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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?

#31

Post by beat »

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…

I've added Cocaine and Rhinestones to my list. Thanks for the recommendation!

My favorite blog post I've ever written is a long rant about "Country music is dead" (no, it's not). Nobody agrees with me about that essay, apparently.

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

#34

Post by maceurt »

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.

And he has a pretty much endless amount of videos so that you can pretty much autoplay them constantly in the background for a good while before running out of videos.

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

#35

Post by abnry »

This is a hard question to answer because there are two possible interpretations to this question. The first is that is asking only for podcasts that have made a significant impact on your life. The second is to simply go through your podcasts and pick the one that has impacted your life the most, however small.

I'll answer according to the latter.

--Astonishing Legends has stretched my mind with the unexplained and opened me to the possibility of greater realities beyond what I immediately see.

--The Lawfare podcast (and Renato Mariotti's On Topic) has given me a (mostly) level headed and legal on-going discussion of the Trump/Russia affair. It has educated me a lot about our legal system and the value of the norms we keep in government.

--Hardcore History's series (basically audiobook length) on World War I has given me a sense about the tragedies and sufferings a previous generation experienced en mass that nobody has experienced today. Gives some perspective on life.

--Hello Internet is a podcast of pure fun that has expanded my hobbies and interests.

--Brain Software has help give me a better understanding of human psychology in the context of hypnosis and NLP.

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

#36

Post by zellyn »

In no particular order:

The Fundamentalists (Two roommates in LA, a philosopher and a comedian.) Why? A little bit of Freudian outlook on life is super useful. Especially good if you too have Religion Issues.

The Ezra Klein Show (His recent one with Kate Manne was stellar.) Why? Several feel like they've really changed how I think about things.

Pete Holmes' You Made it Weird (You'll need to pick and choose. Try the recent Conner Habib one, or Penn Jillette. Or anyone you're interested in.) Why? On his podcast, Pete's schtick is that he dives right in and asks people about God, and beliefs, etc. It's enlightening to hear people's experiences and journeys.

Just for fun:

The Adventure Zone (start from the beginning, and give them a couple of episodes to stop being juvenile idiots). Why? It's inspiring to see people going all-in on creativity and have it pay off, and their family dynamic is so kind yet hilarious.

Eaten by a Grue (just kidding, but you should listen to it :-)

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

#37

Post by arbitrage »

_eze_ wrote: post #21
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.

That's true. Dan Carlin makes unfounded conclusions from time to time, which you do need to take with a grain of salt. However, he is very upfront with his admission that he is not a professional historian.

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

#38

Post by maxxxxx »

jkingsbery wrote: post #27

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 t…

I tried to get into EconTalk but I found most guests mindnumbingly oblivious to real world concerns. It felt to me that they were just sitting in their offices making up things about the world but never bothered to check their theories.

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

#40

Post by 40acres »

- The Dave Ramsey Show: Dave is not for everyone, for one he is an absolutist and is very religious and politically conservative, but his advice is very simple when it comes to personal finance and provided a solid base for me to learn more about the fundamentals of personal finance. Plus his callers are a great deterrent from doing stupid things with money.

- Marketplace w/ Kai Rysdall: Pound for pound the best economics podcast out there, does a really good job with balancing micro and macro economic trends.

- The Weeds by Vox: Fantastic job of getting into policy details, the hosts are pretty liberal (especially Matt Yglesias) but if you can stomach it you'll learn a lot about the details of policy, especially healthcare.

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