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Ask HN: Recommend me a Podcast

127 points by whatusername ↗ HN
Hi HN.. I've been doing a bit more commuting than normal lately and have found I have more commute time than podcast time. What Podcasts do you listen to that you can recommend to others? (Basically I'm after the HN guidelines -- anything that satisfies my intellectual curiosity)

145 comments

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kristofferR
The Lifestyle Business Podcast is an absolutely awesome podcast about modern business. The content is so valuable that they decided to take payments for the first 30 episodes, but it's so worth it!

http://www.lifestylebusinesspodcast.com/

danspodcast
hehe thanks for the shout out KrisofferR! Truth is our justification for charging for the first 30 episodes is to give show supporters an opportunity to help us pay for our audio editor's/virtual assistant fees which helps us produce new shows faster. Thanks for listening :)
orchidguru
TechZing gets my vote. http://techzinglive.com/ It's broadly about issues relating to tech startups but meanders quite a bit. The hosts are characters and it doesn't take itself too seriously.
jayro
Hey, this is Jason from TechZing. Thanks so much for the mention! I never really thought of myself as a character, but you're probably right. ;)

By the way, for anyone interested in checking out the TechZing podcast, we not only discuss tech, startups and other HN-like topics, we'll even on occasion take a risk and venture into the unknown. For example, we recently interviewed a historian of UFOs and the national security state which, to our surprise, turned out to be one of our most popular shows of all time.

This week we're interviewing David Fogel, who evolved a world-class checkers playing algorithm named Blondie24, and I anticipate that to be an especially interesting show.

Anyway, you should listen to us here: http://techzinglive.com because if you like HN then you'll probably like our show.

TY
Jason, the interview with Richard Dolan (UFO guy) was the best show in my memory and I listened to almost all of Techzing episodes.
jesseendahl
Radiolab is brilliant. I doubt you will find a better radio show/podcast than that. Listen to the episodes on memory and race—they blew me away.
arethuza
The History of Rome Podcast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-rome/id261...

I've listened to all 112 episodes so far (and still quite a bit to go) - once this finishes I'll probably go back and listen to the "12 Byzantine Rules" again - which is also very good.

Although not purely a podcast, I can also strongly recommend the BBC Radio 4 series "In Our Time" - which is available as a podcast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/

This is an informal "history of ideas" and is the kind of thing the BBC does extremely well.

kranner
IMO 'In Our Time' is less useful than it appears at first. Melvyn Bragg invites a few University professors to discuss a topic in every episode and things go straight to the deep end with everyone trying to sound smarter than everyone else. It's an intellectual knife-fight where the listener hasn't even been told the rules.

ABC Radio National's Philosophers Zone http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/ is way better and covers much the same topics. Great interviewer; talks clearly and slowly and summarizes key points periodically. It's the Mixergy of philosophy.

maw
things go straight to the deep end with everyone trying to sound smarter than everyone else

Yeah, that's the degenerate case, and is why I'm less keen on IOT than I used to be. The Indian Rebellion (20100218) was the worst one this year (although I'm almost two months behind now).

Still, when it's good, it's really good. Fortunately, you're rarely compelled to listen to an episode: if it's no good, just move on.

avar
"The Indian Mutiny". Here's a link, since I went through the trouble of searching for it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qprnj

But I agree, IOT has a lot of podcasts that I've liked (e.g. the one on The Great wall of China), while others are just academic catfights.

SecurityMatters
Thank you for referring me to The Philosopher's Zone. I had not heard it before. I listened to 4 programs last night. I did not get as much from it as I do from most of the In Our Time episodes. Having just one person to interview does not seem to lead to the same quality of discussion as the panels of experts tha Melvin finds. I am not saying every IOT is a gem, but I learned from and enjoyed IOT more. But, I have listened to most of the IOT episodes and I can't get any more back episodes. They now hide IOT behind Flash and I have better sense than to install that program. Good day
kroger
The History of Rome looks good. Here's the link for their home page, for those of us who don't use itunes: http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/
spcmnspff
I was going to write a perl script to download all these but after I discovered that the naming scheme wasn't consistent throughout every file, I gave up and installed iTunes to download everything. I then promptly removed all hundreds of megabytes of it. An advantage is the naming scheme is pretty good; nothing that a novice shell-scripter can't fix.
kroger
I don't understand why you "removed all hundreds of megabytes of it".

