To get smarter… just listen

How do busy people keep up to date, informed and entertained? The answer is simple: they use audio. They listen to audio content while they prepare breakfast, while they exercise or drive. They do it on the sidewalk or on a plane.
We’re surrounded by new smart speakers that listen and talk to us. And the smartphones in our pockets are perfectly suited to let us enjoy the spoken word.

The access key to this world is called podcasting. It’s the digital child of blogging and radio. And it’s now one of the most interesting growing media.

Choose if you want to listen to podcasts on Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod, Google Home. Or on your smartphone with Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or Pocket Casts.

In today’s curated selection you’ll find 7 podcasts well worth listening to. Including a strange Easter egg at the end.

That’s it for this month. Let’s keep in touch.

Doesn’t matter if you’re not American. “This American Life” is widely recognized as the leading storytelling podcast. Ira Glass is a master of creating expectation, in unraveling plot elements and finally resolving them in a perfect ending.

“A show about the Internet” may seem like the most vague of definitions. But it captures perfectly the spirit of this enjoyable show that goes from randomness to specificity in each episode.

David Levitt and Steven Dubner need no introduction. In this podcast they explore “the hidden side of everything”. If you’re intellectually curious you’ll love this podcast.

Spike Feresten is a writer, a comedian and a car fanatic. These three aspects mold the structure of the episodes of his “cars & coffee”. He features comedians, a crazy lawyer and frequent incursions of his personal friend Jerry Seinfeld. The only downside is that after listening you will want to start collecting vintage Porsche’s.

The Economist releases in audio form a number of different programs, all worth listening. There is the ultra-dry “Editor Picks”: here brilliant voice actors and actresses read aloud the best of the newspaper according to the chief editor Zanny Minton Beddoes. “Babbage” follows tech, “The Economist asks” dives deep into specific topics, “The week ahead” anticipates the week’s most pressing themes.

The best-selling author of Outliers, Blink and Tipping Point hosts a very personal exploration of stories from the past that still bug him personally. The result is quirky, intellectual and intimate. A great way to get into the mind of Malcolm Gladwell.

Shameless plug: this Italian automotive podcast is the labor of love of a friend. I am helping him get it off the ground. You can even listen to yours truly in episode number two. By the way: the intro is something we plan to change soon, I wasn’t there when they recorded it ?

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