Ask HN: Best Podcasts of 2025?

40•adriancooney•7h ago

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.

Comments

thenaturalist•7h ago

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/

shimman•4h ago

Zitron is good, if you like him check out "This Machine Kills" and "Tech Won't Save Us."

linsomniac•6h ago

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

dauertewigkeit•5h ago

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.

hnu0847•5h ago

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•5h ago

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.

jeanlucas•2h ago

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.

mFixman•2h ago

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.

LeonardoTolstoy•5h ago

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.

telesilla•1h ago

Have you tried How Did This Get Made? I've enjoyed these shows, sometimes live, immensely. They celebrate the worst movies ever made, hilariously.

realityfactchex•4h ago

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

deanebarker•4h ago

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).

biophysboy•2h ago

In this vein, conan's podcast is also surprisingly good. It doesn't feel like a phoned-in retirement gig.

roumenguha•4h ago

Citations Needed: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/

FergusArgyll•4h ago

  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)

roughly•3h ago

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.

misiti3780•3h ago

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.

roughly•3h ago

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.

biophysboy•3h ago

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.

m-hodges•3h ago

I miss the Ezra Klein that did a weekly policy whitepaper deep dive on The Weeds.

rahimnathwani•3h ago

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...

misiti3780•3h ago

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)

misiti3780•2h ago

why am i being downvoted lol ?

hagbard_c•1h ago

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.

healsdata•3h ago

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

biophysboy•2h ago

In this network, Know Your Enemy and 5-4 are also solid. The latter is on the snarkier side, which puts some people off.

BiraIgnacio•3h ago

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•2h ago

What are your best-evers?

m-hodges•3h ago

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-...

benmanns•3h ago

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).

OfflineSergio•2h ago

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.

ahyattdev•2h ago

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.

jandeboevrie•2h ago

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•1h ago

I love 2.5 Admins.

The rest of Late Night Linux is okay too.

robdefeo•2h ago

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...

TRiG_Ireland•2h ago

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

biophysboy•2h ago

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•2h ago

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.

biophysboy•2h ago

That's great! I'll have to give them a shot again - for some reason, I bounced off this show

ks2048•2h ago

Currently loving Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan. Highlight seasons so far: [3] French Revolution [4] Haitian Revolution.

apparent•2h ago

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.

OfflineSergio•2h ago

- "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.

thomassmith65•2h ago

• 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)

jeanlucas•2h ago

+1 to The Rest is History, they had a great year. Absolutely loved the series on Elizabeth I.

sounds231•2h ago

Diabolical Lies

iammjm•2h ago

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape for physics, philosophy and science

mFixman•2h ago

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.

surfsvammel•2h ago

The SGU. There is only one podcast that I always come back to! https://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcasts

davesmylie•1h ago

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.

lentil_soup•2h ago

Wookash (https://wooka.sh/) for low level programming and game development with a surprising cast of guests

mindcrash•1h ago

From a intrigue POV:

After Skool: https://www.youtube.com/afterskool | https://open.spotify.com/show/36mIOrFwTKIDER8KF0aGrx | https://www.afterskool.net/

Academy of Ideas: https://www.youtube.com/academyofideas | https://open.spotify.com/show/2dio7KUNuDHErlMumZtNt6 | https://academyofideas.com/

lylejantzi3rd•1h ago

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

aero88883•1h ago

The Economics of Everyday Things Podcast. These are ~20 mins podcast and talk about the products we use daily.

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Tell HN: I am afraid AI will take my job at some point

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Ask HN: Why isn't there competition to LinkedIn yet?

Tell HN: Merry Christmas

Do you know what your dev team shipped last week?

Postgres for everything, does it work?

Bloat in software is getting WAAAY out of hand

Looking for Decent Conversation?

Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

Ask HN: What is the international distribution/statistics of HN visitors?

Stronk.app – open-source gym lifts journal

Ask HN: Would anyone pay for a social network with no ads or data harvesting?

Ask HN: Good uses cases for Fabrice's microquickjs

Ask HN: My mother was scammed out of all her savings. What should I do?

Google Cloud Run cost me $4,676 in 6 weeks with zero traff

Ask HN: Oberon et al., vs. Rust

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