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. In Our Time with Melvin Bragg from BBC Radio 4. It’s a colossal podcast series split into six podcasts discussing Literature, Culture, History, Philosophy, Religion, and Science. Each episode Melvin Bragg brings together a panel of professors and experts (mostly from within the UK) to discuss a topic, event, or famous figure. 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. I've really liked the BBC content that I've managed to listen to. But their catalog really show the navigation, discovery mismatch between established publishers and the podcast networks. 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. The supporting materials for EconTalk (from econlib) are also fantastic -- you can go deep into the topic with curated resources for a lot of stuff. 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. Lex Fridman's AI Podcast. He gets to invite a lot of very interesting people (not just from AI research space). My personal favorite episodes are with Chris Lattner, Bjarne Stroustrup and Jim Keller. he also interviewed Knuth, one of the better ones as well IMO! "Revolutions" by Mike Duncan, its a survey through most of the important liberal political revolutions of the western world. Its extremely informative but his conversational style makes its totally accessible and stimulating. I’d also highly recommend his History of Rome podcast I love this podcast, but would say that it is not only liberal revolutions. Adding another vote here. Really incredible podcast. Eric Weinstein's "The Portal" 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) Julia Galef remains the best interviewer I have ever heard. She is so incredibly sharp. Her guests will make a point about an abstruse philosophical/economic/statistical topic and she will reply with a perfect, novel, challenging question that betrays an immediate understanding of the complex idea she just processed. Shame the show is on hold. I just subscribed to Uncommon Knowledge, thanks for the reference. I am a very far left liberal, but if I have to talk politics then I prefer to doing so with my conservative friends rather my with liberal friends. I think having my own viewpoint just reflected back at me gets boring. I will check this one out (the Hoover one), but I'm skeptical. 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. A fan of "The Portal" but didn't know about "Dark Horse". I listened to a couple Q&A episodes, and they, two professional biologists, concluded that covid-19 is most likely a gain-of-function, chimera virus created in a lab. 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. What episode is the lab grown statement from? Uncommon Knowledge is amazing. Peter Robins is a world class interviewer. https://www.econtalk.org/
Fascinating insights into economics, with a Hayekian bent. Lately has been diverging into many other topics related to philosophy and religion, but always interesting. Econtalk is by far my favorite podcast and it blows my mind that one can get quality content like it free. Conversation with Tyler is a good one too. Check it out at https://conversationswithtyler.com/. +1. His conversation with Neal Stephenson is a fun entry point. A recording and transcript is here: https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler-cowen-neal... Agreed - he is one of the best interviewers I have ever heard and has an absolutely fascinating number of opinions on a wide range of topics. I don't agree with him on everything but he always makes me think Tyler has spoken in the past about the huge amount of research he does for his podcast, and it shows. Always an interesting conversation. I would highly recommend the “In our Time” podcast by the BBC. The host gets three experts to discuss a very wide range of subject from history to science to art. Hardcore History (Dan Carlin)
https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/ 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 I really like the podcast feed of The Syllabus[0],
It's run by Evgeny Morozov, one of my favourite technology writers. 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/ The Art of Manliness Podcast. 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... Right now, if you're looking for advanced discussions related to SARS-CoV02, is suggest this week in virology, https://microbe.tv/twiv (I didn't double check http vs https or www vs not). Right now they are getting some really good corona-virologist guests and they don't pull intellectual or depth punches to appeal to every layman. There's a lot, maybe look for episodes with field-expert guests. +1. Twiv is superb. Someone recommend this podcast on HN a few weeks back, and I've been hooked on it. I think it's one of the best sources for Corona news.
The hosts are good too. I think they do great job of breaking down complex topics so layman like me stand a chance of understanding it.
I've learnt a great deal about viruses, vaccines and immunology in the 2 weeks I’ve been listening to it.
It really is worth a listen. Surprised no one has mentioned https://darknetdiaries.com yet! 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. Science Talk has been a longtime staple of mine: http://rss.sciam.com/sciam/science-talk 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. My preference is history podcasts with single narrators which are generally a fixed length 45 minutes to an hour. 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/ No Agenda by former MTV VJ Adam Curry and former PC Mag columnist John C. Dvorak! http://www.noagendashow.com/ They do media deconstruction and discuss stories the media can’t talk about. They have no advertising and use a fascinating “Value for value” model, people donate based on the value the podcast gives them instead of monthly subscriptions (like Patreon), for some it’s $5, others it’s $500, and for some it’s $0 I am always amazed how much people are willing to give. Sean Carroll's Mindscape podcast. Yup, really very good, especially the physics ones. Thurded Seconded. [1] - Partially Examined Life - https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/ - The most informed and engaging philosophy podcast I've come across. [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 I find podcasts with a good bit of humor fill this spot for me personally. Here's a couple that I regularly listen to, degree of "intellectualness" varies, but they all have episodes that require attention and make me think. 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. I have three favorites: Lex Fridman’s AI podcast, Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View, and recently I have also started listening to Eric Weinstein’s Portal. 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. Physicist/geneticist Steve Hsu and linguist/neuroscientist Cory Washington have an extremely good podcast called Manifold. This episode in particular is a good introduction to the show: https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/04/vineer-bhansali-physic... Deconstructing Yourself: interviews about Buddhism, meditation, neuroscience, ... https://open.spotify.com/show/4oG8x34GxVEKakCTNalxDh?si=-oCw... Some episodes of the Tim Ferriss show. I quite like http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org if you can get past the very annoying intro music. Whether it's stimulating or simulating is for you to judge. I wonder where Julia has been. I know there's been the pandemic, but the podcast was already done remotely. Her last tweet was back in November. Hope she's okay and will eventually bring the show back. There is a note about a "hiatus" on the website though. Here are some of my recent favorites.
