PODCASTS
During a portion in America history a lot of people listened to podcasts and I did too, especially when I drank a lot of beer and wandered around being a wanderer for seven years but also I still do. Here is a list of some of the ones I listened to roughly when and some theories on why.
Warmode. Two friends from the Philadelphia area, one of whom is surprisingly well read, talk about conspiracy theories and arcane moments from the history of the world. One used to drive a garbage truck and the other used to paint houses and churches professionally. They are mad at the liberals and talk with good mid Atlantic accents. I think they started making enough money off their patreon to quit their jobs and see the world a bit. I learned about them cuz they were on Matt & Shane and Billy is Matt’s brother. I started listening to this one in 2022 I think.
Matt + Shane’s Secret Podcast. Two Stand-up comedians from the Philadelphia area. One likes to do wizard activities like play wooden flute and read old books about how to make gold out of ghost farts. The other studies history and pretends to be dumb and cynical but is neither. Great rapport and a cast of reoccurring guest characters. It reminded me of hanging out with my old friends at a time when I was living far away from everyone during a tough time in the winter of 2022.
UNCLE JOEY’S JOINT
Common Sense with Dan Carlin
Oct 27, 2017 // Shades of Grey: Dan is finding is hard to operate in a Black and White, Good and Evil cultural environment where everyone is outraged all the time about everything and where Americans hate each other. Where's the Common Sense?
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Oct 29, 2013 // Blueprint for Armageddon: The planet hadn't seen a major war between all the Great Powers since the downfall of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. But 99 years later the dam breaks and a Pandora's Box of violence engulfs the planet.
Intelligence Squared
July 6, 2017 // Naomi Klein on Donald Trump and the New Shock Politics: In this wide-ranging discussion, Klein sets out her view of Trump as the ultimate megabrand. To her, Trump’s presidency is not an aberration – it’s the culmination of recent political trends and amounts to nothing less than a giant corporate takeover of America.
Nov 6, 2015 // Karl Ove Knausgaard: The Alchemist of the Ordinary: Novelists worship him. Critics fall over themselves to explain his genius. His celebrity fans say his books are like drugs. 'I just read 200 pages and I need the next volume like crack. It's completely blown my mind,' Zadie Smith tweeted. What they're all raving about is Karl Ove Knausgaard's bestselling series of six autobiographical novels, 'My Struggle' ...
July 1, 2015 // Roberto Saviano on the War Against Organised Crime: In conversation with Intelligence Squared's very own Robert Collins, Saviano talked about his life in hiding and his beginnings as a reporter on the streets of Naples. He revealed his latest work of investigative reporting, 'Zero Zero Zero', in which he delves into the sprawling network of the global cocaine trade. He traced how the $400 billion a year generated by drugs trafficking filters into the international banking system through money laundering from Wall Street to the City of London. The cocaine trade isn’t just a playground for criminals, Saviano argued.
Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast
Oct 15, 2018 // Ron Friedman: In one of their funniest episodes out of 200+, Gilbert and Frank chat with veteran comedy writer Ron Friedman ("Get Smart," "The Odd Couple," "All in the Family") who worked with everyone from Lucille Ball to Milton Berle to Danny Kaye to Orson Welles and has the war stories to show for it. Also, Herve Villechaize packs a rod, Sammy Davis meets Charlie's Angels, Ron writes "Murder Can Hurt You!" and Pat McCormick takes a..."dip" in Jonathan Winters' pool. PLUS: Vaughn Meader! Stump and Stumpy! Christmas carols for Jewish people! Forrest Tucker introduces "the General"! And Ron creates Paul Lynde's Uncle Arthur!
Live from the New York Public Library
Feb 26, 2015 // Jay-Z on Hustling and Forgiveness: For our 50th episode, we're proud to present rap icon Jay-Z, a.k.a. Mr. Shawn Carter, in conversation with the brilliant Cornel West and Paul Holdengräber. Jay-Z has won 19 Grammy Awards, released albums numbering in the double digits, founded his own record label and fashion line, and opened a nightclub. In 2010, he published a wonderful memoir-cum-lyrical deconstruction, Decoded. He spoke at Live from the NYPL about growing up in the Marcy Projects, hustling, and forgiveness.
Nov 12, 2013 // Mike Tyson in Conversation with Paul Holdengräber: Boxing champion, Broadway headliner, felon—Mike Tyson has defied expectations and conventional wisdom during his three decades in the public eye. Tyson, the one-time heavyweight champion of the world and a legend both in and out of the ring, joins LIVE for a conversation about his tumultuous life in the same straightforward and sincere tone seen in his new memoir, Undisputed Truth.
Longform
March 18, 2020 // Jon Mooallem: Jon Mooallem is a journalist, author, and host of The Walking Podcast. His latest book is This is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, A Voice That Held It Together. “There is this impulse that we have, this very clearly documented impulse that people everywhere have, to help. It sounds tacky, but when the bottom drops out, when ordinary life is overturned and there’s this upheaval or this disruption—if it’s a natural disaster or even something like this, that there’s ... in the book I call it a ‘civic immune response.’ People do spontaneously help each other, they work together, they collaborate. This whole idea that society falls apart and everyone descends into madness and violence is just not true. And we know that. We have science that shows it.”
