Ask HN: Favorite Podcast Episode of 2021? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Favorite Podcast Episode of 2021?

220 pointshnu0847139 comments

Mine was Fall of Civilizations Episode 12, about the Inca empire:

https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/2021/01/12/episode-12-is-now-live/

There are about 3 or 4 Darknet Diaries, but here's my fav. OK it's a tie:

   https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/90/
   Jenny
   Meet Jenny Radcliffe, the People Hacker. She’s a social 
   engineer and physical penetration tester. Which means she 
   gets paid to break into buildings and test their 
   security. In this episode she tells us a few stories of 
   some penetration testing jobs she’s done.

   https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/95/
   Jon & Brian's Big Adventure
   Jon and Brian are penetration testers who both worked at 
   a place called RedTeam Security. They’re paid to break 
   into buildings and hack into networks to test the 
   security of those buildings. In this episode they bring 
   us a story of how they prepare and execute a mission like 
   this. But even with all the preparation, something still 
   goes terribly wrong.

Episodes 84 and 81 also. GREAT stuff. But 90 and 95 are my faves. I don't have time for other podcasts so its DND for me.

One more for Darknet. The NSO group episodes are my favorite. 99 and 100 I think they are. The episode about the Puerto Rico lottery is amazing too.

The Puerto Rico lottery episode was my favorite!

I picked up on Darknet Diaries from recommendations in a previous HN podcast thread.

Some of the physical pen test episodes are totally gripping! Well worth a listen.

Great podcast.

Mine were:

77 Olympic Destroyer 78 Knaves out 86 The LinkedIn Incident 97 The Pizza Problem

Echo the love for this podcast, one of the easiest subscription purchases I’ve ever made. Jack is a great storyteller.

Dan Carlin's Supernova in the East VI.

Given the insane brutality of the Pacific war, the stranglehold the Japanese military had on its society, and the utterly unbreakable Japanese will that just kept going loss after brutal loss even when it was clear to everyone involved that there was no possible way left for them to win, Carlin makes it clear that the leaders of the day certainly felt justified with their decisions to first firebomb and then atomic bomb Japanese civilians and cities.

A couple of weeks later a friend told me that he believed that you should be willing to fight to the death, and even the death of others, for what you believe is right. I think morally of course you should be committed to your beliefs, but if you replicate that to that extent on a society-wide scale, you might end up with another Imperial Japan.

https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-67-supern...

(Of course, as Carlin will often tell you, he's not a historian and is more interested in an emotional story than 100% true facts. I'll also recommend Ian Toll's Pacific War book trilogy for a more accurate take on events. Plus, it covers the incredibly brutal Battle of Manila that Carlin leaves out.)

I loved this podcast (and all of Carlin's really). One of my granddads faught extensively in the Pacific and I really felt it when Dan described what a land invasion on mainland Japan would've looked like.

Undoubtedly that personal award goes to Citations Needed Episode 73: Western Media’s Narrow, Colonial Definition of ‘Corruption’. You can read the transcript on Medium [1] or listen on Spotify [2].

It may seem a bit bromide for HN, but it really shattered my world view. Or at least was the impetus of a rather radical shift in how I viewed global power structures, old wealth, and the evil systems in place today that continue to perpetuate global inequality. In the episode, they dig into these popular "corruption" indices, why the Global South is always painted as the "most corrupt", true sources of institutionalized corruption, where the real tax havens and how they operate. It even highlights a (previously unknown to me at least!) stark and admittedly macabre distinction between London, the city in England and the ancient The City of London [3]. Yes there is a huge difference with the latter being a 1,000 British colonial-era holdover that's home to the largest tax haven hub in the world.

As a bonus, it features Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist who wrote The Divide [4]. Which, for reasons outlined above, is also one of my favorite books ever. If you find my poor attempt of summary or the article/podcast interesting, I'd implore you to buy the book and learn something new.

All the world is a stage and indeed we are merely players.

[1] - https://citationsneeded.medium.com/episode-73-western-medias...

[2] - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7cf3g7670FYKrD9OE6vHQd?si=v...

[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

[4] - https://www.jasonhickel.org/the-divide

Edit: Just to clarify, this episode is from 2019. I did not interpret the question clearly and assumed it was in the spirit of "Favorite podcast episode you listened to this year". Hope this helps.

The CGP Grey videos on the city of London are pretty great too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc

I'm intrigued, but this episode is from April 2019.

