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Ask HN
Ask HN: Best Podcasts of 2025?
The Rest is Politics, Leading, Philosophize This and Stratechery (paid) are the podcasts that stood out the most in 2025. Curious what other HNers listen to.
  • jjj123
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  • 6 minutes ago
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I’ve been really impressed by how much I’ve learned listening to Panic World. At first I thought it was a humor show but it’s basically internet anthropology detailing all the ways the internet makes us insane.

This episode about eating disorders was harrowing and sad but really informative to how toxic communities form https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-eating-disorder-co...

I really enjoyed the "Michael Hobbes Podcast Universe" this year. He's a reporter who is now making entertaining podcasts debunking claims in the media/zeitgeist. I appreciate that he takes a pragmatic approach -- to paraphrase something he said: "There's probably an impact on kids having so much screen time, but this data you're citing doesn't show what you're claiming."

If Books Could Kill: https://www.ifbookspod.com

Maintenance Phase: https://www.maintenancephase.com

You're Wrong About: https://yourewrongabout.com (Hobbes retired from this one around Oct 2021)

There's a similar podcast where he's also made an appearance:

In Bed With The Right: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JirL3UVKjyy5MTy8PouHh

In this network, Know Your Enemy and 5-4 are also solid. The latter is on the snarkier side, which puts some people off.
  • glebd
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  • 18 minutes ago
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Lions led by Donkeys https://www.llbdpodcast.com/
I learn a lot listening to the Money Stuff podcast.¹ The newsletter² is also great but I don’t always have time to read every one. I also really enjoy Why Is This Happening.³ Chris Hayes really shines as an interviewer and policy wonk when he’s not in the cable news format. While Ezra Klein seems to be leaning into Democratic Party whisperer, Hayes is leaning into policy nerdity that I miss from Vox-era Klein.

¹ https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1308-money-stuff-the-podcast-...

² https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/money-stuff

³ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-is-this-happening-...

Robin Pearson ended the 1000-year long epic of The History of Byzantium earlier this year: https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/

The podcast started as a sequel to Mike Duncan's classic The History of Rome, and in my opinion surpassed it. Where THoR eventually falls into the narrative trap of turning into "The Lives of Roman Emperors", THoB spends a lot of time talking about economic, demographic, societal, and technological changes within the Empire and the world.

Extremely recommended if you want a proper history podcast.

I enjoyed Shell Game, which explores using voice agents in ever more personal situations.

The specifics of the journey are going to date quickly given the speed of AI development. But the shape of the journey and the dilemmas posed are going to be relevant for a lot longer.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/shell-game/id175311776...

I’ve been a fan of The Ezra Klein Show for years - whatever your thoughts of his personal politics, he’s a fantastic interviewer, and I think he does a great job at both helping define and then interrogating the strongest construction of his guest’s beliefs. He’s not a soft interviewer, but he’s genuinely trying to understand his guest, and I’ve learned a ton about how people who I disagree with view the world.
I miss the Ezra Klein that did a weekly policy whitepaper deep dive on The Weeds.
His podcast has gotten a lot worse over the years. It feels over-produced now and he doesnt have a lot of interesting guests on anymore. 90% of it is useless policy wonks no one has heard of pumping their latest shitty book no one will read.

Andrew Sullivan (Dish Cast) is doing a much better job and isnt associated with a main stream media org.

Klein is a smart liberal journalist and Sullivan is a smart conservative journalist. They both get guests from think tanks/mainstream media/academia. They both book guests that are on book tours. The distinction you're making is not really true.
I actually enjoy some of the wonkishness. Hearing a good interview with people who are experts in a particular field is a great way to learn.
The Rest is History is good, depending on the topic. Both guests have a bit of bias which you have to sort of take into account, not that different from The Rest is Politics. Mishal Husain has a new podcast on Bloomberg TV which so far was excellent. Also from Bloomberg TV, Big Take is often interesting. I still enjoy Lex Fridman, again depending on the guest. Dwarkesh Patel same shit as Lex, but he pretends he knows something about AI.
Hardcore History 73 - Mania for Subjugation III [1]

Fall of Civilizations 20 - Persia - An Empire in Ashes [2]

[1] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-73-mania-...

[2] https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/

  • aorth
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  • 10 hours ago
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Thanks. I didn't realize Dan Carlin was still producing new episodes. Ten years ago I was enthralled by his series on the Persian Empire and then I forgot about him.

Fall of Civilizations is excellent too.

10 years? Then you need to check Supernova in the East. He did a deep dive on why and how Japan got and went through WW2.
I was very disappointed with Supernova in the East. What started as a telling of the Pacific War from the point of view of the Japanese empire morphed into the usual "war is bad but American soldiers are heroes" that's very common for this period.

I tuned out when he spent 30 minutes describing a famous photo-op of General MacArthur going ashore to the Philippines. That is the complete opposite of the original promise of the podcast.

Fall of Civilizations: https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/

Each episode is of exceptional quality and retells history in an engaging manor. Since it's history, the entire backlog is still relevant.

