Monday: Stanford eCorner’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders / Making Technology Less Manipulative – Tristan Harris (Time Well Spent)

Thinking this will be a perfect listen in light of Sean Parker’s comments this week. Parker was Facebook’s founding president and shows some remorse for the social media giant’s strategy of consuming as much of your attention as it possibly can. “God only knows what it does to our children’s brains…” he says.
Video of Tristan’s talk, here.

Tuesday: How I Built This with Guy Raz / Rent the Runway: Jenn Hyman

How I Built This is a great show interviewing entrepreneurs. Guy Raz proves himself as a fantastic crafter of nonfiction narrative. In this episode he interviews Jenn Hyman, the founder of Rent the Runway.

Wednesday: Above & Beyond Group Therapy / Episode #258 Matan Caspi Guest Mix

Per my last post, I’ve been turning to music lately in-part to boost creativity. Above and Beyond releases a weekly podcast featuring music from the worlds top DJs. It definitely helps to tune out, unwind, and let your mind run free.

Thursday: Exponent by Ben Thompson and James Allworth / Episode #131 – Head-on is Hard

In this episode, Ben Thompson of Stratechery analyzes Apple and the iPhone’s vulnerability, or lack-there-of, to disruption.

Friday: Bulletproof Radio by Dave Asprey / Episode #442 Address Invisible Patterns, Find Joy in Solving Problems & Other Lessons with the Founder of TOMS Shoes, Blake Mycoskie

I mainly know Asprey from his Bulletproof Coffee, the surprisingly delicious recipe that has you put a slab of butter in your morning cup. Try it before you judge it. I’ve never checked out his podcast before. Looking forward to this episode with one of my business heroes, Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes.

Happy listening…

Monday: Seeking Wisdom #73: The Hypergrowth Curve

I was introduced to the Seeking Wisdom podcast a couple months ago and have been impressed with almost all the episodes. The show is hosted by David Cancel, CEO of Drift, and Dave Gerhardt, the Director of Marketing. Drift is a Boston based startup making waves in sales & marketing SAAS. Their software helps companies utilize two mega trends, messaging and video, to convert website visitors to clients and reach new prospects. I’ll be relistening to this episode because it’s such a good one. David Cancel lays out his three stages of the Hypergrowth Curve, check out his blog post on the same subject here. Listen and find out why product differentiation is going away and customer experience is how you’ll win.

Tuesday: Invest Like the Best #3 – Jason Zweig, The Power of Serendipity
Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s finance podcast has become one of my favorites. I listened to his episodes with Josh Brown and Team Ritholtz last week. Patrick is a solid interviewer and hosts an impressive list of guests. Looking forward to hearing what Jason Zweig, a WSJ columnist and value investing guru, has to say. Zweig speaks the truth when it comes to finance.

Wednesday: Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast – Episode 11-2-17
This is the creative listen for the week. Funny people have a different way of looking at the world and Bill Burr is one of the funniest. Getting some laughs is a great way to break the mold and get in the creative mindset. No specific reason for this episode except that it’s the latest one available as I’m writing this.

Thursday: HBR IDEACAST #586 – Erik Brynjolfsson, How AI Is Already Changing Business
I added this to the list to learn more about AI and machine learning. AI is the technology of the future, but how soon will it be here? Turns out it’s already here in a lot of ways that we don’t realize. Google photos is a great app and is a perfect example. Search Google photos for “Big Ben,” and it will scan your pictures and pull up the ones with you in London. It’s freakishly good.

Erik Brynjolfsson and his usual co-author, Andrew McAfee, are MIT economists who recently wrote a great book I read this summer called Machine, Platform, Crowd. I’ve come to trust them for AI/ML related learning. Here’s a good article to read after the podcast.

Friday: Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History – Show 59, (Blitz) The Destroyer of Worlds
Recommending this podcast to friends isn’t the easiest sell: it’s one guy talking about history. I can’t overstate how good it is though. Dan Carlin delivers a phenomenal show. His presentation is gripping and his knowledge is deep. Once the show is over, he’ll leave you wishing there was more.

This one is about nuclear weapons and humanity’s ability to destroy itself. We’ve come close. A few crucial decisions by a few key people have avoided the destruction. This is a beast of a listen at 5 hours but it’s incredible. I listened to it this summer and am going back for another round.

Leave recommendations in the comments. Happy listening…

Podcast discoverability sucks. So on Sunday’s, I’m going to take some time to pick out worthwhile listens for the week. I’ll focus on podcasts related to technology, business, current affairs, and creativity. Comment with any suggestions.

Monday: The Tim Ferriss Show: Lessons From Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ben Franklin, featuring Walter Isaacson.

I’m a big follower of Tim Ferriss’s podcast. He interviews top performers to find out their methods of success. He recently interviewed Walter Isaacson, an author of lots of good books including Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin. Walter’s newest book is on Leonardo da Vinci and I’m sure he’ll be talking all about it in this episode. I read a WSJ article on the book and it attributes Leonardo’s success to his vast knowledge of different subjects. This is the Medici Effect, the cross-pollination of various subjects, I’m excited to learn more about.

Tuesday: Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz: Scott Galloway Discusses Four World-Conquering Companies.

Scott is an NYU business professor who recently published The Four, a book on today’s tech giant and their dominance. I heard him in another interview describe Google as the new God. 1 in 6 questions typed in the Google search bar have never been asked before. Instead of asking a priest or rabbi or sending prayers off into the universe, we can now ask Google. I was hooked after this analogy and am interested to see what else he has to say.

Wednesday: The Moth Radio Hour – The Universe of Impossible Things.

This will be my creative listen for the week. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like The Moth, a podcast where people tell stories. Because stories make us human. Listening to these master storytellers isn’t only entertaining, but also instructive on how to better tell my own.

Thursday: Pod Save America: Another Cuck Bites the Dust

I just came across this political podcast hosted by 4 former Obama aides, including speechwriter Jon Favreau. I’ve read about Jon Favreau and his impressive story in the past. As a young intern for John Kerry, he had the guts to tell Obama backstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that his speech needed a few tweaks. Bold move. He went on to get hired by Obama and write the 2008 inaugural from a Starbucks in D.C. Interested to see what this podcast is all about.

Friday: Fareed Zakaria GPS: The crisis over Catalan secession…and Bill Browder explains why Putin put him on Interpol’s wanted list…for murder.

This is a regular listen of mine and is a great way to find out what’s going on in the world. Fareed welcomes all viewpoints and hosts a panel that surprisingly doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

Got recommendations? Send them over in the comment section.

Happy listening…