HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is the best podcast you listened to in 2022?

99 points by huseyinkeles ↗ HN
I started to listen to podcasts during my daily workouts and I quite enjoy the experience! Some of my favorites are Lex Fridman Podcast [0] and Darknet Diaries [1].

Any other suggestions?

(Asked the same question 2 weeks ago but didn’t get any traction. Sorry if it’s against the rules to send again)

[0] - https://lexfridman.com/podcast/

[1] - https://darknetdiaries.com/

148 comments

[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 210 ms ] thread
seanhunter
Not tech-related, but “Conversations with Tyler”, Tyler Cowen (of Marginal Revolution’s) podcast[1]. It’s consistently thought-provoking and he has some amazing guests on.

[1] https://conversationswithtyler.com/

haakonhr
Strongly agree here. It is the only podcast where I more or less listen to every episode even if I don't find the topic or guest particularly intriguing at first glance.
ethanbond
Intelligence Matters is pretty amazing. Former Interim CIA Director interviews people from all over the Intelligence Community and related private entities/think tanks to discuss global happenings. Really insightful stuff, a valuable peek into "the establishment."
1123581321
Probably Rick Rubin talking to Tom Jones on Broken Record. I also dug the five hour John Carmack interview, but you’ve certainly already heard that one.
LatteLazy
On going:

The Arms Control Wonk. It's event driven so there is not a regular schedule. It's really detailed in an area I don't know well but very Accessible

https://armscontrolwonk.libsyn.com/rss

ChinaTalk

Insightful discussion of everything from Australias new nuclear subs to WeChat to the inside story of those who fall from grace in the CCP.

https://chinatalkshow.libsyn.com/rss

Limited Series

The Bomb. The story of espionage around nuclear secrets during and after ww2. Really compelling true events type thing.

https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p08llv8n.rss

trashymctrash
Making Sense with Sam Harris. There are so many good podcast episodes. If you don’t like the first one you listen to, browse the list of episodes. There’s a ton of evergreens.
sharadov
"SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett
ilikecakeandpie
No Such Thing As A Fish is fantastic. Mostly lighthearted and always interesting and entertaining

https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/

theshrike79
This is by far my favourite podcast to relax to. They're usually funny, I learn completely nonsensical, but factual, trivia and it's well edited so there are no bits where they yammer on about something.

There's also a HUGE backlog of stuff you can listen to (Currently at episode 457) and each episode has 4 facts, you can pause between each if stopping in the middle feels as wrong to you as it does to me.

They do contain a few running jokes, so listening in order is suggested but not mandatory.

danwaterfield
Cortex by CGP Grey and Myke Hurley. Hon mentions to Accidental Tech Podcast, Connected, and Upgrade.
mjs33
No Agenda with Adam Curry and John C Dvorak. 6 hours a week of media deconstruction
notdarkyet
Been listening since episode one. This is the show I look forward to every week.
adamrezich
I spent all of 2022 being perpetually one to three months behind on No Agenda, and I found that this was actually a great way to listen to it. listening to analysis of world events a good month or so after they occurred was fascinating. sometimes I would be listening to an episode from two months ago and hear mention of something that was happening in the present (SBF & FBX, as an example). other times I would hear the hosts discuss a seemingly major news story that had, by the time I was listening, already be long-since forgotten.

I just finished #1500 and I'm probably going to be all caught up in the coming weeks what with holiday travel and all but yeah if anyone else wants to listen to NA but is overwhelmed with the amount of content they put out each week, I can't recommend listening a few months behind enough, for the additional dimension of interesting perspective it gives.

also, unrelated, but Hoteps BEEN Told You is another great listen, however most here will find it to be quite the acquired taste. (disclaimer: I made a website for them.)

techwizrd
Not exactly tech-related, but I like Opening Arguments [0]. It's good at deconstructing the legal happenings in the news, and they avoid overhyping things. I don't always agree with their takes, but it's an enjoyable listen all the same.

0: https://openargs.com/

zwieback
The Moth (story telling)

Planet Money (economics and finance intersecting with everything else)

Heavyweight (investigate lost connections)

dvirsky
+100 to Heavyweight, it's my favorite podcast. Each one is like a little gem.