Advent of Computing:

  https://adventofcomputing.com/

  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/advent-of-computing/id1459202600

  https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/rss

  https://www.youtube.com/@adventofcomputing4504/videos
I've really been enjoying Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) of HN fame. Additionally: Odd Lots, Money Stuff, Chat with Traders (hit or miss, some guests are not great).
Came here to say this! Complex Systems is not the best for me but it's for sure the new content I found this year. I find myself listening and sometimes pausing to search to learn more about what he is talking about.
The Koerner Office[0]. I have a lot to learn about all facets of business and Chris does a good job of keeping things practical and simple. The episode about hummingbird food[1] in particular blew my mind.

The Wookash Podcast[2]. Some of the best technical programming conversations I've heard in recent years.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/@thekoerneroffice

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcFBcfrmC2k

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/@WookashPodcast

Currently loving Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan. Highlight seasons so far: [3] French Revolution [4] Haitian Revolution.
Dwarkesh, Lenny, Latent Space, A16Z, BG2Pod and 'Founders in Arms' have all had some good episodes this year.

Some other episodes I've bookmarked are in this feed: https://feeds.listennotes.com/listen/rahim-nathwanis-listen-...

Felipe, the founder of Quest Learning (joinquest.com) started a podcast series about the future of learning. I was his first guest:

https://youtu.be/t_Y6wtdcnpc

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2CjsPEKYwx8eirYlBYjxwp

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-learning...

• If You're Listening (well produced Australian news items)

• The Rest is History

• Pivot (Kara Swisher, techlash)

• Marketplace (stock market, with surprising bumper music)

• Inside Europe (Deutsche Welle English-language news)

A new one I started listening to is fun so far...

• Business History (more lighthearted than it sounds)

+1 to The Rest is History, they had a great year. Absolutely loved the series on Elizabeth I.
Startups For The Rest Of Us is a great for bootstrappers or other non-VC-backed founders. I find that even episodes that are not specifically relevant to the work I'm doing are good to listen to because they may bring ideas to the surface in helpful ways.
The best ones I've discovered in 2025 - not necessarily the best ever

The David Frum Show - https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-david-frum-show/ Overthink - https://overthinkpodcast.com/ Singletrack - https://www.youtube.com/c/SingletrackPodcast The Glenn Show - https://glennloury.substack.com/podcast

  • adwi
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  • 8 hours ago
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What are your best-evers?
- "Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)"

- My First Million (www.mfmpod.com). I just don't know why, but for some reason I stopped listening to them in the past 2 months, but rest of the year I was really enjoying their content. Even older ones.

- Pivot and Prof G, mostly because of Scott Galloway. I really like him.

- Under The Influence with Terry O'Reilly. Amazingly good. Very fun to listen to and almost always brings joy and help me learn something new.

- All In, can't say I'm still enjoying this. It's way too political these days. But it's still something I listen to occasionally. When I listen I usually end up skipping half of the content to find something I like.

My favourite podcast right now is Let's Learn Everything, three science geeks taking turns to explain things to each other. In a standard episode, there's a deep dive into a science topic, followed by a lighter miscellaneous segment. Special episodes, such as the yearly HaLearnDays or the occasional guest episode, take a different format.

The three all have science degrees, and do proper research for their deep dives. This is a podcast which comes with supporting citations.

https://letslearneverything.com

I'll have to give this a shot. I am a scientist and have never found a good science podcast ever. I think its because the topic doesn't lend itself as well to the format; papers are hard to digest and communicate in an entertaining way.
  • bzb
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  • 7 hours ago
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A micro recommendation for This Week in Virology (TWiV). Essentially a journal club for virology papers, I think they nail the conversational/technical balance that’s so hard to get right.

Incidentally, TWiV changed my life. I was working as a cabinet maker with no college degree when I gave it a shot, on a whim. The host’s refusal to shy away from technical depth convinced me that I could learn hard things. 10 years I have a biochemistry degree and work as a machine learning engineer.

That's great! I'll have to give them a shot again - for some reason, I bounced off this show
Sean Carroll’s Mindscape for physics, philosophy and science
HN would probably hate it but I've been digging Panic World. They investigate mostly modern media or internet-driven moral panics and discuss how they've led us to our current moment. Lots of 90s/2000s internet deep dives, but I mostly appreciate how well the host connects the dots between cultural/political zeitgeist (of any recent era) with some seemingly minor niche movement or idea seeded years prior.

https://www.garbageday.email/panic-world

  • jjj123
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  • 3 minutes ago
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Ah I just read your comment after posting the same rec!

I went into panic world with low expectations and they’ve blown me away. It’s really, really good if you’re interested in internet cultures.

