Ask HN: What podcasts do you listen to?

57 points by joe8756438 2y ago ↗ HN

My podcast listening dropped off a cliff when suddenly I no longer had a commute a few years back. Recently I've been interested in finding new shows -- daunting task, better to ask!

What are y'all listening to on the tech and general interest side?

98 comments

[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 177 ms ] thread

purpleblue 2y ago ↗

Joe Rogan Experience is the best podcast that I listen to. It has a wide variety of guests and topics, from regular politics to Neil deGrasse Tyson to Elon Musk to Bernie Sanders to aliens to psychedelic drugs to anti-mRNA vaccines. Joe Rogan is also an excellent interviewer because he asks questions without an agenda.

icepat 2y ago ↗

I'm curious where you see that he asks questions without an agenda. Do you not feel that in several of his discussions (ie: Sanjay Gupta) he tends to ask questions indicating a very clear one? And regarding his choices of guests, do you think perhaps there's a bias towards more fringe beliefs?

psychlops 2y ago ↗

Nobody would listen to a podcast that only had mainstream guests describing their non-fringe ideas. His primary choice of guests are MMA fighters and comedians which one might safely describe as a fringe professions.

vidyesh 2y ago ↗

He has stated clearly that he invites guests based on what he is interested in at that moment or that phase of his life.

So yes, sometimes some weeks the guests are very biased and towards a certain kind of beliefs, some(experts) are just his friends now at this point who like the platform he gives so millions(?) would listen.

I am not going argue he asks the best questions but you can often see that the way he is not an expert but a knowledge seeker, the guests are free to speak what they want and leads to interesting discussions. His personal knowledge is limited to his curiosity and interest but when the guest starts speaking of topics he isn't aware of he keeps asking good questions which are vague most of the time.

I do not listen to all episodes but only when the guests are interesting and/or the topics they cover are interesting or very new to me.

icepat 2y ago ↗

Do you consider the approach he takes to "seek knowledge" is perhaps tainted by bias? For example, the information he seeks out, he may seek out in a way that confirms his pre-existing biases rather than seeking to test them? For example, his reliance on VAERS reports when talking about vaccines.

purpleblue 2y ago ↗

He's a human being, not a robot. He's trying the best he can and he's being completely honest about it. I'm not sure what you're expecting from him, but he's not perfect nor does he claim to ever be. He's trying to be honest and open-minded more than anyone else in media so I appreciate that immensely.

Are you saying the VAERS reports are useless or biased?

icepat 2y ago ↗

They're unverified, and unreliable: https://theconversation.com/unverified-reports-of-vaccine-si...

purpleblue 2y ago ↗

Ah, okay so we shouldn't bother with checking VAERS anymore. Got it.

icepat 2y ago ↗

Essentially yes, as laymen VARES is useless. VARES reports are useful for scientist to identify things to study. The useful data comes out of the peer reviewed studies that the VARES report spawn, not the reports themselves. They're simply datapoints that need to be taken in conjunction with the rest of the inputs to the study and you can not extract meaningful conclusions from them alone.

They're as useful as looking at only 1-star product reviews that don't even verify the submitter owns the product.

John's Hopkins has a good overview of their intended use: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/what-vaers-is-and-isnt

> Moreover, the CDC and FDA do not restrict what people can report, as long as it happened at some point following a vaccination. That means events that happen even years later and have no obvious connection to a vaccine, such as feelings of anger, end up reported in the system

purpleblue 2y ago ↗

I guess it depends on what the definition of "without an agenda" means. He has opinions, some of them very strong, but he doesn't bring someone on to push an agenda that he wants to publicize. He has people on that he wants to have a genuine discussion with. And he's not beholden to any particular ones and is willing to have an open-minded debate or discussion.

With Sanjay Gupta, he brought him on so that he could have a debate about the COVID vaccine, and Gupta conceded many points that Rogan made. He never has "gotcha" questions like many journalists, and I believe it's an entirely honest discussion with all of his guests. For example, he has had hard-core pro-Palestinian journalists like Abby Martin, and very pro-Israeli talk show hosts like Ben Shapiro. He's had politicians from all sides of the spectrum. He is more than willing to have people debate the COVID policies and vaccines but no one takes him up on his offer, like Peter Hotez. He has some independent journalists like Alex Berenson who is very much against the legalization of cannabis, something that Rogan uses often.

