Ask HN: Intellectually simulating Podcasts/conversations/Talk What are some of really intellectually simulating podcasts/talks/videos you have come across. In any of the categories. |
Ask HN: Intellectually simulating Podcasts/conversations/Talk What are some of really intellectually simulating podcasts/talks/videos you have come across. In any of the categories. |
They can be found on Audible for very fair prices. They also have a video streaming platform, The Great Courses Plus, that's very cheap.
I like it very much - a mix of sports and pop cultural commentary and some very high profile guests (along with recurring guests on topics like film, food, etc.)
It's a bit diminished right now - only runs three days per week and, obviously, they are reaching a bit now with whatever sports or film commentary they might have ...
Methodically Processing Systems - Good for a quirky evening (I make this one)
Econtalk - Good for commuting.
BBC’s In Our Time - Good during a shower.
Econ Talk - great in depth interviews and thought
Bound By Oath - about 14th amendment of US constitution
Serial - in depth look into a story
Shit Town
Reason Round Table
Reason Interview
Reason Soho Debate
Cato Daily Podcast
LSE Lectures
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Lawrence Krauss, also a physicist, has a similar podcast called Origins.
https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9vcmlnaW5zcG9kY2...
A podcast by some guys that were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living, then thought better of it.
If you are into philosophy and philosophers, these are like the friends you wish you had.
If you're into pop culture (sports, music, TV and Movies) I'd also recommend the Bill Simmons podcast. The interviews are usually great (especially the ones with actors) and the sports takes are entertaining as well.
Another great podcast is Intelligence Squared - effective and intellectual debate on loads of topics. Pretty US centric but great debates.
He brings outstanding guests and help you reach a very good understanding of a topic in a very short time.
I've learnt a lot about space, MRI, CRISPR, genetics, lots of things, highly recommended.
Light and amusing handling of a wide variety of moral/ethical issues https://www.youtube.com/user/thephilosophytube
One of the few actual left-wing podcasts. Coherent, solidly-researched journalism with very high-production values. https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/panoply/intercepted-with-je...
Excellent BBC series. There are other In Our Time subseries also. Would recommend using get_iplayer to navigate what seems to be a deliberately self-sabotaging BBC website In Our Time: History http://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p01dh5yg.rss https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer
TrueAnon: deliberately rambling and speculative, provocative. Dirtbag Left. https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod
Excellent material both video and audio. Includes people like Judea Pearl, Patricia Churchland. https://www.edge.org/audios
UK dirtbag left. Very loose format, intentionally unprofessional (?!) good deconstructions of Silicon Valley startup b/s https://twitter.com/trashfuturepod
It's about non-technical skills in software engineering, but the hosts are constantly laughing and making humorous insights into general western work culture.
I like the long form of content but it should be used appropriately. When Shane does an interview it always sounds like he is completely out of depth with the answers his guests give as if he hasn't researched the topic well enough.
Give this podcast a shot and just listen to the last 10% of the recording.
- Invisibilia
- Hidden Brain
- Opening Arguments
I wish I was more like AGB. He's very good at adopting the worldview of the guest on their terms. Whereas I still have the toxic habit of compiling all the ways I disagree, instead of really listening. So I'm really enjoying how much AGB is stretching me.
In totally different way, I'm also getting a lot out of 5x5's Critical Path. Very unpolished, long winded, but somehow works. http://5by5.tv/criticalpath
--
Podcasts have done a lot to get me out of my filter bubble.
I now regularly learn (of, about, from) people I would have never bothered with previously.
And some of the curation value add has greatly expanded my horizons by bubbling up people I would have never discovered on my own.
Ezra Klein's interview of Grover Norquist is a master class on building a movement.
Ben Shapiro's interview of Ezra Klein was a master class on constructive disagreement.
Eric Weinstein's interview of James O'Keefe was both illuminating and infuriating. (Come one guys, you're not the first to discover "journalism".)
Ezra Klein's interview of Rebecca Solnit blew my @#$!! mind. Really put a lot of my past experiences into a whole new light.
I started binging on Philosophy with No Gaps podcast after Klein's interview of Madeline Miller. (Their comparison of comic superheroes to ancient myths is nerd paradise.)
I wanted to punch the asphalt during Lex Fridman's interview of Jack Dorsey. (Explains Square's success is due to their novel strategies for identity and authentication, but then says nothing about Twitter's utter rejection of those traits.)
