
Ask HN: What are your favorite educational non-tech podcasts? - Quanttek
I am currently listening to Opening Arguments, Revisionist History, 99% Invisible, and Thinking Allowed but I feel like I&#x27;m missing some podcasts that may be less current but offer more substance&#x2F;significant and profound content (instead of looking at tidbits of interesting topics)
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throwaway8879
An obvious one is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. I'd also suggest audiobooks
if you're looking for something more substantial. I'm currently revisiting the
classics and found a great reading of Plato's Republic. Before this, I had a
great time listening to an audiobook of Will Durant's book The Story of
Philosophy which is a nice summary of Western philosophy.

YouTube seems to have full audiobooks, some of which are of great quality.
There's a version of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra that is highly
entertaining and even enlightening, if that's your thing. There is a good
librevox recording of Wittgenstein's principle book that I've started on
recently, and was surprised how good it was.

So I suppose I'd suggest audiobooks over podcasts for in-depth material.

~~~
woopwoop
Lots of public libraries also allow you to download audiobooks from their
websites.

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BjoernKW
The first one is a very well-known and popular one: The Tim Ferriss Show is a
long-form interview show with a single guest per episode. It provides profound
insights on a wide range of topics and areas of life (given the guests'
diverse backgrounds). In Tim Ferriss' own words the show's aim is to
deconstruct world-class performers and tease out their tactics, tools, and
routines: [https://tim.blog/podcast/](https://tim.blog/podcast/)

Revolutions is an in-depth history podcast about, well, revolutions:
[https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/](https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/) So
far, it has covered - amongst others, the French Revolution, the Haitian
Revolution, the Springtime of the Peoples (1848) and the Mexican Revolution.
The current season is about the Russian Revolution.

Another amazing history podcast is 'The History of England', which provides
meticulous detail on England's long and colourful history:
[https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/](https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/)

~~~
AlchemistCamp
I really struggle to listen to Tim Ferriss's podcast.

He has amazing guests, but he'll routinely spend 2-3 full minutes asking a
single question. After the fifth or sixth clause in a single (question)
sentence, I just want to shake him and yell "shut up and let your guest
answer!!!"

The interviewing style feels as if he weren't expecting a conversation, as if
he had one and only one shot to fully qualify and give context to every single
question before mailing them to a person in a far-away place.

Aside from the interviewing style, the breath-taking amount of ads generally
keep me away from his podcast except for a few guests I simply must hear.

~~~
sauravt
This is a major pet peeve of mine. I use the breaker app to cut through the
umm and hmmms but I wish there was a way to summarize what the speaker is
saying as well, and cut away the part when they are just overiterating the
obvious. (by comparing the transcribed audio to the footnotes perhaps)

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foofoo4u
[EconTalk]([http://www.econtalk.org/](http://www.econtalk.org/)) is among my
favorites.

> EconTalk is a weekly economics podcast hosted by Russ Roberts. Roberts,
> formerly an economics professor at George Mason University, is a research
> fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. On the podcast, Roberts
> typically interviews a single guest—often professional economists—on topics
> in economics.

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purephase
Opening Arguments. Great podcast that takes a deep dive into current and past
legal arguments.

Leans very left, so may not appeal to a good portion of the HN audience, but
they do steel man a lot of their positions.

~~~
rland
For another legal podcast, the Amicus podcast (Slate mag) covers the Surpreme
Court in deep detail. It also leans left.

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justaguyhere
Elite Man Podcast -
[http://elitemanmagazine.com/elitemanpodcast/](http://elitemanmagazine.com/elitemanpodcast/)

Rich Roll podcast (he tends to ramble sometimes, but he has some great guests)
-
[https://www.richroll.com/category/podcast/](https://www.richroll.com/category/podcast/)

Bundyville - always two sides to the story,
[https://www.npr.org/podcasts/606441988/bundyville](https://www.npr.org/podcasts/606441988/bundyville)

Reversing climate change podcast

Superhuman academy

~~~
jvagner
I’ll second Rich Roll’s podcast, but I don’t agree that he tends to ramble :)

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lethologica
Found My Fitness[0] With Dr Rhonda Patrick. She and her guests go quite in
depth about science behind nutrition, genetics, exercise, sleep, fasting, and
health (physical and mental).

I first heard her on Joe Rogan and was super impressed with her depth of
knowledge on these topics so I've been listening to her podcast ever since.
She does a pretty good job of breaking down the sciency stuff for the layman
but it still sometimes goes super in depth and goes right over my head, but I
still enjoy listening to her.

[0][https://www.foundmyfitness.com](https://www.foundmyfitness.com)

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dredmorbius
I'm getting tremendous mileage from Peter Adamson's The History of Philosophy
Without any Gaps -- which has a lot on history, culture, historiography,
religion, and bad puns, as well as philosophy:
[https://historyofphilosophy.net/](https://historyofphilosophy.net/)

The "New Books Network" podcast collective, actually a whole set of podcasts
on numerous subjects, is a great way to keep up with literature in specific
fields, as well as get exposed to new ideas generally:
[https://newbooksnetwork.com/](https://newbooksnetwork.com/)

"Ideas" from CBC radio. Resuming with a new host following the retirement of
very long-term host Paul Kennedy this past June:
[https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas)

"LSE: Public Lectures and Events", from the London School of Economics.
Clearly, economics, though also numerous other topics:
[http://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/Podcasts](http://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/Podcasts)

"On the Media", with hosts Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, from WNYC. About
all the news I can stand (if that) any more, plus introspection on the media
itself:
[https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm)

------
3SunSyzygy
In Our Time by the BBC. Old man invites 3 professors in a field to discuss
anything from kinetic theory to the Peloponnesian War

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dddw
ok so 'educational' and 'meaningfull' without small tidbits... so off the boat
falls 'no such thing as a fish' (still quite fun and laden with small
factoids), and also you probably already have 'reply all' and 'love+radio'
since it's tech-inspired. I really like 'Benjamin Walker's theory of
everything' has some tech in there, but more with an art-eye. I would say
'making sense' which I lately discovered as really insightfull and in-depth,
but it's more interview/dialogue style. I also like 'the memory palace' and
'the organist'. also still great, but more tidbitty: radiolab, and it's sister
podcast 'invisibilia', then also 'freakonomics' and 'planet money'. Have fun!
like to hear if any of that was useful to ya

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isaacgreyed
Seconding Hardcore History and The History of Philosophy without any gaps.

Adding Mike Duncan's (same host as Revolutions) The History of Rome.

Lots of substance in all 3 and continuous stories with conclusions you can
learn from, and just enjoyable to listen to of course especially Hardcore
History.

