Ask HN: What podcasts are you listening to? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What podcasts are you listening to?

73 pointsst3fan62 comments

What is on your playlist?

1. Undone (by Gimlet Media) : A one season show about less known historical happenings.

2. The Daily (by NYTimes) : A daily show covering what’s most important in the world on that day.

3. NPR Politics Podcast (by NPR) : Covers the political headlines of the US. They’re all really smart people who really know the ins and outs of politics.

4. FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast (by ESPN) : Mostly news about politics , but from a more data driven approach. Really funny too.

5. Pod Save America (by Crooked Media) : Hilarious talk show from a group of former Obama administration speechwriters. Obviously left and democratic leaning, but absolutely hilarious.

6. Pod Save The World (by Crooked Media) : A more serious show about American Foreign Policy.

7. Civics 101 (by NHPR) - The name says it all, but I want every American citizen to be locked in a chamber and forced to listen to this. Absolutely essential to understanding the basics of how the US government works.

8. The New Yorker Politics Podcast (by WNYC Studios/The New Yorker) : Really well rounded show, a recent episode on Mattis is a must listen.

If you like the above and want some high-level academic analysis on the legal/geopolitical aspects of the week's events:

- Foreign Policy's Editor's Round Table (ER)

- Lawfare

- Rational Security

All are conversations with thoughtful, and politically diverse experts speaking on timely topics a few times a week.

Going to throw this in here to keep all the left leaning stuff together. :)

Best of the Left -- progressive / liberal talk, twice a week collections on a single topic. Well narrated and produced. Warning. Very liberal.

You'd probably like 'The Good Fight' by Yascha Mounk

Just my "must listens" to keep it simple:

  - Planet Money
  - My Dad Wrote a Porno (NSFW, obviously, but wickedly funny)
  - Startup
  - Radiolab
  - Entreprogrammers (original, not the spinoffs)
  - The Daily (only when they aren't doing US politics)

No developer podcasts have engaged me enough for them to be must-listens every week though there are lots of good ones such as The Changelog and Developer Tea that I dip into time to time. The typical 1-2 hour interview format does not work for me at all, I need tight editing and some pace and structure around stories.

I can recommend:

The People's Pharmacy -- A pharmacologist and a medical anthropologist host an hour long show each week, usually on one medical topic (sometimes, a melange). Their guests are top notch experts, e.g. head of whatever cardiological at the Cleveland Clinic (one of the top cardiovascular centers in the U.S.). They also cover topics/changes sometimes years before they filter into "general knowledge" and reporting. Such as the problems with statins. Or, lately, how "Lyme Disease" is not always a simple diagnosis nor treatment and also the symptomology and sometimes diagnosis is really capturing a variety of infections by a variety of pathogens -- ticks carry many, and individual responses vary.

On the Media -- an hour long show each week. Much of it is "meta", about what is appearing in the media, and what isn't, and why. Helping listeners know and understand "why they are saying that" and "why aren't they talking about this other thing -- hey, there's this other thing!"

I've not been so attentive to it of late, but there's also WBEZ's "Worldview". Extended interviews with experts about world topics. You'll often get information and perspective you won't find anywhere in the mainstream media.

P.S. If you're on Android, the AntennaPod app is a nice, open source podcast app.

You might get some interesting feedback from: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9836023

I know its an old post, but I guess you can still listen to most of this stuff.

If you are interested in more recent (but less popular posts) check this out:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14471209

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14403285

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14188018

Surprised no one has mentioned The Tim Ferris Show. That's my #1 right now. He's got a really eclectic but also well thought out guest list and I learn something useful every episode. His recent episode with Nick Szabo was the crash course on cryptocurrency that I always wanted. Highly recommended.

Talking Machines. It's definitely a bit over my head, but it's a really good podcast about Machine Learning, with heaps of interviews and pretty in depth conversations.

