episodes. Beautiful stories with some deep twists. I think I heard it first from TED, but never fully subscribed until June 2016 for Season 2.
  19. Imaginary Worlds – Took me 2 weeks to catch up. I am a big fan of sci-fi and this one just takes it to the next level. It’s nicely grounded to the real world.
  20. Surprisingly Awesome – Took me 2 weeks to catch up. Concrete is pretty cool.
  21. You are Not So Smart – Another one of those random interesting podcasts interviewing experts that may not be normally interviewed
  22. Tim Ferris Show – Haven’t caught up to this and likely won’t. I enjoy his diverse formats and especially the drunk dialing.
  23. Startup Podcast – I love how meta this podcast is because it’s more or less the braindump of concerns from a C-suite individual learning from its growing pains.
  24. Science Vs – Season 1 and 2 are pretty cool. I like the debunking and horn noises that’s used.
  25. Ask Me Another – As with all game show podcasts, it does take a few episodes to get into it, but then it’s pretty great. I don’t think I’ll catch up to this one, but I like how it’s not always about the recent news.
  26. Heavyweight – The image above is what I drew from a roadtrip listening to the first episode. The host is neurotic and reminds me of Larry David.
  27. Epicenter – I’ve added this recently for work around bitcoin and interviews with some interesting members. It’s almost 10 episodes behind on stitcher, so… wtf stitcher.
  28. Sleep With Me – I’ve only heard a few episodes, but I really like it. There’s a lot of non-sense in here that’s pretty funny. I only recently heard one of these episodes in full from front to end (before falling asleeping)
  29. Revisionist History – I haven’t heard a lot of these episodes, but Malcom Gladwell is a pretty interesting personality
  30. The Weeds – for those interested in the political side of things. I’m not really a big fan of hearing people complain, but this distills it pretty well

~See Lemons Love Podcasts