I really enjoy Sam Harris's 'Making Sense' (formerly 'Waking Up' podcast).
He invites experts on various topics and has informative conversations with them. Some are about scientific topics such as climate change and others are more about personal stories and explorations of thoughts such as recently with Stephen Fry.
Sam's business model is also very exemplary: no ads and the podcasts are free. He has the luxury of having many supporters who donate so that he can keep doing what he is doing and some side businesses like meditation app. What this means is that he doesn't need to shy away from difficult topics and can have more honest conversations on those without some advertiser getting cold feet.
I do wish more podcasts had alternative support methods other than advertising.
Unless the podcast doesn’t have ads and is done mostly out of passion and the host's own growth (The Collective) or I can pay to receive an ad-free feed (CANADALAND) I’m not going to subscribe to the audio-equivalent of a TV talk show.
Why though? Most podcasts with ads also come in an app where you can just skip past the ads with a couple clicks. Is it really not worth doing that to keep a show you like alive?
The few podcasts I listened to with obnoxious ads won't lose much with my lack of listenership (Tim Ferriss podcast)
They usually require more than just a few skips also (last I listened the Tim Ferriss podcast had 4-6 minutes of ads at the beginning and due to the variable length I couldn’t just set an auto-start to when the actual show starts).
He invites experts on various topics and has informative conversations with them. Some are about scientific topics such as climate change and others are more about personal stories and explorations of thoughts such as recently with Stephen Fry.
Sam's business model is also very exemplary: no ads and the podcasts are free. He has the luxury of having many supporters who donate so that he can keep doing what he is doing and some side businesses like meditation app. What this means is that he doesn't need to shy away from difficult topics and can have more honest conversations on those without some advertiser getting cold feet.