More tech related, and excellent podcasts:

Offline, a new-ish podcast from Crooked (the Pod Save America guys). It has a very anti silicon valley agenda that is sometimes annoying but there are some excellent interviews there.

Hard Fork, a tech news podcast from NYT, that gives a nice weekly roundup and some deeper dives on the week's drama in tech, in a mostly funny manner.

chrisbaker98
Can you give a link to "Heavyweight"? I searched for it in my podcast app but there are loads of results - I'm not sure which one you're talking about
zwieback
Yeah, Spotify only nowadays. I don't have a subscription, though, so you can still listen to it for free.
farski
I was so bummed when they ended the Heavyweight podcast and made it a Spotify exclusive. It was one of the very few shows I would have conversations with people about the day after it dropped.
ackatz
Risky Business podcast (https://risky.biz/) is by far the best InfoSec news podcast in my opinion.

As far as a single episode, I really enjoyed this Lex Fridman podcast with John Carmack: https://lexfridman.com/john-carmack/

HDThoreaun
I'll second Fridman + Carmack. Probably the one podcast episode that everyone in this community would enjoy. Carmack is quite the inspiring character, and Lex's obvious reverence of him was a joy to experience.

The other podcast I frequent is econtalk, mostly because I find Russ to be thoughtful and he's a good steelmanner for libertarian and Friedmanist arguments I commonly disagree with.

bityard
I can heartily recommend the Jordan Harbinger show. He interviews some truly fascinating people.
thatcherc
"Volts" by David Roberts![0] A lot of subjects covered related to decarbonization and getting and using more renewable electricity, usually by interviewing a variety of experts

[0] - https://www.volts.wtf/

x-n2o
The Huberman Lab Podcast
alsetmusic
A Tradition of Violence [0]

Cerise Castle is doing some blockbuster investigative journalism on gangs operating within the LA Sheriff's department. She blew this open with written articles last year. [1]

This has been one of the best shows I've listened to. There are (I think) four episodes remaining in the series.

[0]https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-a-tradition-of-violence-..., https://open.spotify.com/show/2jp3drHcyofNXbEvuMbtbU

[1] https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-violence-lasd-gang-history...

akudha
I really enjoy this one - https://callingbullshitpodcast.com/episodes/ It is about the gap between companies' stated goals and their actual behavior.

Citations needed - https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ I think I found it on HN. Well worth your time

Behind the bastards - exactly what it says on the title. Every episode is about a shitty human being (some alive, most dead). Listen to the episodes on Henry Kissinger - it is a crime he was given the Nobel peace prize

lilsoso
There's a bizarre formula that Citations Needed uses in their titles to describe something they seem to disagree with in a way to immediately distance it from truth. They'll use the following words as synonyms: narrative, cliche, talking points, media, machine, stories, mythmaking, discourse, sentiment, framing, messaging, notions, theater, demagoguery, dogma, rhetoric, diatribe.

Pointing this out helps diminish whatever propaganda they might be distributing. Curiously, they seem to refrain from applying the word 'propaganda' to whatever it is they're describing, as that would reveal them as biased and their trick.

sakopov
Hardcore History by Dan Carlin [1] is by far the best podcast I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. I'm currently on the WW1 series and it is absolutely jaw-dropping stuff.

[1] https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

coreyisthename
Ghosts of the Ostfront and Supernova in the East are also genuinely incredible. The length can seem overwhelming, but he’s so engaging that you’ll be sad it isn’t twice as long.
jonwinstanley
Agreed. The World War One series is fantastic. I learned way more through this than I did back in school.
sockaddr
Agreed. Quality stuff for sure.

And crucially he will tell you right as he’s about to fill in gaps with his own assumptions for the sake of the story telling. Makes it easier to trust him.

pwpw
My favorite series of Hardcore History is Death Throes of the Republic[0]. It discusses the rise and fall of the Roman Republic and particularly Julius Caesar. This time period has an abundance of resources that provide plentiful discussion, and it’s full of incredible characters. I should probably find a book on the topic because I was glued to every word of each episode.

[0] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-death-thr...

satvikpendem
If you like that, try the History of Rome podcast, it goes through each and every single era of Western Roman history. It took me a few months to get through all of it and another few months to get through the History of Byzantium one which is still ongoing.

Other History Of podcasts are also interesting, such as the one on China, I haven't gotten too deep into that one yet.