Ya know, you're right. I guess I assumed the OP meant more along the lines of "What was your favorite podcast episode you listened to this year" vs the more literal translation. I'll throw in an edit to clarify.

Thank you for recommending episode 73, it was very interesting. I had some idea from this book https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-of-Economic-Hitman-audiob... but this is even more interesting. I read this book more than 15 years ago, I suppose things are much more sophisticated, crooked and hidden now :(

This is all soooooo depressing :(

> Yes there is a huge difference with the latter being a 1,000 British colonial-era holdover that's home to the largest tax haven hub in the world.

In what sense is it a colonial-era holdover? Unless you mean Norman colonialism.

It just means it is in some meaningful sense unchanged since that time-frame. It says nothing about whether The City itself was colonized.

I’m guessing this is not the same citation needed as when Tom Scott does citation needed with the technical difficulties.

Here’s a link to one of their episodes: https://youtu.be/1nd5HsxWXTI

Hands down this Lex's interview with Joscha Bach. Very inspiring and a lot of interesting viewpoints. https://lexfridman.com/joscha-bach-2/

EDIT For German Speakers i'd also recommend these two episodes: - http://www.jungundnaiv-podcast.de/2021/09/535-aladin-el-mafa... - https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2021-03/maja-goepel-intervi...

Wow - absolutely the same here. That was an amazing discussion.

This one for me as well. I found myself having to pause and contemplate some of the ideas in that one several times. It's fascinating to hear Joscha describe how he models everything around us. Definitely worth a (patient, attentive) listen.

I may also recommend his appearance on 'Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal' and

> For German Speakers

Also https://alternativlos.org/42/

I actually prefere the Talk on Alternativlos because it was easier for me to grasp the complex ideas. I was listening it again just last week. But for the mostly English speaking community here the talk with LeX is equally good.

Is Bach well-regarded in the AI community? I found this podcast a very interesting listen and checked out many of his others. He is a compelling speaker, but I am in not any way qualified to verify his claims. He also seems somewhat categorical in his statements about things that perhaps don't warrant such confidence: e.g. his view of the nature of mind, consciousness, the self, dreams, etc.

The impression I get is he specialises more around the philsophy of AI and cybernetics.

Same for me. His first interview with him was also my favorite podcast episode of 2020.

Also, you can watch it in video form. I'd argue it's better that way, especially with the way he emotes during certain parts of the discussion.

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-2P3MSZrBM

Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIpUf-Vy2JA

I’m not a fan of the podcast normally but I was sent this one because my ex-wife knew it would be good for me. Spark Bird by This American Life. First off - I’ve tried to pick up birding a little bit. But most importantly - about 35 minutes in - there’s a story about Birdly. This family that sounds utterly insane and has six imaginary birds as part of their family. It’s a really well told story - much better than the podcast normally has.

Well - anyway - it turns out there are other couples/families out there that do this. We had this with our “family.” In our case (my ex’s and I) we had three stuffed animal children. The podcast really will show the full gradient of how far you can push what is “real”. We took our children across the world and they had stories, purpose, meaning, and lots of love to share. I don’t spend as much time with “the children” now. They live in different but sharable dimensions/realities/universes more often now since their mom and dad aren’t together. It’s rough being a single dad of 3. Get a lot of questions but is what it is. She asks about them when she calls.

We planned to have children the more traditional way as well. We just never got there before we split up.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0fm0Ntx2IxuWEM2ieYZasv?si=n...

Tim Ferriss's second episode with Balaji was great. It was around 4-5 hours, and Tim just steps aside letting Balaji brain dump on all sorts of interesting topics and ideas.

https://tim.blog/2021/11/15/balaji-srinivasan-2/

Just started listening to this on your recommendation. (Thanks!) I wasn’t familiar with Balaji before now but he’s clearly a smart guy and a deep thinker.

I find myself disagreeing with quite a lot of what he’s saying (to the extent that I’m educated enough on some of the topics to even have an opinion), but will keep listening as it’s interesting to hear a viewpoint that’s perhaps slightly outside of my normal bubble.

That's probably my favorite part about Balaji, is his thinking is so multi-faceted and original that you're naturally going to come across things you agree with him and disagree.

Hopefully posting this doesn't get it taken down...

I really enjoyed that interview on Tim's podcast and I've been working my way through some of Balaji's other interviews and videos online.

