I have been a life-long learner.
Even as a young boy, I read quite a lot (mostly fiction) and enjoyed learning new things.
As I got older I went to college and then graduate school which involved lots of learning, of course.
But instead of stopping there, I kept reading both books and magazines, especially on personal finance and topics related to my career.
Eventually, reading gave way to listening as audiobooks became more popular. Then as technology became better and more mobile, I started to learn through listening to podcasts.
Even in retirement I’m learning a lot (see #7 on this list) and almost all of it is through podcasts.
Now and then I’ll mention a podcast in a post and someone will ask me what I listen to, so I thought I’d list out my favorites and give some commentary.
Just to note, these are not all the podcasts I listen to, just my favorites. I probably listen to twice as many as are listed here.
I’ll break them down by topic to make them easier to review.
With that said, here’s my list…
Money
You know I listen to money podcasts! I have to as a financial blogger, right?
That said, I like to learn something from podcasts and it’s hard to find a money episode that can actually teach me something new (I’ve heard most of the advice thousands of times). My favorites:
- Planet Money — Generally they select pretty good topics, their production quality is top-notch, and the podcasts have a decent time frame (20-30 minutes). This is one podcast that I usually learn something from.
- ChooseFI — One of the first ones I check every Monday morning. Jonathan and Brad are AWESOME and usually have great guests. The episodes can get a bit long (an hour or so), so I hardly ever listen to a full one (I generally don’t have that much time). This is a theme you’ll see from me throughout — I prefer podcasts in the 30-minute range and the ones that are twice that have to be really good to listen to all the way through.
- Financial Independence Podcast — Love the Mad Fientist as his topics are always great. Two problems though: 1) he only has an episode about once a month and 2) they tend to be long.
Blogging
Of course I want to keep learning about blogging and here are the podcasts I listen to most:
- ProBlogger — The Godfather of blogging, Darren is also a great guy. Each episode has something to learn from.
- Do You Even Blog — I LOVE the host (so funny — even when he tries not to be) and the guests and content are good. One drawback is that most of these are an hour or longer, which is hard for me to fit in.
- Money and Media — This is done by FinCon, the conference for money media, so it’s not only about blogging but about MONEY blogging. Hard to say anything bad about this one. It has great content, top guests, excellent production, and generally runs about 30 minutes long. I guess the only negative is that it is only on for part of the year — wish it was on the full year as it’s one of my very favorites.
- The Online Course Show — I have been considering creating my own online course and this was the best podcast I found on the subject. It gets VERY practical and has helped me learn a ton about creating and marketing an online course.
Self-Improvement
Only a couple here since both of these are pretty looooooong. I only listen to episodes here if they feature a guest or topic I really like:
- The Tim Ferriss Show — I skip 75% of these because they are too long, but the 25% I stick around to listen to for an hour or TWO are amazing. Tim is so curious and always seems to ask the questions I’m thinking about.
- The School of Greatness — I’m thinking Lewis Howes must be one of the nicest people in the world. Love his show, the guests, and everything about the podcast.
Entertainment/General
These podcasts are for a combination of enjoyment and learning:
- Freakonomics — I LOVE contrarian ways of looking at issues and this podcast is the king of that. The host’s sense of humor is also very dry, which I love as well. Almost always learn something new here.
- The Way I Heard It — Here are all the things I love about this podcast: 1) Mike Rowe. His name must mean “common sense” in some language because he has a lot of it. 2) The stories. I grew up hearing Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” and this show is just like that. 3) It’s short (7 minutes or so). In fact their tag line is “The only podcast for the curious mind with a short attention span” (or something close).
- Lead to Win — I know Michael Hyatt and have always admired him. The podcast doesn’t usually teach me anything new (after all, I was in business for 30 years), but the production and topics are so good I listen anyway. 🙂
- Invisibilia — This one is hard to explain. Their site says it’s about the following: “Unseeable forces control human behavior and shape our ideas, beliefs, and assumptions. Invisibilia—Latin for invisible things—fuses narrative storytelling with science that will make you see your own life differently.” That probably still doesn’t clear things up, so my best suggestion is to listen to a couple episodes to get a feel for it. But be careful or you’ll be hooked. 😉
- Throughline — This is another NPR podcast. In this one they “go back in time to understand the present.” What this means is that they basically give a history lesson as to why something happening today came to exist. Since I love history, this one is perfect for me.