In terms of "fringe beliefs", what do you mean? I like the fact that he has a variety of topics, some of them absurd, like aliens. Not everything has to be serious.

psychlops 2y ago ↗

Funny how you get downvoted, not because you are wrong but because people don't like your opinion. Joe Rogan is the most successful podcast ever made. He is doing it all right.

[deleted] 2y ago ↗

(comment deleted)

agonz253 2y ago ↗

> most successful podcast ever made.

What's that Schopenhauer quote, "he who writes for fools will always find a large audience". I suppose the same can apply to podcasts.

psychlops 2y ago ↗

That's why I write for as small an audience as possible. This comment is just for you agonz253.

germanattanasio 2y ago ↗

hahahaha this comment made my day

zerojames 2y ago ↗

This Week in Google is my favourite podcast (they don't talk too much about Google though, a recurring theme they mention in the show).

They have a great panel: a reporter from Wired, a journalism professor and author, a photographer (who is also the network community manager), Leo (who hosts the show) and a rotating set of guests.

I am interested in every show they produce.

This Week in Tech is also great, but I prefer the TWiG panel :)

jackthetab 2y ago ↗

Logged in just to say that same thing.

kstrauser 2y ago ↗

“Roderick on the Line” sounds like my friends sitting around and talking about everything imaginable.

digitalsushi 2y ago ↗

My anti-answer is that podcasts have been making me sad (cause they are usually just the news, for me), and I've been listening to my late 90's late-teenager playlists on my commute to unspool my day, and force myself to remember nostalgic times and try to cope with everything. Basically using nostalgic music as a cheap drug.

billywnyc 2y ago ↗

"60 Songs That Explain The 90s" (there are more than 60...)

rounakdatta 2y ago ↗

Been listening to Hardcore History recently - very very intriguing. Also, am a fan of a new video podcast by Amit Varma & Ajay Shah called [Everything is Everything](https://www.youtube.com/@amitvarma/featured). Note that latter can be a bit India-focussed at times.

miiiiiike 2y ago ↗

The ones I listen to every episode of:

Marketplace (APM/NPR): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketplace/id20185303...

This American Life: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-american-life/id2...

Radio Lab: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110

Search Engine (Reply All's pseudo-successor): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/search-engine/id161425...

On The Media: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id7333071...

What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-roman-mars-can-le...

99% Invisible: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/99-invisible/id3947753...

Articles of Interest: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/articles-of-interest/i...

The Problem With Jon Stewart: The Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-problem-with-jon-s...

More Perfect: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-perfect/id1117202...

Planet Money: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id2907834...

Science Vs: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/science-vs/id105155700...

Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conan-obrien-needs-a-f...

The Indicator: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-indicator-from-pla...

Criminal: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/criminal/id809264944

Imaginary Worlds: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/...

slipperlobster 2y ago ↗

I listen to a few podcasts focused on US politics: David Pakman (has a finance background, very level-headed in his viewpoints): https://davidpakman.com/

I Doubt It: https://dollemore.com/

I also listen to non-politics stuff: Factually: https://www.adamconover.net/

Dumb Dad Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dumb-dad-podcast/id146...

TheAceOfHearts 2y ago ↗

I like David Pakman but feel like this type of political content needs to be consumed in far greater moderation and not on a daily basis. People that cover politics tend to hijack your brain with a lot of inconsequential events and information.

A good metric for me is probably something like: is this going to be important or relevant in a few weeks?

David Pakman had a podcast episode with Lex Fridman and even he recommends that you treat him as a small part of your media diet.

slipperlobster 2y ago ↗

Absolutely agreed (and I do follow that advice). I throw this stuff on in the car when I'm dropping off the kid at school.

Still good to know what's going on day-to-day, albeit a bit more micro-level than not.