I'm currently watching this one someone posted of his coursera course from 2012 all pasted together into one video over 7 hours long. I have come to like this format more and more on youtube becuase you just resume and don't have to worry about finding the next video etc.

Anyway, watching this in the context of it being from 2012 is pretty mindblowing and the advice has seemed like it would have been quite good back then (some of it still now too I'm sure.)

The name of the course was Startup Engineering. I don't believe it's available on Coursera or anywhere else anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QC1FK2_pqg

I used to follow Balaji on Twitter, he frequently had original and eloquent perspectives on things, but his incessant web3 evangelism turned me off.

He's the Jordan Peterson of tech, profound sounding with zero substance.

The crazy thing to me is that he gave an interview? once in how genomics is not "big data" in the same way that anything else is big data in tech and that interview seems to have been memory holed, even though imo it's the most profound analysis I think he has ever given (I used to work in genomics and now I work in ml), and there is a real sub community of the tech sector that needs to understand what he said but doesn't.

Memory holed is a good term for balaji. I don't recall the specifics but a few years back I put him in a bucket of people not worth listening to.

It was when he was sort of an a16z partner, but also had a bitcoin startup (hardware to mine cryptocurrency) funded by them, then he made a bid to be a part of the Trump administration and scrubbed his entire Twitter timeline. This was probably 6 years ago now. He seemed disingenuous then. Don't know about him now.

This was an incredibly broad ranging episode though I think Balaji throws out a lot of ideas with an unwarranted level of certainty. The parallel of historical centralization-decentralization-recentralization cycles (ie the Protestant reformation-Catholic counterreformation) to the internet was pretty interesting.

The Sam Bankman-Fried episode of Odd Lots: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2p2Mfr20nDNmRxdNjCcmJe?si=2...

Specifically, the 7 minutes from ~19:40 - 26:30 where he talks about the $30M/day profit he made in 2017 by arb-ing the different prices of Bitcoin on Japanese vs. US exchanges. This demonstrated the difference between complex and complicated problems and how much of success in business is simply schlepping.

(Obligatory pg post: http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html)

There’s an episode on Acquired with him where he talks about FTX. Would definitely recommend!

He recently came to Sam Harris's podcast to talk about how he is donating most of his wealth in accordance with the Effective Altruism movement.

I'm not usually a Joe Rogan listener, but I keep thinking about the interview he did with Carl Hart: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xMbq7gLEjFioOQ5gpSw2l

Hart claims that the inherent addictiveness of even the most addictive drugs (he talks mostly about heroin) is exaggerated, because most of the worst addicts are dealing with psychological, social, and financial difficulties in addition to drug addiction, and drugs are often unfairly blamed for all their problems. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, but he has a very interesting perspective.

Personal anecdote. I tried (smoking) heroin once, out of curiosity, and I beg to disagree. It was really nice and calming. Then 30 minutes laters I got the urge and wanted more. Then felt nice again. Then 20 minutes later I wanted more. Then 10 minutes later. Then 5. Then the bag was empty and I felt like crap. Then the car wouldn't start and we had to push it to jump start - felt like one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done.

If you were to shoot it in the vein those effects would be exacerbated to a point I can't even imagine what the cravings and after-effects would be like.

Granted I might not have been in the best state of mind back then, but still. It's by far the most addictive (short-term) substance I've ever tried. I still use others irregularly but that one I'll never touch again.

I have taken opiates for pain, and first time I took it I also experienced calm and euphoria. However, it only lasted the first few doses. I would quickly need to up the dosage to feel the same effects. I can see how someone could really start doing more and more to get that effect. However, if you are taking only the prescribed dosage I would argue that the risk is quite low for severe addiction, but you would still have dependence and would need to ween off. You would just need to fight the "need" urge you experienced and be conscious about the correct usage.

If I took a few days/weeks off and taken it again I would get the same calming and euphoric effect but again it would quickly wear off and would require higher dosage to get it, but the pain was controlled at the same dosage.

The whole opiate epidemic really fked anyone with chronic pain for who SSRIs don't work.

I've heard a couple different stories about trying drugs like heroin. Some say that they felt addicted immediately, some say it takes a while. Then there's Carl Hart who says that he has occasionally done heroin for years without developing an addiction and he knows others like him.

