Ask HN: What are your favorite podcasts? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are your favorite podcasts?

42 pointspainted62 comments

what are you listening to during work or any other time of the day?

1. Hardcore History [0]. Even if you're not a fan of history, check it out because Dan really grips you with the story. I can't say enough good things about this podcast and look forward to each new episode. The episodes are LONG; they're more like audiobooks in a way. The series on World War I (Blueprint for Armageddon) [1] was six episodes and 24 hours long. Perfect for road trips, but the downside is there's only 2-4 a year.

2. The British History Podcast [2]. Fills the gaps between Hardcore History releases. Jamie does a weekly, very deep dive into the whole of British history, starting from prehistory up through (currently) Alfred the Great. He's a bit more funny and sarcastic than Dan is, but you still end up learning a great deal.

3. Escape Pod [3]. Science fiction short stories covering a wide range within the genre.

[0] http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

[1] http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-bluepri...

[2] https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/

[3] http://escapepod.org/

My fav thing about Escape Pod is their reviews of previous stories. Quite frank, and usually give an interesting perspective.

+1 for Hardcore History his world war 2 eastern front still haunts me

I like Hardcore History, but I find Dan Carlin's style a bit over the top, which gets tiring.

I have since found Mike Duncan's History of Rome[1] and Revolutions[2], and I much prefer his writing and delivery, including his occasional dead pan humor. I can listen to him for hours on end. (Note: the early episodes of History of Rome are not representative, he and his equipment have much improved in the first year).

[1] http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/2007...

[2] http://www.revolutionspodcast.com/2013/09/index.html

Omega Tau.

Science and engineering topics in the form of interviews with domain experts (often on site). Some episodes in German language, many in English. If you want to spend 2h learning about fusion and plasma or how batteries work or how airbus builds planes or what goes into a radar satellite... this is for you.

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AB Testing.

Alex and Brent, 2 managers at Microsoft, discuss how not to lead teams and how not to do testing. By discuss, I mean rant along in a productive manner.

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Javascript Jabber.

Good podcast, has lost some steam for me lately, but many early episodes are good for people who are new to the show.

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Software Engineering Radio.

Has a great backlist of episodes on topics like architecture, type systems, database systems ... definitly one where it makes sense to look through the archive instead of just subscribing.

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Software Engineering Daily.

Used to subscribe, but lately the episodes feel more like infomercials where 50% of the time is spent by the guests pitching their product. Did enjoy the earlier episodes though.

Omega Tau is great.

Maybe this should be a monthly feature like Who is Hiring:

Podcasts to make you smarter (49 comments 10 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14737772

Ask HN: What Podcasts are you listening right now and why? (77 comments 28 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14616998

Ask HN: What podcasts are you listening to? (62 comments 40 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14529759

Accidental Tech Podcast - Apple and random tech discussion. Super fun listen. One of the hosts is also the author of Overcast, which is my favorite podcast app.

The Talk Show - Similar to ATP, but slightly more serious and with rotating guests

Pardon My Take - a humorous sports podcast. It’s kind of juvenile, but it’s growing on me.

Best of Mike and Mike - a semi-serious sports podcast. This one’s about to end, unfortunately.

Stuff You Should Know - funny but informative info about random topics you never realized you wanted to know about

Hardcore History - super long and rarely released episodes, but he gives an amazing in depth look at various historical battles. WWI, the Persian Wars, the Cold War 1945-1965, and the Anabaptist uprising are free now, and are all awesome.

SYSK also has hilarious but terrible puns. I remember the episode they had on termites: "They Bore, but they aren't Boring" <-- Elon would approve

How I Built This by NPR

They interview founders of successful companies and talk about the very beginnings of their companies and how they started them. You hear about the humble beginnings of AirBnB, Mark Cuban, WeWork, Lyft. All really cool stories of starting businesses.

