Podcasts I Like

I have always felt closer to sound. That's why I stuck with learning a guitar longer than painting on a canvas. When I am not performing cognitively demanding tasks e.g. walking in the evenings or cycling to work or in a Grab, I am usually listening to music or podcasts or audio books.

Before I forget, I wanted to compile some of the engaging podcast shows and episodes which I have found to be more engaging and quite a lot more densely packed with information than YouTube videos OR books.

For listening, I use Pocket Casts for my podcasts. The following features won me over - cross device sync of episode progress, web version available, storage space to side load audio books and use the same progress sync feature. The Plus doesn't add much but is a nice way to support the team.

For listening, I use Spotify now.

Top 1-time Mini Series

1. Washington Post - Moonrise
2. BBC World Service - 13 Minutes to the Moon Season 1
3. Maximum Fun - The Outer Reach

Miscellaneous Podcast Shows/Episodes I have loved

1. Business Wars - Nintendo vs Sony (Season 34 Episode 1-6), Boeing vs Airbus (Season 33 Episode 1-7)
2. Game Scoop - What Are the Most Important Games of the Decade?
3. Against the Rules - Season 2 Episode 1-8 about Performance Coaches
4. Tech Deciphered - The wonderful world of productivity, Recruiting Primer Part 1-3
5. The Portal - Peter Thiel, Werner Herzog, Josh Wolfe, Garry Kasparov, Sir Roger Penrose, What if everyone is simply insane?
6. The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard (Existentialism)
7. Invest Like the Best - Charlie Songhurst: Lessons from Investing in 483 Companies (Charlie is an angel investor in Transcelestial)
8. The Handmade Network Podcast - Handmade Seattle 2020 Special: The Race to Replace C and C++
9. Founders - Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters. All of them
10. Idea Machines - Focusing on Research with Adam Marblestone, Invention, Discovery, and Bell Labs with Venkatesh Narayanamurti
11. Thoughts in Between - Anton Howes: The history of innovation - and how to get more of it

Top Recurring Podcasts with some great episodes below

1. Sean Carroll's Mindscape*
2. Lex Fridman's Podcast*
3. The Tim Ferris Show
4. Victory The Podcast (because Entourage!)

*DISCLAIMER: I am a Patreon supporter for Sean Carroll's and Lex Fridman's podcasts

Below are my favorite episodes from the above shows:

Sean Carroll's Mindscape

Solo

• Solo -- Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?
• Solo -- Finding Gravity Within Quantum Mechanics
• Solo | Life and Its Meaning
• Solo: How Time Travel Could and Should Work
• Solo: Are We Moving Beyond the Standard Model?

Natural Sciences

• Katie Mack on How the Universe Will End
• Karl Friston on Brains, Predictions, and Free Energy
• Kevin Hand on Life Elsewhere in the Solar System
• Lina Necib on What and Where the Dark Matter Is
• Scott Aaronson on Complexity, Computation, and Quantum Gravity
• Nick Bostrom on Anthropic Selection and Living in a Simulation
• Fyodor Urnov on Gene Editing, CRISPR, and Human Engineering
• Netta Engelhardt on Black Hole Information, Wormholes, and Quantum Gravity
• Adam Riess on the Expansion of the Universe and a Crisis in Cosmology

Philosophy

• David Chalmers on Consciousness, the Hard Problem, and Living in a Simulation
• Alan Lightman on Transcendence, Science, and a Naturalist’s Sense of Meaning
• Seth MacFarlane on Using Science Fiction to Explore Humanity
• Philip Goff on Consciousness Everywhere

Miscellaneous

• David Albert on Quantum Measurement and the Problems with Many-Worlds
• Edward Watts on the End of the Roman Republic and Lessons for Democracy
• Adrienne Mayor on Gods and Robots in Ancient Mythology
• Marq de Villiers on Hell and Damnation

