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.
I’ve been listening to Planet Money since it was first recommended on this blog. There’s so many great ones. My two favorites: “The Fastest Growing, Least Popular Airline in America” and “Cow Noir”.
I’m quickly becoming addicted to podcasts (business specifically), and came across this website that aggregates and allows you to vote on the top ones. There’s some good ones in there (e.g. This Week in Startups)….https://www.producthunt.com/e/podcast-hunt
#winning.