“You are what you listen to”
Background: This started as an email thread in 2015 exchanging podcasts episodes with friends. Then it became a google doc read by thousands of people. Finally decided to publish it on my site. My goal is to update this regularity. Also, here’s a list of podcasts I’ve appeared on.
About these episodes (last update 6/5/20): this is an eclectic collection of my favorite audio experiences from the last decade. Emphasis is on “interesting ideas” rather than simply “enjoyable” content. Consider this a living breathing collection of my favorite ideas. I also added some of my favorite bitcoin podcasts at the end.
If you have episode suggestions please DM me on twitter or comment below.
Favorite Podcast Episodes of All Time
(no particular order)
Coming in next update: Jaron Lanier, Kevin Kelly, Peter Attia, and Hidden Forces
EconTalk “Emergent Order” with Michael Munger + Ross Roberts — exploring economics through the lens of emergent order and biology. Starts with an incredible poem that illustrates how a city satisfies consumer demand without any centralized planning. [link]
Rebel Wisdom w/ Daniel Schmachtenberger “The War on Sensemaking” — Exploring the challenges of making sense of the modern complex information ecosystem. How do primates make decisions based on continually changing information? How does miss-information and diss-information fit into society? Daniel also explored Making Sense of the Downward Spiral on 6/2/20. as a followup. Both are Incredibly insightful [link]
Rich Roll #515 w/ Kamal Ravikant “why self love is everything” — incredible story telling, practical wisdom to increase self love. Turns out self love is foundational to a good life. Kamal is Naval’s older brother, same same but different 🙂 [link]
Joe Rogan + Graham Hancock #1284 — humans are a species with great amnesia about our past. New evidence strongly suggests the history of humanity is much much older than archeologists once thought. Strap in. If you liked the topic all previous episodes are great (especially with Randall Carlson) [youtube]
Joe Rogan Podcast w/ Brett Weinstein + Jordan Peterson — amazing discussion. Questioned my long held left-leaning beliefs. Listened to this 3hr episode 3 times. Jordan Peterson solo on JRE is good and gives you more of his beliefs. [youtube]
The Portal #1 with Eric Weinstein + Peter Thiel — Peter needs no introduction. Eric and Peter play off each other well, resulting in incredible insights. [link]
The Portal #18 with Eric Weinstein solo “The DISC” — Eric goes solo to explore the “Distributed Idea Suppression Complex aka DISC.” The sensemaking apparatus we used to understand the world is distorted. Why? How? [link]
The Portal #19 with Eric Weinstein + Brett Weinstein — This is a truly incredible audio experience. Gritty, deeply human, long overdue crescendo between brothers. Game changing biology and unsettling voyeurism into “old guard science.” [link]
The Portal #25 with Eric Weinstein “The Construct” — Solo ep about the mystery surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. This incident feels like a glitch in the matrix. Eric thoughtfully breaks it down. Chilling. [link]
Invest like the Best #49 with Patrick + Tim Urban #59 “Grand Theft Life” — explore the thinker behind the thoughts over at Wait But Why, one of my favorite blogs. Entertaining, motivating, optimistic. This one got me fired up! [apple]
Psychedelic Salon #560 “What Terrence McKenna thinks about Marshall McLuhan” — fascinating exploration of some powerful ideas. McKenna is the best wordsmith of the 20th century. If you like language or ideas, must listen. [link]
London Real w/ Jacque Fresco from “The Venus Project” — Jacque Fresco (1916-2017) was an American futurist similar to Buckminster Fuller. Radical ideas, charming character, and incredible story telling. Looking to inject some novel ideas into your worldview? Jacque Fresco delivers. [link]