My Pocketcasts List:

Dev:

  All Javascript Podcasts from DevChat.tv

  Tools Day

History:

  Hardcore History

  History of the Crusades

  History of the Papacy

  Revolutions

  The British History Podcast

  The Civil War: A History Podcast

  The History of Byzantium

  The History of Egypt

  The History of England

  The History if Islam

  Maritime history Podcast

  When Diplomacy Fails

Video Games:

  Gamers with Job Conference Call

  Crucible Radio (Destiny)

  Giant Bombcast

  Idle Weekend

  Rebel FM

  The Dive LoL Podcast

  The Giant Beastcast

  The Magic Hour

  The Bungie Podcast 

  Three Moves Ahead

  Waypoint Radio

  Wild Weasel

Random:

  Shift+F1

  The Steve Austin Show

I'm sure you can draw some conclusions about my hobbies/interests.

Longform Podcast entertains me with a variety of guests, who is typically a writer, a editor, or a journalist, invited for each episodes. With dialogues about their work and career, it gives a glimpse of a life of those who work in the media industry. The podcast is a oral history of media workers, and it often gives valuable insights to just listen to interviews and see interviewees as they are.

Facing challenges like fake news, Google AMP, FaceBook InstantArticle, and the like, some of you may be interested.

https://longform.org/podcast

  * "Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night; all day!"
  * StarTalk Radio Show by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  * Adam & Dr. Drew Show
  * NPR Up First
  * How Stuff Works
  * Darn Carlin's Hardcore History
  * Michael Blanks' Apartment Investing Podcast
  * Reasonable Doubt with Mark Garagos and Adam Carolla
  * Weekly Infusion

Seconded. Who'd thunk a comic with a bro-schtick would end up hosting such a thought-provoking podcast?

Trying not to repeat too much popular podcasts everybody already mentioned, I would add:

  - Fresh Air (NPR) [various subjects]
  - Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill [The Intercept fame]
  - Profile (BBC) [profile peoples, mainly Uk]
  - Sporting Witness (BBC) [sport related]
  - Recode Media with Peter Kafka [interview media people]
  - Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter [about media, political]
  - State of the Union with Jake Tapper [political]
  - The Axe Files with David Axelrod [interview politics]
  - The Forward by Lance Armstrong [mostly NOT sport]
  - Twenty Thousand Hertz [about sounds]
  - Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air [new]
  - The Bill Simmons Podcast [mainly sports]
  - Inside The Times [nyt related]
  - The Internet Podcast History [about Internet golden age]
  - War College (Reuters) [military stuffs]
  - Grammar Girl
  - Whistlestop [politics, history]
  - BackStory with the American History [history]

Talking Machines : A podcast where they outline new developments in Machine Learning and interview people in the field. Has a good balance of summarizing the important points without leaving out technical details.

http://www.thetalkingmachines.com

I haven't seen anyone mention Exponent yet. It's basically Stratechery, the podcast.

Ones I haven't seen anyone mention:

Infinite Monkey Cage (sciencey and funny) Judge John Hodgman (funny) Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal (financial) The Skeptics Guide to the Universe (science)

Ones not mentioned enough: On The Media (media/politics) Reply All (internet culture)

Primarily security related podcasts.

1. Defensive Security 2. Branding Down Security 3. Risky Business 4. SANS Internet Storm Center 5. Southern Fried Security

Some non security related ones... Hardcore History, Common Sense, and on a much lighter note, The Comedy Button

I don't listen to tech podcasts. Since it's E3 time of year, I've got a bunch of Giant Bombcasts slated for next week. I'm also listening to Kevin Smith do commentary on Frasier episodes...

The weeds. It's a podcast about public policy and politics. Very technical which I like.

FiveThirtyEight politics for politics.

Voices of vr. Excellent podcast about VR news often with interviews the developers working on the cutting edge.

I'll second FiveThirtyEight. I was a little skeptical about this mag that seemed to come out from nowhere. It always has very interesting content.

while we're at it, Nate's book The Signal and the Noise is a pretty easy and fun read if you're into statistics, polling and politics

    - Radio Lab 
    - Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History
    - Linear Digressions
    - Hidden Brain
    - FiveThirtyEight's Hot Takedown
    - FiveThirtyEight's Politics
    - Freakonomics
    - Planet Money
    - 99% Invisible
    - Neil Tyson's StarTalk
    - NYT's The Daily
    - Talk Python To Me
    - The Changelog
    - Hello Internet

There's a few other Machine Learning/Data Science-ish "podcasts", some other NPR ones, and This American Life.

