Ask HN: Which podcasts do you listen to?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3405599

by c4urself • 15 years ago

16 19 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

zrail• 15 years ago

The boring basics. Radiolab, Stuff You Should Know, and Planet Money are my go-to podcasts. I can't really stand anything that's too much like talk radio, especially when I'm at the gym (where I listen to podcasts.)

flpmor• 15 years ago

I really like "This American Life", it's not related to technology directly but it's sometimes very inspiring about how people do things. Also listen to "Planet Money".

amwelles• 15 years ago

You Look Nice Today, This American Life, Back to Work, Savage Lovecast. I tend to listen to podcasts on my meal breaks at work and at home for background noise. I can't stand listening to them while I'm actually trying to do work, because I have a hard time paying attention to two things at once.

jfaucett• 15 years ago

To get most all my news I listen to the following: (sorry, no English broadcasters except sometimes BBC)

das Computermagazin - B5, VOA - Voice of America in Spanish, ciencia al cubo, Wirtschaft - Deutsche Welle, Klartext - from sveriges radio,

In case anyone understands German I'd definitely recommend Computermagazin, runs 20 minutes and stays compact (I agree with zrail don't like much blabber, give me the facts )

loganfrederick• 15 years ago

Economics: Russ Robert's EconTalk at http://econtalk.org

Videogames: GamersWithJobs Conference Call: http://gamerswithjobs.com

Sports: Mike and Mike in the Morning Radio Podcast: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=mikeandmike

All subscribable via iTunes.

waqf• 15 years ago

When do you people have time to listen to podcasts? Reading blogs/RSS is much less time-intensive.

Also, for those occasions when people insist on delivering information via embedded video only, why don't contemporary embedded players have a "replay at 2x speed" button? I can listen faster than you can talk (and if you actually say something that makes me think, I can find the pause button just fine).

swanson• 15 years ago

Commute + treadmill

m0nastic• 15 years ago

This comes up from time to time, so here are the ones that I subscribe to (and get OCD about making sure I'm caught up on).

There's others that I might listen to here or there, but these are the main ones:

- Informative

After Dark: Overflow from other 5by5 shows. Usually less than a half-hour, frequently funny. Probably not recommended if you don't also listen to the other shows on the network.

Back to Work: Ostensibly a show about getting to what's important with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin. If you like Merlin's stuff, you'll like the show. Frequently goes off on tangents, but some of the recurring bits are awesome and hysterical.

Build and Analyze: Marco Arment's show. Also ostensibly about development, but basically topics meander (I think to the show's credit). This was the hardest 5by5 show for me to initially get in to (I think I was initially hesitant because I assumed it was going to be all iOS stuff), but I now enjoy it greatly.

The Critical Path: Horace Dedieu's show. This one snuck up on me, but I really like the way Horace presents information. Probably the least funny show I listen to regularly, but one of the more informative ones.

Exotic Liability: This one should probably be in the entertaining category, as it's a security podcast that very rarely talks about security. Probably not for everyone (not even all security people), but I find it endearing.

The FunctionSource Show: There's only been a couple of episodes of this one, so it might be dead. The first couple episodes have been really really good though. Basically, thoughts on the web, and programming in general. The hosts are great.

Herding Code: This is a fairly recent addition to my list. I'm always looking for an actual good development podcast (that's actually about development), and this one is usually interesting. There's a bunch of hosts though, and I find it really difficult to tell who is talking.

Hypercritical: This has quickly become my favorite podcast. It's just John Siracusa complaining about things, but for some reason, it's much better than that tagline would have you believe. I feel like Siracusa is a kindred spirit, so maybe that's why I look forward to his show as much as I do.

Startalk: Neil Degrasse Tyson's podcast. I shouldn't really have to explain it any more than that.

The Talk Show: The world can be split into people who like Gruber, and people who think he's an asshole. Thankfully, the two aren't mutually exclusive, and I really like listening to his show. In particular, the latest episode (where he might have been celebrating beforehand) is definitely the best of the bunch (and one of my favorite podcasts of all time).