In addition to these, I’m trying out a couple other subjects and it’s too soon to recommend anything. Specifically, I am listening to podcasts on sailing and pickleball. Haha! I know, quite an interesting combination.
I’m also listening to some new money and blogging podcasts. I’ll be sure to share any that I end up loving.
That’s my list! See any here that you listen to?
Or do you have favorites that I may have missed? If so, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
BuddMann says
Great list and thanks…I am in the podcast desert right now and needed this list…agreed on Planet Money!
Zpreuter says
“Revisionist History” from Malcolm Gladwell is one of my absolute favorites. Judging by your list and general thirst for learning new things I think you’ll be hooked pretty quickly. Most episodes are 45 minutes or so. Start with “The Big Man Can’t Shoot” or “My Little Hundred Million” from season one to get a taste.
Stacey says
I definitely agree with this recommendation for Revisionist History. My office mates were talking about it so I gave a listen and was hooked. I binge listened to 4 seasons pretty quickly. And that also took me to The Happiness Lab.
Fire Up The Couch says
I listen to most of these as well. Freakonomics and ChooseFI are some of my favorites as well.
Most of my listening involves interesting podcasts I can learn from. For purely entertainment purposes I’ve really enjoyed Conan Needs a Friend. Love me some Conan O’Brien!!
JayCeezy says
Comedy
WTF with Marc Maron – long-form interviews with comedians, musicians, authors (Anthony Jeselnik, Todd Barry, Timothy J. Ferriss, Garry Marshall, Garry Shandling, Brene Brown, Louis C.K….)
Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast – heritage entertainers and seminal comedy figures (Shelly Berman, John Davidson, Shep Gordon, Bob Saget, Neil Sedaka, George Shapiro…)
Norm McDonald Live – unedited audio interviews of his chopped up Netflix series (Jim Carrey, David Letterman, David Spade, Tim Allen…)
Comedy is a lot like Personal Finance, in that everybody thinks they understand it and there is no ‘one-size fits all’. Not for everyone, but those interested in the craft, performance, history and commerce of it will enjoy these podcasts. These are great when I’m doing yardwork and on the treadmill.
spaceman says
Can’t believe you missed Animal Spirits!
Awesome podcast about markets and money. In depth discussion, interviews with leaders in the field, interviews with authors of books on financial topics.
Great podcast.
ESI says
I’ve tried this in the past (I think) but there’s too much business and economics for me. I would have listened when I was working though…
DeeFuller says
Hidden Brain (NPR) is one of my favorites.
Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.
ESI says
Actually, I’ve recently started listening to this (since I wrote this post a month ago or so) and like it so far. We’ll see if it makes the cut.
If nothing else, I like when he introduces himself each episode — what a unique name!
Tom Murin says
Here are a few good ones you missed:
Something You Should Know
EconTalk
Art of Manliness
Peerless Money says
Awesome list. I’ll check out Invisibilia later today.
Have you tried listening to the longer podcasts on 2x speed? That would save you some time. Someone suggested this idea to me at FinCon last year, and I’ve been listening to podcasts on 1.5-2x speeds ever since!
ESI says
I haven’t but it’s not so much about time as content. If the content is awesome, I’ll listen to it, even up to two hours.
It just can’t be so-so and long…
Mike W says
Thanks for sharing the list. This is my first exposure to them, so I can’t wait to start checking them out.
Sharon says
I like several of the podcasts you listed. Here are a few more. Backstory – a history podcast, 99 % Invisible, Working from Slate, How I Built This from NPR, The Secret History of the Future from Slate.
thinkingAhead says
Try Hidden Forces from DK. Good stuff.