At any rate, this is a simple python script to list all mp3 files in those posts (I like to use wget do do the actual downloading):

http://pastebin.com/cbhEgt6E

It uses the cool lxml library: http://codespeak.net/lxml/

(I use something similar to download all posts of a blog I want to read offline on my kindle).

friendlyhacker
I then promptly removed all hundreds of megabytes of it.

I think he was referring to Itunes.

ericd
I came here to say this - the History of Rome is a phenomenal podcast, and easily the most interesting history text I've read or listened to. The narrator does a good job of trying to reconcile the sometimes wildly varying accounts of the source material, and he's clearly extremely passionate about the subject. It's very to interesting to hear about the progression from early kingdom, to republic, to empire, to military dictatorship with a very thin republican veneer.
sykora
I just started listening to "The History of Rome" podcast, and I love it. He tells a story rather than deliver a lecture, it's great fun.
hswolff
WNYC's Radiolab: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/

Absolutely brilliant in every way. Has the highest production quality of any podcast I've ever listened to. Please give it a listen as soon as you can.

intellectronica
I second that. One ethe best radio shows ever - an interdisciplinary popular science program produced like a radio play.
napierzaza
I love the stories they tell, but I can't listen to it. They're constantly interrupting the flow of the podcast with sound effects and pointless frills. I also can't stand how they often talk over interviewees.
VMG
It was much worse in the earlier podcasts, the new ones are pretty solid. Don't download the big torrent you can find on Isohunt but download the latest ~20 podcasts. I found the effects irritating too at first but now I kinda like them.
cmurphycode
Radiolab is great. However, it presents topics much in the same way that I imagine people who visit this site do- they love to explore interesting surface-level explanations of everything from the multiverse to the nature of consciousness. Don't get me wrong: Radiolab is very good at this, and since it's in audio form, it's the perfect way to learn while commuting, for example. I'm just saying that I have already learned a lot of the stuff they explore on the show, and I suspect a lot of hackers will have, too.

I also find their presenting style annoying sometimes, as they cut in and out of the subject talking and the hosts telling the story, and occasionally the hosts' banter seems forced for interest.

On the whole though, highly recommended!

Edit: It's worth confirming the high quality. I listen on 2x speed and it is almost 100% natural to listen to. Amazing.

rick_2047
I am not exactly learn from an audio podcast type but I really liked listening to John R Searle's class of Philosophy of Mind, at UC Berkeley Webcasts[1]. The quality is bad as hell, but the content not so much.

Also if you want to have some light listening (you don't want the all intellectual boring life do you?) then I would highly recommend Bells in the Batfry[2] by John bell and Decoder Ring Theater [3]. Listen to everything produced by them, its a treat.

[1]http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=...

[2]http://thebatfry.com/

[3]http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/

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lovskogen
No Agenda, for real news, no tabloid shit.
sabat
I love Adam and John, but it's not "real news" -- it's conspiracy theory devised by two guys who don't understand how to think critically.
lovskogen
I think you're missing a good part of the show, it's alot more than conspiracy theories.
tommynazareth
I listen to podcasts all day while I work. I've consumed hundreds of hours of all types of podcasts. No Agenda is the best show on the internet.

Edit: There is plenty of 'real news' tabloid shit though.

The value in No Agenda is the deconstruction of media and the calling out disguised propaganda. Thanks to No Agenda, I realize why the local news is covering 'Jersey Shore', I can see that a ten minute news segment with no interruption is being secretly paid for, and I know to check the sponsors of every news story and check out the history of the journalist.

Maybe I'm biased, since I've always been extremely skeptical of any entrenched establishment, but I don't lack for intelligence or critical thinking and I think that is the cause of my anti-establishment tendencies.

rpledge
Well said. If you listen to No Agenda you quickly start to realize that mainstream media is a huge waste of time and completely controlled by corporations.

Adam may have some crazy theories, but a lot of what they talk about is the truth.

You don't have to agree with everything they say. In fact, if you only listen to opinions that you agree with, why bother listening to anything?

raintrees
I find it highly entertaining, as long as I don't get too ramped up with all of the conspiracy theories. And like the BBC, it gives me a wider view of what is going on in the world than US media.

