Augur: Desert Island Podcasts
I feel like podcasts can be one of the most convenient ways to stay up to date on what smart people are talking about today.
As a result, a lot of our thinking is informed by this channel, playing to our interest in areas like writing, strategy and modern workflow.
It seemed about time we assembled some of these recommendations for anyone else looking to expand their selection.
Ben Thomson and James Allworth host this weekly session discussing the latest news from the tech industry, from what I’d call the “MBA” perspective.
That means considering areas like bundling and unbundling to create value, digging into the real incentives behind decisions made and just generally taking the analysis one step deeper than most other sources I find.
John Gruber continues his deep look at Apple from Daring Fireball — I think he describes this podcast as a kind of Director’s Commentary to the posts there.
What’s great about Gruber is I can’t think of many other writers who so fully get under the skin and mentality of a business. That can extend a little too far, to the point where he really can’t quite conceive why a company like Google takes a different direction — but that’s fine, because he doesn’t claim to be a journalist, he’s just a guy sharing how he sees the world.
Also a good pick because the podcast has timestamps throughout, letting you jump to the sections you are most interested in.
Each series has explored slightly different aspects of starting a business. Series 1 was the story of the company that publishes the podcast, it’s attempts to get funding and its eventual success. Series 2 mapped another business in a similar way. Since then, they seem to have moved into shorter series focusing on a wider variety of entrepreneurs.
Recommended for its easy listening tone and its acceptance that the startup world is not at all glamorous.
Like startup but each episode interviews a different founder, and across a broader range of industry.
Interviews with thinkers, generally toward media and politics. Ezra seems as interested in process and productivity as we are — and interviews with the writer of Deep Work have provided recent inspiration for improving our workflow.
If you truly care about how editorial is created and where great writing comes from, this is a masterpiece. It speaks with some of the most influential and prolific writers of modern times, about the challenges of what they do, how they consider and piece together narrative.
Account Executives cranking out press releases, it is not.
A Radio 4 classic, but if you’re not familiar, a kind of magazine show that focuses on a particular topic each week with experts from the area. This is the kind of source that gets us thinking about tribes of “I vs We” in PR.
Politics is only ever a small hop from the PR world, and Private Eye continues to balance fearless scrutiny with casual humour as it considers the area. I find it a good reminder that the truth is not as far beneath the surface in society as it can sometimes feel.
I’m desperately trying to get outside my bubble and hear views that conflict with my own. I tried some Breitbart podcasts, but couldn’t bear it after a certain point — by contrast, I feel the Telegraph is just pro-Brexit enough to give me a taste of the other perspective without driving me mad.
It’s a useful reminder of the importance of seeing both sides.
BONUS App recommendation: Overcast.fm
This is my preferred podcast app, created by Marco Arment of Tumblr/ Instapaper fame.
Its SmartSpeed function accelerates a podcast by removing the silence between words, meaning you don’t end up with everyone sounding like chipmunks.
Apparently it has saved me 148 hours, so just excuse me while I decide what to do with all that spare time.