If I had to guess, I'd say that there's a significant minority of people who can do addictive drugs without getting addicted and it's probably related to genetics. Maybe it has something to do with sensitivity to pain and executive function.

Either way, I don't plan on ever trying anything like that myself. I suspect that I'd be one of the unlucky ones.

This is highly plausible. Nicotine addiction seems to differ from individual to individual as well. I know people who smoke for years, then just one day decide to quit and do it without any issues[0] and stay off it for a couple of months or years and then start again, or not. Me personally I go insane within 12-24 hours of abstinence (massive anxiety/frustration) and it requires an enormous amount of willpower to get past the 48-72 hours until it starts to ease.

[0] They mostly cite the "habit" being hard to break

Most of my family growing up were smokers and always trying/going to quit. What always amazed me is many times one of them would quit for like a week or two, it was hell for them, then they’d just pick it back up saying it was just too hard. I’d think the hard part was over but then I always connected it to the social part smoking and the having something to do with their hands aspect. There’s something else besides the nicotine addiction that’s hard to kick.

The thesis isn’t that drugs aren’t inherently addictive at all, it’s that the addictiveness (which I’m defining as the degree to which it is difficult for people to stop using) is estimated to be higher than the inherent addictive properties of the drug would actually imply.

It’s not to say that the drugs don’t cause cravings, it’s that people without the aforementioned issues have a much more straightforward ability to manage those cravings.

Yes but what was your life like when you smoked heroin for the first time? Were you economically comfortable, employed, married, had kids, had a strong social network, had strong ties to institutions in your community?

None of the above.

Now it's pretty much all of the above. Maybe I should try heroin again. For science!

Edit: Seriously though, at that time I also tried/used a number of other substances and none of them were anywhere remotely close in the terms of "needing to get another fix soon".

Edit2: I subscribe to the idea that it's largely individual. I might be a lazy enough person that the calmness of heroin speaks to me, while I can keep my distance to coke or amphetamines? Or some explanation beyond that. In reality the interplay is likely a lot more complex than that.

There's different types of drug users. Almost everyone I knew whose done heroin was a polydrug addict. Some would quit but switch to another drug. One of them came out of rehab for heroin and started injecting cocaine. They were all running from something. It could be fear of the future (what do you do if nothing interests you in college, you're depressed and nothing sounds like a good path forward), or it could be other untreated mental disorders. Only one person I knew who was doing it back then got out a live. They were a weird case where they were getting a phd in neuroscience, a die hard Neon Genesis Evangelion fan, and I'd seen them bump a 2c in public more then once. Most of the rest when I heard about the OD I wasn't surprised, and the lingering question of if it was intentional or not sorta floated unspoken among the survivors. The deaths sorta came one right after another as their support group were all other users who unraveled as parts of the group fell away.

A few related things that I just watched last night:

Opioid Tragedy: Inside the Fentanyl Crisis | Ten Dollar Death Trip | ENDEVR Documentary: https://youtu.be/Dfv_tISYl8A

The Solution to the Opioid Crisis | Joe Rogan & Johann Hari: https://youtu.be/vVMN3DgcRYk

Darknet Diaries: Money Maker https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/102/

The Real Story of “The Central Park Karen”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/honestly-with-bari-wei...

Remember the story about the off leash dog walker and the bird watcher in central park that went viral right around the time when the murder of George Floyd took place? In all of the ensuing frenzy I had personally believed the horrible portrait the media painted of this woman, but this podcast showed just how wrong that portrayal was.

I’ve listened to too many to pick a favourite but this one from Lex Friedman is a random pick. Difficult subject matter but quite moving:

#220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11

https://pca.st/episode/cb175a0c-b0c1-4200-a8e3-9702ebf0525c

Edit: and here’s an oddball recommendation on the other end of the spectrum, and outside of the normal HN bubble. For the Brits here and those who may enjoy extremely juvenile British humour (like me):

RHLSTP 268 - Charlie Brooker

https://pca.st/episode/57ee8b54-2d47-4506-924a-bb7636362f9e

(Charlie Brooker is the British writer behind Black Mirror.)

I loved Lex Friedman and Brandon Eich this year.

I was astonished by the intellect and wisdom of Eich. I always understood him to be rather smart inventing JS in a matter of days, but his insight in the history of the web paint an even more impressive picture.

He's been much more influential to our lives than many might guess and it's shocking to hear it from himself and his authority.