Cenk 2y ago ↗

Accidental Tech Podcast: https://atp.fm

daniel_reetz 2y ago ↗

For curious hacker types interested in aerospace, infrastructure, and the history of computing, I HIGHLY recommend Omega Tau Podcast . For computing nerds, check out, for example, Episode 248. For flight nerds, Episode 91, for infrastructure nerds, Episode 146.

http://omegataupodcast.net/

surprisetalk 2y ago ↗

I maintain a list with ratings here, but it's a bit outdated:

[1] https://taylor.town/podcasts

    99% Invisible
    Articles of Interest
    Conversations with Tyler
    Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
    Everything Everywhere Daily
    Nice Try!
    Radiolab
    The Memory Palace
    Quanta Science Podcast
    Cortex

Good complete series:

    The Anthropocene Reviewed
    S-Town
    On the Metal
    Hello Internet

---

EDIT: I can't update my website because cloudflare is down haha

I'll try to update later today.

A lot of my rankings have changed as podcasts often degrade in quality over time

---

EDIT:

Series that I enjoyed at some point in the past:

    Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
    Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin
    American Innovations
    Brains
    Cautionary Tales
    Chemistry for Your Life
    Dear Hank & Jon
    Deep Questions with Cal Newport
    Endless Thread
    Everything is Alive
    Experimental History
    Freakanomics
    Harmontown
    Hey Riddle Riddle
    The Joy of Why
    Land by Hand
    Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr
    More Perfect
    Patented: History of Inventions
    The Permaculture Podcast
    The Peter Attia Drive
    Planet Money
    Reasonably Sound
    Reconcilable Differences
    Reply All
    Revisionist History
    The Strong Towns Podcast
    Stuff You Should Know
    The Tim Ferriss Show
    Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
    Twenty Thousand Hertz

Support these cool tech podcasts produced by my friends:

    devtools.fm
    The Changelog
    Elm Town
    Future of Coding
    Hest
    Software Unscripted
    TODEPOND PODCAST

huevosabio 2y ago ↗

HH and Conversations with Tyler are both great, will check out some of your other recommendations.

For history, the Fall of Civilizations Podcast is also fantastic.

withzombies 2y ago ↗

Articles of Interest is _so_ good. It's a great take on the 99% Invisible "design of everyday things". I was definitely blind to clothing and textiles and Articles of Interest is really enlightening.

You may enjoy Search Engine by PJ Vogt[1], it's really well done. Its the quality of the original Gimlet Podcasts and a bit different than his previous show (Reply All).

[1] https://pjvogt.substack.com

surprisetalk 2y ago ↗

Thanks for the rec!

It's really hard to convince engineers to listen to a podcast about CLOTHING but it's totally worth it.

"Nice Try!" might be a better onramp for most, as it has the same vibe but for everyday objects.

withzombies 2y ago ↗

It's not about clothing, it's about a specific type of technology. :)

vidyesh 2y ago ↗

> A lot of my rankings have changed as podcasts often degrade in quality over time

I totally agree, some podcasts start off so good but then they are in there to appeal the masses than to stick with their original theme/style.

And it becomes really difficult to tell others only listen to this, this and this episode but afterwards its alright.

So I am curious how do you rate them(collectively)? Is it just a arbitrary rating system or is there a science/logic behind it? I wish a podcast app could prompt me after each listen to rate the episode and then use that to update the rating of the podcast(as a whole) based on what I personally gave than the public rating system which is very flawed as a recommendation engine.

I think this should be fairly easy to incorporate on ones personal website too, a way to let your listening history be personal recommendation engine than we relying on our memory to recommend/suggest. And if you stop listening to it and as episodes pile on, it can clearly drop in rating for you(?) or just go down the list.

surprisetalk 2y ago ↗

Here's some more info about my general rating system:

[1] https://taylor.town/2-stars

When I rate podcasts, I try to go based on the last ~1 year of episodes.

I updated the rankings on my website, but unfortunately, cloudflare is not letting me deploy :(

Feel free to email me at hello@taylor.town if you'd like more recs

>I think this should be fairly easy to incorporate on ones personal website too, a way to let your listening history be personal recommendation engine than we relying on our memory to recommend/suggest.

If you look at my past newsletters, I used to do something like this with individual episodes:

[2] https://taylor.town/town-hall-0006

Unfortunately, it's time-consuming, and my readers didn't really care for the granularity much.

I'd be interested in an automated solution though.

vidyesh 2y ago ↗

Thanks for explaining your rating system.

