My Favorite Podcasts

One of my favorite ways to pass the time is to listen to podcasts. I listen to them when I’m driving, when I go for walks or runs and often while I eat lunch at work. I like the slight distraction they provide while also giving me the chance to learn something new or see a different perspective in the process.

I probably listen to about 15 hours of podcasts every week. And have done so for the last 5 years. Some of the podcasts I started with many years ago I am still listening to, while others have lost my interest and I have switched to better ones.

After trying out many, many podcasts here are the ones I have settled on as my favorites over the years.

(links are to the websites where you can listen to my favorite episodes of each podcast)

The Tim Ferris Show –

This is one of the oldest podcasts I have been listening to. It is was got me hooked on podcasts in the first place. Tim Ferris is an amazing interviewer and gets some fantastic guests on his show. It is heavily geared towards performance optimization, via conversations around diet, workouts, investing, medical break-throughs, startups, meditation and lifestyle design. They are long form interviews and can dive quite deep into a topic. By now he has published so many great episodes it should be easy to find a few that tickle your fancy. Some of my favorite Tim Ferris Podcast episodes and my recommendations for the best ones for starting out are as follows:

Check out some Tim Ferris podcasts, they very well may change your life. They certainly have helped me a ton.

Check his great books too! I recommend the original – The Four Hour Work Week – or one of his newer ones like – The Tools of Titans – which has a ton of great tips and tools from some of the world’s most successful people! I have gifted these books many a times.

 

The Fantasy Footballers –

This is my favorite podcast all time! It is a year round podcast about fantasy football, so not as deep or thought provoking as some of these other podcasts, but I find these guys so damn entertaining and their fantasy football advice is super helpful. I have listened to every episode they have ever put out and I love them. The Fantasy Footballers podcast is the best fantasy football podcast out there. And it is hilarious. As the show is pretty time specific I recommend jumping right in with the latest podcast or the TRUTH episodes.

Check out their website to listen to an amazing fantasy football podcast!

www.thefantasyfootballers.com/

 

This American Life –

There are 3 NPR podcasts on my list of favorite podcasts and they are all amazing and pretty different. This American Life is an hour-ish long podcast each week where they select a theme and tell you some fascinating stories that are usually somewhat related to that theme. They find some amazing characters and great stories each week. They can be very funny or quite heavy some times, but each and every one is insightful and entertaining.

Here are some of my favorite ones to get you hooked!

 

Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History –

I have already spoken the praise of Malcolm Gladwell and his fantastic books in my Top Books of 2018 blog post. His entertaining story telling is no less apparent in his Revisionist History Podcast. His tag line is that he explores “the overlooked and the misunderstood”. Looking back at past events and taking a second look to see if what is commonly believed is the whole story, or even the true story.

The episodes dive into fascinating topics from really interesting perspectives.

These are my favorite episodes – in chronological order:

Season 1 – Episode 8 – Blame Game

Season 2 – Episode 6 – The King of Tears

Season 2 – Episode 10 – The Basement Tapes

This one is a MUST LISTEN TO episode:

Season 3 – Episode 2 – Burden of Proof

Season 3 – Episode 6 – The Hug Heard Round the World

 

Serial –

Another NPR podcast, Serial is an amazing podcast with fantastic story telling. The first season investigates a murder and whether the man in prison for the killing actually committed the crime. It is binge worthy as you cannot stop listening to find out the twists and turns of this true story. The first person interviews tell the story in such a captivating manner. There is a reason this podcast took the world by storm when it was released at the end of 2015! Fastest podcast to reach the 3 million download mark ever!

Season two is quite different, with the podcast investigating the stories of an interesting, to say the least, man living in “Shit Town”. Also a true story, this tale was very weird and strange and captivating all at the same time.

Season 3 just came out and I am excited to set aside some time and go along for another crazy ride with the Serial team.

Check out season one here.

www.serialpodcast.org/season-one

 

Planet Money –

The last, but not least, NPR podcast. Planet Money is amazing! The episodes are pretty short, usually around 30 min and explore a really cool or really odd story in finance or business. They bring to light some really fascinating stories of business that you didn’t know you needed to learn more about, but once the episode starts, you now know you do!

They are funny and informative and entertaining. It is deep enough for a econ nerd like me to still learn a lot, but approachable for anyone to find interesting!

There are so many great episodes from over the years but here are a few that stick out to me:

Episode 468: Kid Rock Vs. The Scalpers

Episode 657: The Tale Of The Onion King

Episode 643: The Taxi King

Episode 728: The Wells Fargo Hustle

#427: LeBron James Is Still Underpaid

Planet Money Buys Oil episodes – 5 part series

 

The Enormocast –

I love rock climbing and I love the lore behind the classic climbs and the classic climbers. Chris Kalous is the host of The Enormocast and has done a great job building this podcast into the go to climbing podcast out there. He gets the best interviews and guides the episodes along some really interesting storylines. Check out these must listen to episodes to get a feel for the podcast and the awesome stories behind Climbing!

Episodes 6 and 7 with the now passed away Hayden Kennedy about his decision to CHOP the Compressor Route! A crazy story and a really thoughtful interview about climbing, history and hard choices.

Episode 94 with Colin Haley, his stories of climbing as a teen in Washington and now climbing in Patagonia with Honnold are fantastic.

Episode 81 with Peter Croft, a hero of the sport and a guy with some sweet stories of the old days!

Episode 3 with Kelly Cordes, a true climbing character and story teller!

 

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History –

Dan Carlin is amazing. He does a great job giving the real deal with large historical phenomenon. He breaks down the stats, weaves in context and first person accounts in a way that makes you see history in a whole new perspective. Carlin picks historical events and ideas that are so fascinating and then dives so deep into them that you start to regret spending all that time studying history from a boring book in school when you would have learned much more and been way more entertained with his Hardcore History show. His podcast is definitely hardcore, but so is our history. It really opens your eyes to what the people before us faced and overcame.

Hardcore History does a great job exploring what makes humans tick and the amount of pain, suffering, terror and destruction we have repeatedly brought upon our fellow man. It is sad and yet so fascinating a topic to explore.

If you like history you need to listen to Hardcore History!

His readings and analysis of the first hand accounts from the WWI battles were my inspiration for visiting Verdun when I was in France!

The Blue Print for Armageddon series was fantastic. It was a 6 part series, going from what led to WWI all the way through to the end of the war and the lasting impact it had on the world. Each episode is 3-4 hours long, so it is an investment, but definitely worth it if you are interested in History, Politics, War or the how humans deal with the utter terror and destruction of WWI.

Link to Blueprint for Armageddon episode 1. 

Some other really good episodes are:

The Celtic Holocaust – The crazy story of Rome’s slaughtering of a whole group of people in early European history. Pretty sad and terrifying.

Painfotainment – A pretty gruesome, in depth exploration of humanity’s history of using torture and pain for not only punishment but for entertainment as well. It is clear that humans are an insane breed of creatures.

Kings of Kings – Explores the history of the Persian Empire, including the rise and fall of the greatest empire the world has ever seen.

 

I hope you give some of these podcasts a try and find a new podcast obsession!

Let me know which of these you enjoyed or if you have any other suggestions for podcasts for me to check out!

 

Cheers – Alan Evans