I didn't realize that I spend so much time on this.

I like to listen to podcasts mostly related to outside hobbies and interests to keep my mind, ideas, and thoughts fresh.

Here are my favorites:

- 8-4 Play (bi-weekly)

- Giant Bombcast (Premium) (weekly)

- Giant Beastcast (Premium) (weekly)

- ThirtyTwentyTen (weekly)

- Talking Simpson's (weekly)

- NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour (weekly)

- Slash Filmcast (weekly)

- Axe of the Blood God (weekly; Video Game Japanese RPG podcast by USGamer columnists)

I also pay for Giant Bomb premium (it's cheap) and gives you premium video's and ad free podcasts and supports the site. I also like the hosts and have been following them for years.

Breaker for iOS does a good job of recommending episodes and podcasts based on your likes and friends. I recommend it.

I don't know about other people, but I'm constantly overwhelmed by podcast recommendation threads. People recommend podcasts that each have hundreds of episodes. I certainly won't listen to all of them just to catch up.

What I want is a list of must-listen episodes and short series. Does such a thing exist?

When starting a new podcast I normally listen to the newest one. Then it depends on the style. News/current events podcasts, just listen to new ones. Others, browse the history and cherry pick ones that sound interesting or download them all.

I am a political scientist by education, working in a planetarium.

- Downloadable Content, the Penny Arcade Podcast

- The West Wing Weekly

- GovLove (from ELGL, about local government)

- Pod Save America

- Main Engine Cut Off (about launch vehicles)

- Are We There Yet? (general news about space exploration)

- Orbital Path with Michelle Thaler (recent space/astrophysics news)

- Skytalk with Dave Heller and Derrick Pitts (astronomy news)

-a16z podcast is my #1 podcast these days

-Tim Ferris Show is a little hit or miss but has some excellent content

-Linear Digressions is a fun little podcast to stay caught up on ML trends

-How I Built This is a more general audience oriented podcast that talks about how companies got started

TigerBelly by comedian Bobby Lee https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyIoM_Nd8HtY19fuR_ov2A/vid...

Let's say I pick one of these recommendations. What happens next? Where do I start?

Should I listen to all episodes in chronological order? Should I only listen to new episodes? Should I cherry pick episodes based on their description?

My favorites: - Go Time - Coding Blocks - The Changelog - JavaScript Jabber

I wonder if we could automate this "Ask HN" in a similar manner as "Who's hiring? ($MONTH $YEAR)". It seems to be popping up with about the same regularity.

True Crime - Last Podcast on the Left - Criminal - Crimetown

Random Info - Radiolab - 99% Invisible

Interviews - WTF w/ Marc Maron - Joe Rogan (depending on the guest) - The Nerdist (depending on the guest)

In no specific order:

My brother my brother and me

Hardcore history

Science friday

Software engineering daily

Data skeptic

Linear digressions

Math mutation

Omega tau

I've listened to a ton more, but I tend to get tired of some and move onto others. I used to love radiolab and this american life, but find them kind of annoying now.

I've been enjoying 1A from NPR lately.

I haven't really found any tech podcasts I like yet, they mostly talk about things at a very surface level, which doesn't teach me a lot.

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman (https://mastersofscale.com/)

I have a long drive to and from work during which I like to stop thinking about work. So...

- The Splendid Table: Because food is important.

- Retronauts: Retrogaming in all its glory.

None. I find reading much more efficient.

Garbage - https://garbage.fm/

Thought I'd add my own pod to this great list. I certainly listen to it :)

This Week in Machine Learning & AI

For people who like to read genre fiction, I'd recommend The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy.

https://talking-tech.io

You Bet Your Garden by Mike McGrath. Feels good to hear something completely unrelated to tech

None. I don't listen to podcasts. Not really sure why. I do watch talks etc. on YouTube.

