Best Personal Finance & Other Podcasts


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Best Personal Finance Podcasts

The only thing more vital to carry than cash in New York City is a pair of headphones. Odds are you’re spending at least an hour a day walking, getting herded into subway cars, and commuting. And unless you enjoy the mouth breathing of the guy standing behind you on the train or the never-ending sounds of sirens, jackhammers, or scam artists (tourists take note: never ever buy show tickets, CDs, or anything else for that matter on the street — ever), you’ll want to have something to listen to.

I’ve substituted my music for podcasts to get a little more mental stimulation out of my commute. I hate wasting time and so podcasts are a nice, passive means of keeping my brain moving and entertained as I move around the city. Below you’ll find a list of some of my current favorites and recommendations.

MONEY STUFF

Yes, the personal finance blogger listens to personal finance podcasts. Surprised? That being said, it only makes up a small portion of my listening diet, as evidenced by the small representation for the category below.

The Dave Ramsey Show

Okay, so this is really just Dave Ramsey’s daily radio show, but if you’re like me and never catch anything live and just want it available on the go, get the podcast. Whenever I need to repent of my non-budgeting ways, I return to the Church of Ramsey and worship… or just listen. If you need a financial motivation pick-me-up, hit this up.

Planet Money

With a name like Planet Money, this podcast very rarely discusses the type of money that you and me dish about around this blog. Instead of budgeting and Roth IRAs, this NPR-produced podcast dives deep into topics that are loosely about money: skill-based gambling, betting against the USA (aka shorting the stock market), rose farming around Valentine’s Day, etc. Always fun, informative, and random.

ENTREPRENUERSHIP

What a terrible, terrible word. Both to spell and say. It’s so affected — entre-PRE (notice the “r” in front of the “e”… straight up snobbery)-neuurrrrrrr (as much nasal-ness as possible)-ship. It’s also such a buzzword that just by subscribing to the idea you sound naive and aloof and looking for the easy way out of work. I digress… while I don’t think I’m a self-proclaimed entrepreneur, I like learning about others’ side gigs, ways to optimize our income streams, and reliving the adrenaline rush of a big idea. These help satisfy that itch.

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss is one of my favorite people out there. He wrote the Four Hour Work Week and is a fascinating dude who is obsessed with hacking every aspect of his life. His podcast is mostly lengthy, in-depth interviews with similarly interesting people. Tim does a great job asking unconventional questions that help shed layer after layer of his interview subjects and how they became who they are. Inspiring, educational, and slightly neurotic.

StartUp Podcast

This is my favorite podcast right now. StartUp is a podcast that follows the start up journey of former-NPR podcaster Alex Blumberg and his podcast company. So a start up podcast about starting a start up that is a podcast company. Meta enough for you? Season one follows that story from the very first bungled investor pitch to the eventual successful funding of his company. Now in season two, the podcast is following a dating service start up and is already highly entertaining.

The Smart Passive Income Podcast

This is straight up Side Gig 101. Pat Flynn is a successful online entrepreneur who brings other successful business-minded folks on his show to share their success stories and learnings along the way. If you’re interested in learning more about earning passive income or learning the ropes of online businesses, this is a great place to start.

STORYTELLING

This category is the main reason I’ve stuck with podcasting. They call radio the “theater of the mind” and podcasting is no different. There’s something oddly magical about sitting for 30 minutes to an hour just listening and letting your brain crank its own filmstrip. If you haven’t given podcasting a try, this category is the place to start.

Serial

This is the podcast that launched a million listening earbuds. This NPR-produced podcast dissects a “closed” murder case from the late 90’s that offers more questions than it does answers about the crime. It is podcasting at its finest. Descriptive storytelling, rich sound effects and music, and gripping dialogue. Joanna and I would eagerly await Thursdays when new episodes would come out and wait until Sally was asleep to listen to it together. We were like giddy children of the ’50s tuning into our favorite live radio program. If you want a good podcast to get your feet wet with, start here. And if you’re already a Serial listener, then please do yourself a favor and watch this incredible SNL spoof.

Reply All

Remember the StartUp podcast I mentioned up above about starting a podcast company? Reply All is the second show of said start up, Gimlet Media. This podcast takes a random Internet/tech-related story and follows it down the rabbit hole, from the shady aftermarket of domains to a guy who has spent a good portion of his adult life fixing very specific repeated grammatical errors on Wikipedia. These are great when I don’t want to think and just want to be entertained on my subway ride to work.

BONUS: Mystery Show

This is the third produced podcast of Gimlet Media and started just last week. I don’t know if it’s worth recommending yet, but given the quality of the other Gimlet podcasts and the strength of the first episode, this will probably be worth subscribing to. The premise is pretty simple: the host solves random mysteries. In the first episode, she helps a woman return a VHS to a video store that mysteriously disappeared the day after she rented it. Fun.

Who else out there is a podcast junkie? Share some of your favorites with us and give us more ear goodness for our daily commutes.

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26 Comments

  • Reply Becky @ RunFunDone May 27, 2015 at 9:42 am

    http://www.runfundone.com

    Invisibilia.
    Strangers.

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:08 pm

      Oh yeah! I’ve listened to a few Invisibilia episodes and really liked them. I’ll have to look into Strangers!

