Ask HN: What is the best podcast you listened to in 2022?

dvirsky · 3 years ago

As an aside, I really wish Lex Fridman would make his interviews shorter and edit them a bit. Plus, I'm not trying to diss him but genuinely asking - he's not a particularly remarkable or interesting or entertaining interviewer (he's okay, and smart, but nothing out of the ordinary), how did he become such a prominent podcaster?

mkaic · 3 years ago

Huh, it's interesting to see someone else's perspective here! Personally, I think Lex is a particularly remarkable/interesting/entertaining interviewer! He's one of the few where I don't feel like I'm wasting my time listening to his work. I can't speak for everyone, but I feel that his rise to prominence comes from his exceptional skill in navigating difficult conversations with esoteric or difficult people.

dvirsky · 3 years ago

I listen to a lot of his episodes, but it's always because of the guest. He has amazing guests, no doubt about it.

drakonka · 3 years ago

His guests can definitely be really interesting, but I feel like it isn't so much because of him "navigating difficult conversations" and more of "not making them have difficult conversations". He gives them a platform to voice sometimes very questionable viewpoints for hours mostly unchallenged.

Dead Comment

rg111 · 3 years ago

How he became a prominent podcaster- that I don't know.

I can tell you why I like him.

It's because he gives so much space to his guests, and these podcasts are solely structured as interviews.

Many other podcasters think highly of themselves and talk too much- like an equal conversation.

That annoys me.

And I like his long-form content.

I find the era of tiktok and short-everything distasteful. There should be long-form content out there.

I just listen to the episodes that I am interested in.

And he asks mundane questions and big questions. Like Carmack was asked what's his setup. Also how AI will change gaming. I like that.

And also, I find that contents that are edited to be made short try to tell a story, and desparately so.

And, I dislike the narrative creating in other interviewers like mainstream press.

Mainstream press wants to decide your conclusion for you.

Whereas in Lex Fridman podcast, the conversation transcends branches, fields, and no conclusion is shoved down your throat, and you are free to draw your own conclusion.

That is why I like him.

Dead Comment

scrapcode · 3 years ago

It seems to be a combination of his academic credibility and interest generated from multiple appearances on JRE, which was also likely sparked in part of he and Rogan's mutual interest in BJJ and MMA. This was previously discussed on HN[0].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31777328

dvirsky · 3 years ago

I'm not following that whole universe so I guess I missed it, I started following him when it was this little podcast interviewing computer scientists about AI, and now it's this huge thing, and I never figured how it went from A to B.

drcongo · 3 years ago

I have no idea what any of those TLAs mean.

ryanklee · 3 years ago

After he had the horrible judgement to interview Kanye West, I feel he lost credibility. He was never very insightful in the first place. Largely a veneer of sincerity papering over poor discernment of bad actors who don't deserve a seat at the table.

Dead Comment

sjs382 · 3 years ago

I enjoy his show but have never listened in podcast form. Rather, I just consume it via (some of) the clips he puts out on YouTube. You may enjoy it the same way.

robga · 3 years ago

I listened to 20 or 30 of his podcasts and enjoyed them. But then let it slide. It felt more like Lex was asking interviewees for thoughts on his ideas and worldview than letting their own ideas breathe.

barrenko · 3 years ago

Lex is Jordan Peterson marketed to coders.

Dead Comment

seanhunter · 3 years ago

Not tech-related, but “Conversations with Tyler”, Tyler Cowen (of Marginal Revolution’s) podcast[1]. It’s consistently thought-provoking and he has some amazing guests on.

[1] https://conversationswithtyler.com/

haakonhr · 3 years ago

Strongly agree here. It is the only podcast where I more or less listen to every episode even if I don't find the topic or guest particularly intriguing at first glance.

sakopov · 3 years ago

Hardcore History by Dan Carlin [1] is by far the best podcast I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. I'm currently on the WW1 series and it is absolutely jaw-dropping stuff.

[1] https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

pwpw · 3 years ago

My favorite series of Hardcore History is Death Throes of the Republic[0]. It discusses the rise and fall of the Roman Republic and particularly Julius Caesar. This time period has an abundance of resources that provide plentiful discussion, and it’s full of incredible characters. I should probably find a book on the topic because I was glued to every word of each episode.

[0] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-death-thr...

satvikpendem · 3 years ago

If you like that, try the History of Rome podcast, it goes through each and every single era of Western Roman history. It took me a few months to get through all of it and another few months to get through the History of Byzantium one which is still ongoing.

