Podcast Listening in 2023

I’m still listing to podcasts near daily, mainly when I run or while walking to/from the bus. (On the bus is reserved for reading.)

I’m currently subscribed to 25 different shows in my podcatcher (Pocket Casts).

Last year’s listens can be found at the end of my 2022 reading and listening post.

Completionist Listening

I’m listening to nearly every episode of:

ADSP, CBC Spark, Conversations with Tyler, Game Dev Advice, Hard Fork, Lex Fridman, Long Now Seminars, Nice Game Club, Philosophy Bites, Philosophize This!, Search Engine, Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, Song Exploder, Stuff Dutch People Like, The Bike Shed, This American Life, This Developer’s Life

Occasional Listens

I’m cherry picking episodes of:

Broken Record, Canadalands Commons, CBC Ideas, CppCast, Hanselminutes, Overdue, Tetragrammaton, The Tim Ferris Show, Syntax

New Podcasts in 2023

• Broken Record - Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, and Bruce Headlam interview icons of music. Liner notes for the digital age.
• Hard Fork - A tech-news show about the future that’s already here.
• Search Engine - A podcast that tries to answer every question. No question too big, no question too small.
• Tetragrammaton - In-depth interviews with iconic music producer Rick Rubin.
• This Developer’s Life - A podcast that looks into the daily life of software developer. (Technically a reboot. The podcast that got me into podcasts back in 2015.)

Favourite Podcasts of 2023

Some of my favourite episodes from the past year, listed alphabetically by show:

Broken Record: Beastie Boys and Spike Jones (2020)

Canadalands Commons: Cory Doctorow knows why monopolies are killing art

CBC Ideas: Is artificial intelligence intended to serve human welfare or Big Tech?, Inner City Winnipeg

CBC Spark: ChatGPT and the future of AI

Conversations with Tyler: Ada Palmer on Viking Metaphysics, Contingent Moments, and Censorship, Peter Singer on Utilitarianism, Influence, and Controversial Ideas, Lazarus Lake on Endurance, Uncertainty, and Reaching One’s Potential

Game Dev Advice: Starting Your Own Studio, BioShock Infinite, Anti-Crunch Culture, Learning Patience, Rendering and Graphics, and more with Steve Anichini

Hansleminutes: The Web’s Next Transition with Kent C. Dodds, The History of Data with Ted Neward

Lex Fridman: Joscha Bach: Life, Intelligence, Consciousness, AI & the Future of Humans, Stephen Wolfram: ChatGPT and the Nature of Truth, Reality & Computation, Neil Gershenfeld: Self-Replicating Robots and the Future of Fabrication, Matthew McConaughey: Freedom, Truth, Family, Hardship, and Love, Lee Cronin: Controversial Nature Paper on Evolution of Life and Universe

Long Now Seminars: Coco Krumme: The False Promise of Optimization

Mindscape: Michael Tomasello: The Social Origins of Cognition and Agency, David Deutsch on Science, Complexity, and Explanation, Michael Muthukrishna on Developing a Theory of Everyone, David Krakauer on Complexity, Agency, and Information

Overdue: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Philosophize This!: Why is consciousness something worth talking about?, What if free will is an illusion?, Is ChatGPT really intelligent?, Is Artificial Intelligence really an existential threat?, Should we prepare for an AI revolution?

Search Engine: How do I find new music now that I’m old and irrelevant?, Does anyone actually like their job?

Song Exploder: Alvvays - Archie, Marry Me

Stuff Dutch People Like: The One About House Interiors, The One about Weddings, The One About Haunted Amsterdam

Tetragrammaton: Tyler Cowen, Tyler Cowen DJ Episode: From Avant-Garde to Pop

Tim Ferris: John Vervaeke: How to Build a Life of Wisdom, Flow, and Contemplation, Apollo Robbins: The World’s Most Famous Pickpocket, Seth Godin: The Pursuit of Meaning, Choosing Your Attitude, Overcoming Rejection, and Committing to Making Positive Change, Arthur C. Brooks — How to Be Happy, Reverse Bucket Lists, The Four False Idols, Muscular Philosophies, Practical Inoculation Against the Darkness, and More

This American Life: The Rest of the Story, Rest Stop (2009), Say It to My Face, How I Learned to Shave