I’m a podcast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a recap of my favorite tidbits, soundbites and short bursts of brilliance that I have to share with everyone who will listen. After digesting hours and hours of podcasts, here’s the best 9 minutes from this week.
I LIKE TALKING TO PEOPLE AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN SOMETHING
HERE’S THE THING | David Letterman
BIAS ONE: I love Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing. He interviews fascinating people, and his interview style is sincere, engaging, insightful, and witty. I get an instant smile whenever I check my subscription list and see a new episode has downloaded.
BIAS TWO: I’m a huge David Letterman fan. His show started just as I was old enough to start staying up that late. Carson was awesome, truly the best, but I grew up with Letterman. So here’s the thing, Letterman rarely gives interviews which made his detailed career log fascinating to hear. If you’re not as enamored with these two icons as I am, at least catch Dave’s story of his mother complaining about Ed Sullivan at 6:40 in the podcast.
A COMPLETE NARCISSISTIC ACT
SIX PIXELS OF SEPARATION #310 | The Startup of You with Ben Casnocha
Six bookmarks. In 44 minutes! That’s a bookmark every 7 minutes. Mitch Joel and Ben Casnocha challenged each other and me in the process with plenty of practical career practices for professionals. Topics covered: developing an entrepreneur mindset, taking risks, using technology to make you smarter, ways to learn, and investing in yourself. You’ve heard some of these tips before, but the way Mitch and Ben tackle them bring new life and energy to actually taking steps forward. The climax of the conversation comes at 32:20 when Mitch asks about Ben’s use of the word “Hustle.” Check it out.
THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS
ON THE MEDIA | Public Relations for Dictators, Photographing Death, and More
My favorite part in this podcast is actually an excerpt from another podcast Lexicon Valley, but I decided to call out where I heard it first. Jump in at 38:33 in the On the Media podcast or at 14:56 in the original Lexicon Valley where Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the work of grad student Ben Schmidt who compared Mad Men scripts to other writings from the sixties to identify anachronistic phrases. For example, focus groups existed in the sixties, but the phrase “focus groups” did not. You NEED TO listen to it.
Podcast Test Drives:
Slate Presents Lexicon Valley - clever, nerdy (not geeky), and absolutely fascinating. It’s an audio version of a weekly language observation paper.
Unsubscribing from:
Sales Guy Quick and Dirty Tips - honestly, I took the easy way out this week. He hasn’t produced a new episode since April 20. NPR Topics: Business Story of the Day has racked up 10 unplayed episodes, but they are daily and so short that I keep hope alive thinking I can scan for the right topics or marathon listen to them and catch up.
OTHER PODCAST POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
What about you? What podcasts did you enjoy this week and what do you recommend? Leave your favorites in the comments below.