9 Podcasts To Make You Smarter
Huberman Lab
Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has built a huge following – including over 7m YouTube subscribers – by explaining how the body actually works. His deep‑dives on dopamine, circadian rhythm and testosterone are the episodes you’ll want to bookmark, while his conversations with Dr Paul Conti on mental health and James Clear on habits are among the show’s most replayed. Don’t miss the two-hour-long episode on sleep, in which Huberman is joined by Matt Walker – a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California – who talks about the importance of rest and how to achieve great sleep, every single night.
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Intelligence Squared
Intelligence Squared captures heavyweight debates and interviews with politicians, economists, authors and cultural figures. The Oxford‑style debates cover everything from advances in AI to capitalism, free speech and global security – don’t skip the episode on why everyone is suddenly fighting over the Arctic. You can also tune into two-part episodes featuring cultural heavyweights like author Ian McEwan.
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Blowback
Hosted by journalists Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, Blowback takes one geopolitical flashpoint and unpacks it across a full season. Across six series, the pair have charted the rise and reach of the American empire, beginning with a meticulous reconstruction of the Iraq War. Later runs on Cuba, Korea and the post-9/11 security state are delivered with the same mix of deep research and dark humour. A must-listen for anyone interested in the history of American politics.
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99% Invisible
Roman Mars’s long‑running design podcast is all about the unnoticed architecture, objects and systems that shape everyday life. Episodes like ‘The Uniform’ (on military tailoring), ‘The Pool and the Stream’ (on the evolution of men’s swimwear) and ‘The Shipping Forecast’ (a love letter to British maritime radio) show how wide the remit is. The miniseries on infrastructure – from stadium acoustics to the design of banknotes – is particularly fascinating.
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Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast
There’s a lot happening in politics right now, and sitting through rolling news isn’t everyone’s idea of a good evening. Page 94 – Private Eye’s podcast hosted by Ian Hislop and the magazine’s editorial team – is one of the more entertaining ways you can stay informed. The recurring ‘Rotten Boroughs’ episodes are standouts, pulling apart local council scandals with the kind of detail and deadpan delivery Hislop has perfected.
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Ologies
Want to learn facts about random, but important, stuff? Ologies by science correspondent Alie Ward is the series for you. Her show interviews experts (‘ologists’) about their niche fields – volcanology, myrmecology (ants), tempestology (hurricanes), you name it. Ward’s humour keeps things light, but the research is solid, and the experts are often brilliant storytellers. The episodes on fearology, pyrotechnology (firemaking) and behavioural ecology are great starting points, while the two-part series on chronobiology digs into how your internal clock actually works, complete with practical, slightly mindbending insights from the scientists who study it.
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Radical with Amol Rajan
Amol Rajan brings a sharp, slightly combative energy to long‑form interviews with people who’ve actually shaped the world – politicians, tech founders, strategists. He’s quick, he interrupts when he needs to, and he pushes guests into territory they don’t usually go. Alongside politics and world events, he takes on more entertaining (and light-hearted) topics, like why most of us are in a social media echo chamber, how the Grammys actually works, and how TV producers know when they have a hit on their hands.
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Acquired
Acquired is the most popular business series across multiple platforms. Its three to four-hour episodes feature insights from some of the world’s biggest brands – think Hermès, Visa, Nike, LVMH and Amazon. Those at the top go into detail on how the business was founded, the lessons learnt, and mistakes made. Don’t miss the fascinating episode on Costco – the membership-only supermarket that has the cheapest prices of any major retailer in America, and also the wealthiest customer base. It tells the story of how a few baggers and checkout assistants went on to create a business with a net worth of $300bn.
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You're Wrong About
Host Sarah Marshall is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination – from the Exxon Valdez oil spill to medieval torture. We recommend revisiting the miniseries on OJ Simpson and his infamous trial for the murders of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, as well as the episode about the ‘cola wars’, when Coca-Cola and Pepsi kicked off their decade-long marketing rivalry – a story about corporate greed and a belief that the only acceptable outcome was total domination.
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