Podcast Recommendations

In honor of Thanksgiving weekend and the end of the year, these are some podcasts I enjoy along with recommended episodes from them. None of these podcasts have annoying ads, kudos to the hosts for creating all this content! Feel free to also check out my own podcast, Zappable (Spotify, Apple).

Good All-Around Podcast

Clearer Thinking by Spencer Greenberg - Discusses ideas that have practical relevance; episodes are usually a little over an hour long. When a guest says something questionable, expect gentle push back from Spencer. The only ads are for offerings from ClearerThinking and related projects.

• What do we know about psychology that matters? (with Paul Bloom)

• The rival philosophies to Stoicism that you’ve never heard about (with Greg Lopez)

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and beyond (with David Burns)

Economists who mostly discuss other topics

EconTalk - Russ Roberts is an economist who’s repented from the focus on the quantifiable and now cares more about the immeasurable.

• Erik Hoel on Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science

• Roland Fryer on Educational Reform

• A.J. Jacobs on Thanks a Thousand

Conversations with Tyler - Tyler Cowen will often ask a list of very specific questions without providing context to listeners, but this makes the podcast distinct from other podcasts.

• Donald S. Lopez Jr. on Buddhism

• Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda

AI and other topics

Dwarkesh - He’s well-known for his in-depth discussions with leaders in AI, although he’ll also cover other topics such as US history. For the ads he recommends specific AI services, which may weaken the wall between content and advertising but makes the ads less annoying.

• Intelligence Explosion: Month-by-Month Model — Scott Alexander & Daniel Kokotajlo

• Andrej Karpathy — AGI is still a decade away

Meditation & Other Topics

Sam Harris

• Making Sense by Sam Harris - Part of each episode is available for free; a subscription is required for full access. I don’t listen as often lately since so many of the episodes are on politics.

  • Consciousness and the Self with Anil Seth

  • Status Games with Will Storr

• Waking Up App - This is a standalone app and requires a subscription for full access (although he also offers various discounts, e.g. here’s a code for 4 free months). The app has an assortment of conversations and guided meditations. The meditation sessions provide an exposure to various “direct approach” techniques to awakening, where one tries to directly glimpse the lack of self.

Deconstructing Yourself by Michael Taft - Free and without any ads; explores direct approaches and other related topics.

• Nonduality and the Ego with Jake Orthwein

• Meditation and the Bayesian Brain with Shamil Chandaria

Secular Buddhism - I haven’t listened to this that extensively, but it covered some fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy.

• Who’s Driving the Car?

More Podcasts

Philosophy

• Philosophy Bites - For when you just need a 20-minute philosophy fix

• Stoicism - Philosophy as a Way of Life - Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed the episode “Stoicism and Buddhism”

Miscellaneous:

• Changed My Mind - Relatively new podcast; they’ve interviewed a few other podcasters such as Spencer Greenberg and Joe Walker

• The Joe Walker Podcast - Extensively researched, get an occasional Australian perspective

• Very Bad Wizards - A philosopher and psychologist discuss moral philosophy and psychology; I enjoyed “Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists”

• Zappable - By yours truly, consider listening to Robin Hanson on signalling or Matthew Immergut on meditation.