For anyone who knows me, I am an avid podcast listener. It is something I will promote to literally everyone I know. The benefits are enormous:
- Free entertainment
- Easier than reading
- Great learning of a variety of topics
- Exercises your imagination and listening
- Focuses your ADHD mind
- Shows you what great story-telling sounds like
- Gives you stories to share – makes you more interesting
- You can SUBSCRIBE and they will be loaded automatically to your phone
Planet Money is one of my favorites. Here are the best ones from the last years. Free.
- Salmon Taboo here: Apparently, the Japanese used to not eat raw salmon – until this Swedish guy convinced them it was safe.
- Scariest Thing in Hollywood here: The production studio that applies strict rules to making low-budget, high-volume movies – like a VC – and makes a fortune.
- Hard Work is Irrelevant here: Netflix HR – it’s all about outputs, not inputs.
- Taxi King here: Uber has disrupted the taxi market – this is the guy who is taking a bath on his huge bet on NY taxi medallions. Uber is killing this guy.
- Bottom of the Well here: Messed-up incentives in California is encouraging. farmers to plant water-intensive crops even though there is a 4 year drought.
- The Chicken Tax here: Weird legacy tax which links an import tax on foreign pick-up trucks with chicken. Seriously odd.
- A Rose on Any Other Day here: Roses are popular on Valentine’s day – not because they are the most beautiful – but because they ship well.
- The Chocolate Curse here: The world is running out of chocolate.
- When Women Stopped Coding here: Some ideas on why women stopped coding, and the guys took over computer science.
- Mall of Two Minimum Wages here: Shopping mall that sits in 2 states, and has 2 different minimum wages – in the same damn building.
- What’s Your Major here: Unsurprisingly, your wage at graduation is more highly correlated to your major than your university. A lot more correlated.
- The Real Price of College here: Nominal college prices are skyrocketing, but honestly, few people pay the full price. Price discrimination at its best.
- Is a Stradivarius Just a Violin here: Double blind test to see if these legendary instruments really sounds better. What is your guess?
- Inside the Credit Card Black Market here: Amazing behind-the-screens reporting in the “dark web” of thieves. Fascinating and frightening.
- What Happens When You Just Give Poor People Money here: Self explanatory.
- The Most (and Least) Lucrative College Majors here: College grads – listen.