I also agree that it helps counteract all of the bias out there.

mattmaroon
This American Life is pretty much the gold standard in podcasts.
mahmud
That stuff is gripping. Really. Every Saturday at around 3PM it has me frozen still, no matter what I am doing.

Ira Glass is a top notch story-teller, in that he doesn't get between his subject and the microphone.

ja27
Wanted to mention that (at least for me) the iTunes Store feed for This American Life is usually messed up. The RSS feed from their website works a lot better:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast

dimarco
Have you tried the iPhone app instead of the iTunes feed? It sends a nice push notification whenever a new episode is ready.
malpern
I'm a fan of Jon Udell's interviews with Innovators:

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/series/innovators.html

ThomPete
This guy really do pick some very interesting companies or people that often later on turn out to be important or popular.

Highly recommendable.

Also Phill Windley's show technometria.

Of podcastsites I can recommend both itconversations.org and spoken word.org

lovskogen
Also, You Look Nice Today - great comedy.
steveeq1
Entrepreneurship Thought Leaders: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html

It's an excellent podcast from Stanford. The guest speakers give a good idea of the quality of the podcast: Marc Andreessen, Steve Case, Steve Blank, Eric Ries, David Heinemeier Hansson, Mitch Kapor, etc

patrickk
+1 these are excellent

EDIT: not sure why this was down voted, all I did was concur with the above statement.

Hagelin
Because all you did was concur with the above statement?
parka
I listen to them all the time.

Not just educational but also motivating.

netcan
econtalk : http://www.econtalk.org/

1 hr interview show (usually a writer promoting recent book) by a Hayek influenced economist. Most shows relate in some way to economic issues but not much. Many are about truth, bias and knowledge in social science fields.

I recommend starting with the archives and picking out guests you know and like already.

frognibble
Econtalk is my favorite podcast. For those who might be put off by economics, here are a couple of interviews that readers here on HN might find interesting:

Paul Graham on Start-ups, Innovation, and Creativity http://www.econtalk.org/archives/_featuring/paul_graham/

Paul Buchheit on Google, Friendfeed, and Start-ups http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/09/buchheit_on_goo.htm...

maw
Those were good ones indeed, but let's not be too narrow. For example, division of labor is a common topic discussed. (An economics program! And division of labor!? No effin way!) For those of us trying to get a business going, it's probably more relevant to our work, even if it might not look like it at first blush.

In any case, I third the recommendation. The host Russ Roberts has a gift for explaining things clearly, and, rarer and more wonderful still, the ability to disagree and remain civil.

netcan
I wouldn't personally start there (eg I like econtalk & I like PG's essays but I didn't feel like the show was a showcase for either one).

Looking over the archive, here are some from the archive that I liked:

Blakley on Fashion and Intellectual Property

Okrent on Prohibition and His Book, Last Call

Romer on Charter Cities

Boettke on Elinor Ostrom, Vincent Ostrom, and the Bloomington School

Hitchens on Orwell

Kling on Freddie and Fannie and the Recent History of the U.S. Housing Market

Karol Boudreaux on Wildlife, Property, and Poverty in Africa

Chris Anderson on Free

Taleb on Black Swans

shmulkey18
Econtalk is wonderful! Don't be put off by the title and your unpleasant memories of the micro and macro courses you took in college. Econtalk covers a lot of ground, including emergent behavior, behavioral economics, Prohibition, and the Russian revolution. Great stuff.
avar
Astronomy Cast: A hard science (almost exclusively discusses accepted peer reviewed theories) podcast about cosmology. Everything from the Big Bang to Missions to Mars: http://www.astronomycast.com/

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: A skeptical podcast by Steven Novella & co. They cover a lot of interesting topics, and some other ones that I'm not a big fan of. But overall pretty good: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/

billturner
My favorite podcast these days is The Tobolowsky Files: http://www.slashfilm.com/category/features/slashfilmcast/the...

Stephen Tobolowsky, the actor probably best known for Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, is a fantastic storyteller. He's been recounting stories from his life, inside hollywood, and everywhere in between. Funny, poignant, and something I look forward to every week.