Category: Podcasts

10 great podcasts right now

on-being-krista-tippett

Two years ago (wow, already) I wrote about my podcast habit-addiction and ranked them. But like travel destinations and coffee drinks and dive bars, your tastes are always changing.

Here’s my greatful 10; they reflect a growing interest in writing and literature; less tech and science, more spirit and faith.

A tip: treat a new podcast like a collection of short stories; instead of starting with the most recent episode, scan the archives and listen first to the guests and topics that interest you

Hope you like them; please share your favorites as well. Thanks!

1. Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin – intimate interviews of his show-biz friends; liked: Penn Jillette, Rosie O’Donnell, Judd Apatow

2. New Yorker: Out Loud – every episode is witty, fast, current; my favorite staff writer slash recurring guest is Adam Gopnik (for example)

3. The Joe Rogan Experience – raw, unfiltered, and unedited conversations hosted by a podcast pioneer; not for everyone; favorites include Eddie Huang and Randall Park, Russell Peters

4. Ben Greenfield Fitness – a trainer’s trainer, episodes are dense with science and data and he lives what he preaches; each episode covers so many topics that it’s hard to recommend one, but I enjoyed “Why strong people are harder to kill”.

5. On Being with Krista Tippett – soulful, kind, curious conversations; liked: Helen Fisher the dating and love expert.

6. a16z – because VC; techies love to save time, a16z wastes none; liked: Peter Thiel

7. The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith – an industry insider interviews interesting inventors (of films!); liked: Dallas Buyers Club, Nightcrawler

8. Longform podcast – writers talking to writers; liked: Buzz Bissinger, Eli Sanders

9. The Tim Ferriss Show – TimTim talktalk! Liked: Kevin Kelly

10. The New York Times Book Review – great hosts, great guests, great books

Scott Adams, the Dilbert guy, on why systems trump goals and passion is pointless

Scott Adams at work
Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert and a guy who has failed at many things in life and still won big.

He first came to my attention with this WSJ article which says to ignore passion and instead focus on building “systems” (which I interpret as creating good habits and applying them over time).

Then he was a guest on James Altucher’s podcast where he elaborated on the same themes. Scott is a funny, honest, successful and very quotable guy. Here are my notes from that podcast.

NOTES

  • on Dilbert
    • Dilbert started as a doodle during his day job at PacBell
    • he reached out to a famous cartoonist, who told him: “don’t give up”
    • he received endless rejections for Dilbert, including one that suggested he hire an artist to draw the cartoons!
    • he usually does 2 comics in the morning (in rough form), and spends the afternoon/evening on less taxing work (e.g., filling in the cartoons)
    • “a writer should have element of danger in their writing”
    • Dilbert provides employees a voice, making it harder for management to get away with ridiculous stuff
    • “the funnier something is, the more you can get away with”
  • goals are bullshit, live by systems/themes
    • why? 100 years ago, goals were simpler to set and execute (eg, a farmer’s goal to clear land by day’s end), but today goals are too complex, if you pick a goal and say “5 years from now, I want to achieve X”, what are the odds the world will be the same in 5 years? instead, improve odds in a general way, through the right systems
    • one part of his system is try lots of stuff; he has failed at many, many projects (including investing a minor fortune in Webvan in the late 90s)
    • another part is to maximize personal energy through diet and fitness
    • another part is combining skills (he isn’t the world’s best at anything, but he has decent drawing skills, decent writing skills, and a corporate insider’s stories/experience, together they make Dilbert unique)
    • on why after all the success, he still works hard: “don’t think there’s anything worse than getting rich and quitting”
    • have lots of ideas
      • “people can’t tell a good idea”
      • * “bad ideas have value” — they help you think of better ones, your ideas can cross-pollinate, “get to good ideas through bad ideas”
  • passion is pointless
    • you enjoy the things you succeed at, you get better with success (for example, when he got his first cartooning contract, his drawing skills went from abysmal to “not terrible”)

      • <-- I agree!!

    • “people are not great at knowing what they’re good at”
    • “passion comes from things that work”

Podcasts: new recommendations, favorite episodes, general thoughts

I wrote about my podcast habit more than a year ago. Since then, the podcasting world has grown and grown in variety and quality, and my subscription list has become so long that scrolling through has become tedious.

So, I took some time to create an updated list of recommended shows and favorite episodes, separated into the shows where I try my damndest to hear every episode (and fail), and shows where I dip in and out based on topic and guest.

And here are some overall favorite episodes:

  • Dan Carlin’s 5-part series on Ghenghis Khan and the Mongol Empire [link], still my all-time favorite
  • Phil Libin in Stanford’s ETL series [link], honest, thoughtful, unique opinions
  • TED Radio Hour’s To The Edge episode [link]
  • Tim Ferriss’s interview with Kevin Kelly [link], what an awesome thinker and writer
  • Jason Calacanis’s interview with Mark Suster, post-Maker Studios acquisition [link]
  • Freakonomics on why women are not men (more interesting than you’d think) [link]
  • Alec Baldwin talking to Rosie O’Donnell for Here’s The Thing [link]
  • The Fog of Disbelief on the Moth radio hour [link]
  • RadioLab’s The Black Box (you’ll want to hear the follow-up episode, too) [link]
  • RadioLab on why Kenyans dominate long-distance running [link]

Marc Maron with Robin Williams(and this very sincere, unplugged Marc Maron interview of Robin Williams)

Random podcast thoughts:

Like radio, its de facto predecessor, in podcasting current news and non-fiction dominate, but I’d like to see more fiction — short stories, plays, dialogues, excerpts of novels, etc. Maybe I haven’t searched thoroughly enough…

The go-to format is a host who interviews a new guest for each episode. Of my 13 favorites, 7 of them are of this interview Q&A variety, which has its limitations. I prefer the quirkier solo shows, like Dan Carlin’s and Nigel Warburton’s…but I’m sure podcasters will continue to experiment here

Podcasting is not a lucrative business. From what I understand of radio, national syndication is where you start to see big bucks. I’ve noticed more sponsorships and ads in professionally produced podcasts (eg, the BS Report, NPR Planet Money) but advertising needs massive viewership for massive dollars. Subscription and pay-per-episode models are uncommon and mostly voluntary. And the podcast patent infringement lawsuit against Adam Carolla revealed that most podcasters make so little money that it’s not worth a patent troll’s time lol

I would LOVE a podcasting app that allows you to press a button and instantly clip a 10-15 second chunk of a particular episode, for personal reference or to share. Also note-taking is cumbersome and involves switching between apps, but I assume that’s a niche problem…

Here’s the list of recommended shows. Thanks for reading y’all!

Podcast recommendation: Planet Money!!

Planet Money podcastIf you like podcasts, check out Planet Money.

I started a few weeks ago and was immediately hooked. It’s fast (around 15-25 minutes), fun (the reporters enjoy their work, I love Zoe Chace’s voice), and you learn interesting things about the big, hairy, sometimes secretive world of money.

I’ve been working my way through the archives. Some favorites:

  • The One-Page Plan To Fix Global Warming [link]
  • Top Of The Charts [link]
  • Will A Computer Decide Whether You Get Your Next Job? [link]

Thanks to Lily and Haomiao for the recommendation.

Here’s more on podcasts.