I really enjoyed listening to Dark Net Diaries - The Spy https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/99/

I find it challenging to choose one but Andrew Huberman's podcast is exceptional. Latest in neuroscience/neurobiology which is accessible to the general public. From topics like sleep, anxiety, learning, performance etc. I have learned so much and applying the protocols have been great.

+1 on Huberman. Specifically the episodes on sleep.

Felix Biederman interviews former Gov. of Illinois and convicted felon Rod Blagojevich on Chapo Trap House: https://otter.ai/u/B_VZ8fzEK4S-c0jVmRQ2_wYHCCA https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/561-teaser-blago-hat...

Truly one of the best interviews ever!

Steve Yegge’s tech predictions for the next 10-30 years:

https://youtu.be/8xwSRB3eGXY

I didn't know Steve had a podcast. I've read some of his writing and really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing I'll check it out.

Me neither! The first one on this page that's got me excited.

Peter Attia’s podcast with Tom Catena. He’s a doctor in war torn Africa and I’d argue one of most inspirational people alive. Turned down money, resources and a comfortable life in the US to make a greater impact in Africa. Peter Attia being a fellow doctor adds tons to the discussion.

Tim Ferris #542 with Chris Dixon and Naval was the podcast that made me think maybe there might be something to web3 and it was at least worth investigating.

2 months later I'm still not yet sure. So take that for what it's worth.

https://tim.blog/2021/10/28/chris-dixon-naval-ravikant/

As an honorable mention I'll also say that I've been listening to Dan Carlin's series on Japan in WW2 and it has been incredible as I've come to expect from his work.

Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast has been the Russian Revolution in 2021 and as always, is very detailed and informative.

Which episode? URL?

https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/ All of season 10, it's a lot, it's great.

I particularly enjoyed it. It's like listening to a slow train crash, there are just so many wrong moves by so many people it's terrifying.

Also it changed my perception of many of the participants.

TrueAnon's trilogy on Tesla

https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/lamest-show-1

> how a nerdy dot-com gold chaser hacked the self-satisfied neoliberal green political regime and orchestrated a cacophonous symphony of thirsty social media marketeers, auto industry executives, captured and bought off media, and the bull market ride of the century. At the center of all of this is the pied piper of the redditmen, our very own epic bacon PT Barnum — Elon Musk — who rightly understands that branding really is everything and that so long as you can keep the music going the party doesn’t have to end.

+1 came here to post this.

I knew Musk was a bit of an asshole but didn't realize to what extent he was an absolute fraud.

doot

Non-tech related: Anthropocene Reviewed - Orbital Sunrise

https://pod.link/1342003491

God this whole podcast is beautiful. I love it.

Sean Carroll and David Wallace, who know their sh*t, doing a deep dive on entropy and how it relates to time and the "past hypothesis".

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2021/08/02/158-...

I would also add episode with Michael Levin as a worthy candidate for this year.

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2021/02/01/132-...

Its really impressive the consistent level headed quality that Sean Carrol produces. He might be less popular because of it, but he’s not yet peddled controversy as content. Which is rare when the incentives suggest otherwise

I liked one with Kevin (first CEO of Instagram)

https://overcast.fm/+eZyDZHzsI

Same here, that was my favourite!

Same here

Corecursive podcast #069 "The Original Remote Developer" about Paul Lutus and writing software for the Apple II - and making it rich. Quite an orthogonal thinker, which made it inspiring even if it isn't 1985 any more.

https://corecursive.com/remote-developer/

For excellent reporting on a dystopian intersection of tech and politics:

Darknet Diaries Episode 100: NSO

On a different note: a whimsical, impossible, and hilarious improvised musical:

Mission to Zyxx Episode 507: A Little ‘Ditty about Jack and Shai’an

My favorite is easily Rationally Speaking by Julia Galef.

The episode that pulled my in initially was "Are Boomers to blame for Millenials' struggles?" from November of last year, but all episodes since have the same features that enamoured me initially. The episode was a master class in talking beyond the rhetoric and digging into the meat beyond. In the aforementioned episodes, she digs into policies that may have affected Millenials', as well as looking into voting demographics that brought about said policies. It resulted in an incredibly nuanced view (For the Boomers here on HN who may be put off by the title, it's not the typical generational hitpiece, but an addressal of them).

