Hardcore History: Twilight of the Æsir Parts I and II [1][2] were good.
[1] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-69-twilight-of-the-aesir/
[2] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-70-twilight-of-the-aesir-ii/
[1] - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sam-bankman-fried-and-...
Technically he was describing tokens for a hypothetical dapp that had questionable/unproven value, whereas the business he ran (FTX) and the associated tokens (FTT) were straightforwardly profitable, but went bankrupt due to bad investments/trades.
Also the interviewer (Matt Levine) came away with a totally different conclusion from that interview:
>People on Twitter now are like “he admitted that FTX is a Ponzi!” but of course that’s not true. He conceded a certain validity to my claim that some crypto businesses — not his — are Ponzis. He is just in the business of trading their tokens.
>In fact, I came away from that conversation bullish on FTX and Bankman-Fried. My view was, and is, that if you talk to a crypto exchange operator and he is like “crypto is changing the world, your old-fashioned economics are just FUD, HODL,” then that’s bad. A wild-eyed crypto true believer is not the person to operate an exchange. The person you want operating an exchange is a clear-eyed trader. You want someone whose basic attitude to financial assets is, like, “if someone wants to buy and someone wants to sell, I will put them together and collect a fee.” You want someone whose perspective is driven by markets, not ideology, who cares about risk, not futurism. A certain cynicism about the products he is trading is probably healthy.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-10/ftx-is...
He basically described how you can make transaction fees or arbitrage fees on others engaging in speculation.
A very dumbed down example would how the post office can make legitimate income on postage while someone else operates a Ponzi by mail schemes. Or for that matter, brokerages take commissions when people trade meme stocks and unprofitable companies every day.
- Non-human Biologics, UFO Encounters, and Mexico’s Alien Bodies https://overcast.fm/+WO2ETzarQ/ -- a conversation with one of the navy pilots that testified before congress about UAP. crazy stuff.
- Data-Backed Answers to Personal Finance Controversies: https://overcast.fm/+0OUMIFTyg A few interesting tidbits bits like: "Only one and seven retirees ends up running down the principal" and "Average transaction costs are 6% and average appreciation is. 6% so you need to be in a home for 10 years" before you flip.
[1] https://oxide.computer/podcasts/oxide-and-friends/1255721
[2] https://oxide.computer/podcasts/oxide-and-friends/1503057
- Marc Andreessen: Future of the Internet, Technology, and AI / Lex Fridman Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/386-marc-andreessen-fu...
- Solo: The Crisis in Physics / Sean Carroll's Mindscape https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solo-the-crisis-in-phy...
Apart from that I used to listen to Mike Duncan's Revolutions series, even though he finished up that project in 2022.
Likewise the BBC produced an Apollo-era podcast called 13 Minute to the Moon, which was excellent, and technical enough to keep even a space nerd like me interested. Shout-out too to the Space Above Us, for technical excellence in all things Mercury to STS.
Wild card was any of the Anomalous Podcast Network's output, which seems to have stopped around May. Look for anything with Dave Clarke or Graeme Rendall in it.
Amir Srinivasan on CWT too: https://open.spotify.com/episode/496WOLb5hZmrcH7vt1OqFq?si=6... (I recall the arguing being fun, but not many of the details)
Carl Shulman on Dwarkesh: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ij1JOaafeXoqT0m6sXtBl?si=_...
(Carl thinks seriously about how to reason about AI scale-up)
Overall Dwarkesh seems like the most underrated podcast atm, with Conversations with Tyler being the best. I also enjoyed some Sean Carroll interviews.
There is no specific episode that stands out more than the rest. But any of the content since 10/7 is really great.
I find his coverage to be very nuanced and he’s brought on a bunch of guest with a wide range of viewpoints.
https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/palmer-luckey-inventin... (Palmer Luckey)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-conversation-with-ch... (Charlie Munger)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWqzZ3I2cY (Jeff Bezos)
I listened to Palmer Luckey on Moonshot with Peter Diamandis, but I'm guessing they discussed many of the same things (VR Origins, Anduril, Meta).
It seems like we have similar interests. I'll have to check out the Charlie Munger episode.
Didn’t know Shin Yun was so wacky and how a lot of the Chinese organ harvesting myths originated from the Falun Gong.
Last year they did a series called The Game on California’s Synanon cult and that was really good too.
Just a warning: they’ve got some pretty edgy humor (and long rambling intros) and it’s not for everybody.
podcast link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1a5HmrGiV6K8q9HYlhjLnm
Mindscape 229 with Nita Farahany on Ethics, Law, and Neurotechnology is a banger too. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5F2xk9MicNS7mELYoe9rt5
Possible: Saul Griffith on a Clean Energy Future [2] - A great intro to the argument for complete electrification.
