The Case of the Missing Hit — Reply All. Someone gets a hit song stuck in their head which they remember from high school and sings it to their partner. Their partner doesn't remember it, and he can't find it on the internet either. This is the best podcast ever made.
Is Ego Depletion Real? — Two Psychologists Four Beers. Mickey Inzlicht, a researcher at the forefront of the ego depletion effect, gives an overview of how ego depletion fell victim to the replication crisis, and talks about how that long, drawn-out process affected him. The guy spent a decade or so studying something which he now mostly believes only appeared to exist because of the poor scientific practices he and his colleagues adhered to. I suggest you skip the first seven minutes, during which he and his cohost only discuss the beers they're going to be drinking for the episode.1
1 Sinking two beers each every time they do a recording is a great schtick and totally gives you a feel for the 'academics shooting the shit after work' vibe that the podcast has in general — but 7 minutes discussing beer is a long time…
The Living Room — Radiolab. The story of a woman who finds herself engrossed in the life of a young couple whose living room she can see into, while at the same time being painfully aware of what a weirdo this makes her. It's really sad and really beautiful.
The Sumerians — Fall of the First Cities — Fall of Civilizations. I'm a bit fascinated by ancient history at the minute, and this high-production-value episode does a great job of bringing to mind things about the ancient world which seem so strange to me — for example, ancient Greeks being puzzled when they come across the ruins of civilisations which (to them) are ancient. My favourite podcast of 2022.
O'Donohoe on Potato Chips and Salty Snacks — EconTalk. An economist interviews a representative from Frito-Lay about how they make their potato chips. They discuss the production process, how the economics of production and the associated necessity of efficiency has affected each part of it, and the way chip conveyor belts moving at 30km/hour through the factory are relieved of their slightly burnt chips — so that the consumers don't ever receive them. As my colleague once said, the best thing about it is that while it's a 90-minute interview about chips, you get the sense they could have kept going all day.
The Startup Podcast, season two — Gimlet. Each season follows the beginnings of a company, with recordings of discussions with each other and investors, and problems they haven't solved yet. I found it inspiring because the texture of these people's lives feels like mine feels like: we're tackling problem after problem, satisficing with less expertise, time and IQ points than we'd like to have for each one. This is what it feels like to build something great — and it's only when you zoom out and look back that you realise that you're building something great.
Casey Donovan — Interview with Andrew Denton. Casey won Australian Idol when she was 16 and was thrown into a busy life of touring around the country. A man called her from an unknown number, they fell in love and agreed to get married. Six years later she found out he didn't exist. I found it stunning to hear how a combination of her youth, lack of stability in her life and poor self-esteem resulted in the intense cognitive dissonance that allowed a very sharp person to end up in this situation. It sucks.
Other great Radiolabs. I was trying to stick to one episode per podcast, but I've got to break that for Radiolab — around one in ten of their episodes are just magic. Some favourites: The Gondolier · Galapagos · What's Left When You're Right · The Distance of the Moon · Seeing in the Dark · Dark Side of the Earth · Smile My Ass · Fu-Go · Patient Zero.
Hagfishology (HAGFISH) with Tim Winegard — Ologies. Hagfish have been around for 500 million years, have a total of two known fossils, and produce so much slime as a defence to predators that we've never seen evidence that a gill-breathing predator has ever eaten one (though we've found them in the stomachs of sea lions and other animals which keep their respiratory tract more separate from their digestive tract). The idea of Ologies is to interview a different '-ologist' each episode. The host Alie Ward is a comedian and is pretty funny, though does a lot more of the 'let's interview the scientist about their life story instead of the science' than I like.
Germaine Greer — The Louis Theroux Podcast. Germaine Greer is an Aussie feminist who wrote The Female Eunuch, and an absolutely outrageous person to listen to. She does this interview from a retirement home, aged 84, and — when Louis suggests that the 'ass' in Cardi B's 'WAP' is just an intensifier — produces this outrageous NSFW quote:
"Well, I'd choose to disagree with that. Most of our epithets are loaded with meaning, and I'd think that was similar. A wet ass to me is a significant thing. And it's not necessarily that easy to have a wet ass. You cannot always produce one when you want one, and you can't always want one when you've accidentally produced one. Sex is difficult."
Graham Duncan: Talent Whisperer — Invest Like the Best. They discuss his approach to finding talent in venture capital and family-office finance. He articulates subtle interpersonal dynamics, and the subtly different background views people have about who they are which affect performance.
Family Mealworms with Patrick Redford — Normal Gossip. From a chat with a friend:
Me: This show is like a super stimulus of gossip.
Friend: Right?
Me: It is to conversation as an apple is to a Twinkie. These people are professional conversationalists.
LVMH — Acquired. These are 2.5-to-10-hour discussions of companies, by two venture capitalists. I've listened to over 100 hours, and I felt like it gave me some sort of 'texture' on what it was like to start things that became important and big — with a similar texture to what you can get from reading biographies. Ben, one of the hosts, seems like a really clear thinker, and I appreciate hearing him puzzle over some things he's confused about with these companies.
'The Paper Menagerie' by Ken Liu — LeVar Burton Reads. A beautiful narrator reading you short stories that he liked.
Toby Ord on the Precipice and humanity's futures — 80,000 Hours. Toby Ord, a philosopher from Oxford University who gives away all of his income above £18,000, discusses threats to humanity's future and how we should respond to them. I always love listening to Toby — he's a very careful thinker who seems to have dived heavily into the research of many different areas, and it's great to see the hosts prod and push back on his claims. (I work for the organisation that produces this podcast.)
Kelsey Piper on big-picture journalism — Rationally Speaking. Kelsey discusses the ethics of billionaires, taking AI seriously, and her work role-modelling what it could look like for public intellectuals to have well-calibrated beliefs. Her Tumblr makes her seem like a paragon of understanding people who have different views from hers, and she's able to generate interesting insights about what's going on with emotions at an astonishing rate.
Daniel Kahneman — Conversations with Tyler. The guy was 84 at the time, but he was still a very precise and curious thinker. I would love to be like that.