Lex Fridman's Podcast

Natural Sciences

• Max Tegmark: Life 3.0
• Sean Carroll: The Nature of the Universe, Life, and Intelligence
• Leonard Susskind: Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, and Black Holes
• Sean Carroll: Quantum Mechanics and the Many-Worlds Interpretation
• Jim Gates: Supersymmetry, String Theory and Proving Einstein Right
• #78 – Ann Druyan: Cosmos, Carl Sagan, Voyager, and the Beauty of Science
• #79 – Lee Smolin: Quantum Gravity and Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution
• #85 – Roger Penrose: Physics of Consciousness and the Infinite Universe
• #116 – Sara Seager: Search for Planets and Life Outside Our Solar System
• #124 – Stephen Wolfram: Fundamental Theory of Physics, Life, and the Universe
• #154 – Avi Loeb: Aliens, Black Holes, and the Mystery of the Oumuamua

Philosophy

• Noam Chomsky: Language, Cognition, and Deep Learning
• David Chalmers: The Hard Problem of Consciousness
• #149 – Diana Walsh Pasulka: Aliens, Technology, Religion, and the Nature of Belief

Computing

• Eric Schmidt: Google
• Elon Musk: Tesla Autopilot
• Garry Kasparov: Chess, Deep Blue, AI, and Putin
• Bjarne Stroustrup: C++
• Judea Pearl: Causal Reasoning, Counterfactuals, Bayesian Networks, and the Path to AGI
• Donald Knuth: Algorithms, TeX, Life, and The Art of Computer Programming
• Jim Keller: Moore’s Law, Microprocessors, Abstractions, and First Principles
• #72 – Scott Aaronson: Quantum Computing
• #83 – Nick Bostrom: Simulation and Superintelligence
• #109 – Brian Kernighan: UNIX, C, AWK, AMPL, and Go Programming
• #130 – Scott Aaronson: Computational Complexity and Consciousness
• #160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
• #162 – Jim Keller: The Future of Computing, AI, Life, and Consciousness

Miscellaneous

• #82 – Simon Sinek: Leadership, Hard Work, Optimism and the Infinite Game
• #118 – Grant Sanderson: Math, Manim, Neural Networks & Teaching with 3Blue1Brown
• #122 – David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering
• #166 – Cal Newport: Deep Work, Focus, Productivity, Email, and Social Media
• #174 – Tyler Cowen: Economic Growth and the Fight Against Conformity and Mediocrity

The Tim Ferris Show

Entrepreneurship & Investing

• #97: The Evolutionary Angel, Naval Ravikant
• #367: Eric Schmidt — Lessons from a Trillion-Dollar Coach
• #392: Ben Horowitz — What You Do Is Who You Are >> Lessons from Silicon Valley, Andy Grove, Genghis Khan, Slave Revolutions, and More
• #403: Tony Fadell — On Building the iPod, iPhone, Nest, and a Life of Curiosity
• #473: Naval Ravikant on Happiness, Reducing Anxiety, Crypto Stablecoins, and Crypto Strategy
• #487: Dr. Martine Rothblatt — A Masterclass on Asking Better Questions and Peering Into the Future
• #506: Balaji Srinivasan on The Future of Bitcoin and Ethereum, How to Become Noncancelable, the Path to Personal Freedom and Wealth in a New World, the Changing Landscape of Warfare, and More

Philosophy

• #444: Hugh Jackman on Best Decisions, Daily Routines, The 85% Rule, Favorite Exercises, Mind Training, and Much More
• #485: Jerry Seinfeld — A Comedy Legend’s Systems, Routines, and Methods for Success
• #502: Jordan Peterson on Rules for Life, Psychedelics, The Bible, and Much More

Natural Sciences

• #445: Janna Levin on Extra Dimensions, Time Travel, and How to Overcome Boots in the Face
• #478: Scott Kelly — Lessons Learned from 500+ Days in Space, Life-Changing Books, and The Art of Making Hard Choices

Ones I have been interviewed on!

1. EF's Scaling Ambition - Transforming Communications Technology and Maximising Your Personal Impact
2. Founders Unfiltered - Building for Space

Keep Listening!