Obligatory shout out to Hardcore History: http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

I was never very much into history. But it didn't matter because this series is amazing. I would recommend "Blueprint for Armageddon" about the first world war, but be warned that it's very long. If you want something shorter (it's still almost 6 hours!) try "The Destroyer of Worlds".

But really, pretty much everything is fantastic.

I have the privilege of working at a beautiful University campus and being able to get there by bicycle. In the 45 minutes it takes for me to complete the 7 miles of the bicycle lane along the Pinheiros river I like to hear audiobooks and podcasts.

Some of the things I've heard lately:

- Startups for the rest of us: http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/

- Rework (37 signals): https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Rework-Audiobook/B0036FL...

- Algorithms to live by: https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Algorithms-to-Live-By-Au...

NONE OF THE ABOVE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS (for the trigger-happy jerks among us).

I can absolutely recommend the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, too.

StartUp by Gimlet on the other hand while entertaining doesn't provide a whole lot of valuable insight in my opinion.

Personally, I'd recommend these podcasts:

- Sales for Nerds: https://www.salesfornerds.io/ Pragmatic sales tips for people with a technical background.

- $100k Freelancing: http://www.100kfreelancing.com/ Advice on how to grow a freelancing or consulting business.

While the following technically aren't about startups or business in general they deal with a lot of - sometimes related - matters and insights that can help with becoming an overall better person:

- The Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/podcast/ General advice as to how to become better at many things in life, including business.

- 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/ Interesting, groundbreaking, sometimes quirky, pieces of design from around the world.

- Design Matters: http://www.debbiemillman.com/designmatters/ Interviews with designers, artists and people from related backgrounds.

Am the only one that finds listening to startup podcasts to be useless?

I've listened to countless startup podcasts and read countless startup books. Without your own experiences running a business its hard to sift through the cruft of bad advice out there. I guess it's more entertainment than an actual productive pursuit.

I posted this question on Indie Hackers earlier this week and got some really great podcast recommendations: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/which-podcasts-do-you-rec...

Enjoying the "Startups for the rest of us" podcast so far (http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/)

Another thing to consider is listening to lectures in other fields. I liked to listen to astronomy, physics, astrophysics, etc lectures when I had a long commute.

I've been really into politics and government lately, I'd recommend the following podcasts in the genre. I cannot provide links as I'm on mobile but a Google search should suffice.

The Weeds by Vox Media, this is a more 'wonk' and policy based podcast which also focuses on the latest news. This year their focus has been not surprisingly going into the finer details of ACA and Tax reform.

More Perfect by WNYC, this is a spin off podcast from the Radiolab folks which focuses on important supreme Court cases, this podcast features audio from oral arguments and interviews with folks involved in these landmark cases.

I'm a big fan of pretty much all of the content in the Heavybit library. Heavybit is primarily focused on developer products, but a ton of the content applies to anyone building a SaaS product or startups in general - https://www.heavybit.com/library/

I listen to podcasts that are more meta / spiritual:

New Books in Philosophy: http://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/philoso...

Jesus in Books: http://jesusinbooks.com

Rochester Zen Center Teisho: http://rzcpodcasts.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's a collection of my top audiobooks/podcasts that I think HN readers will love.

This is the best stuff I have discovered over the past 3–4 years, and I’m sure you guys will enjoy each of these books, so if you haven’t read some of them yet — I highly recommend you to check them out.

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Excellent audiobooks:

- Rework https://www.audible.com/pd/Rework-Audiobook/B0036FLXLQ

- Creativity, Inc https://www.audible.com/pd/Creativity-Inc-Part-1-Overcoming-...

- The Martian https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Martian-Part-1-Audiobook/B00B...

- The Hard Thing About Hard Things https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Hard-Thing-About-Hard-Things-...

- Zero to One https://www.audible.com/pd/Zero-to-One-Notes-on-Startups-or-...

- On Intelligence https://www.audible.com/pd/B002V8LKTE

- The Design of Everyday Things https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Design-of-Everyday-Things-Aud...

- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! https://www.audible.com/pd/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman-Au...

- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow https://www.audible.com/pd/Homo-Deus-Part-1-A-Brief-History-...

- Atlas Shrugged https://www.audible.com/pd/Atlas-Shrugged-Part-1-Audiobook/B...

- Mapping Innovation https://www.audible.com/pd/Mapping-Innovation-A-Playbook-for...

- Ghost in the Wires https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Art-of-Invisibility-The-World...

- Actionable Gamification https://www.audible.com/pd/Actionable-Gamification-Part-1-Be...

- Algorithms to Live By https://www.audible.com/pd/Algorithms-to-Live-By-The-Compute...

- Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups https://www.audible.com/pd/Angel-How-to-Invest-in-Technology...

- Steve Wozniak autobiography https://www.audible.com/pd/iWoz-Part-1-How-I-Invented-the-Pe...

- Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth https://www.audible.com/pd/Traction-How-Any-Startup-Can-Achi...

- Mastery https://www.audible.com/pd/Science-Technology/Mastery-Audiob...

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Excellent podcasts:

- YCombinator: https://soundcloud.com/akharris

- Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast

- Syntax (React and WebDev) https://syntax.fm/

- Rationally Writing http://alexanderwales.com/rationally-writing/

- Audio version of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/

- Audio version of Rationality: From AI to Zombies https://from-ai-to-zombies.eu/

This only goes so far in the bay area. Sooo many companies are dumbly opening shop in those tired places like Sunnyvale and PA that now take 90 minutes to get to from almost anywhere. No amount of podcasts or audiobooks can save you.

I really enjoy audiobooks. A great option if you drive.

Thank you so much for this.