Other History Of podcasts are also interesting, such as the one on China, I haven't gotten too deep into that one yet.

coreyisthename · 3 years ago

Ghosts of the Ostfront and Supernova in the East are also genuinely incredible. The length can seem overwhelming, but he’s so engaging that you’ll be sad it isn’t twice as long.

sockaddr · 3 years ago

Agreed. Quality stuff for sure.

And crucially he will tell you right as he’s about to fill in gaps with his own assumptions for the sake of the story telling. Makes it easier to trust him.

jonwinstanley · 3 years ago

Agreed. The World War One series is fantastic. I learned way more through this than I did back in school.

robga · 3 years ago

New to me in the 12 months.

Fall of Civilizations - catalogue is now 16 long (3 hour) episodes.

https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/

Sweet Bobby - crazy phishing story, told in 6 tight episodes.

https://www.tortoisemedia.com/listen/sweet-bobby/

Proof: a True Crime Podcast - investigative true crime as it should be.

https://www.proofcrimepod.com/

The Trojan Horse Affair - the ugly underbelly of politics and more.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-hor...

Ao7bei3s · 3 years ago

Omega Tau, a science & engineering podcast, with a light focus on aviation. For each episode, they invite a technical expert (e.g. they've had astronauts, various types of pilots, scientists/engineers, etc. on) and go in depth for 1-3 hours. They let their guests speak and they don't dumb it down too much, as they assume that most of their audience has some type of science/engineering background. No music / other filler content. It's from a German team but half the episodes are in English (and many of their guests are native English speakers). https://omegataupodcast.net/category/podcast-en/

Fighter Pilot Podcast. Exactly what it says. A former US Navy F/A-18 pilot invites other military aviation people to talk about military aviation related topics - "the aircraft, the weapons systems and the people" - an hour at a time. Somewhat technical at times, but generally focuses more on the people and the culture. It does get a bit repetitive after a hundred episodes or so (when they do one aircraft per episode), but the early episodes were great. https://www.fighterpilotpodcast.com/

akudha · 3 years ago

I really enjoy this one - https://callingbullshitpodcast.com/episodes/ It is about the gap between companies' stated goals and their actual behavior.

Citations needed - https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ I think I found it on HN. Well worth your time

Behind the bastards - exactly what it says on the title. Every episode is about a shitty human being (some alive, most dead). Listen to the episodes on Henry Kissinger - it is a crime he was given the Nobel peace prize

lilsoso · 3 years ago

There's a bizarre formula that Citations Needed uses in their titles to describe something they seem to disagree with in a way to immediately distance it from truth. They'll use the following words as synonyms: narrative, cliche, talking points, media, machine, stories, mythmaking, discourse, sentiment, framing, messaging, notions, theater, demagoguery, dogma, rhetoric, diatribe.

Pointing this out helps diminish whatever propaganda they might be distributing. Curiously, they seem to refrain from applying the word 'propaganda' to whatever it is they're describing, as that would reveal them as biased and their trick.

vanilla_nut · 3 years ago

Huge fan of Avery Trufelman's Articles of Interest (https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/articles-of-interest).

She used to be a correspondent on 99% Invisible and originally developed the series as a subsection of 99PI. She also briefly worked on a podcast called "Nice Try!" in the same vein: deeply exploring weird facets of the world around us. Articles of Interest does that, but for clothes, and the latest season has been especially interesting to me as it dives into the history of US colleges and their influence on fashion. Well produced content, very talk-radio-y, Avery really sticks to a narrative.

I also recently discovered Switched on Pop, a brilliant podcast that digs deep into pop songs from the last few decades, dissecting why they're catchy, why they work... and why they sometimes don't. If you're a Taylor Swift fan, their Taylor Swift episodes are especially fun. More conversational production, but still well cut.

fknorangesite · 3 years ago

Yes! I love Articles of Interest. I am very much not into fashion, but fashion is also a game you can't not play; the fact that I'm so ignorant of it I think is part of why I really like the historical analysis.

It's great stuff.

rmason · 3 years ago

By far the most entertaining is the All In podcast, four Silicon Valley rich guys debate the topics of the day. Extra special is Friedman's science pieces https://www.youtube.com/@allin

If you want to follow Michigan politics, the oddball and quirky No BS News Hour led by the Pulitzer winning Charlie LeDuff is a must, he is a fearless old school reporter who goes after both the Right and the Left

https://www.youtube.com/@NoBSNewshour