Some Podcasts I Like

I listen to quite a few podcasts every day and thought I would share a few of the ones I like. I have around 20 in total that I listen to but here are nine that I like. I usually start each day with the news. These are pretty short episodes. I listen to them while doing daily routines: brushing teeth, getting dressed, cleaning dishes, etc... I find you often listen to a podcast while doing other tasks. Very rarely will I sit or lie down while listening to an episode. Maybe that’s just me. Je sais pas.

I also listen to most podcasts at one and a half-speed so I can get through them quicker. It can be a bit too fast for some podcasts but works fine for the majority. I use the Apple podcast app. I do have Spotify but I use that app only for music. I started with the Apple app and I kind of like the layout of the app more than Spotify. Anyhow, if I’d have to suggest three to try I would say

The Daily, WSJ What’s News, and Smartless

NEWS

WSJ What’s News - I usually listen to this podcast in the morning and the evening. It delivers the headlines and business news of each weekday. They will often have one bigger story they focus on towards the end of the podcast. Episodes are 10 - 14 minutes.

FT News Briefing - Similar to WSJ What’s News. It’s more business stories of the day. New episode each weekday. Episodes are 10 minutes.

The Daily - New York Times podcast that focuses on one big story where the host interviews a guest about the topic. The episodes are well made and quite captivating. Episodes are 20 minutes and released daily.

FINANCE

Animal Spirits - Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss the stock market, investing, and current events. They often have good takes on topics and can be quite funny at times. They are in their late 30’s so it’s nice to hear what other millennials are thinking about when it comes to investing. Episodes are weekly and run around 45 minutes. They both have blogs as well. Michael’s The Irrelevant Investor and Ben’s A Wealth of Common Sense. They are also great to follow on Twitter.

The Compound and Friends - Josh Brown and Michael Batnick usually have a guest and they discuss all things relating to investing and the market. I like to hear what Josh Brown has to say. He usually has a unique viewpoint and truly says what he thinks even when he is on CNBC. That is where I first discovered him. He kind of reminds me of a Bill Maher. Very blunt and to the point. Check out his blog The Reformed Broker. Episodes are an hour and released weekly.

On the Tape - Guy Adami, Dan Nathan, and Danny Moses provide their insights into the financial markets. Guy and Dan are the CNBC show, Fast Money. Guy is hilarious and has so many good sayings. He quotes films, songs, old sayings. A character in the film, The Big Short, is based on Danny Moses. Episodes are 45 minutes and released weekly.

OTHER

Sway - Journalist Kara Fisher interviews a variety of guests from Elon Musk to Ken Burns to Jake Tapper. She is straightforward and has a calm presence. Listening to her ask questions you can tell she knows her stuff. Episodes are 45 minutes and released weekly.

The Ezra Klein Show - Journalist Ezra Klein discusses politics, climate, society, food, race, etc... These are usually one on one interviews with a variety of guests. Two new episodes each week. Some of these episodes can be a bit dull depending on the topic so you may have to skip a few. But the interviews are quite in-depth so you can learn a good amount from them. Episodes are an hour or more sometimes.

Smartless - This is by the far the funniest podcast I listen to. I laugh out loud so much when listening. Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett interview other celebrities, sports figures, journalists, politicians, etc... Guests such as LeBron James, Ricky Gervais, Sam Harris, etc... Bateman and Arnett together are quite a treat. The dry humor from Jason Bateman is the best thing. Episodes are 45 minutes and released weekly.

Grocery Store Shopper

Usually, once a week I go to both Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. I like to buy produce, cheese, condiments, and canned goods from Whole Foods. I could buy most of that stuff at Trader Joe’s but I prefer the options at Whole Foods. Also, Trader Joe’s does not have the big salad mix boxes. It’s like $5 at Whole Foods. I like the 50/50 mix. If that’s out, then my second choice is Spring Mix. This mix will last me four or five days. I make big salads for lunch every day. No joke. Every day at work for the past year I ate a salad. I’ll have to provide a breakdown of ingredients that go into the salad. That’ll be another blog post.

I like Trader Joe’s for the wine selection, bread, random frozen specialty food, and a few other items I can’t think of. The wine selection is the absolute best. You can find wines from all over the world at affordable prices. I buy French and Italian wine there all the time. Good bottles for under $10. I also started dabbling in the Champagne/Prosecco area too but I’ll write about that in a different blog post. Though if I write too much about food then people may think I am a food blogger.

Anyway, I don’t know other people’s grocery store habits but I wouldn’t mind reading about them. Last thing and this is a must. An absolute must. I ALWAYS bring my own bags. Toujours. I will never use a plastic bag at the grocery store. If I forget my bags and they do not have brown paper bags, then I say “No bags please” and I put all the items back in the cart after they scan them. Pretty serious stuff.

The Motto

Brief encounter I had with the groom at a wedding.

It’s towards the end of the reception and I am standing near the dance floor. A few people are dancing but it’s not too wild. The music is pretty loud so having a conversation is near impossible, but I do see people yelling their conversations at one another.

The groom comes up to me and yells in my ear:

“Do you know the song “The Motto” by Drake?”

I shake my head in the negative.

“The song will come on next and I will sing all the lyrics.”

That was all he said to me. He then joined his friends back on the dance floor. I stood there wondering what I should do. The song came on and everyone yelled (like they do for most songs that come on during the reception) and sure enough, he started lipsyncing the song. It was pretty crowded so I didn’t have a good angle to film him so I kind of just watched. Did he want me to film him singing or was he just was letting me know that he was going to lipsync the next song? Most people were singing it. But filming someone lipsync a song is not entertaining to watch especially if it’s dark and you will not know what song the person is singing in the final highlight video.

I know of Drake but I do not listen to any of his music. On the following Monday, I decided to look up the song on Spotify. I like the song. I added it to one of my playlists with all my other rap tunes (108 songs on the playlist as of this writing - mainly French rap songs). I then looked up to see when the song came out and it was released way back in 2011. I was kind of surprised it was ten years old. It has over 330 million listens on Spotify so clearly it is a popular track. I thought about this and wondered what other songs I am missing out on.