I've turned on my TV a few times only in the past 15 years. I was never a fan of the traditional medium to begin with, but once streaming became dominant, I stopped watching TV altogether. It lacked two things essential to a great personal viewing experience: on-demand access and speed control.
YouTube and Netflix have become my TV, and podcasts my channels. Podcasts offer valuable and often lightweight insights on topics that interest me.
While they are (were?) originally associated with audio platforms like Spotify, I tend to consume them on YouTube. It's my way of engaging fully with the content to better absorb it.
Over the years, I've compiled a list of podcasts I enjoy across several categories.
Disclosure: my default playback speed is 1.3x. I did the math and I save about 23% of the time on every video. Over a year, that adds up to tens of hours.
Disclaimer: the above is not viewing advice.
Y Combinator's LightCone is a great podcast on the latest in tech and how it's transforming - usually disrupting - industries. It approaches these shifts through the lens of startups and innovation, which is where YC excels.
I watch select episodes of The Diary of a CEO. I'm not subscribed, but some conversations on AI, life, and the future have been genuinely insightful.
Reid Hoffman's Possible podcast occasionally features thoughtful guests who bring clarity to AI and the tech world we live in.
Y Combinator's YouTube channel is packed with videos for founders, from product conversations to company culture and everything in between.
Viaka's podcast features founders and tech executives from the MENA region sharing their journey. The cultural proximity makes the conversations resonate deeply with me as a founder.
My go-to podcast for market updates is Prof G Markets by Scott Galloway. It covers market dynamics and macro trends with convincing analysis and a touch of humor.
One recently launched podcast I subscribed to after being a loyal reader of his newsletter is The Art of the Zag by Joe Lazer. It doesn't fall strictly into the business category, but rather into the business of content and storytelling. Joe is an author and marketing expert with eye-opening perspectives on where things are heading in the age of AI slop.
Premier Unbelievable? is a YouTube channel that offers thoughtful conversations between believers and skeptics. One of the finest debates I've ever watched on biology and belief featured Francis Collins and Richard Dawkins.
Premier Unbelievable? also has interesting conversations about Christian faith, ethics, society, and culture.
What are your favorite podcasts in these categories or outside of them? I'd love to check them out.
Traditional TV has been replaced with YouTube, Netflix, and podcasts, using on-demand access and speed control to consume content more efficiently. A curated list of podcasts across tech, startups, business, and spirituality reflects a focus on learning, market insights, founder stories, and meaningful conversations.
Fadi Boulos is the founder of Supportful, a software engineering consulting firm based out of Lebanon. He enables startups in the US and Europe to augment their teams with remote engineers from Lebanon, helping reduce the brain drain in the country and preserve the human capital of its small communities. Fadi has 20 years of experience working in the tech space in the UK, France, and Lebanon, and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Nantes, France.
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