[2] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saul-griffith-on-a-cle...
English: Lingthusiasm 34: Emoji are Gesture Because Internet (can emojis be used as a language? They discuss what makes a language a language, and why sign languages are languages but "gestures" in general are not and what similarities emojis show from the latter category)
German: AstroGeo episodes "Asteroseismologie" (starquakes) and "Der Atomreaktor Oklo" (a natural nuclear reactor)
Dutch: Napleiten #16: "Stomdronken een ongeluk veroorzaken maar toch onschuldig" (legally causing a vehicle accident on public roads despite being drunk AF)
Thanks, always looking for German podcasts! In return, check out Omega Tau: https://omegataupodcast.net/
https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/goals-toolkit-how-to-set...
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953...
- Changelog and Friends - Even the best rides come to an end (Kelsey Hightower) - https://changelog.com/friends/6
- The Changelog - What it takes to scale engineering (Rachel Potvin) - https://changelog.com/podcast/527
- Ship It - Rust efficiencies at AWS scale (Tim McNamara) - https://changelog.com/shipit/89
- Practical AI - Generative models: exploration to deployment - https://changelog.com/practicalai/240
- Soft Skills Engineering - Staying at a sinking ship and behavioral interview questions - https://softskills.audio/2023/08/14/episode-369-staying-at-a...
- Developer Tea - Career Growth Starts with Improving your Clarity - https://developertea.com/episodes/ae130e5f-239a-450c-9505-9d...
- You Are Not So Smart - Procrastination (Britt Frank) - https://youarenotsosmart.com/2023/02/06/yanss-252-why-procra...
They’re a pretty academic lot and I’ve found their perspective on the books very rewarding as I read along. Highly recommend!
I absolutely adore Links Awakening for the Gameboy and it was a lot of fun listening to game designers talk about it and how they made their own game inspired by it. Includes a healthy dose of video game music composing and inspiration too.
IIRC he also endorsed the now largely discredited idea that the atom bomb attack is what caused the Japanese to surrender.
Do you have a source for this? I just spent 10 minutes searching, and I could find nothing compelling. The closest I could find was Racing the Enemy, which argues that it was the planned Soviet invasion that pushed the Japanese to surrender. But otherwise, the story seems a lot more complex than that, and is certainly nowhere near "discredited" to suggest the atom bomb caused the Japanese to surrender.
Further reading (and these themselves contain references to even further reading):
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1505pek/was_...
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/15gsdme/i_un...
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/wwa2ie/were_...
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cawabr/were_...
Begin quote:
Even the second atomic bomb had not dissuaded them from continuing the war. But when reports from the Kwantung Army began to arrive, reporting significant Soviet penetration in Manchuria and the situation as “obscure,” objections to surrender were far less convincing.
The Soviets’ Manchurian Campaign, August Storm, destroyed the last vestige of Japanese military power outside Japan, and put the final nail in the coffin of those Japanese militarists who, even after suffering two atomic attacks, intended to continue the war to the death.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-soviet-invasio...
Part 1: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQRWO5g8
Part 2: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQSkynRM
A single 2023 episode I did quite enjoy was the McElroy's live Adventure Zone in Columbus where they all play as reanimated skeletons: https://maximumfun.org/episodes/adventure-zone/the-adventure...
Darknet Diaries is also one I recommend - Jack is a great host and storyteller.
Actionable, sound advice. I class HN as being allowed.
These are always interesting
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-most-normal-girl-i...
Erik Prince on Shawn Ryan show - the host is a bit cringe but Erik has very unique perspective.
My dream podcast for 2024 would be Erik Prince w/ Dwarkesh (someone a bit smarter to push back and get more insight).
- https://changelog.com/gotime/252
- https://changelog.com/gotime/263
Or "Examining Capitalism's chokepoints" with Cory Doctorow on the Changelog
- https://changelog.com/podcast/535
or "Modernizing packages to ESM" with Mark Eriksen
How banking worked before computers: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kYpe_K8PzbQ
What it takes to convert commercial buildings to residential buildings: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HNkLcD3PKyk
Sharing YouTube links because they don't have paywall free podcast pages, though the podcast is free to subscribe to (with ads).
Joscha Bach is always an interesting guy, this was his latest appearance on Lex Fridman's podcast [0].
Edit: If we're including longform video essays, Down The Rabbit Hole made a 6 hour video on the history of Eve Online [1]. It's interesting to see how pure capitalist systems evolved and shaped the game.
So long story short, chemistry is all that matters to me about most podcasts don't have it.