Julia puts in a lot of work for these episodes, making sure to read up extensively on the topics before the episode, and inviting guests of varying stances with meaningful experience to contribute. Going as far as inviting multiple guests for an episode, and reading all of said guests published books on the topic before recording. She will often go back after the interviews to offer clarifications to hanging questions that occured during the conversation.

http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/245-are-boomers-to-blam...

Julia for me sets the bar for what empathetic and reasoned conversation can be if one is willing to put in the effort.

I enjoyed many of the "The Rest Is History" episodes but oddly not any of the ones that they did in December.

https://play.acast.com/s/the-rest-is-history-podcast

My favorite podcast discovery of the year! massive lads! ;)

Ah, you're not talking about the one with Frank Skinner on it; I thought maybe it got revived recently.

Subjectively speaking of course. Also I haven't listened to all December episodes to be honest.

Great podcast overall and can't recommend it enough.

Their first episodes are a bit unorganized but this podcast became one of my favorite podcasts of all time.

Two very knowledgeable historians with extremely interesting episodes. And very very funny. I learned a lot and i found my self laughing many times while listening to them.

Two really stand out to me 1. Matt Wensing on a life of entrepreneurship and software dev. Pretty recent but I’ve listened twice already.

https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/236_matt_wensing

2. Ben Carpenter on the James Smith podcast. Two PTs talking about massive life changes seeking happiness and the downsides of life in the UK and mental health. Have listened to this three times now.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ben-carpenter/id144472...

PT? Personal Trainer?

I assumed physical therapists, but did not validate.

I'm guessing "psychotherapist".

Sorry, yes. Personal trainer.

These two challenged my beliefs about the state of the environment:

  S4: E18 – Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know | Marian Tupy
  https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/s4-e-18-ten-global-trends-marian-tupy/

  S4: E:51 – Apocalypse Never? | Michael Shellenberger
  https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/s4e51/

This one was riveting, terrifying, and made me realize how important it is to preserve our democracies, if we're lucky enough to live in one:

  S4: E26 – Tyranny, Slavery and Columbia U | Yeonmi Park
  https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/s4e26/

A review of 'Apocalypse Never': https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/review-bad-scienc...

Thanks for posting

The Off Menu with Bridget Christie as the guest (it has zero to do with tech):

https://play.acast.com/s/offmenu/ep130-bridgetchristie

Seconded!

Also #112 with Simon Amstell was good as was the recent episode with Harry Hill.

My favourite was the episode with Ainsley Harriott. At first it was funny how they immediately turned into a pair of children that were meeting their favourite uncle. Over the course of the episode, it became clear why that was.

Ok that one's now in my podcast queue, thanks!

Ezra Klein's interview with Noam Chomsky - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id154...

Even though I was familiar with most of Chomsky's spiel, this was a total joy to listen to and I was very inspired by the great righteous indignation and moral clarity that Chomsky still speaks with and only he can summon. Lots of provocative thoughts on capitalism, class, American politics and a breadth of other topics, as a bonus.

By far, The Program Audio Series has been my favorite podcast of all time. It's a dys/u/topian story of a world where money, god, tech, and society all merge together into one, told in a very interesting format.

It's so good that I reached out to the creator and hired him haha.

He had a very interesting episode about humanity that was my favorite episode of the year: https://www.programaudioseries.com/19-abandonware/

As a disclaimer, I sponsored this episode --- but only because it's awesome.

Many good ones this year, maybe "Short History Of..." - Space race and Moon landing

https://podfollow.com/short-history-of/episode/2966a9d948fb7...

https://podfollow.com/short-history-of/episode/8588f87525136...

I love these kinds of threads, thanks for making it. Favouriting it for later.

My recommendation: Hinge Points podcast, especially Episode 6: Let's Roll. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/hinge-points-6-59759286)

Goes over the influence of 9/11 on the history of the 21st century, especially concerning USA. Incisive and almost terse in how well it describes why 9/11 happened, and if it didn't, how the world would be different.

Odd not to see an episode from the Odd Lots podcast here (going by how often it gets cited in economic/supply chain discussions around here)

My favorite would certainly be an Amp Hour Episode if I knew which one to pick. Have still held out for the annual Keyzermas Episode so that one could easily take the title.Chris Gammell is just an all-around cool dude who's always asking the right questions to get the most out of his guests.

Honorable Mention goes to some reverse engineering podcast that must remain unnamed. Its great but far to infrequent.

why not name it?