One last question, why podcast episodes are a 3-stars based rating system while everything else is 5-stars rating system?

surprisetalk 2y ago ↗

Great question!

I only shared episodes that were >2-stars, so I truncated the first two stars :)

surprisetalk 2y ago ↗

I used GPT to add links and short descriptions :)

My current listens:

• 99% Invisible (https://99percentinvisible.org): Design's unnoticed marvels explored.

• Articles of Interest (https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/articles-of-interest): A podcast about clothing, style, and wear.

• Conversations with Tyler (https://conversationswithtyler.com): Tyler Cowen's dialogues on economics and culture.

• Derek Sivers (https://sive.rs): Musings of a musician turned entrepreneur.

• Radiolab (https://www.radiolab.org): A journey through curious scientific and philosophical landscapes.

• The Memory Palace (https://thememorypalace.us): History's footnotes brought to life.

• Cortex (https://www.relay.fm/cortex/): Two YouTubers discuss productivity and workflow.

• What's Your Problem? (https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/whats-your-problem): Problem-solving strategies in business and life.

• Software Unscripted (https://twitter.com/sw_unscripted?lang=en): Conversations on the realities of software engineering.

Bingeworthy series that are completed or on indefinite hiatus:

• S-Town (https://stownpodcast.org/): A deep dive into a quixotic Alabama tale.

• The Anthropocene Reviewed (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anthropocene-reviewed): John Green reviews facets of the human-centered planet.

• On the Metal (https://oxide.computer/podcast/on-the-metal): Tech veterans unpack computing and engineering layers.

• Björk: Sonic Symbolism (https://mailchimp.com/presents/podcast/sonic-symbolism): Exploring the iconic artist's musical narratives.

• My Year in Mensa (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-year-in-mensa/id149...): A satirical take on high IQ societies.

• The Trojan Horse Affair (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trojan-horse-affai...): Investigation of a British school controversy.

• Hello Internet (https://www.hellointernet.fm/): General banter on life, universe, and everything in between.

Support these cool tech podcasts produced by my friends:

• devtools.fm (https://www.devtools.fm/)

• Th...

chalsprhebaodu 2y ago ↗

Oh man, I love Hey Riddle Riddle.

celeritascelery 2y ago ↗

Some of my favorite technical podcasts

Oxide and friends: https://oxide.computer/podcasts/oxide-and-friends

On the metal: https://oxide.computer/podcasts/on-the-metal

Handmade network: https://handmade.network/podcast

Signals & threads: https://signals-threads.simplecast.com/

d1str0 2y ago ↗

The Adventure Zone is my all time favorite podcast. 3 brothers and their dad playing DnD but they don’t take the rules as seriously as many other actual-play podcasts.

The Critshow is another great one.

thepablohansen 2y ago ↗

I'm an avid consumer of podcasts. Here are my recommendations

Interviews

- Sam Harriss

- Sean Carrol

- Lex Fridman

- Possible (Reid Hoffman)

- Manifold

Lifestyle/Thoughts

- 80k hours

- Hackers Incorporated

- Startup Therapy

"Creator Economy"

- Colin and Samir

- Media Empires

- The Editing Podcast

- Creator Science

(Tech) News

- The Journal

- Hard Fork

Investing/Business

- Art of Investing

- Acquired

dpbriggs 2y ago ↗

The only one I listen to consistently is the Rational Reminder podcast.

kelseyfrog 2y ago ↗

If Books Could Kill

The Secret History of Western Esotericism

Astral Codex Ten(ty solenoid entity)

Stanford Psychology

Les Nuits De France Culture

I get enough tech here. These are for making me a more well-rounded individual. Note: I'd love to get an entire set of medschool lectures as a podcast - does this exist?

IanCal 2y ago ↗

Lost Terminal is wonderful as a story. The way things are revealed and the calm tones really elevate it. I don't want to spoil anything I'd just very strongly recommend it.

Seems there's text YouTube videos but it's also a regular podcast.

https://lostterminal.com/

It's also short, 5 mins each I think for the first series and 10 for the later ones.

ilikecakeandpie 2y ago ↗

My recommendations are general, really don't have anything to do with tech:

No Such Thing as a Fish

The Dollop