For the last couple of years I've been reading more and more books...

Recently though, I've spent a great deal of time listening to podcasts.

I used to say I preferred books because they take months to produce, and by the time someone recommends one to me, there are thousands of reviews on it. So in a way, a book is not only carefully reviewed by the publisher but also vetted by thousands of readers.

Another thing: most books I read, startup stories, founder biographies, culture, ways of living, are timeless. If I read them today or in 10 years, they're just as valuable. This is a feature. It's also why authors spend so much time writing them in the first place. They know the ideas will echo for years to come.

Podcasts, on the other hand, are a thing of the moment. Hosts don't think as heavily about what they say, at least not to the extent authors do with a book.

But with that comes a more unfiltered glimpse of personality. You also get nuggets of wisdom that are actually relevant right now, since most podcasts I listen to are about the current state of the world.

Think of it as a simple 2x2: Is the topic timeless or timely? Has it already been deeply examined, or is it still unfolding? Books win for the former. Podcasts win for the latter.

So there are merits in both, and as a result I’ve been enjoying spending a lot of time in podcasts.

With that said, I’ve listened to over 20 different podcasts and while I don’t religiously consume one in particular (ok, I do that with Acquired) - I tend to see them based on the episodes that get more traction on social media and my mood tbh.

Here’s my list of favorites (and a recommended episode on each), with some organization:

1. Strategy, Business Models & Markets

Company breakdowns, investing frameworks, market structure.

Acquired

Long-form, documentary-style deep dives into iconic companies and business stories. Ben and David do real research, real narrative, and episodes that feel like MBA case studies but actually interesting.

Founders

David Senra reads biographies of history’s greatest founders and distills the lessons, patterns, and psychology behind how they built. It’s basically getting the highlights of 50+ years of experience from people who’ve done impossible things - compressed into an episode you can listen to on a walk.

Invest Like the Best

Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviews world-class investors across hedge funds, quants, PE, and more. Pure frameworks and mental models - no filler, no motivational fluff.

In Good Company

Hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund (the largest investor on earth). Surprisingly candid conversations with practitioners from the financial world who almost never do long interviews.

Jordi Visser

Jordi Visser (ex-CIO of Weiss Multi-Strategy) runs one of the few market podcasts that actually talks about the current markets. He blends macro, data, sentiment, and real trading intuition in a way that’s easy to follow but still useful if you’re deep in markets. Extremely high signal. And he uses OpenBB 🙂 

2. AI-Focused

Deep AI conversations: safety, scaling laws, model design, applied AI strategy.

Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh is one of the clearest, most rigorous thinkers in AI today, and he interviews people operating at the absolute frontier. His conversations aren’t surface-level - they cut into alignment, frontier model design, geopolitics, scientific breakthroughs, and the real engineering that actually moves the field forward.

No Priors

Sarah Guo and Elad Gil talk to AI founders, researchers, and investors about the realities of building and scaling AI-native products. Practical, technical, and grounded.

Every

A media outfit led by Dan Shipper (co-founder & CEO of Every). Every publishes a daily newsletter and runs the podcast AI & I, where Dan has in-depth conversations with builders, creators, and thinkers about how they use AI and tools to build, create, and organize. Worth tuning in for unfiltered takes on the future of work, AI culture, and creator workflows..

The Hedgineer Podcast

Hosted by Michael Watson - former Citadel MD turned engineer-interpreter of markets and tech. The show dives into how hedge funds, prop-trading shops, and modern asset managers build with data, AI, and engineering - recent episodes explore alt-data, ML-driven research, and trading-infra design. Great if you want the engineering + quant lens on finance.

3. Technology & Engineering

Software engineering, infrastructure, dev culture, technical founders.

Bg2 Pod

Hosted by Brad Gerstner (founder & CEO of Altimeter) and Bill Gurley (legendary former Benchmark GP), BG2 is an “open-source” bi-weekly conversation on tech, markets, investing, and capitalism - basically two top-tier public markets/VC minds thinking out loud about how the world is changing.

YCombinator

Run by YC partners, this is YC pulling back the curtain: founder interviews, office hours, and very blunt advice on building, launching, and scaling startups. It’s basically YC’s playbook, but in audio form.

The Pragmatic Engineer

Hosted by Gergely Orosz - ex-Uber engineering leader and author of the #1 tech newsletter on Substack. It’s deep dives into how software is actually built and run at big tech and high-growth startups: real org design, real incidents, real trade-offs from people who’ve been in the room.

4. Builders, Operators & Product Thinking

Founders, operators, product leaders — how things get built and scaled.

Sourcery

Hosted by Molly O'Shea. The podcast interviews top investors, founders, and CEOs about how tech, markets and capital are evolving. It’s smart, sharp, and gives insider-level POV on what’s really happening in fintech, AI, and venture

Uncapped with Jack Altman

Hosted by Jack Altman (founder & former CEO of Lattice), Uncapped is a sharp read on venture-building, scaling, and fundraising. It’s conversations with founders and investors he respects - covering what actually works (and what doesn’t) when you scale a company or back one.

Lenny’s Podcast

While often positioned as a product/PM podcast, in 2025 Lenny has become a must-listen for builders. He’s become the voice of fast-growing startups in my opinion.

Cheeky pint

Hosted by John Collison (co-founder of Stripe), Cheeky Pint is basically “over a beer with builders and founders” - honest, wide-ranging, and often unexpectedly insightful. He sits down with people shaping tech, markets, and infrastructure and gets them to speak plainly about their work and worldview.

Starter Story

Founded by Pat Walls, Starter Story digs into how real-life entrepreneurs built their businesses from scratch - from niche SaaS to e-commerce. It’s a no-fluff breakdown of what worked, what didn’t, and exactly how people went from zero to a working business.

Library of Minds

A fresh podcast from Delphi that sits down with top founders, investors, and thinkers to unpack how they build, make decisions, and see the future.

5. Cultural & Intellectual conversation

Curiosity-driven conversations with thinkers, scientists, creators.

Lex Fridman Podcast

Lex runs long-form conversations with people who are actually interesting. A few hours of open space where he lets the guest think out loud - CEOs, politicians, scientists, founders, whoever. The big episodes get all the views, but the best ones are the niche conversations where someone brilliant has room to explain how they see the world.

Joe Rogan

Hosted by Joe Rogan, comedian and UFC commentator turned long-form interviewer. Unfiltered, unstructured conversations with scientists, fighters, authors, technologists, and random fascinating people.

Not a regular podcast

These are not a podcast, but a series of videos that I come back to over and over!

AI Engineer

AI Engineer is a media + events brand for AI builders, run by Swyx . They organize things like the AI Engineer Code Summit and World’s Fair and publish talks, workshops, and training sessions specifically for people building with modern AI tools.

Jason Liu

Hosted by Jason Liu, AI researcher/engineer. Always brings strong guests from practicioners implementing real AI in fast growing startups. Big focus on RAG pipelines.

Theo - t3․gg

Hosted by Theo, ex-Twitch engineer with strong opinions on dev tooling and full-stack engineering. Lately doing a lot of videos on AI models with his latest product

TBPN

TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network) is a daily live tech show hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays. It’s basically SportsCenter for tech and AI - three hours a day of news, founder/VC interviews, and live reactions to what’s happening in the industry.

I compiled this collection in an open source repo, so I can keep expanding as I listen to different ones. But also their RSS feeds so you can add them to your RSS readers if interested.

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