I’ll be the first to admit that being quick to adopt the latest trend has never been a strength of mine. Podcasts have gotten more and more popular, making long-form audiobooks appear almost as outdated as actual books. Until this past year, I treated podcasts like many tennis players treat pickleball—with contemptuous avoidance—and split my reading roughly 50-50 between audiobooks and hard copy books.
In 2023, however, I turned over a new leaf—partly as a result of finding a handful of podcasts that appeared specifically tailored to things I was interested in. I stopped listening to audiobooks in early 2023 (but continued to read the old-fashioned way) and began collecting podcasts. The below is a full list of podcasts I’ve taken a listen to over the past year. I’ll give a brief overview—and, of course, my own rating on each. I’ll group them broadly into a few categories.
Appointment Listening
The Power Hungry Podcast: 4.5/5
Journalist and author Robert Bryce brings in guests to talk about energy, power, innovation, and politics. He interviews climate researchers, nuclear power activists, and other experts in the energy field. His take on environmentalism is adamantly pro-nuclear, and flies in the face of most of the conventional climate narrative. I would recommend his episodes with Jim Murchie, Doomberg, or Michael Shellenberger as good entry points if you’re looking for a place to start.
In addition to the fascinating diversity of guest backgrounds, I’ve found myself enjoying Bryce’s interviewing style and his ability to get the most out of each guest in unique yet consistent ways.
Value Investing with Legends: 4.5/5
Hosted through Columbia Business School, this podcast focuses on value investing, interviewing practitioners and focusing on both high-level and detailed insights. Many of the guests are well-known in the finance world, including Ray Dalio in October 2023. Older episodes with Howard Marks and Mohnish Pabrai are well worth listening to as well.
I have few complaints on this one, although it can occasionally be a long time between episodes—possibly due to the academic year.
Solid B and B+
Masters in Business: 4/5
Bloomberg’s Barry Ritholtz hosts business writers and leaders across disciplines. Many of his guests are business and economics authors discussing their books in brief—a good way to “read” efficiently. Others are investing or business practitioners sharing their stories and insights. I generally find the quality pretty solid, and RItholtz is an excellent interviewer. That said, few episodes are truly outstanding.
The Munk Debates: 4/5
Nothing wrong with a good argument. Canada’s Munk Foundation hosts a series of debates on controversial topics: including the future of AI, the war in Israel, and the efficacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Many of the debates remain impressively civil (there are a few exceptions), and help elucidate opposing premises and arguments. Their debate “Be it resolved: don’t trust the mainstream media” was among the most thought-provoking episodes I listened to this year.
Invest Like the Best: 4/5
This is a staple for finance practitioners. Host Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviews guests from across the investing and business landscape—including managers across asset classes, and startup founders disrupting various industries. My opinion on this podcast depends heavily on the guest: my favorite episodes are those featuring well-known investment gurus like Michael Mauboussin or Aswath Damodaran. That said, the episode with Justin Mares on the U.S. Health Crisis was one of my all-time favorites. The array of guests from different backgrounds within business and finance is definitely an appeal here.
The Reason Interview: 4/5
An unapologetically libertarian outlook on a number of issues, The Reason Interview nevertheless avoids politics for its own sake. Topics include the need for more substantive public debates, rates of workforce participation (particularly among men), and the byzantine nature of U.S. trade policies (covered in a six-part series “Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”). Episodes often cover well-worn topics from fresh angles, providing perspectives I find interesting.
The Price-to-Value Podcast: 4 /5
Southeastern Asset Management, an investment firm in Memphis, ran a podcast covering their investment strategies and interviewing former executives at companies they hold/held. I generally find these interesting and educational. That said, Southeastern’s approach to investing (focus on value and long-term performance) isn’t for everyone, and new content is rare.
The President’s Inbox: 4/5
Hosted through the Council on Foreign Relations, TPI covers major foreign policy issues in the United States, including the war in Ukraine, tensions with China, and most recently, the Israel-Hamas war. Guests tend to come from typical think tank and policy backgrounds—but the subjects are generally specific enough to where real insights can come out of them.
The Foreign Affairs Interview: 3.5/5
I rank the Foreign Affairs Interview a notch below The President’s Inbox, although in terms of content and focus they are quite similar. I do this mainly because Foreign Affairs Interview focuses on broader, more complex questions (risks of abandoning globalization, risk of great-power war, etc.). While certainly important questions, these are far more difficult to answer with insights and data than the more narrow-scope issues TPI focuses on. That said, it still represents a good window into mainstream foreign policy thinking.
Econ 102: 3.5/5
A relatively new podcast, Econ 102 features a pair of economists talking about a wide range of issues: China-Taiwan tensions, student loan forgiveness, globalization, etc.—all through a lens of economics. The analysis is interesting and the conclusions are clear—but as with most sources, it represents only a single point of view. While I tend to think of many of the conclusions as overly simplistic and frequently disagree with the “rational” utilitarian framework often employed, the casual style and the head-on facing of big questions makes these enjoyable.
