Last week I noted the return of Bill Simmons, currently of HBO, to the podcasting scene. Now we can put some numbers behind the story. It has been reported that Simmons's podcast has been downloaded four million times in the past month and is now among the top 20 most-popular podcasts in the world. Not too shabby for a relaunched podcast.
One of the purposes of the Essential Listening series is to help in discovery. Among the challenges facing professionals, including those of us in the investing field, is finding new and interesting content. A recent post by Kevin Kelly and Mark Frauenfelder lists the top 50 factual podcasts. There are some stalwarts on the list, WTF with Marc Maron among them, but other less-heralded podcasts like Dan Carlin's Hardcore History are included as well. It is definitely worth checking out.
Now onto some podcasts I think are worth listening to this week (or any other):
- James Early and Rana Pritanjali talk with Vitaliy Katsenelson, CFA, of Investment Management Associates and author of The Little Book of Sideways Markets. Katsenelson explains the danger of dividend stocks and the disparity between stock price and intrinsic value. (Motley Fool)
- Shane Parrish speaks with the Wall Street Journal's Jason Zweig, author of The Devil's Financial Dictionary. They discuss how to deal with the flood of financial news and what advice individual investors should follow. (Farnam Street)
- Barry Ritholtz of Ritholtz Wealth Management and Paul Desmond of Lowry Research talk about technical analysis and delve into the history of the stock market. (The Big Picture)
- Michael Martin, author of The Inner Voice of Trading, speaks with Steven M. Sears, a Barron's columnist and author of The Indomitable Investor, on the challenges facing traders in an age of increasingly automated markets. (MartinKronicle)
- Jay Yarow interviews Eric Jackson of Ader Investment Management about the uncertain strategic situation at Yahoo! Jackson, a vocal critic of CEO Marissa Mayer, lays out the case for new management and a new strategic direction at the web giant. (Business Insider)
- Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky of Andreessen Horowitz delve into the history of the PC and how the device has become nearly perfect. One question they seek to address: Once everyone has a smartphone, what comes next? (a16z)
- Jerry Colonna and venture capitalist Brad Feld of Foundry Group discuss evolving investment criteria and revisit some important advice Field once gave Colonna. (The Reboot Podcast)
- Speaking of Bill Simmons, in this episode he interviews writer/director Judd Apatow, who has been at the center of movie comedy for over a decade. Apatow talks about returning to stand-up comedy and bringing new comedic voices to the screen. (The Bill Simmons Podcast)
To help the discovery process along, please feel free to leave a comment with some undiscovered podcasts that others might enjoy. I might even highlight your suggestion in this next edition of this podcast roundup.
You can read more from Tadas Viskanta on his blog Abnormal Returns or follow him on Twitter @abnormalreturns.
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All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author's employer.
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