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Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

#21

Post by _eze_ »

cushychicken wrote: post #13

I can't say I've listened to many podcasts that have been influential in the sense of improving my career or productivity, but I've listened to a few that I enjoyed a whole lot. Startup by Gimlet Media is quite good. I really enjoyed the first season. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is a fun dramatic reading of all sorts of history. I've heard it called "pop history" as a jibe, but I think that's a pretty good descript…

Hardcore History takes you for a ride. Even if it's "pop history" I feel like it gets me closer to the events then I've ever been before.

Blueprint for Armageddon does a fantastic job of convincing you that war is bad. Don't do war.

Re: Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

#23

Post by beat »

I have three to recommend:

1. Filkcast. A relatively new podcast by a friend of mine, diving into the world of "filk" music. As a filk musician myself, I think it's wonderful, and it's introduced me to a lot of new music. If you already know/love filk, it's terrific. If you don't know it but like science fiction/fantasy and folk music, you might find something new to love!

2. Hardcore History. Long-form history studies (4-5 hour episodes, with multi-episode series often stretching over 20 hours). The one-off "Celtic Holocaust", about Ceasar's invasion of Gaul, is a good start to get a feel for how it works. The epic "Blueprint for Armageddon", about WWI, is my favorite (and the most bleak). Very much enjoying the current series, "Supernova in the East" (the rise of Imperial Japan, culminating in WWII).

3. Philosophize This! Hour-ish long episodes of the history of philosophy, each episode centered on a particular philosopher or related school of them (sometimes a few episodes for particularly important figures). Starts with the earliest ancient Greeks, and builds forward to almost the present day (recent episodes have covered recent concepts like semiotics, and thinkers like Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault.

Re: Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

#24

Post by mywittyname »

This American Life.

I've learned so much about how other people lives through years of listening to this podcast / radio show. I've literally been in tears during a few episodes, or busting out in laughter at others. One episode about kids who've lost their parents at a young age really helped me connect to my partner.

(Edit: My partner lost her father at a young age. This isn't a topic that most people feel comfortable discussing, even with someone close. The episode came on during a road trip and she broke into tears and turned off the radio because it was bringing back so much emotion. Later I asked her about if her experiences matched that of the people on the show, and she said yes.

So I went back and listened to it on my own and I felt like I learned a lot about her from listening to others share their experience.)

Plus, I think it taught me what it means to be a good, compelling story teller.

Re: Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

#27

Post by jkingsbery »

EconTalk.

Early in my career, I was a regular listener to three tech podcasts: Java Posse, StackOverflow podcast, and Software Engineering Radio. All three were valuable to my career in different ways, but EconTalk has most affected the way I think.

For those who aren't familiar, the host of EconTalk is a professor of economics, so many of his conversations revolve around the world of economics, but since economics touches a lot of things, he ends up talking to a diverse group of people. He is very good at admitting his own bias on the one hand, and then argue against it on the other hand.

Also, I found History of Rome valuable - it's an interesting story, but it also helps cure the chronological snobbery of assuming that our times are vastly different from others.

Re: Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

#28

Post by hprotagonist »

The Enormocast. interview format with the who’s who of rock climbing.

the craig demartino “and then i amputated my leg” episode is harrowing, the two-part hayden kennedy episode about cerro torre and the kompressor route is amazing, the lynn hill interview is wonderful, and he got honnold too.

On Being is hit or miss but the interviews with rep john louis, bishop tutu, eugene peterson, nadia bolz-weber have all stuck with me.

Re: Ask HN: What podcast has been most influential on your life?

#30

Post by gppk »

mscasts wrote: post #20

Joe Rogan definately. Not even a competition. The long format with interesting people is hard to beat. I love how he doesn't try and smear people when he does the interviews. Of course, I don't listen to every episode but he releases them so often so there is always something interesting to hear about. Joe Rogan is how journalists should be like.

His approach is very commendable. He listens, pulls people up when they say things that need further explination or sourcing and has a wide range of guests.

He takes a lot of flak about being "right-wing" or missing things every now and then but I think he honestly tries to do a good a job of getting objective, fact based interesting topics covered by experts or "famous faces"

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