  • Reply Tracy May 27, 2015 at 9:56 am

    http://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/
    Truly the Theater of the Mind from the 50s. Host Adam Graham plays them in order as best he can (there are missing episodes) and this is what addicted me to podcasts!

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:09 pm

      Very cool. We can’t wait to give this one a try!

  • Reply Ali May 27, 2015 at 11:15 am

    This is great – thanks for sharing! I’m downloading Dave Ramsey and Planet Money as I type!

    I LOVE Serial. Freakanomics is also good for interesting, money-related topics. And of course This American Life is a classic. 99% Invisible is another great one with shorter, very unique stories.

  • Reply Morgan May 27, 2015 at 11:32 am

    Freakonomics Radio Podcast
    This American Life

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:21 pm

      Both great ones!

  • Reply Eryka May 27, 2015 at 12:34 pm

    I love to listen to NPR’s Fresh Air podcasts. The interviewers range from actors, comedians, musicians, authors, scientists, etc. and typically are super interesting.

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:28 pm

      Oooh, that does sound really interesting! I’ll add that to my list!

  • Reply Brian May 27, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    Hands down the best podcast out there is Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History…. Start with the Wrath of the Khans podcast and you will be hooked. He is an incredible story teller.

    I also like Liar City, Weird Medicine, Big O and Dukes and most episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience.

    But if I only had to recommend one, it would be Hardcore History… it is hours and hours of awesome!

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:31 pm

      With that kind of endorsement, I’m intrigued! We’ll both give it a try. Thanks!

  • Reply Heather May 27, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    I love Planet Money. I’m working my way through all the back episodes. The episode on the roses was fantastic – who knew?!

    Radiolab is another fav. And This American Life, of course.

    I listened to Serial, and found it great at first, but it lost my interest eventually.

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:39 pm

      I know! That rose episode was so interesting!

  • Reply Chadnudj May 27, 2015 at 5:38 pm

    I’ll throw in my recommendations for This American Life (just great, consistently, and where Sarah Koenig of Serial got her start), Freakonomics (always interesting money/economics adjacent stuff), WTF with Marc Maron (admittedly more off-color, but some great interviews of comedians), RadioLab (interesting journalism), The Moth (great storytelling podcast series), and Amicus (if you’re a law nerd like me — it’s all about the Supreme Court).

  • Reply Gen Y Finance Guy May 27, 2015 at 7:21 pm

    Great list!

    Here are a few more podcast you might really like:

    Entrepreneur on Fire – John Lee Dumas is crushing it online making $200K to $400K a month online. He interviews a new entrepreneur everyday.

    School of Greatness – Lewis Howes is a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and podcaster. He is another 7 figure revenue guy and very good podcast.

    The Side Hustle Show – Nick Loper uncovers so many side hustles out there.

    I have more, but those are ones I think you might like based on your list 🙂

    Cheers!

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:49 pm

      All of those sound very interesting. I’m intrigued! Love hearing about others’ success stories, so I’ll have to give those a listen.

  • Reply Ry May 28, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    I am really enjoying a new one called Shadow of Ideas. It’s very good if you like history. I also love The Library Police (about books obviously). And of course, I follow Welcome to Nightmare.

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 9:54 pm

      Those all sounds awesome. Thanks!

  • Reply Chris@ Rags to Reasonable May 29, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    Man. I love podcasts, and your favorite list, looks a lot like mine. Especially ‘Startup” which I’m totally digging right now.

    I’ll put an exclamation point on two already mentioned: Freakonomics, and Hardcore History (which is pretty intense, but if you don’t mind 4 hour podcasts… it’s incredible)

    Another one that I love from time to time is The Nerdist: It’s interviews with comedians, actors and other interesting people. I pick and choose episodes, but their interview of Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of my favourite pods of all time.

    I’m a new fan reader, and a big fan of what you guys do!

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 10:04 pm

      Thanks, Chris! Never heard of The Nerdist, but it sounds cool. And I feel ya on Startup… I’m always waiting for the next episode of that one!

  • Reply Julia May 30, 2015 at 7:04 am

    I’m excited to check some of these out! I listen to Podcasts while I’m at the gym and while I’m walking around town, which is a lot of my day.
    I’ll second Strangers and Radio Lab, as mentioned above. I loved Serial, just MO. And I’ll add Snap Judgement

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 10:05 pm

      Awesome! Love getting all these recommendations! Thanks!

  • Reply Miranda @ Miranda Writes Blog June 1, 2015 at 1:28 pm

    I love Freakonimics for a good dose of nerd/history/current events/finance-y stuff. The best episode so far was the “Is There a Better Way to Fight Terrorism?” episode. I also love The Longest Shortest Day. It’s a parenting podcast that people without kids would love to listen to (so you know it’s good).

    • Reply Joanna June 5, 2015 at 10:13 pm

      I’ve heard of that parenting podcast, but I’ve never listened to it! I’ll have to give it a try!!

  • Reply Lisa June 3, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    Yes, I’ve been looking for more podcasts to listen to! If you’re into trivia, I suggest Good Job Brain! Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me and This American Life are some of my other favorites.

  • Reply Melanie Becker June 10, 2015 at 10:49 am

    Check out The Money Guy…I really like their financial podcasts-45 mins 2x/month.
    Money Girl has quick easy listens, and YNAB podcast.
    Im looking up Planet Money and Serial now! 🙂

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