Podcasts that Explore Leadership and Technology
Audio, like radio, is such a perfect format, brilliantly suited to our busy lives. It doesn’t require our undivided attention and can enhance so many experiences. 30 minutes listening while working out can leave you smarter, more inspired (as well as fitter).
This is one of the many reasons we’ve seen a resurgence of the podcast and great series on them like Serial and Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.
Here are some favourites (and the best episodes) on technology, work and culture.
If you like them, then I’d recommend subscribing to them in a podcast app. Overcast for iOS is beautifully designed and has some useful features for the time poor (smart speed which shortens silences).
Eat Sleep Work Repeat
is a podcast by Bruce Daisley, who’s MD of Twitter in Europe. The podcast is nothing to do with that, it’s a passion project on work culture and happiness. It’s truly brilliant. The intro music is quite jarring but it’s totally worth subscribing to. Here are some standout episodes:
In this episode Dan Cable talks through his brilliant book, Alive at Work on the neuroscience of helping people love what they do.
A quick summary of some of the key themes from series one. Phone addiction, productivity, email overload and much more.
Another author interview, this time with Daniel Coyle, author of the Talent Code, an international bestseller that cracked the formula of individual success. In 5 years he immersed himself in the best teams in the world — Navy SEALS, sports teams as well as Pixar and IDEO. Here he shares some of the remarkable output of his work. Coyle’s book gives clear guidance of what anyone who runs a team or works in a team should do.
The Ezra Klein Show
This podcast explores newsmakers and power players in US politics and media. He’s a thoughtful interviewer American liberal exploring conversations about hard problems, big ideas, illuminating theories, and cutting-edge research. Want to know how Mark Zuckerberg intends to govern Facebook? The dangers Yuval Harari sees in our future?
This episode is an interview with Tristan Harris who co-founded the Center for Humane Technology, and explores how Silicon Valley builds things to addict us and the ethics of digital design.
This is a thoughtful and robust interview with Mark Zuckerburg on the year Facebook was engulfed in controversies.
Fascinating and nuanced debate with right-wing provocateur Sam Harris about identity politics and political correctness. Frustrating at points but a great lesson in critical thinking and good debate.
The A16Z Podcast
The one tech podcast you need to listen to if you want to understand the culture of technology. It’s from the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and is presented by different people, so can be quite hit and miss, but is totally worth trying out. Here are some standout episodes:
A discussion of tech trends like AI and cryptocurrencies to the more seemingly mature trends like mobile and cloud. An interesting exploration of what disruption is and isn’t.
How disruptive is Tesla really. What exactly are they disrupting? The episodes with Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky are always illuminating.
A conversation on disruption theory between two titans, Marc Andreessen and Clayton Christensen.
Kevin Kelly talks through his book, The Inevitable. What are the large forces at play in the future of technology.
Tim Ferris Podcast
The episodes are usually WAY too long and the 5 minutes of adverts at the start are ridiculous but this episode with Marc Andreessen is well worth the listen.
The Secret History of the Future
A podcast from the Economist and Slate. The show digs through chapters from the annals of technological history to see what we can we lessons we can learn for today. They look at early AI, the world’s first cyberattack, which happened in the 1830s, and find out how the Victorians invented virtual reality.
Episode 1 is on AI — in the 18th century, a device called the Mechanical Turk convinced Europeans that a robot could play winning chess (the name now appropriated by Amazon). But there was a trick. It’s a trick that companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook still pull on us today. Guests include: Jaron Lanier, futurist. Luis von Ahn, founder of CAPTCHA and Duolingo.
