Podcasts that make you smart and relaxed

Edwin’s do it newsletter: 2:12 minute reading time

Jul 31, 2022

Hello everyone,

The power of podcasts is to explore new concepts in a very simple and accessible manner. The barrier to opening up a book is much greater than listening to someone distill their work in an hour. Today we’ll dive into tips for consuming podcasts and, which are my personal favorites.

This edition kicks off a new series where I’ll be curating and sharing what I found to be the best resources and tools out there. Let’s dive in.

Tips for consuming podcasts the right way

The Mindset

As with all forms of audio consumption, remembering what you listen to is not the main goal. Audio is a bad medium for learning, but it’s great for leisure and familiarising yourself with new ideas. Remind yourself that the main goals are to relax and explore. You only have to remember what resonates with you so you can dive into that topic later.

How to select podcast episodes

Try not to avoid following the subscription feed. You’re better off ignoring those notifications because new doesn’t equal good. Instead, go through previous episodes and select those that sound interesting. You can also sort for the most viewed episodes to get a feeling of what “the best of” looks like. Each Saturday I go through my podcast subscriptions and add which episodes I want to watch to my library.

My favorite podcasts

The Origins Podcast - Lawrence Krauss

Keywords:
Science. Prominent scientists and thinkers. Reality. Origin stories.

Summary:
Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist and popular science author who invites other scientists and prominent thinkers onto his podcast. They speak about their origins stories and their work. It covers physics, biology, cosmology, and rationality.

TOKCast - Brett Hall

Keywords:
Reality, Reason, and Rationality. Science. Knowledge Theory. Philosophy. Book review series.

Summary:
In my opinion the most solid and in-depth analyses of how the world works out there. Spanning science, knowledge theory, and philosophy. The Theory Of Knowledge Cast mainly explores and defends the books and worldviews of David Deutsch and Karl Popper.

The Knowledge Project - Shane Parrish

Keywords:
Mental Models. Decision theory. Psychology. Interviews with prominent thinkers.

Summary:
A podcast without gimmicks purely exploring the ideas and knowledge of some of the smartest people in the world.

Rework - Jason Fried & DHH (37 Signals)

Keywords:
Business and organization principles. Realistic. Non-conventional. Tech.

Summary:
Refreshing and nonconventional thoughts on how to run a business the sustainable way the bootstrap way. 37 Signals has been around since 1999 and continues to run successful tech “stay ups” like basecamp and hey.com. In this podcast, DHH & Jason Fried (serial authors) in 20-minute chunks go over the core principles that they apply in their businesses and books. The business insights are easily transferred to life advice.

A16z Podcast - A16z

Keywords:
Tech. Innovation. History. News. Web3.

Where to find more,

These podcasts and more of my favorite resources can be found at the bottom of my about page on https://edwindoit.com/links/about

That’s a wrap

I’d love to hear what your favorite podcasts are. Leave a comment on substack sharing your thoughts. Alternatively, drop me an e-mail!

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