I tend to drive a lot for work, and I fill a lot of that time listening to podcasts.
I’ve tried listening to audiobooks, but that medium for literature just isn’t my vibe. I’ve been told by doctor acquaintances I have several of the signs of ADHD, and my mind wanders too much zoning in and out to consume literature by ear. I also just really like physical books, and taking my time with well-crafted sentences.
Podcast conversations however are much looser and meandering, and when I zone out there isn’t the same need to rewind. And often I zone back in naturally when the topic turns to something I’m interested in. There’s likely some part of our social animal brains just wired specifically for conversations between people around us — perhaps for the communally valuable gossip, or maybe for potentially gathering useful news that helps one survive — and listening to podcasts is kind of like tricking yourself into believing the conversateurs are sitting right next to you.
Here are my recs:
The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller
You probably can tell from my comedy that I’m a fully credentialed liberal, so my endorsement of the #NeverTrumper Republican Bulwark Podcast is high praise for both the Bulwark’s mission to resist the GOP’s overton window shift to the fascist far right, and Tim Miller’s daily interviews.
Before Trump came along he was a Republican operative and consultant who worked various campaign and communications jobs for moderate Republicans, including John McCain, Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney, and finally Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primary. He was soon after exiled from the GOP for calling out Trump as an immoral con man, and refusing to sell his soul for financial opportunism or proximity to power like many of his former friends and colleagues.
Miller has many great recurring guests, including several of the other #NeverTrumpers like Bill Kristol, Tom Nichols, and Adam Kinzinger, who are so disgusted by the GOP’s personality-culted lunacy that they’re now basically Democrats, and this podcast has the best commentary on the GOP’s incessant scandals against democracy and sanity.
Pod Save America with Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor
This twice-weekly podcast is the best analysis of US politics, and their liberal persuasion (they were all Obama staffers) almost exactly matches mine. They’re not propagandists, though, and have earned a fair share of Democratic mob piles-on online for giving Democrats doses of tough medicine reality checks — like how blind loyalty to Israel has gone way too far geopolitically and in terms of the ongoing genocide, and how Joe Biden’s debate performance was a historic campaign disaster, and how Democrats have to stop being focus group testing wusses afraid to upset any of “The Groups.”
Their interviews are so-so, but they talk to all the movers and shakers of the Democratic Party while really contextualizing and shaping the liberal vibes.
Pod Save The World with Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes
Rhodes was Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor, and Vietor was Obama’s National Security Spokesman, and they recap the week’s international news better than anyone else with extremely informative interviews with US national security officials and surprisingly high-profile figures in other countries’ governments and media spheres. Their perspectives on America’s role in the world, liberalism abroad, and global democracy are both idealistic and pragmatic, and they cover the kind of stories people from other countries you meet will be highly impressed to find out you know anything about.
The Ezra Klein Podcast
Klein goes deeper into political policy and the application of governance than anyone else. He’s a very curious person, so he occasionally strays from politics to topics such as literature, sleep and attention, but he’s best when getting deep into the weeds of policy and how government works. His podcast is a real thought-driver within the Democratic Party, and he also occasionally has insightful and meaningful talks with some of the most influential conservative thinkers still capable of debating in good faith.
The Gray Area with Sean Illing
Illing is an extremely thoughtful and philosophical interviewer. He covers an expanse of subjects, and the strength of his show is the variety. The topics on his show range from Nietzsche, to liberalism in India, AI, Ozempic, George Orwell, potential new Constitutional Amendments, psychedelics, anarchism, the Iliad, and Werner Herzog. The conversations are accordingly pretty timeless, so you can delve deep into Illing’s backlog.
The Marc Maron Podcast
Maron is a curmudgeonly liberal comedian who helped invent the contemporary podcast with his personalitied rants and long conversations that are often dip into self-guided therapy for himself and his guests. He interviews lots of artists, heavy obviously on comedians, but he also talks with surprisingly big actors on press tours, musicians, and famously interviewed Barack Obama in his garage. His podcasts often go long, and are great to kill time while driving long distances.
Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman
A very random subject I love learning about, despite not being religious at all, is Biblical scholarship on the New Testament, and Ehrman has had a 40-year career teaching at the university level. He has also published a library shelf of books for both highly technical and lay audiences on the historical context and literary intent of the various books in the Bible combining his grasp of several ancient languages and deep study of the subject. He’s extremely fair about differing schools of thought thanks to his former fundamentalist Evangelicalism (he’s now an atheist), and this podcast is truly high-calorie food for your brain. If you have the occasional competitive religious conversation, this podcast will train you how to coax Christians into critically examining the New Testament.
Conversations With Tyler with Tyler Cowen
Cowen is a libertarian, so I don’t often agree with his political or economic views, but he has my vote for the most prepared and curious interview host I’ve ever heard. He talks with impressively intelligent people, and there is seemingly no biological detail or publicly expressed opinion of his guests that he doesn’t ask a poignant question about. Cowen has an encyclopedic mind, and he can be forgiven for having opinions on nearly everything from economics, to medieval history, to classical composers, to foreign cuisines because he actually seems to have studied and genuinely considered nearly everything. I like to think I’m a pretty smart, well-read guy compared to the average American, but Cowen is fun to listen to because he’s much, much smarter than me.
The Realignment with Marshall Kosloff
You’ve likely never heard of Marshall or this podcast, but he has some of the most interesting discussions on politics both domestic and international with extremely credentialed experts on subjects all over the map, but particularly US history, foreign policy, and military strategic planning. The quality of his discussions are surprisingly wise for his age (33, just a year younger than me!), and he regularly gets complimented by his guests — including members of Congress, military officials, and renowned academics — for his intelligent, insightful questions. This podcast really deserves to be much more famous than it is.
Conan Needs A Friend with Conan O’Brien
This podcast is not the most enlightening, but is just fun. O’Brien is one of the most quick-witted people of all time, and there is a serene joy that comes from listening to him and his comedy friends dance comedically around each other on long tangents of improvved jokes. 🥃
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The Halfway Post 