Of course, Joe Rogan. Wow, I really reject the worldview of about 25% of his guests, grrr. But I've also learned so much. Dr Patrick Rhonda and others. I've been struggling to get out of a post surgery rut, so I just rewatched the David Goggins episodes and clips, which I imagine is helping me.
Lastly, Philosophy Tube is about the best thing ever. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2PA-AKmVpU6NKCGtZq_rKQ Like other geniuses said of Feymann "Often you think, 'Oh, I could have thought of that if I was a bit smarter. But with Feymann, you couldn't ever imagine coming up with his insights.'".
https://corecursive.com/021-gods-programming-language-with-p...
https://corecursive.com/006-type-driven-development-and-idri...
2. Lex Fridman
3. Joe Rogan
all three are YouTube interview series.
He does this1 hour session everyday at 4pm India Standard Time.
What's Left
What's Left? is a podcast hosted by Aimee Terese and Benjamin Studebaker, discussing political theory, philosophy, and current affairs from a [editor's note: materialist / marxist] left wing perspective.
https://soundcloud.com/whatisleftpod
Manifold
Steve Hsu and Corey Washington have been friends for almost 30 years, and between them hold PhDs in Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Theoretical Physics.
https://manifoldlearning.com/podcasts/
The Classicist
The Classicist is the weekly podcast of Victor Davis Hanson, an American military historian, columnist, former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
https://www.hoover.org/publications/classicist?go_type%5B0%5...
Reasonable Disagreements
Hoover fellows Richard Epstein and Adam White discuss major legal and policy issues and debate points of disagreement between their libertarian and conservative perspectives.
https://www.hoover.org/publications/reasonable-disagreements
(all the Hoover pods are pretty interesting)
Aufhebunga Bunga
The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. From a left perspective.
I can also recommend the host’s other podcast “99 percent invisible” which is about all sorts of things that are vital to everyday life that you don’t think about much.
Intelligence squared
Making sense
The knowledge project
Lexicon Valley
Econ Talk
Free Thoughts
The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish from Farnham Street. “Master the best of what other people have already figured out” sums it up.
EconTalk with Russ Roberts from the Hoover Institution. Russ brings on distinguished guests to talk about economics, finance, and more. It’s a neat way to discover interesting thinkers. The topics are far ranging: he once brought on Judith Donath to talk about human-computer interaction and online communities and identities.
Podcast UIs need trees or facets or something, to ease drill down.
Much as I've disliked the NextStep (iTunes) panel navigator, I really miss it on mobile.
I tell people that if I had a year I'd systematically walk through the EconTalk back catalogue and emerge with a better education than people who get 4 year degrees in the topic.
My personal favorite episodes are with Chris Lattner, Bjarne Stroustrup and Jim Keller.
Lots of episodes of Joe Rogan (Depending on the guest)
Brett Weinstein's "Dark Horse Podcast"
Rationally Speaking by Julia Galef (Been on hiatus for a while, though)
Uncommon Knowledge by Hoover Institution (I don't appreciate some of their conservative views, but they have interesting guests and are a good way to break the liberal bubble)
I could see, in theory, reading or listening to some conservative stuff, but it just never seems to be honest. Or...lacks basic human decency. Is outright racist. etc.
I do remember, at least think I do, 20 years ago -- you could find at least some people being serious on the right. Eh, I was probably just being naive.
Hoover - last time I saw something from them - it was basically VDH arguing for total war or something.
And...what is with billionaires buying universities' prestige? It's kind of like you can have excellent global heating reporting in the WSJ, and then their OpEd page will say, 'There is no evidence of heating.' Same thing with Hoover and Stanford. Or the Kochs buying...everything. I guess Unis are on even shakier ground now. :-/
...checked them all out. Not for me. Except one Rationally Speaking episode about whether global poverty/rate is good/bad.
This viewpoint seems to be largely censored, but I think it deserves to be front and center of our covid discourse right now. Sad that marginal youtube channels are doing the work that our main institutions of journalism should.
In Our Time (BBC) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl
But there are many interesting programmes and podcasts on BBC Sounds. Worth browsing generally. Example of one currently available:
The Meaning of Life According to AJ Ayer
It's a weekly curated collection of interesting podcast episodes, focussed around philosophy, technology, political economy & social justice. It's my favourite source of new ideas I wouldn't encounter anywhere else, I often find interesting perspectives in their collection.
[0]: https://the-syllabus.com/goods/best-of/best-of-podcasts/
Brett actually reads the material that the guest is coming on to talk about.
Shocking, I know.
