Skip to main content

Matt's recommended podcasts

  • 1-3 asterisks rates if episodes are ‘timeless’, ie *** means you could start from their first ever episode and it would still be relevant
  • I disable auto-download, so I only download episodes I'm interested in
  • Tiers are based on combination of quality and personal preference
Tier 1
  • Revisionist History***
  • The Memory Palace***
  • Radiolab (various topics)**
  • 99% Invisible (design in life)**
Tier 2
  • FiveThirtyEight Elections (from the FiveThirtyEight web site team)
  • Nutrition facts with Dr. Greger (cheesy but very science-based)**
  • The Phil Vischer Podcast (Christian podcast… format change in January 2018 might bump it to Tier 3)
  • Presidential (has one episode about each American President)***
  • Constitutional (episodes for Bill of Rights and Amendment topics)***
  • Stratfor Talks (foreign affairs)*
  • Planet Money (NPR, topic economics)
  • Hidden Brain (NPR, psychology)*
  • Code Switch (NPR, about race)
Tier 3
  • 1A (NPR, one news story of the day)
  • Science Friday (NPR, I listened for years and then trailed off. Wish they would stick to harder science and not so much culture-science mix, but they are trying to reach a broader audience)
  • London School of Economics Public Lectures and Events (long format, lots of duds but some great ones occasionally, watch for topics you like)*
  • Fareed Zakaria GPS (global affairs)
  • Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (very long form episodes on history. Old episodes cost $.)
  • StoryCorp (NPR, I recognize this is good I just haven’t gotten into it)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 2020 Vote: Bending toward justice

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  --  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My hero, Dr. King, was wrong about justice. I love Dr. King. His writings and speeches are collected in a book called “A Testament of Hope”. That book was a revelation for me. Dr. King had a moral clarity that is rare in this world. Many of his observations were accurate, wise, and timeless. But the ‘arc of the moral universe’ statement is misleading. We are promised no such experience in this world. In Dr. King’s time, the quote may have been both accurate and wise. King saw the expanding reach of national newspapers and television networks. When the nation, through that new media, was exposed to the reality and brutality of overt Southern racism--then the nation, which believed it shared a common and decent morality, imposed that morality on the South. While Dr. King’s understanding may have been both accurate and wise, it was not timeless. This is where my moral hero comes u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Federal incompetence is an equilibrium strategy

I’ve heard a number of commentators--right, left, and center--characterize Trump as the pivotal problem with Republican leadership. But why was Trump overwhelming to the Republican party? Why was he gradually embraced by nearly all Republican leadership? And would the Republican party be much different today without him? Each party is made up of different interest groups. Two large factions of the Republican Party are fiscal conservatives and the Christian Right. The fiscal conservatives are dominated by Free Market Fundamentalists. Anti-tax pledges and opposition to virtually any government regulations are Free Market Fundamentalist positions, and those positions are prominent in the current Republican party. The Christian Right wants white Christian conservative values to dominate American culture. They once did dominate American culture, and they want to turn back the clock. These two influential factions of the Republican party do not make natural teammates. Free Market Fundamental...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recommended podcasts (update)

Two years ago I listed my recommended podcasts. Here’s an updated list. Guide: Asterisks are meant to show how timeless the episodes are. One asterisk (*) means the last year or so is likely still relevant.  Three (***) means you could (or should) start from the first  episode and it would still be relevant. The number two (2) means they were also on my list two years ago. I don't necessarily listen to every episode, especially for podcasts that do different topics or different guests (like Vox, Spycast, Hidden Brain). You can’t really skip episodes for serials (podcasts that tell a story, like In the Dark). Tiers are based on a combination of quality and personal preference. Tier 1 In the Dark *** [Crime podcast. Start with season 1. This show is amazing.] Revisionist History *** (2) [Malcolm Gladwell's podcast. First couple seasons were outstanding. The most recent episodes are just ads for Gladwell's other projects.] I Spy by Foreign Policy *** [Fun stuff....
Post a Comment
Read more