Important to note, I find one good podcast out of like 5-10, most podcasts are not worthy of a listen. However here are some of my thought provoking favorites: - 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 unblobbed: - 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 For a studiously centrist look at politics, I just got done with Jonah Goldberg => https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=69305785&refid=asa 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/ The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe has been a weekly must-listen for me over the last decade+. They cover “science news, critical thinking, bad science, conspiracies, and controversies”. The most consistent source of intellectually stimulating talks I have found is, by far, The Great Courses series by The Teaching Company. They're high quality recordings of full college lecture series coving many many topics. Honestly some of the most rewarding content I've consumed in my life. 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. “Philosophize This!” Start at the earliest episodes and work your way up! I love the freakonomics podcast, especially when it gets into behavioral economics. There's a ton of good episodes. If you've never listened before try the Trader Joe's episode. As a long time (almost 20 years) fan of PTI on ESPN, I finally began listening to the Tony Kornheiser show, which is a daily podcast. 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 ... https://www.macrovoices.com/ Macroeconomics and finance podcast on the rapidly evolving economic situation. Also highly recommend RealVision on the same topic: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCBH5VZE_Y4F3CMcPIzPEB5A Waking Up by Sam Harris and Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson. Lex Fridman and Eric Weinstein's podcasts are also pretty good most of the time. The How To Write Funny podcast https://howtowritefunny.com/podcast/ is quite entertaining and give a lot of insight into what's happening behind the scenes of comedy (i.e. it explains how the sausage is made). Also, Scott Dikkers is an amazing interviewer and he is a founding editor of The Onion. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History - Good on a cloudy day 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. Really Good: This is a frequently-asked Ask HN. Maybe you'll find something here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Somebody already mentioned my top choice, Sean Carroll's Mindscape. Lawrence Krauss, also a physicist, has a similar podcast called Origins. https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9vcmlnaW5zcG9kY2... Run, don't walk to https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/ 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. Podcast list is here https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/category/podcast-episodes/... Multiple people have brought up Econtalk and Conversations with Tyler. Those two are my top 2 as well. 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. Robert Evans’ The Women’s War is really good, proper first hand journalism covering the incredibly unique Rojava revolution. This is the real deal and the gold standard of journalism IMO. 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. The Partially Examined Life. It’s about philosophy, they take a text each episode and discuss it. Most philosophy podcasts usually just means politics. Sometimes they have distinguished guests (Peter Singer, Judith Butler) Developer Tea is one of my favorites. It's about software development and psychology. Good technical specialist discussions of science from an explicitly left-wing perspective
http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/ 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 Soft Skills Engineering. It's about non-technical skills in software engineering, but the hosts are constantly laughing and making humorous insights into general western work culture. Blowback, a podcast about the Iraq war is very good. The knowledge project podcasts with Shane Parrish Shane Parrish always waists an enormous amount of time on uninteresting aspects of his guests and then after 1.5 hour when he finally gets to interesting matter the podcast ends. A good example is the podcast with Jim Collins where the interesting stuff came after 2 hours. 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. - 99% Invisible - Invisibilia - Hidden Brain - Opening Arguments My brother turned me onto Adam Gordon Bell's Corecursive. https://corecursive.com Fantastic. 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.'". Corecursive is pretty good. Haven't listened recently, really enjoyed these two: https://corecursive.com/021-gods-programming-language-with-p... https://corecursive.com/006-type-driven-development-and-idri... Free as in Freedom is great: http://faif.us/ Pomp Podcast has had some phenomenal guests lately including Chamath Palihapitiya and Mark Cuban. Worth checking out. 1. The Portal (Eric Weinstein) 2. Lex Fridman 3. Joe Rogan all three are YouTube interview series. During the Corona lockdown, Devdutt Pattnaik shares stories from Indian, Abrahamic, ancient and modern mythologies. Unusual and uplifting stories that help us learn and appreciate life in these difficult times He does this1 hour session everyday at 4pm India Standard Time. Wouldn’t recommend Eric Weinstein’s “The Portal”. Especially when he has scientists on. If you're open to being pissed off and want to go exploring beyond the SF / SV / liberal / rationalist / techie / IDW / iNtElLeckshualLY sTiMUlAtING hivemind, I'd recommend the following, all hosted by academics radioactive in one circle or another: 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) One more: Aufhebunga Bunga The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. From a left perspective. “What Trump can Teach Us About Con Law” is a great appetizer sized podcast. The hosts are obviously not trump supports, but this isn’t screaming in the wind or just complaining. A constitutional law professor takes tweets the president has sent and examines precedent and previous Supreme Court cases on similar topics. Each episode deals with a particular topic and is only about 20-30 minutes long, but they manage to pack a lot of really fascinating details into that time and I have certainly learned a lot. 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. Roman Mars does an amazing job at making sense out of things. Highly recommend both of these. Sam Harris’s conversation with Robert Sapolsky - https://samharris.org/podcasts/91-biology-good-evil/ Steven Strogatz's "The Joy of x." Planet Money and The Indicator 13 minutes to the Moon Intelligence squared Making sense The knowledge project Sam Harris: Making Sense. The Fifth Column Lexicon Valley Econ Talk Free Thoughts
Politics/Policy/Current Affairs: 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
General Internet:
Reply All Reason Round Table
Reason Interview
Reason Soho Debate
Cato Daily Podcast
LSE Lectures