Five More Good Podcasts You Ought To Follow
Photo: Australian War Memorial | Wikimedia Commons
Our last best podcasts piece was such a hit with you guys, we’d have been remiss not to throw up another one.
After all, has there ever been a better, richer, more convenient way to inhale invaluable information? And no, that doesn’t include video, you screen fiends.
But where last time we telegraphed it and served what’s “pop” to the podcast newb — think Rogan, Fridman, etc. — this time, we’re hitting some lesser-known trails.
You’ll love it.
Let’s go.
Huberman Lab
Episode Count: 97
If you fact fiends want to know what weed does to your mind, learn how to harness sunlight to boost your health, or master the cheat code to ending jet lag, then acclaimed American neuroscientist and associate professor in neurobiology at Stanford, Dr. Andrew Huberman, will hook you up.
This guy and his guest experts will teach you things like how to hypnotize yourself for better sleep and why certain foods control your mood. And as fo said experts, expect to hear from Ivy league professors to popular YouTube personalities like strength and conditioning master, Jeff Cavaliere (who we’ve featured here before).
The cast covers what Huberman refers to as “science-based tools for everyday life,” and everything he references is peer-reviewed and well documented, so you know you’re not getting fluff. But the main reason he makes our list is his partiality to men’s health and his approach to it; Huberman’s M.O. is getting you to hack your mind for optimal living, and while the premise sounds simple, the content’s as heady as you’d like.
Ear Hustle
Episode Count: 98
Part ongoing doc, part cast, and all heart, Ear Hustle’s a bridge to the dark, “unflinching” (as written in their official bio), though infinitely humbling world of prison life.
First uploaded in 2017 and based in the Bay Area of San Fran, the award-winning show’s run by Nigel Poor, a local artist who sketches with the best of them, Rahsaan Thomas, who became a published writer while doing time, and Earlonne Woods, who served 21 years at San Quentin State Prison.
Fact: This was the first ever cast to be written and produced in prison.
The show’s nowhere near as bleak as one would surmise; there’s plenty of talk from folks who’ve made it out of and now live free.
And believe it or not, it’ll make you laugh, too.
Entrepreneurs On Fire
Episode Count: 1,998
Anyone looking to launch a business, be it big or small, would bode well subscribing to Entrepreneurs On Fire.
Host Jason Lee Dumas unpacks everything a budding tycoon needs to know about every nuanced topic imaginable when starting a business, whether it’s guerrilla marketing to make it as an artist, hiring people who’ll actually stay, or how not to get your ass kicked by business and life (that’s literally the title of an episode from last month).
What’s best is the show’s consistency; JLD uploads a show a day, he never misses a beat, and he’s always interviewing reputable business owners and investors whose words are backed up by real results. And all the content’s “evergreen,” as promised by Dumas himself.
There’s plenty here on real estate, too.
Monsters Among Us
Episode Count: 307 episodes (or 14 seasons worth)
We know folks love falling asleep to scary shit.
Thing is, there’s no shortage of horror casts out there, and since you time’s finite in this simulation called life (terrifying enough?), it’ll only be a couple sources of absolute insomnia-inducing anxiety for you.
Monsters Among Us rules not just because each episode features real stories told by actual listeners via submitted recordings, but also because show host Derek Hayes’ cadence and creepy pauses in between tales keeps things freaky, yet fluid.
Topics run the ghoulish gamut, from chronicles of the cryptozoological kind (think Bigfoot and Dogman, yes there’s a Dogman) to everyday terrors, like close calls with maniacal murderers and run-ins with deadly cults.
And no, you don’t need to believe in the paranormal to have fun with this, an ethos echoed by host Hayes himself; He calls it how he sees it after every submission, regardless of whether said sentiment’s based in a belief or disbelief of what we hear.
But he never judges either, hence his making our list.
Darknet Diaries
Episode Count: 136
In the advent of a fourth industrial revolution, one in which tech and AI will seemingly dominate and displace like nothing ever has before, Darknet Diaries serves double duty: For one, it illuminates an oft-ignored part of the Internet ruled by those who can bend its rules, those who speak code like it’s nothing, not unlike Tank in 1999’s The Matrix, the guy who gets fried when Joe Pantoliano loses it… but then he totally comes back and gives the baldy his comeuppance.
That, and it’ll edify you on the lives of “black hats” (bad hackers) and ill-intending bots that crawl the web’s darkest crevices and pathways to rob you blind of your precious data.
Here, you’ll hear true stories about cybercrime of the highest order, dodgy corporate digital activity, and even a posse of hackers who rinsed XBox of a bunch of video games (true story).
Hackers who got pinched by authorities and have since been released get their say, too, and it tends to make for the best episodes.