My gotos for listening while I do chores or drive this year have been:

    - Stuff You Should Know https://stuffyoushouldknow.com/
    - How to do Everything https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510384/how-to-do-everything
Call me simple or provincial, but I really enjoyed "Good Hang" from Amy Poehler. It's a breezy interview with interesting people (doesn't hurt that I'm a long-time SNL fan).
In this vein, conan's podcast is also surprisingly good. It doesn't feel like a phoned-in retirement gig.
I would have put Coder Radio on this list but ever since Mike took over without Chris the show has lost its appeal for me.

And sadly, there are no more Jupiter Broadcasting shows left without crypto or mostly inside baseball.

Anyone know of shows in the category of two or three lads discussing computing, coding, devops, but in the style of two older guys crumudging that everything used to be better in the old days?

  • Hule
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  • 7 hours ago
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I love 2.5 Admins.

The rest of Late Night Linux is okay too.

Most of my podcasts are movie related. If I had to purge them all and start with just 5 though I would go with.

Blank Check The Flophouse 99% Invisible Cautionary Tales The Rewatchables

I maintain The Flophouse is the funniest podcast around.

Have you tried How Did This Get Made? I've enjoyed these shows, sometimes live, immensely. They celebrate the worst movies ever made, hilariously.
Redbar is the only thing I listen to but unfortunately this has been a bad year for shows.
BetterOffline [0] by Ed Zitron [1] dissecting AI hype and boosters. By a long shot.

The information density and clarity are outstanding.

0: https://www.betteroffline.com/

1: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

Zitron is good, if you like him check out "This Machine Kills" and "Tech Won't Save Us."
The SGU. There is only one podcast that I always come back to! https://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcasts
Certainly one of the few podcasts that I've stuck with. I think I started about 15+ years ago, and I know it was running for a while before that. Can't say every episode is great (not a fan of the live shows) or every segment is great (what's that noisy), but you can't beat it for it's consistency and general interest.
Wookash (https://wooka.sh/) for low level programming and game development with a surprising cast of guests
The Economics of Everyday Things Podcast. These are ~20 mins podcast and talk about the products we use daily.
Too bad it's over. Great show.
Citations Needed: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/
I have really been enjoying the early Jordan Peterson Podcast episodes. They are good for the soul. Unfortunately, I listened to a couple of the latest ones and they seem much more angry and less nourishing; this may have been a fluke though.

Starting Strength Radio, though no longer produced, is usually a good listen as well for humor and gym-related topics.

Acquired

Scamfluencers

Business Wars

The Social Radars

Big Technology Podcast

Diabolical Lies
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  • 7 hours ago
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  Acquired (Long episodes about companies, recents include: 
  coca-cola, trader joe's & alphabet)
  Dwarkesh Podcast (Inquisitive curious host, mostly "AGI"
  related)
  Conversations with Tyler (Wide ranging, polymath host,
  distinctive, hard to describe style)
  The Marginal Revolution Podcast (Tyler cowen & Alex Tabbarok
  discussing economics)
  Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson (you sort of mentioned)
  The Morning Meeting (US Politics mostly. Neutral tone,
  informative, forward looking i.e. what will happen next not
  who is bad etc)
Dwarkesh - AI + some history

Lex = AI + some history

Dishcast - politics + books

Sam Harris - everything

All In - tech news

Tyler Cowen - random good shows

Pirate Wires - news (coming back I heard)

Joe Rogan - famous interesting guests at least once a month

Ben Shapiro - if you want to hear the opposite of what you're reading in the NYT (Surgey Brin approved)

why am i being downvoted lol ?
Because you mentioned Rogan and especially Shapiro without distancing yourself from them. Good for you and let the knee-jerk downvoters knee-jerk themselves to oblivion.
Just because you listen to them doesn't mean you agree with everything they say -- I listen to Ezra Klein too and read Slow Boring, even though I disagree with almost everything they publish.
Of course not, it would be strange to agree with everything anyone says. I listen to Shapiro and his Daily Wire brethern even though I hardly agree with everything they say and consider most of them to be far too eager with the God hammer - Shapiro is one of the better ones in that respect, probably because Judaism doesn't proselytise - mostly because I want to get their perspective as a counterweight to the mostly 'progressive' news media. If I agreed with everything they or the 'progressive' media said I would not need to listen to or read what they produce because I already agree.

As to the downvoted list I agree with some - Friedman, Rogan, Shapiro - but I just can't listen to Sam Harris any more due to his extreme TDS and his inability to recognise when he has been wrong on something - the SARS2 unpleasantness being an example of such. He was an interesting part of the 'intellectual dark web' which was a much-needed counter to the mentioned 'progressive' narrative pushed by the media but he went off the rails first when Trump became president for the first time and later when SARS2 hit. For news I'd add the Spiked podcast and the Brendan O'Neill show for some UK perspective, Aron Flam's 'Dekonstruktiv Kritik' (in Swedish) as a counter to the 'progressive' Swedish state broadcasters Sveriges TV and Sveriges Radio (they call themselves 'independent' but that is a flagrant lie) and the 'progressive' print/web media. Listen to and read both those 'progressive' outlets as well as some of the mentioned counterparts to gain a wider perspective on what actually happens in the world.