You should ask the Hosts that exact question! https://unnamedre.com/

Pretty much all early episodes of https://hubermanlab.com — Though it's become a bit lengthy and repetitive lately.

I agree with the early episodes being very good. I’ve put quite a lot of learnings into action after listening to those. (Especially the episodes on sleep).

The biggest takeaway was understanding the impact of body temperature on circadian rhythms. I’d known about the impact of light before (but he had a lot more information to share on that too which I hadn’t previously heard), but the body temperature stuff was completely new to me and fascinating.

I can’t vouch for the later episodes as I haven’t listened for a while…

Lex Friedman #199: Roger Reeves: Smuggling Drugs for Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel

Incredible conversation, and Lex did a wonderful job approaching this conversation from an unconventional perspective.

Unexpectedly, Lex Fridman's interview with Richard Wrangham about the role of violance in human history and how we're similar and different from other big apes was really thought provoking and introduced some new interesting concepts/distinctions to me.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3txWhPWf2YuGN25cIJxm0e?si=J...

A recent 99% Invisible episode on alphabetical order was pretty fascinating. It's based on Judith Flanders's new book about alphabetical order, A Place for Everything. Among things I hadn't considered is how in Chinese "alphabetical order" is based on the number of strokes in the character.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/alphabetical-order/

Two other goods ones from the always enjoyable Decoder Ring:

Truly Tasteless Jokes - How "free speech" moved from being a largely left-wing phenomenon to a right-wing phenomenon through an '80s joke book: https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2021/12/decoder-ring...

The Tootsie Shot - About filming in New York and an iconic shot you've seen from countless films - https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2021/06/tootsie-shot

Finally, both seasons of TMC's The Plot Thickens that aired this year were good listens. Season 2 is on the failed film adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities. Season 3 is on Lucille Ball. https://theplotthickens.tcm.com/

And heck, one more film podcast. The Mubi Podcast's episode on the Chinese film "Dream Factory" and how it basically built up that country's film industry was a great story I had never heard before: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mubi-podcast/id1569229...

Huberman Labs podcast is exceptional.

So many episodes are great on their own. But the one on how to optimize your health condenses a lot of the protocols: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7yCNZihpjlmyNLI93SjmO0?si=8...

This is pretty different than most of the other recommendations on here, but the "Johnny Keys" story from Sammy Gravano's podcast, which starts at the end of episode 6, and continues to the beginning of episode 8:

https://youtu.be/oEFjWlgOu1k?t=1260 (this is the point in ep. 6 that the story starts)

It's a little bit ethically questionable to listen to, since the guy is a killer, and he's profiting from it. However, the storytelling in this thing is leagues better than any movie i've seen in the last few years. He's literally sitting in his armchair just talking, and it's so much more engaging than most professionally written stories.

Can’t believe no one has mentioned Acquired! The episode on Standard Oil is extremely good https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/standard-oil-part-i

THE PRIVATDOZENT PODCAST Episode 2: Kurt Gödel's Brilliant Madness

https://www.privatdozent.co/p/episode-2-kurt-godels-brillian...

It’s hard for me to pick one, as I’ve listened to many :)

Here’s my master playlist (the only rss I subscribe on overcast): https://lnns.co/3iXVgJq5MRa

The second round of Jim Keller on the Lex Friedman podcast was my top episode of the year

https://lexfridman.com/jim-keller-2/

Shawn Ryan Show #015 Former Seal Team Six operator goes deep into his mental and physical training, injuries, addictions, relationships, and more. Powerful is the most apt description. Takes him a few minutes to warm up, but is unbelievable after.

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ozFFhC6NS5fZcfRXhM2LZ?si=a... YouTube - https://youtu.be/dWJ_WwWSabw

That episode is incredible. Thank you for posting. His life should be a movie.

Lex Fridman talks to Jamie Metzl about the Lab Leak theory. Absolutely fascinating.

https://lexfridman.com/jamie-metzl/

I like a mixture of fiction and nonfiction podcasts. It's harder to say specific episodes for fictional ones without spoilers.

But I'll try. The Magnus Archives wrapped up it's 200 episode run this year, and it's worth a listen if you like spooky story podcasts.

One of my favorite episodes of The Dollop this year was on Trapper Nelson. A man who ate possums, buried his money in his yard, and ran a successful zoo and tourist attraction (he was part of the attraction) in the early 20th century. Truly a case of "they don't make them like that anymore."