Joe Rogan + Andrew Yang –– get a taste of his campaign, universal basic income, automation. Example of how Rogan can influence culture with his massive distribution. [youtube]
Reply all #136 “The Founder” — insane story of a black market kingpin. You don’t believe this story. [link]
Radio Lab: From Tree to Shining Tree — how plants communicate (via fungi). Mind blowing. [link]
Radio Lab: Colors — Turns out colors and how we perceive them is fascinating. One of their most popular episodes. [link] part 2 came out but I haven’t heard it yet: [link]
After On Podcast + Naval Rakivant — exploring potential end of the world scenarios. Get a grasp on synthetic biology risks, drone terrorism, risks of AI, etc. Dark and fascinating. Part 1: [link #1] & part 2: [link #2]
Farnam Street + Naval Ravikant –– life lessons from the best mind I’ve come across. [link]
Unchained Podcast with Nakal Ravikant — Much to digest regarding the future of bitcoin, blockchains, and a decentralized future. Fun ideas to play with. [link]
Aubrey Marcus Podcast w/ Jamie Wheal — about flow state, hacking human consciousness, fucking badass dude and episode. If you dig this, check out this other episode on Aubrey Marcus show. [link #1]…. 2nd ep with Jamie Wheal about preparing for social collapse, tribes, etc [link #2]
Future Thinkers Podcast + Jamie Wheal Q&A Episode — Jaime is a peak performance coach and flow state hacker. Casual episode exploring answer Jaime is critical of the modern hippie-plant medicine-burner community. Incredible speaker, dense with insight. Constant undertone of the interplay between science and spirituality. [link]
Flow Sessions with Jason Silva + Alain de Botton — Alain is a writer, philosopher, thinker, and incredible speaker. Enjoy this captivating discussion on life, philosophy, education, and so much more. [link]
Joe Rogan w/ Graham Hancock + Randall Carlson — watch the video of this one if you can. Exploring the foundations of human civilization. New evidence proves that our generally agreed upon human history is WAY off. Was Atlantis real? How long have humans been “civilized.” Rocked my world. [youtube]
Joe Rogan w/ Joe Quirk — Seasteading Institute. Learn about the final frontier: living in harmony with the oceans. Floating boat/Island nation states, ocean agriculture, ocean energy production, decrease carbon footprint via ocean stuffs. HUGE potential to save humanity with this framework. [youtube] …. if you dig this, here are 8 short videos explaining cutting edge research in various fields related to the ocean tech [link]
Planet Money “Student Loan Whistleblower” — Great look into how we got into this mess. Perverse incentives, who is to blame, can we get out of this? [link]
The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy — Mind blowing look at the future economy. Frames up why we need blockchains and then finally mentions it at the end. Produced by Vice. [youtube]
Joe Rogan w/ Dennis McKenna — Psychedelics, how plants communicate, are plants intelligent, cutting edge in this field. He’s Terence Mckenna’s younger brother [youtube]
Joe Rogan w/ Paul Stamets — Strap in, we’re going to fungi. Mind blowing discussion about fungi. Great intro to mushrooms. Search more Paul Stamets talks if you want to go deeper —> it gets way deeper [youtube]
Joe Rogan #1109 w/ Matthew walker — everything you need to know about sleep [youtube]
Terence Mckenna “culture is not your friend” — one of the many many many audio recordings of the man with the strongest grasp of the english language in modern history. Forward thinking guy, fascinating to listen to, speaks like a poet, touches on psychedelics often. This rabbit hole gets deep too, personally consumed over 100hrs of Terence. [youtube]
Hidden Forces – New power in the 21st century — Generational differences and how the world is changing. How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World and How to Make It Work for You. The ideas are better than the discussions [Soundcloud]