This Developer's Life: Scott Hanselman and Rob Connery talk about things developer-related (but it's not at it's core a technical podcast). I really like this one, they do a great job with it.

- Entertaining

Comedy Bang Bang: Easily the best podcast I listen to. Always hilarious. I'm embarrassed to get so much value out of something that's free. The show is usually a bunch of comedians (some of whom are being interviewed, and some of whom are doing impersonations of characters), but is flat out the funniest thing I've found available in any medium.

Doug Loves Movies: Usually recorded live, and it's a panel of famous people who are interviewed by Doug Benson (the comedian). Episodes are mostly made up of the panel playing a game Doug made up called "The Leonard Maltin Game", which is way more amusing to listen to than it should be.

Geek Friday: This might be dead (or just on hiatus), but it was a show of Dan Benjamin and Faith Corpi talking about geek-related things. Usually very funny.

Gelmania: Bret Gelman is a comedian who I first heard of from his appearances on Comedy Bang Bang. His style is very aggressive (it's part of his act), but I think his show is awesome.

How Did This Get Made?: A bunch of people pick a terrible movie and then talk about it. It's usually really really funny.

improv4humans: A fairly new show. Basically it's recorded improv. They take suggestions on Twitter ahead of time and then construct scenes. So far, they've all been really good (which is more than I can say for most live improv).

Nerdist Writers Panel: This might not be interesting to the public at large, but I find it fascinating (and usually pretty funny). It's a recorded panel of TV writers. They talk about their experiences writing on shows.

The Pod F. Tompkast: Paul F. Tompkins is my favorite part of Comedy Bang Bang, and his podcast is fantastic.

Roderick on the Line: New-ish show with Merlin Mann and John Roderick (musician, and super funny guy). It has no rhyme or reason (which might turn off some, as it meanders), but so far they've all been entertainment gold.

Thrilling Adventure Hour: This is actually a live show in Los Angeles, but they release segments as a podcast. It's billed as "old-timey radio", and most of the segments are fantastic. Specifically, "Beyond Belief" is my favorite.

ilconsigliere• 15 years ago

I have to recommend The History of Rome podcast anytime I have an opportunity. Mike Duncan does a great job "storytelling" the history, and is very up front about what should be accepted as relative fact (strong sources) vs. the more uncertain elements from the more questionable sources. It's great if you're driving a lot.

http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/

pavelludiq• 15 years ago

Thanks for the link. I also recommend Hardcore History[1], by Dan Carlin. He recently did a series on the fall of the Roman republic, which I liked a lot. Dan Carlin also has a political podcast titled Common Sense[2], which is also very interesting even if a bit US centered.

[1] http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive [2] http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/csarchive

euroclydon• 15 years ago

Mixergy

gerad• 15 years ago

If you're a subscriber, the Economist iPhone / Android app has an audio edition which is quite good.

murz• 15 years ago

"Hipster Runoff", it's hilarious.

taphangum• 15 years ago

Tech Zing.

pawn• 15 years ago

I don't listen to podcasts, but I participate in a weekly podcast...is that bad? It's a videogame podcast if anyone's interested. http://feeds.feedburner.com/gamerhighway

polyfractal• 15 years ago

My job involves a lot of mindless tasks (molecular/cellular neuroscience - culturing cells is much less exciting than you'd think). This affords me plenty of time to listen to podcasts. My favorites in no particular order:

Economy/Finance:

-Motley Fool: http://wiki.fool.com/Motley_Fool_Money_Radio_Show

-Market Foolery: http://wiki.fool.com/MarketFoolery

-EconTalk: http://econtalk.org/

-Planet Money: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/

-American Public Media Marketplace: http://www.marketplace.org/

_______________________________________

Startup/Tech:

-Startups for the Rest of Us: http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/

-TechZing: http://techzinglive.com/

-Lifestyle Business Podcast: http://www.lifestylebusinesspodcast.com/

-Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Seminar: http://etl.stanford.edu/