~~~
joecot
Agreed on both History of Rome [1] and Revolutions[2]. Also adding on "The
History of Byzantium Podcast" by Robin Pierson[3], which continues where Mike
left off with The History of Rome into the Eastern Empire.

I'll throw in "The British History Podcast" by Jamie Jeffers[4] as well, which
does a really good job of explaining how life is like for the common people of
Britain through history, and examining the historical sources he has to work
with. Not many other history media to get into the details of the Anglo-Saxon
Heptarchy!

1\.
[https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/](https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/)
2\. [https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/](https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/)
3\. [https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/](https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/)
4\.
[https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/](https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/)

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trentlott
I like Physics Frontiers - they just cover a couple of papers on a modern
physics topic (Loop Quantum Gravity, or Octonions).

It's a physicist and sculptor who taught himself serious modern physics, so
it's an interesting dynamic.

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tobr
Not sure what your requirements for "educational" are, but I very much enjoy
Scriptnotes [1]. It's tagline is "a podcast about screenwriting and things
that are interesting to screenwriters". That should exclude me, but I still
find much of what they talk about deeply fascinating. So much of it is
applicable to any creative craft, and to other types of storytelling.

I keep a finger on the skip button for when they get stuck talking about
politics of the movie industry.

1: [https://johnaugust.com/podcast](https://johnaugust.com/podcast)

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cweagans
It's not a podcost per se, but I've really been enjoying the Essential
Craftsman channel on YouTube. They've got a video series going right now
detailing the entire process of building a spec house (starting with bare
dirt). It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I vastly underestimated
the amount of engineering that went into it. They just finished up with the
foundation, so now is a good time to get in if that kind of thing is of
interest to you.

------
sauravt
JRE discusses everything from Comedy, MMA, Psychedelics, Mind-expanding
revelations, Conspiracies, Insights, and Fitness & Health in a jovial
environment. I personally like the varied profile of guests on the show and
how Joe takes their listeners through a curiosity led journey of understanding
the expertise of the guests.
[http://podcasts.joerogan.net](http://podcasts.joerogan.net)

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Nicksil
Skeptoid with Brian Dunning is excellent!

"Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena is an award-winning weekly
science podcast."

[https://skeptoid.com](https://skeptoid.com)

Each episode includes complete transcript, references, and further reading.
It's pretty addicting.

Episode guide:
[https://skeptoid.com/episode_guide.php](https://skeptoid.com/episode_guide.php)

------
victorvation
I've been really enjoying The Omnibus Project [1]. It's more of a comedy /
trivia podcast — more infotainment than educational, and I mean that in a good
way — but I enjoy the deep dives into obscure topics and the wide-ranging
knowledge & interests of the hosts.

[1] [https://www.omnibusproject.com/](https://www.omnibusproject.com/)

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a-saleh
I started listening to
[https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/](https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/)
... I think it strikes a nice balance between reading history as a thrilling
(albeit tragic) narrative and how much we don't know and just speculate about.

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atsushin
I feel that Radiolab sometimes falls into that category. I would also
recommend Stuff You Should Know.

~~~
catacombs
> I feel that Radiolab sometimes falls into that category.

I really, really hate how the show's edited, especially when handling dialog.

~~~
trentlott
It's like they listened to This American Life and thought "This would be so
much better with less chit chat and more fun sound effects!"

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icosa
Science for the People does in-depth interviews about science and technology,
including history and impact. One topic per podcast, and they stay on topic
without unrelated asides.

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cygned
[https://www.manager-tools.com/](https://www.manager-tools.com/)

Not only for managers, they have a lot of advice on productivity.

------
KingPrad
Stuff to Blow Your Mind - nice depth of dive into many topics with some humor,
not taking itself too seriously. And the hosts have pleasant voices.

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jetti
Factually! With Adam Conover. It is like his show Adam Ruins Everything but
does a more in-depth dive into the topics.

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secfirstmd
"The Infinite Monkey Cage"

Professor Brian Cox, loads of smart other people and comedians talking about
Science. Its outstanding.

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nkzednan
The Daily by the New York Times - every weekday about 30 minutes on one topic

Invisibilia

Hidden Brain

Embedded

Serial

Hardcore History

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape - learned of it thru Opening Arguments - seems ok

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sterban
The Intelligence by The Economist

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rozap
Very Bad Wizards is a nice mix of psychology, philosophy, and crudeness.

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conwy
Seth Godin's 'Akimbo'

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vidro3
In Our Time on BBC