Pekingology: 3.5/5
Hosted through the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Pekingology seeks to peel back the curtain and explain how China is governed. Guests are mostly academics and policy researchers. The focus on specific issues (tax law in China, how the CCP is financed, etc.) make some episodes more appealing to me than others. On the whole, a decent listen.
The Asia Chessboard: 3.5/5
Another CSIS podcast rounds out this tier. Here the scope is broader: covering geopolitical dynamics throughout Asia. Topics range from North Korea to Australia to India.
Episode-to-Episode
The Joe Walker Podcast: 3/5
Australian host Joe Walker takes a highly academic look at a number of fields: economics, history, physics, etc. My ax to grind here is that Walker tends to define almost every field in the most complex-sounding way possible—which I think limits the accessibility of the podcast. Episodes also tend to be fairly long, with many over 2 hours. That said, the episode with John Hempton, a short-selling investor, was among my favorite listens of the entire year.
The Long View: 3/5
Hosted by Morningstar, this podcast tends to take a more personal finance angle than some of the finance podcasts we’ve talked about so far. I think for financial advisors or planners, this would be an excellent listen. My favorite episode is a recent one with Aswath Damodaran (Damodaran’s takes on valuations and investing are always worth hearing).
Capital Allocators: 2.5/5
Ted Seides hosts conversations with institutional investors. Guests tend to give overviews of their backgrounds, their organizations, and how they think about capital allocation. These conversations are interesting, but as guests tend to be in the business of selecting investment managers rather than selecting securities, it’s something I’m not especially familiar with. If you’re interested in endowment or institutional investing, I would certainly recommend.
Business Breakdowns: 2.5/5
In theory, I love the idea of a podcast that gives roughly 60-minute deep dives into individual public companies. However, many of the companies picked are (in my opinion) well-known and high-quality businesses. Instead of offering up businesses that are slept on, the podcast mentions ones that already get plenty of credit for their quality in their stock prices. This makes it frustrating to learn about a good business model, look up the stock, and realize it’s already expensive.
Founders: 2.5/5
Another premise that I love in theory. David Senra reads biographies and autobiographies of great entrepreneurs, and distills them into podcast overviews. He brings the same intensity to the podcast that many of his subjects brought to their businesses. While the podcast is a good listen, I usually only listen if the subject is one that I’m familiar with.
FiveThirtyEight Politics: 2.5/5
I can stomach outright political content under one of two conditions: the spin is clearly obvious and admitted to, or the analysis is as objective as possible without taking sides. FiveThirtyEight tends to satisfy the second condition. Much of the focus is on the upcoming presidential cycle in 2024, although the recent brouhaha in the House of Representatives over finding a speaker warranted an episode as well.
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast: 2.5/5
I believe this is the most popular podcast on my list. Why do I bury it here? Don’t get me wrong, I think some parts of Peterson’s general message are certainly helpful—especially around individual accountability, the difficulties inherent to life, and maintaining personal order—but these are expressed more in his books than his podcast. The guests aren’t the problem either: he interviews authors and academics from a wide variety of fields.
My main concern with Peterson is that, in many ways, he represents the foil to what he so often condemns—the ad hominem ideological myopia of the political left. Not an episode can go by without Peterson referring to some policy or another (in either the U.S. or Canada) using words like “idiot”, “lunacy”, or “stupidity”. I’m all for deconstructing an opposing argument, debunking the premises on which it relies, and trying to prove your argument correct. But Peterson engages in little of this himself, resorting all too often to the same sort of name-calling. I admit he is a brilliant thinker—but he is not (at least, not yet) a great interviewer. He does more than an interviewer’s share of the talking during typical episodes.
Partly because of all I’ve mentioned above, Peterson has become a polarizing figure (something I’ve given thought to devoting an entire separate post to). His podcast is more of the same. The guests have interesting things to say, and the general aura of the podcast certainly caters to a particularly type of malcontent—but if you want to get the most out of Jordan Peterson, skip the podcasts and read his books.
Lightning Rounds
These podcasts are usually short (less than 30 minutes)
Knowledge at Wharton: 3/5
HBR on Strategy: 3/5
HBR on Leadership: 3/5
The McKinsey Podcast: 2.5/5
I lump these four podcasts together since I think of them pretty similar. The Wharton and HBR series are published respectively by the Wharton and Harvard business schools, and typically detail case studies and summaries of faculty research. They are helpful, bite-sized pieces of business acumen. Consulting firm McKinsey’s podcast covers key themes in the economy, including real estate post-COVID, the future of work with AI, and other broad questions. While including some interesting data, the podcast is guilty of tackling highly complex questions to which definitive answers are virtually unknowable—although I suppose that’s why consultants get paid.
The Trade Guys: 2/5
Another CSIS podcast, this one focuses on issues surrounding global trade: a broad and arcane topic. Some episodes are decent, and it would be interesting to listen in conjunction with The Reason Interview’s series, “Why we Can’t Have Nice Things” to get two different perspectives on trade issues. However, unless this is an area you’re particularly intrigued by, it’s fine to skip this one.
There you have it: 24 podcasts for 2024. Feel free to comment on any you find interesting that I didn’t mention—and happy listening!