Following on from my “what I read in 2019” post a few days ago, here’s a post about the podcasts I listened to this year. I’ve gotten into podcasting in a big way, probably listening to 2-3 hours/day. Mainly while I’m at the gym or running errands, walking around. It has become one of the dominant forms of media I consume; I don’t have a TV, and I don’t engage in Spanish media in any way. I read The Economist every week but that’s it.

Broadly my podcast listening is in a few categories. I don’t always listen to every episode. Some follow an interview format and basically I give the interviewee about 5 min. If the topic doesn’t appeal to me I move on

SaaS / Bootstrapping podcasts

  • Rogue Startups - Dave and Craig get the balance between story about their own businesses and general advice exactly right.

  • Release Notes - the easy listening of SaaS podcasts

  • Bootstrapped.fm - I don’t just listen, over the last month or so it’s been my pleasure to co-host this podcast with my friend Steve. Has been a lot of fun. Give it a listen and send me your comments.

  • Startups for the rest of us - from the guys behind MicroConf. The original SaaS podcasters, and still great.

  • Out of Beta - enjoy listening in to the ups and downs of Peter and Matt’s startups, two members of the first TinySeed cohort.

  • Above Board - a new one from the guy’s behind Fathom Analytics, which I’ve been using since before it was cool.

  • The Art of Product - Not sure what the secret ingredient is, but very easy to listen to.

  • The TMBA - less software and SaaS focused. Fun hosts.

  • Indie Hackers - an interview show. Some are excellent, others I skip.

Geo

  • Extremities - fantastic deep look at life in really remote places.

  • MapScaping - great interviews with people doing all sorts of interesting stuff around geo. Was my pleasure to be interviewed twice this year - once about geocoding, once about Geomob.

Tech

  • a16z podcast

  • Micromobility - not exactly tech, but close enough.

  • Exponent - basically the Stratechery podcast, though a good part of the pleasure of listening is the interplay between the hosts.

History

  • Zeitsprung - good format, where the co-hosts alternate on presenting strange stories from history, but with the other co-host not knowing what the topic will be. Manchmal sind die Themen ein bissl zu alpenfokusiert, aber ansonsten immer hörenswert.

  • Hardcore History

  • Eine Stunde History

Finance / Business

“Other”

  • Sicherheitshalber - fun conversations though they often leave me depressed at the state of the world.

  • Conversations with Bill Krystol - I saw him speak at the Harvard Kennedy School after the 2004 election, learned a lot and was entertained. The podcast is equally good. The last bit of attention I pay to US politics.

  • Bauhaus.Podcast - an easy way to reminisce about my time in Weimar

  • Duke Basketball Report - Go to hell, Carolina, go to hell

  • The Rewatchables - I generally prefer to look forward rather than back, but some of these are just to good. It is like hanging out with an old friend. Can’t wait until they do Bueller’s Day off

  • Monocle’s The Menu - we all have to eat

Those are the shows that have stuck, though I’m adding new ones all the time. Occasionally the old shows get tired and I drop them. We shall see which ones I’m still subscribed to in a year.

What should I add in 2020?

I’m toying with the idea of creating a Geomob podcast, a mix of interviewing the people who speak at Geomobs and also just discussing general trends in European geo. Let me know if you have any opinion. Will go deeper on that in my “Goals for 2020” post which i hope to get out next week.