As my podcast, Pokretači, is taking a summer break, I decided to give a little list of the best podcasts that I followed in the past few years. Although my tastes vary from more normie uplifting self-enhancement (or whatever is the current euphemism for self-help) to relatively dour discussions of current politics, one thing that ties these shows is that they did open my imagination and served as much better guides to the world than what is found in the mainstream media and entertainment, which is slowly but surely devolving to highly censorious, hyper-ideological cynical PR machines (which is the reason why you should support indie creators).
Entertainment
Time Crisis – Technically not a podcast, but a show by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. Ezra and his co-host, Jake Longstreth, are a joy to listen for their sense of humour and have impeccable music taste, which makes Time Crisis a great background show if you’re taking a long walk.
Reply All – The most entertaining normie podcast about tech-related culture thanks to the great chemistry of Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt. Their Yes, Yes, No eps are the best explainers of the bizarre sides of the web.
Entrepreneurship and self-help
Tim Ferris Show – Tim is a truly inspirational character who always manages to find interesting people to chat to on anything and everything from IT start-ups to his latest passion project of mainstreaming benefits of hallucinogens
The Entrepreneurs – RadioMonoclelike the whole Monocle media franchise is great if you want to keep abreast of what consummate global jet-setters like. Their Entrepreneurs show was a major inspiration for my podcast and is great if you want to know how things change.
Tara Brach – Tara’s approach to spirituality and therapy, i.e. “radical acceptance” really resonated with me and helped me grow.
Politics and History
Radio War Nerd – the ultimate podcast on any conflict that happened in the past 40 years by Mark Ames and Gary Brecher/John Dolan.
Useful Idiots – Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi provide weekly recaps of the spectacle of US politics.
Citations Needed – Best media criticism show by Nima Shirazi and . which truly opened my eyes to how a lot of mainstream reporting distorts what we know about politics.
Black Pillin’ (Harsh, depressing and mind blowing)
Red Scare – Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova are the best cultural critics out there. Super entertaining and eye-opening.
TrueAnon – originally devoted to respectable side of conspiracy theories around the death of Jefferey Epstein, TrueAnon really evolved into the most insightful analysis of the hidden aspects of politics and media out there. Its bleakness is helped by Brace’s and Liz’s great chemistry and humour.
What’s Left – brutal Marxist analysis of what is considered “the Left” in the West.
Pseudodoxia/TekWars 2.0 – Masterful podcast by Kantbot on the weird side of the internet.
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