I also stopped listening to podcasts (after listening to them for years), and wonder why I stopped, and also watch a lot of talks on YouTube. I found that simply learned a LOT more useful information from talks on YouTube than from podcasts. Often podcasts are full of nicely produced and entertaining BS, whereas technical talks on YouTube are full of not-so-well produced but genuinely high quality content. The latter is worth much more to me.

Contra Krugman History of Byzantium Ringer NFL GM Tim Ferris Tom Woods Show

EconTalk

Mine is kind of an odd mix (most is strictly for entertainment:

- Criminal

- Eaten by a Grue

- Freakonomics Radio

- Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

- Liar City

- S-Town (just one season)

- Seeking Wisdom

- Serial

- Startup School

- Startups for the Rest of Us

- Tank Riot

- Techzilla

- The Dollop

- The Memory Palace

- The Truth

- Thimbleweed Park

- This American Life

- This Week in Tech

- ycombinator

Hello to Jason Isaacs.

- hardcore history

- revolutions

- Hannibal and the Punic wars

- Arab spring: a history

- The Ancient World

- The history of Byzantium

At the top of my list would be:

- Opening Arguments

- Invisibilia

- StartUp- 99% Invisible

- RadioLab

- RadioLab Presents: More Perfect

- Freakonomics Radio

Others:

- Hidden Brain

- Vox's The Weeds

- How I Built This

- Myths and Legends

1. Startups for the Rest of Us

2. How I Built This

3. .NET Rocks

4. Bootstrapped Web

5.The Indie Hackers Podcast

How I built this

Foundation (Kevin Rose's podcast)

- brain of Britain (halfway between Jeopardy and trivial pursuit) - econtalk: where else can you hear about someone who hypothesized that sweatshops were good and then proved himself wrong? - changelog - the Bernie Sanders show - on being - waking up with Sam Harris. Strongly disagree with Harris programmatically, but damn if he's not a good philosopher. "What is technology doing to us" is very good. But his islamophobic rants can be difficult to stomach.

At the moment, nothing. I'm in a "mostly music" kind of mood.

Here's my playlist. First the good ones that are actively in my queue (in general order of recommendation):

- The Memory Palace: http://thememorypalace.us/ (these are stunningly good historical stories)

- On the Media: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/otm/

- Reply All: https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/ (this is the one I expected to see on every list at hackernews, and don't)

- The Gist: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/gist.html

- The Daily: https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily

- 99% Invisible: http://99percentinvisible.org/

- Economist Radio: https://radio.economist.com/

- New Yorker Radio Hour: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/tnyradiohour/

- Planet Money: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/ (not the juggernaut of content they once were)

- This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

Shorter series (or just defunct or really rarely updated) that I can recommend to this crowd:

- Zachtronics Podcast: http://www.zachtronics.com/podcast/

- Revisionist History: http://revisionisthistory.com/ (should be starting a new season soon)

- Mystery Show: https://gimletmedia.com/mystery-show/

- A Life Well Wasted: http://alifewellwasted.com/ (great videogamey series)

- Containers: https://www.flexport.com/blog/alexis-madrigal-containers-pod...

- S-Town: https://stownpodcast.org/

Listening at 1.8x for most of these shows forces me to pay attention, and let's me consume more content. The exception is for The Memory Palace which deserves to be heard exactly as Nate makes it (1x).

The Bikeshed

Radiolab

World Cafe

Mountain Stage

Snap Judgement

Joe Rogan Experience

The Good Fight

Rational Security

Bombshell

Risky Business

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Conversations with Tyler

EconTalk

The Ezra Klein Show

The Weeds

The Tim Ferriss Show

Software Engineering Daily

Deep State Radio

I really wish ezra and Sam Harris would do a podcast and resolve this "feud"

I'm ambivalent.

I sense a lot of sanctimonious posturing and more-liberal-than-thou attitude when it comes to Sam Harris, and Klein is hardly the first to equivocate over him.

harmontown

Reply on news.ycombinator.com