Listen to these brilliant shows while doing your daily mundane activities in 2023 to get smarter every day!

Looking back I can see the value I got out of listening to podcasts in 2022. Podcasts are one of the best forms of passive content consumption.

You can listen to podcasts in any one of these mundane daily activities:

• Commuting to and from work
• Cleaning your apartment or house
• Cooking
• Doing some low-focus work

When doing any of these activities, you can have some podcasts playing in the background. You don’t even have to pay attention. From time to time, your mind will just capture some of the information nuggets from these episodes as you go about your day.

Later on, if anything particularly interested you, you can re-listen to the episode or research that topic further through other means.

What’s the best way to listen to podcasts?

There is only one app that I will recommend for podcast listening — Snipd.

Snipd uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to give you a ton of incredible features. It automatically extracts highlights from your podcast episodes. You can also save any moment from an episode, and the app will smartly record the snippet, with transcription.

You can also share these “snips” with friends and family. Even better, you can set up integrations with apps like Notion, Obsidian, Readwise, or Bear, so that your recorded snips automatically end up in one of these Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) apps.

I wrote about Snipd recently, and I would highly recommend you check out the blog post here.

Best Podcasts of 2022

Now that you know about the best app to listen to podcasts in, let me tell you about 5 podcasts that truly changed my life this year.

I would highly recommend picking at least one from the list below and giving it a go. I am sure you will learn tremendously!

Bookworm

I have no idea how I didn’t find this hidden gem before.

If you love reading books, you will surely love this podcast!

The podcast “Bookworm” is by Joe Buhlig and Mike Schmitz. Every two weeks the hosts read a popular book and then talk about it in detail.

They don’t just give a book review though. They actually discuss the ways you can apply it in your life, and they themselves apply the lessons in their own lives.

At the time of writing, they have almost 175 episodes! Most of these are books that are amazing and you will want to read them if you are interested in personal development.

Just to name a few books that they covered:

• Deep Work
• Digital Minimalism
• Atomic Habits
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Discipline is Key
• Daily Stoic
• Steal Like An Artist
• Getting Things Done
• The War of Art

The best part is that listening to an episode of a book is not a replacement for actually reading the book. Usually, these episodes just motivate me to go out and actually buy the books to dive deeper into them.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

“Decoder with Nilay Patel” is a show from The Verge. The podcast focuses on technology and its impact on society.

If you are interested in “tech”, like me, I would highly recommend this! You get a sense of the direction the world is heading towards. The show does some deep dives into companies that are working on cutting-edge technologies.

The host talks to diverse innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they are navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.

The conversations flow very naturally. The host comes up with an interesting but honest set of questions, and you can really see what goes inside the head of some of the smartest people in the technology world.

There are episodes featuring leaders of Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Apple, Disney, Amazon, and so much more. You learn a lot about the motivations of these big tech companies. You also understand their culture and the impact they are trying to have on the world.

The Productivity Show

Ah, this one’s a classic!

“The Productivity Show” was the first podcast I ever listened to all the way back in 2017. This is the show that introduced me to the concept of productivity and the world of personal growth. There are not many other podcasts that had such a big impact on my life.

Just like the name says, the show is focused on everything productivity related.

They have almost 500+ episodes! That’s crazy!

If you are even vaguely interested in productivity, this is your treasure trove! You will find at least 20–30 episodes out of the 500+ that will interest you.

Definitely not an exhaustive list, but some topics that the show covers:

• Productivity (duh!)
• Habit building
• Routines and Rituals
• Sleep
• Focus
• Health
• Apps and technologies
• System Thinking
• Books

…and so much more!

If you are interested in productivity or self-development, listening to this is “required reading”!

The Proof with Simon Hill

One of my biggest focuses in the last year or two has been my physical and mental health. That’s where this podcast show comes in.

“The Proof with Simon Hill” is a science-based podcast that explores the health and longevity benefits that come with mastering physical exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, recovery, and sleep.

Every argument and idea presented in the podcast is backed by scientific research. This can make some of the episodes dense, but the emphasis on facts makes it worth the listen.

The host is a big advocate of a vegan diet which was also a big attraction for me.

If you are interested in health, fitness, and/or graceful aging, give this podcast a go! You won’t regret it.

The Disclosure Podcast

One of the best vegan podcasts out there by none other than one of the best vegan activists, Earthling Ed.

In this podcast, Ed explores topics surrounding veganism, morality, ethics, and the environment. Sure, these are topics every vegan podcast can talk about.

However, it’s not the topics but the arguments and rationale that he provides, that keep you hooked to this podcast.

If you ever considered a vegan lifestyle, or you are a vegan who wants more clarity, this is the podcast for you.

My only regret with this show is that there are only 32 episodes and, unlike other shows in this list, this podcast is dead now. If you binge through all 32 (like I did multiple times!) and want more, check out some of his interviews and talks on YouTube.

I hope you found this a valuable read and have some takeaways that you can go ahead and implement in your wonderful lives.

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