Vinay Gupta on London Real — the smartest guy you’ve never heard of. Solves big problems like the end of the world. Invented hexahurt. The way he approaches problems is fascinating. After this ep, I consumed every video/audio he has on the internet [youtube] — if you want to go deeper, here’s the first ep of a 3-part series [link]
Aubrey Marcus with JP Spears — Funny, enlightening, how to be a man, relationship stuff [link]
Tim Ferriss + Arnold Schwarzenegger — Funny and lots of color commentary about the big man. Incredible businessman prior to bodybuilding. [link]
Tim Ferriss + Laird Hamilton / Gabby Reece — Working out, relationships, conquer fear. Would love to attend/host weekly workouts like Laird does [link]
Tim Ferriss + Wim Hof (iceman) — Breathwork practices, hacking DNA, funny stories [link]
Tim Ferriss + Nick Szabo + Naval — Cryptocurrencies, history of bitcoin, smart contracts, digestible format [link]
Tim Ferriss + Mr Money Mustache — different way to approach finances. FIRE: Financial Independence Retire Early. Dude lives on almost nothing. Interesting story and business [link]
Tim Ferriss + Seth Godin — marketing, business, content, lots of actionable takeaways from this one. [link #1] — here’s Another Seth Godin episode [link #2]
Tim Ferriss + Jamie Foxx — won podcast ep of the year. Very funny, great stories. Less actionable, but extremely enjoyable. [link]
Tim Ferriss + Dom Dagostino — deep in the weeds with fasting, keto, curing cancer, etc [link]
Tim Ferriss + Jocko Willink — “Discipline equals Freedom.” Jocko lead the bloodiest battles in the Middle East. Fascinating. Motivating. Wake up early. Train hard. [link]
Tom Lee “Economics of Crypto – macro trends of why/how/what” — Tom Lee of Fundstrat explores macro trends such as demographics to understand the rise of Bitcoin. TL;DR Millennials want bitcoin more than any other generation. [youtube]
Hidden Secrets of Money – Mike Maloney — 8 part documentary series about the history of money. Very well done and highly informative. Last episode is on Bitcoin. Must watch series if you’re into Bitcoin. Free on Youtube. Recommend video version rather than audio only as the graphics are excellent. [youtube]
Favorite Bitcoin Podcasts
(no particular order)
- Off the Chain + Murad Mahmudov [Apple]
- Tales from the Crypt + Robert Breedlove [link]
- Bitcoin Rapid Fire w/ John Vallis + Alex Gladstein [link]
- What Grinds My Gear #16 Beating the Market [Apple]
- On the Brink w/ Nic Carter + James Prestwich [Apple]
- Citizen Bitcoin + Robert Breedlove on Nassim Taleb ideas [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + Peter Todd [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + Dan Held [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + Nic Carter [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + Alex Gladstein [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + Tuur Demeester [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + John Carvalho [link]
- What Bitcoin Did + Bryan Bishop [link]
- Tales From the Crypt + Chris Dannen [link]
- Tales From the Crypt + Yassine Elmandrja [link]
- Tales From the Crypt + Bitcoin Sign Guy [Libsyn]
- Tales From the Crypt + Misir Mahmudov [Libsyn]
- Tales From the Crypt + Caitlin Long [Libsyn]
- Tales From the Crypt (#65) + Johnny Dilley & Tom Garrombone [Libsyn]
- Tales From the Crypt (#66) + Parker Lewis [Libsyn]
- Stephan Livera + Tuur Demeester [link]
- Stephan Livera + James O’Beirne [link]
- Stephan Livera + Jeff Deist [link]
- Crypto Voices + Robert Murphy [Soundcloud]
- Crypto Voices + Hasu [Soundcloud]
- POV Crypto + Hasu [Libysn]
- The Coin Pod + Nic Carter [link]
- Citizen Bitcoin + Matt O’Dell [Apple]
- Noded + Johnny Dilley [link]
- Laura Shin + Tuur Demeester [link]
- We Study Billionaires: Tuur Demeester & Erik Townsend Debate (2 part series) [link]
- Venture Coinist Podcast + Arthur Hayes [Soundcloud]
- Bottom Shelf Bitcoin w/ Clark Moody [link]
Similar “best podcasts episodes” lists from other curators
- James Clear via twitter – 6/6/19
- Erik Torenberg via twitter – 5/1/20