I’ve yet to ever listen to a podcast episode twice, but this Akira the Done album is basically Naval’s podcast set to music and I’ve listened to it too many times now: https://open.spotify.com/album/4SGFW7Rig34Me2NPPA7Eur

This example customer interview on The Software Social Podcast: https://softwaresocial.dev/episodes/customer-interview-part-...

It inspired my to create a podcast dedicate to more like it.

I enjoyed being part of one (if that counts)...

https://www.gcppodcast.com/post/episode-265-sharkmob-games-w...

these threads always bring the worst of my FOMO.

My was this 4-episode mini-series about the development of Halo 2's multiplayer component. Links here: https://smarturl.it/H2Pod

I enjoy Developing Leadership a lot. So much good content: https://www.developingleadership.co/

Wow, I opened this to recommend Fall of Civilizations, but I'm glad to see it's already recommended by the OP.

I have two: Darknet Diaries episode 92 on the pirate bay and the Huberman Lab episode 22 on hypertrophy.

1. The Dan Harmon episode of Good One - a podcast about jokes.

If you like Community, Rick and Morty & love comedy writing this is a fantastic episode, it starts off being about a specific joke, but after that it goes into his writing philosophy/method, being a bad boss and getting better after fucking everything up, and story structure.

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/good-one-a-podcast-about-joke...

2. Interdependence episode 39: World Fairs, WorldBuilding, the bicameral mind, the nightmare of organizing research and the art of memory with Kantbot

A dizzying interview with Kantbot (the Adam Curtis of weird twitter) by musical artist's/technologists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. Hard to describe but gives you a lot of threads to investigate further.

https://interdependence.fm/episodes/world-fairs-worldbuildin...

3. True Anon Episode 181: 9/11: Twenty Years On the Road

Hosts Brace Belden & Liz Franczak discuss the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with writer Prof. Peter Dale Scott (Deep Politics and the Death of JFK) and editor of Covert Action magazine Aaron Good.

https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/911-twenty-years-on-the-r...

4. Wong Notes - Michael League

Rhythm guitarist & producer Cory Wong (Vulfpeck, Cory Wong and the Wongnotes) interviews jazz-fusion bassist / band leader Michael League (Snarky Puppy) about music, artistry, self-worth.

https://wongnotes.captivate.fm/episode/michael-league

5. WTF with Marc Maron episode 1278 - "Cancelled Comedy" w/ Kliph Nesteroff and David Bianculli

Gives some needed historical perspective on comedians complaining about being cancelled. Talks about the history of censorship in comedy. With comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff and Smothers Brothers biographer David Bianculli.

https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1278-canceled-comedy-...

PS: It's not freely accessible, but I would also highly recommend the Episode 292 of Radio War Nerd: No Plan for Afghanistan, or "Always Bet Against the American Elite" and Episode 293: The Forever Analogy: Saigon vs Afghanistan., for a superb breakdown of America's involvement in Afghanistan and the reasons it was doomed to fail.

World's Greatest Con: 0101: How To Fool Hitler https://worldsgreatestcon.fireside.fm/2

The whole season is really good, but this is the first episode

Jordan Peterson's interviews with Roland Griffiths and Iain McGilchrist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIP-3Q-p_s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zld-MX11lA

How to save the world, in three easy steps. Bret Weinstein | DarkHorse Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-save-the-world-...

I personally find this to be my favorite because I found it to be the most impactful. Particularly to myself, I ended up reaching out because I saw the jump in heart related issues (likely related to vaccines) while tracking COVID19. I reached out as I saw this podcast and was able to validate several of the items discussed via CDC data.

That put me on a whirlwind journey of being connected to quite a few different people and on conference calls with highly regarded scientists and billionaires, which I never expected -_-

There's a lot more recent and relevant information, particularly on Joe Rogan's podcast (#1747 - Dr. Peter A. McCullough):

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aZte37vtFTkYT7b0b04Qz?si=A...

Anyway, I don't know generally about favorite in terms of content to others, but it did put me on quite an adventure.

The Weinsteins started out as experts at speaking a lot of words, while saying very little. But after testing the culture war waters, have committed fully to anti-vax grifting. Id suggest that anyone reading take this recommendation with a grain of salt, and that you reevaluate your opinion of Bret. Even given that the new variant has changed the landscape…

Completely agree

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