While out to dinner with two old college roommates, we began talking about the hypothetical of moving to California. I explained how against it I was and my reasoning:
1-Its expensive for no tangible reason
2-Its infrastructure blows
3-Most importantly the San Andreas Fault is set to cause a problem or two in the future (understatement)
When I dropped that piece of logic on my buddies one of them replied “damn Andy, you’re woke as hell.” I laughed and had to contextually put together what woke meant….
Another friend joined and said he had recently visited his homeland of Columbia. We got on the topic of the messed up governments in South America where I was able to hold a conversation; granted in a more basic fashion.
He again mentioned how up to date on current events we were. I told him some of my sources for “staying woke” or more formally staying informed.
In addition to current events I enjoy staying informed on finance. So I’m going to explain some of the ways I keep my information pipeline stacked with effecient and good quality stuff.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, are you in the cave of 2018?
tl;dr
Use these resources to stay informed on current events and financial information:
The Basics
1- UpFirst by NPR (Podcast, Mon-Fri, >15mins)
2- Vice News Tonight (TV Show, HBO Go, Mon-Fri, 30mins)
3- Bloomberg (TV Channel (Free), Keep on while I get ready in the morning, 20-30mins)
More Indepth
4- Planet Money by NPR (Podcast, 2 per week, 20-30mins)
5- Freakonomics by WNYC Studios (Podcast, 1 per week, 30-60mins)
Sometimes Boring, but Quality Info
6- TED Radio Hour by NPR (Podcast, 1 per week, 50-60mins)
7- Masters in Business by Bloomberg (Podcast, 1 per week, 50-90mins)
Interesting, Entertaining, and Educational
8- How I Built This by NPR (Podcast, 1 per week, 40-55mins)
Now I’ll give some commentary on each of these.
1- UpFirst by NPR (Podcast, Mon-Fri, >15mins)
- News from the last 24 hours
- Unbiased, from my perspective
- Quality reporting with the resources to get the story right
- Easy to listen to on the drive to work
2- Vice News Tonight (TV Show, HBO Go, Mon-Fri, 30mins)
- News from last 24 hours, with a brief ‘culture’ part at the end
- Leans left pretty hard, but still worth watching
- Their reporters will risk going to Syria for a damn story
- I have this on while I make dinner sometimes, and while I’m writing this actually
3- Bloomberg (TV Channel, Keep on while I get ready in the morning, 20-30mins)
- Financial, tech, and some political news
- Leans left
- They use the channel to showcase their software (“Bloomberg Terminal”) and all of the analytics its capable of, so if you like graphs, charts and hard data this is the move
- I listen/watch in the morning and put on in my office sometimes
4- Planet Money by NPR (Podcast, 2 per week, 20-30mins)
- Takes one topic and dives DEEP
- You will never run out of “cocktail tid-bits” while networking or on Tinder dates if you listen to this often
- Covers economics, politics, regulation, business, and its not limited to the United States
- Very interesting podcast if you want to understand why things are the way they are
- I listen to this either on my way home from work if I’m not already brain dead, or while I’m warming up for my workout in the afternoon
5- Freakonomics by WNYC Studios (Podcast, 1 per week, 30-60mins)
- ECONOMICS
- Yes this is about economics obviously, but sometimes its not just economics. They’ll use their economic perspective/way of thinking to investigate the implications of things that may relate to economics
- The episode I listened to today at the gym was about how graduate economics students go about interviewing for jobs during the first week of January in Chicago for any and every economic job opening in the country. So, the economists got together and found the cheapest, quickest, and most effecient way to go about hiring for their entire industry. Nerds.
6- TED Radio Hour by NPR (Podcast, 1 per week, 50-60mins)
- TED Talks in podcast form
- I usually don’t have the patience to sit through a whole one of these
- I think I did once when on a plane and thats all I had predownloaded before take-off
7- Masters in Business by Bloomberg (Podcast, 1 per week, 50-90mins)
- Level 10 finance stuff
- I am passionate about finance, but I find myself listening to this and trying to understand what it is they are talking about. Whether its a new kind of financial analysis method or the maverick hedge funds being started, this will keep you on your toes.
- Some of their guests are old boring rich dudes, but they have good insight
8- How I Built This by NPR (Podcast, 1 per week, 40-55mins)
- My favorite
- Takes on guest and they explain how they built their empire through entrepreneurship
- Mark Cuban, Kate Spade, Barbara Corcoran, Kendra Scott, Richard Branson
- Can’t reccomend this one enough
- LISTEN TO THIS NOW
Comment what you think of one of these, and what else could be added to the list.
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