Oct 1, 2016 // Emily Witt: “I think I had always thought that—maybe this is coming from a WASPy, protestant background—if I presented myself as overtly sexual in any way, it would be a huge turnoff. That they would see me as a certain type of person. They wouldn’t have respect for me. And I thought this both professionally—I thought maybe writing this book was going to be really bad for my career, that nobody would take me seriously anymore—and also that nobody would want to date me if I was too honest. In both counts the opposite happened.”
Making Sense
March 4, 2019 // The Problem of Addiction: A Conversation with Sally Satel: In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Sally Satel about addiction. They discuss whether addiction should be considered a disease, the opiate epidemic in the U.S., the unique danger of fentanyl, the politicization of medicine, PTSD, and other topics.
Nov 12, 2018 // Addiction, Depression, and a Meaningful Life: A Conversation with Johann Hari: Johann Hari is the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream, which is being adapted into a feature film. He was twice named “Newspaper Journalist of the Year” by Amnesty International UK. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and others. His TED talk, “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong,” has more than 20 million views. His most recent book is Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions.
July 2, 2018 // Dictators, Immigration, #MeToo and Other Imponderables: A Conversation with Masha Gessen: Masha Gessen began contributing to The New Yorker in 2014, and became a staff writer in 2017. Gessen is the author of nine books, including The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, which won the National Book Award in 2017; and The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. Gessen has written about Russia, autocracy, L.G.B.T. rights, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump, among others, for The New York Review of Books and The New York Times. On a parallel track, Gessen has been a science journalist, writing about aids, medical genetics, and mathematics; famously, Gessen was dismissed as editor of the Russian popular-science magazine Vokrug Sveta for refusing to send a reporter to observe Putin hang-gliding with the Siberian cranes.
June 18, 2018. Universal Basic Income: A Conversation with Andrew Yang: Andrew Yang is the founder of Venture for America, a major non-profit that places top college graduates in start-ups for two years in emerging U.S. cities to generate job growth and train the next generation of entrepreneurs. Yang has been the CEO, co-founder or executive at a number of technology and education companies. He is a graduate of Columbia Law, where he was an Editor of the Law Review, James Kent Scholar and winner of the Class of 1912 Prize, and Brown University where he graduated with degrees in Economics and Political Science. He is the author of The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future.
Radiolab
Oct 26, 2017 // Oliver Sacks - A Journey from Where to Where: There’s nothing quite like the sound of someone thinking out loud, struggling to find words and ideas to match what’s in their head. Today, we are allowed to dip into the unfiltered thoughts of Oliver Sacks, one of our heroes, in the last months of his life. Oliver died in 2015, but before he passed he and his partner Bill Hayes, in an effort to preserve some of Oliver’s thoughts on his work and his life, bought a little tape recorder. Over a year and half after Oliver’s death, Bill dug up the recorder and turned it on. Through snippets of conversation with Bill, and in moments Oliver recorded whispering to himself as he wrote, we get a peek inside the head, and the life, of one of the greatest science essayists of all time.
The Memory Palace
An odd, Pre-election bonus episode: A Full Reading of Song of Myself
As counter-programming to the clamor and nonsense of these last days before the American Presidential election, here is Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" in its entirety. Really.
The Tim Ferriss Show
March 23, 2016 // Josh Waitzkin Returns: Josh Waitzkin was the basis for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. Considered a chess prodigy, he has perfected learning strategies that can be applied to anything, including his other loves of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (he’s a black belt under phenom Marcelo Garcia) and Tai Chi push hands (he’s a world champion). These days, he spends his time coaching the world’s top performers, whether Mark Messier, Cal Ripken Jr., or high-profile investors. I initially met Josh through his incredible book, The Art of Learning, which I loved so much that I helped produce the audiobook (download here at Audible).
Uhh Yeah Dude
Nov 13, 2018 // Episode 686: The double entendre episode, a 2nd dose of Alert Drops, preparing for The White Party, The Playboy Advisor, Dos Lovers, Seth's squeaks, the death of the camera, soiled bottom discipline, the Oculus blueprints of Walmart, hyper-market superstores, vegans love bulk, USA Today Snapshots, America's Best Restroom, life in the tenement, The Slogan Days, injector pills, Coconut Oil > DEET, sexually cut scrubs, hover-police, UYD's audiobook reviews, and Seth paints an office.
Under the Skin with Russell Brand
Nov 10, 2018 // Gabor Maté - Damaged Leaders Rule An Addicted World!: Dr. Gabor Maté a renowned specialist in addiction, childhood trauma and stress joins me on the podcast today. We discuss the many forms addiction can take, how we can cope as damaged people in the world and are we being ruled by traumatised politicians? Gabor has a very loving, optimistic and benevolent worldview that you will hopefully benefit from listening to in this episode.
Oct 20, 2018 // Systems of the Damned with Charles Eisenstein: On today’s episode of Under The Skin I’m joined by author Charles Eisenstein to discuss alternative economic systems, find out what’s wrong with the current climate change narrative and how we can actually change the world, challenge the powerful and empower the powerless.
June 15, 2017 // Yanis Varoufakis In a fascinating interview I discuss with Yanis what happens when you take on the political, financial and media elite, and how radical reform can occur. Through accounts of his confrontations with the IMF, European institutions and the German government we examine where true power lies and how it is wielded.