In addition to the ones mentioned here, I like:

What Trump can teach us about con law (from Roman Mars of 99PI): https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/trump-con-law

50 Things that made the Modern Economy (Tim Harford): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04b1g3c/episodes/downloads

Internet History Podcast: http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/

You are not so smart: https://youarenotsosmart.com/podcast/

Unjustly Maligned: https://www.theincomparable.com/ump/

Talk python to me - Patrick Kennedy’s highly polished podcast on my favorite language The cppcast Syntax - web front end stuff Software engineering daily Mac OS ken Brent Ozar Office Hours -SQL server q and a Coder radio (and pretty much anything from Jupiter Broadcasting) - Linux and OSS oriented banter regarding development work

Talk Python to Me is actually Michael Kennedy, if you like that checkout Python Bytes. Less polished, greater breadth in less depth, much shorter.

Right I am going to fix my typo

Michael Kennedy not Patrick Kennedy of Servethehome.com

Awww, thanks for the mention, and glad you like the podcast.

Council on Foreign Relations: The World Next Week, The President's Inbox

Financial Times: World Weekly, The Money Show, Alphachat

BBC: The World This Week, Analysis, In Our Time, Infinite Monkey Cage, The Public Philosopher, A History of Ideas

Philosophy: The Partially Examined Life, Philosophy Bites, The Philosopher's Zone, The History of Philosophy Without any Gaps

Others:

The Carnegie Podcast

Radio Atlantic

Guardian Books

Guardian Science Weekly

ARRL The Doctor is in - http://www.arrl.org/doctor

No Agenda - http://www.noagendashow.com/

The Dividing Line - http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/webcast/

The Adam Morgan Show - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-adam-morgan-show/id1...

The Briefing / Thinking in Public - http://www.albertmohler.com/the-briefing/

Indie Hackers http://indiehackers.com is my current favorite

The Startup Chat https://thestartupchat.com/ is a close second.

Startup School by Seth Godin was a limited 15 episode production of a event he did, this is also really good.

Uhh Yeah Dude, Chapo Trap House, Bodega Boys, Comedy Bang Bang, Cum Town, How Did This Get Made?, With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus

I have never successfully found a software engineering podcast that I've liked, so this will be a bit different from most here:

A Cast of Kings -- Game of Thrones episode discussion

My Favorite Murder -- Semi-descriptive title, but they talk about their favorite murders

Not Alone Podcast -- Podcast about things going bump in the night

Startups for the Rest of Us -- A marketing podcast aimed at micropreneurs

Last Podcast on the Left -- Comedy/oddly well researched show about Aliens, Murder, and anything else macabre or strange

The Adventure Zone -- A podcast about 3 brothers and their dad playing DnD

Strange Matters -- Another "things that go bump in the night" sort-of podcast

I have about 30 podcasts that I follow, but some of them I won't listen to if the subject doesn't interest me. These, however, I will listen to every episode (I'm putting off the final episode of "The Adventure Zone...") as soon as they come out.

Crime stuff: Accused, Someone Knows Something, Up and Vanished, Criminal, Sword and Scale, Convicted, Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

General: Radiolab, 99% Invisible, Revisionist History, Snap Judgement, This American Life

Amusing: No Such Thing as a Fish, RHLSTP, Adam Buxton Podcast

Listening to with my daughter: The Tumble, Brains On!

Coffee With Butterscotch - A Game Dev Comedy Podcast. Super entertaining, and also interesting to hear from these brothers (Butterscotch Shenanigans) who managed to build a Game of the Year winner[1] (Awarded by Touch Arcade and others) using Game Maker of all things! Very informative to hear them as they make business mistakes and learn from them, and occasionally make a decision that actually positively affects their bottom line. This is what passion sounds like—the kind of dedicated passion that breeds success against all odds.

[1] The game? Crashlands - https://www.crashlands.net

The Magnus Archives is a great horror podcast. It's mostly-independent pieces of short fiction, but start at the beginning because there's definitely a meta-narrative.

Also good is The Bright Sessions, also fiction, about a psychologist for people with superpowers. Also start at the beginning of this one.

A new one that's quite interesting is Ear Hustle, produced by and about the inmates of San Quentin prison. It's a fascinating look into the reality of prison life.

And then I'll second the recommendations for Hardcore History (snag The Prophets of Doom episode while it's still free, it's great) and 99% Invisible.

The Hilarious World Of Depression (THWOD) 99% Invisible Accidental Tech Podcast Reconcilable Differences Do By Friday Cortex Writer's Almanac Radiolab Note To Self MBMBAM The Incomparable (as topics interest me)

Interview Format: EconTalk, Conversations with Tyler, The Ezra Klein Show

News or weekly roundup: Slate's Political Gabfest, Slate Money

Others: Two Dope Queens (comedy), History of Japan, Dan Carlin

EconTalk is awesome.

