Podcast Recommendations
I’ve been asked to give podcast recommendations, so I compiled a list of my favorites here organized by subject. Particular recommendations are indicated in bold.
General Science
- Radiolab. Award-winning podcast that brings scientific and philosphical topics to a broad audience in a light-hearted and acessible manner. The distinctive audio production style can be a bit overbearing at times.
- Gastropod. Food, science, and history.
- Science Friday. A weekly two-hour show featuring news on science, health, technology, and the environment. Host Ira Flatow interviews scientists, often authors of recent articles from Science or Nature. It tends to be very informative, but can be a bit dry.
- Science Vs. Science Vs takes on fads, trends, and the opinionated mob to find out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between.
- In Defense of Plants. If you really love botany, you might enjoy this podcast. Otherwise it’s probably a pass.
Psychology and Human Behavior
- Hidden Brain. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.
- Invisibilia. Invisibilia is interested in filling in the gaps about how our minds work: It peers inside the brain to understand all its gray areas, feelings, and frustrating contradictions.
Law, Politics, and News
- More Perfect. From Jad Abumrad and the producers of Radiolab, this series about the Supreme Court tells the story of landmark cases (both historical and current) which have shaped the law and our country. This show features archival recordings, Supreme Court testimony, and interviews edited together with an audio production style that remains distinctive without the excess that Radiolab sometimes veers into.
- Opening Arguments. The legal podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Lawyer Andrew Torrez and comedian Thomas Smith break down the law in depth as it relates to current events. A great dynamic between the hosts makes the show both insightful and entertaining.
- Stay Tuned with Preet. Preet Bharara was the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York up until his firing by Donald Trump. Each week he weighs in on the news (often relating to the Russia investigation), and interviews a guest on the topic of fairness or justice.
- The Daily. This 20 minute podcast released every weekday from the New York Times typically covers one major story, along with a summary of the other headlines that day.
- Embedded. Long-form, in-depth investigative reporting from NPR. There are great episodes on Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, the Trump Organization’s business dealings.
- What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law. This show is a fun, casual Con Law 101 class that uses the tumultuous and erratic activities of the executive branch under Trump to teach us all about the US Constitution. Made by Roman Mars of 99% Invisible.
Economics
- Planet Money. Don’t be scared off by thinking that economics must be boring! This is one of my favorite podcasts. Very fun despite the potentially dry subject matter, and a great way to learn about the economy.
- Freakonomics Radio. A critic might describe this show as twice as long and half as interesting as Planet Money. It’s still a great podcast if you enjoy learning about economics.
- The Indicator. Unlike Planet Money, I find myself zoning out at this with some regularity. Still, if you can’t get enough Planet Money in your life, this is a daily, shorter podcast to scratch that itch.
Business and Entrepreneurship
- The Pitch. Real entrepreneurs pitch to real investors—for real money. Think Shark Tank in podcast form, without the annoying tendencies of many American reality TV shows.
- How I Built This with Guy Raz. Guy Raz speaks to a different entrepreneur in each episode, and has them recount the story behind how they created some of the most well-known companies around.
- Startup. When Alex Blumberg (known for his work on Planet Money and This American Life) left NPR to start his own podcasting company, he also made a podcast to follow along with the ups and downs of the process. Later seasons of the podcast have evolved to follow other budding companies and founders.
Tech
- Reply All.
- Security Now. Steve Gibson
- [Habitat
- Causality
- The Amp Hour
- Embedded.fm
True Crime
Non-Fiction
- This American Life. Each week’s show has a theme, and features several “acts” on that theme.
- Heavyweight.
- Death, Sex & Money
History
- Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. g. If you have a few hours to listen to something and want to hear some stories of real events I recommend it.
- Revisionist History.
Literature (or, Book Club in podcast form)
- Myths and Legends
- Legendarium. This is essentially a book club that discusses sci-fi and fantasy series, including those by J.R.R. Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, and Robert Jordan among others. The quality is not great, but if you’re reading a series that’s covered by the podcast, it can be fun to check and listen in between books. (Each episode will typically avoid spoilers for the later books in the series.)
- [Slate’s The Audio Book Club
Music
Unclassified
- Infinite Monkey Cage
- BBC The Inquiry
- BBC’s In Our Time
- Ezra Klein’s “The Weeds”
- ImaginaryWorlds
- Love and Radio
- Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything
- Missing Richard Simmons
- 99% Invisible. Podcast about design with Roman Mars.
How to listen
Pocketcasts, iTunes, stitcher.
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Jared Stewart
Jared Stewart is a software engineer in Portland, Oregon.