Podcasts are amazing and fun
What do you do while commuting in the train, car or bus? Or when you work out? I have now for more than five years entertained myself with listening to podcasts and audio books while in the car, walking or running. For me it is fun learning and a form of entertainment. I look forward going running when I know I will listen to something interesting. It is so fun, simple, and useful that I am amazed why so few people actually do it. Let me give you a glimpse into what I listen to and how I do it.
I have split what I listen to into a few different categories and put them in rough priority order.
TED talks This is my overall favorite podcast series! If you don’t know it, you have missed something in life! Every talk is interesting but about half of them are truly outstanding speeches about technology, society, art, entertainment, science etc. I have watched and listened to more than 1000 episodes of 5-20min each during the years.
Intelligence squared. British discussion series, often with debates about a controversial topic. Very good. My favorite was the discussion about euthanasia. Very thought provoking. Quality varies for different episodes depending on speakers. Drawback is the long format of about 60min.
BBC Documentaries. This is an investigative series mostly about the developing world. Typically 25min long episodes. I pick and choose topics that I find interesting and listen to them.
Freakonomics. Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, authors of the Freakonomics book (also as film) host a talk where they talk about some interesting topic that is counterintuitive and bust some common beliefs.
Science talk. Scientific American magazine podcast series with Steve Mirsky taking an interesting topic and interviewing someone related to the article. Interesting science news. Episodes around 20min.
Discovery. Discoveries in a weekly podcast of 18 minutes.
Brainstuff. Brainstuff podcasts are a few minute long podcasts explaining something related to popular science in a few minutes.
Backpacking Light Magazine. Interviews with interesting backpackers like Andrew Skurka on their backpacking experiences. Not updated anymore but has some good episodes for backpackers.
BBC Click. Click is a technology podcast series typically focusing on 2-3 subjects per podcast with Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson in the studio. The guys are interesting to listen to and they have relaxed but still interesting style of discussing new consumer tech stuff, mainly related to IT. Each episodes is around 25min. Previously the series was knows as Digital Planet.
The Economist. I listen to short episodes of 5-15min from what is hot in the latest issue of the Economist.
The critical Path. Horace Dediu, an old colleague of mine has created a new successful career for himself as an analyst and blogger about Apple and the ecosystem around mobile tech. I don’t like the long format but like to listen to the insights Horace has. He has very original and great thinking and gets referenced by top silicon valley guys as a “on of the top blogs to follow”.
Knowledge at Warton. Often interviews with business leaders. Often very high profile and interesting.
HBR Ideacast. Harvard Business Review topics. Good high quality discussion, quite academic approach.
McKinsey Quarterly. Articles and research by McKinsey discussed in a short format.
Manager tools. I have stopped listening to this but I am sure many people in management positions can get lots out of it. Hundreds of episodes on how to deal with daily people or self management issues.
BCG perspectives. Boston Consulting Group issues a sometimes interesting podcast series on topics they have done research on.
BBC Peter Days World of Business. A little long for my taste but occasionally interesting light business oriented topics.
Entrepreneurial thought leaders series. This one I pull from iTunesU, the educational podcasts. I just love this series! If you want to understand silicon valley and who is who, this is where you should start!
This week in startups, great talk show with tier one entrepreneurs and VCs from silicon valley.
This week in venture capital. Mark talks with great entreprenurs and VCs.
Startup slingshot. William Griggs interviews entrepreneurs on practical topics useful for startups.
Audiobooks are not podcasts but I thought you might be intrested in a selection of the best I have listened to:
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows. Seeing the movies is not enough. I warmly recommend either reading or listening to some of the audiobooks. I listened to the last Harry Potter book red in English by Jim Dale, and I have to say that the performance of the reader was amazing! He broke the world record for speaking 146 different characters, each with different voices, extremely well throughout the book.
Jim Rogers Adventure Capitalist. Jim combined roadtrip around the world exploring with economic insights. Good relaxing combination.
Richard Feinman: Surely your joking Mr Feinman. I just fancy this amazing Nobel physics prize winner and bongo drum player. He is so funny in a geeky but down to earth way.
Howard Zinn: Peoples history of United States. Different and deserved perspective on US history.
Bill Bryson: A short history of nearly everything. Extremely interesting audio book on general topics of how we got here.
While you can listen to all on your computer that’s where I very seldom listen to anything. I just don’t want to sit in front of the screen. Rather get out running or while driving to work.
Device: I use my iPhone but you can use any music player or smartphone.
Computer: I use iTunes on my computer to find the podcasts and audiobooks but you can use many alternative podcast applications. Just search for podcast applications.
Using iTunes I subscribe to certain podcast series that typically update with one to 10 episodes a month. iTunes downloads the latest podcasts in the podcast series automatically and when I connect my iPhone the latest podcast episodes are synced to my phone.
Listen. I have connected my iPhone to the car stereo through a 3,5mm plug.
In addition to the iTunes podcast library which you find pretty extensive to any taste, you can expand to iTunesU, and audio book libraries like www.audible.com. I have also found good audio books on CDs that I ripped to MP3 to listen to on the go.
And yes, there is at least one downside to podcast. You get fast addicted to it! Have fun and send me your recommendations to me using comments below, email or twitter.