Story Club - brief (often humorous) vignettes of Australian life

The Adventure Zone - funny people playing DnD

Song Exploder - bands rip apart their music and explain their process, often channel by channel

And ... Planet Money, Reply All, This American Life, More Perfect, What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law, Data Skeptic, Arms Control Wonk, The Mystery Show

"no such thing as a fish", a podcast on four favourite facts of the week. Really fun to listen to :)

it's my current favourite :)

NPR's Fresh Air. Terry Gross has a very soothing voice. She covers a wide range of topics, but my favorites are those relating to politics, history and science. She definitely does her research, and knows how to ask thoughtful questions.

For the french speaking, Nouvelle Ecole is a very nice, humble podcast interviewing people with a non-standard path. Very nice and interesting!

http://nouvelleecole.org/

Data Skeptic (love this podcast)

Data Driven Discussions (new podcast)

Linear Digressions (good shorter discussions)

Pod Save America (awesome)

Coaching for Leaders (great interviews, the best soft skills podcast I've found)

Software Engineering Daily (a little hard to keep up, mostly listen to specific topics)

a16z (general trends)

http://packetpushers.net/ - great podcast for network-related industry news & opinion. Nice mix of useful information and personality bombast.

ADB - Android Developers Backstage (it's actually the only podcast I listen to)

Some of my favorites:

Planet Money - Current events and finance

Astronomy Cast - Long-running podcast with each episode about a topic in astronomy

Death Sex & Money - Human interest stories

On The Media - Current events

Love and Radio - Human interest stories

Welcome to Night Vale - Weird scifi-ish stories in a newscast format

A niche offering: Slide, the avalanche podcast.

It may be too technical/specific for the general listener, but there's a lot there regarding risk management and personal awareness, which applies broadly.

Daily listening: Marketplace, Planet Money.

Mixergy, How I Built This, Startup, Criminal, Savage Lovecast, Dear Sugars, On Being, James Altucher Show, Planet Money, Fresh Air, Just the Right Book, Masters of Scale, The Distance, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Acquired - history of (mainly) tech mergers/acquisitions/IPOs

econtalk - quite good, been going since 2006. two episodes with paul graham and sam altman from back in the day too

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/08/graham_on_start.htm...

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/07/sam_altman_on_s.htm...

The Bottom Line - Excellent business podcast

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman

How I built this - Interviews with entrepreneurs

Freakonomics - Very good

The Tim Ferriss Show - Lots of interesting people come on the show

No Agenda

* Skeptic's Guide to the Universe: Science and Skeptiscism weekly Podcast

* Savage Lovecast: Frank Sex and Relationship Advice

* 99 Percent Invisible: Design

This Week In Machine Learning - https://twimlai.com

ADV China, a talk show on two wheels. SerpentZA and C-Milk ride motorcycles through rural china while discussing China.

The Tesla Show - http://theteslashow.com

The DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar from Stanford eCorner, This American Life, and Democracy Now!

Comedy Bang Bang, Monday morning podcast, Chapo Trap House, and Cum Town. I take it as a chance to shut off

Dark Pixel Gaming podcast (and YT channel) - discussion on gaming news focused on JRPGs.

Interview/Comedy: We Got the Jazz gotthejazz.com

EconTalk econtalk.org

So Money by FARNOOSH farnoosh.tv

Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" is perhaps my favorite .

But it is so slow to come out with new episodes!

The WW1 series he made - amazing!

Greater than Code - software development from a humanist perspective

- The Changelog Podcast - Talk Python To Me - Podcast.Init

Chapo Trap House

Second this. Usually very good critique of both conservative and liberal politics, sometimes inane.

Scale your code podcast is quite good.

Planet Money

Intercepted, Chapo Trap House

Sam Harris - Waking up Podcast. Dan Carlin - Hard Core History Econtalk

Intercepted

Hollywood Handbook, Chapo Trap House, Your Kickstarter Sucks, No Goals, Cum Town

Pretty much all are comedy except Chapo, which is a leftist political show.

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