He lets his guests talk, but reigns them in and directs the conversation well. His choice of guests reinforces the 'manliness' themes, of course, but he gets a lot of great female guests too. Each episode gets a full written transcript too, along with a lot of great links and other resources.
I often find myself using bits from nearly each show and thinking about the material for weeks afterwards
https://www.artofmanliness.com/podcast/
Some favorite episodes:
The Case for Blue Collar Work With Mike Rowe: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/mike-rowe-interview/
How to Be a Creative Genius Like da Vinci: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/da-vinci-walter-isaa...
Jack London’s Literary Code: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/podcast-579-jack-lon...
St. Augustine’s Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/st-augustine-philoso...
Babe Ruth and the World He Made: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/babe-ruth-jane-leavy...
Inside the Gangsters’ Code: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/gangsters-code-lou-f...
The podcast covers the stories of hackers, and the stories behind hacking attacks like Stuxnet. The creator comes from the cybersecurity field, so episodes don't shy away from including technical details. Each episode is well researched and very interesting. It is by far my favorite podcast.
I know you asked for conversations/talk and John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed is a monologue, but wow is it a well-told and researched monologue. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anthropocene-reviewed
I recommend it for anyone who wants to think more deeply about all things, including those which we previously might have considered unworthy of our mind cycles, such as the Taco Bell breakfast menu.
You Must Remember This A good podcast on the history of Hollywood and has some interesting insights if you're into old movies. This episode on Marilyn Monroe was interesting just to show how little she started out with: http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/youmustre...
The History of Ancient Greece This can get bogged down in terminology some times, but its necessary due to the amount of detail the podcast gets into. This episode on Pericles and his role in Athenian democracy I found to be interesting because of the details on the extremes they went to: http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/05/044-democra...
Tides of History This has a lot of flavor and is pretty good at framing topics. I really liked the insight that Charles V was in a sense the Paul Atreides of Middle Age Europe. https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/
[2] - Erik Davis' Expanding Mind - https://expandingmind.podbean.com/ - Covering various fringe topics like psychedelics, religion, the occult, underground culture, and other forms of high weirdness.
[3] - Radiolab - https://www.kqed.org/radio/program/radiolab - Still good after all these years. Early episodes were more sciency and philosophical, newer episodes are a mix of science, politics, and This American Life style vignettes on random subjects.
[4] - Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/ - Carlin makes history interesting like no one else. Favorite series: The Wrath of the Khans, Blueprint for Armageddon, Death Throes of the Republic
Radiolab - Very well known, you've probably already listened. I like it because the hosts are genuine and they tell good stories. Older episodes hit the spot better than newer for me.
The Infinite Monkey Cage - Science based panel show. If you like things like QI, this is similar, but less gimmicky. Real science discussions, plenty of jokes.
Judge John Hodgman - This isn't "sciency" but it does make me consider my position on social norms, while also being pretty dang entertaining.
Revolutions (Mike Duncan) - This is a fantastic history based podcast. The first episode or two in a series are always dry as he paints an overview of what's coming, but it's worth chugging through. I strongly recommend his third series on the French revolution, Mike does a fantastic job making history about the people and not about fluff like dates/locations/memorized crap. This podcast could have replaced most of my history classes in school and I'd be a better person for it.
Before the covid-19 period, I used to hike multiple times a week with often large groups of hikers. Now, with social distancing I have been mostly hiking by myself and I find hiking with either having a phone call with a friend or listening to a podcast makes very long solo wilderness hikes less lonely.
Some episodes of the Tim Ferriss show.
- The Portal with Ryan Holiday - The Knowledge Project with Jason Calacanis - Future Thinkers with Ken Wilber, all episodes are worth a listen, my favorite is: Clean Up, Wake Up, Grow Up, Show Up - Future Thinkers with Bonnita Roy - Conversations With Tyler with Ben Westhoff Conversations With Tyler with Ted Gioia - Y Combinator with Russ Roberts
- The Portal with Ryan Holiday
- The Knowledge Project with Jason Calacanis
- Future Thinkers with Ken Wilber, all episodes are worth a listen, my favorite is: Clean Up, Wake Up, Grow Up, Show Up
- Future Thinkers with Bonnita Roy
- Conversations With Tyler with Ben Westhoff
- Conversations With Tyler with Ted Gioia
- Y Combinator with Russ Roberts
If you find politics emetic, the Futility Closet is somewhere between Paul Harvey and Ripley's Believe it or Not => https://www.futilitycloset.com/podcast/