Similar to designing a healthy nutrition plan, it’s important to take control of the content you consume. Every year I revisit my media consumption strategy and take stock of the regulars in my rotation. For comparison, here are my Media Diets from 2021, 2020, and 2019.
The following sections provide (1) the Principles governing my Media Diet; (2) News sources in my regular rotation; and (3) Podcasts in my regular rotation. Books are also a big part of my diet, and I broke them out into a separate post: Books I read in 2022.
I made one big tweak to my media diet this year: no social media. Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn were the only remaining holdouts after years of declining usage. They’re now uninstalled, off my phone, and never checked. It feels great. You should try.
Principles
These are the guidelines (unchanged from 2021) that define my Media Diet strategy:
- Less is more: ruthlessly limited to select trusted sources that deliver regular value.
- Brutally honest: prioritize people with strong beliefs who also change their minds.
- Weird and wide: mix up your topics, perspectives and interests.
- Calm and complex: nuanced arguments from deep thinkers who respectfully explore other sides.
- Independent: try to avoid advertisements and ideology.
- Non-perishable: slow news, classic books, stuff that stands the test of time (aka Lindy).
- Read what your mentors and favorite writers read.
News
These are the newspapers, newsletters, blogs, subscriptions and papers I regularly read in 2022, arranged in no particular order.
- The Economist weekly print edition and daily morning briefing emails.
- Sinocism newsletter helps me get smarter about China.
- Daily news articles on energy and utilities from the media team at my work.
One big change to my news list is the absence of Stratechery, Ben Thompson’s newsletter on the business, strategy, and impact of technology. I used to devour Stratechery Daily Updates and Articles, but wasn’t able to fit them into my schedule last year. I’m still a subscriber and will try to pick Stratechery back up in the coming year.
Podcasts
I dialed down my podcast consumption last year, and have a list of about 50 episodes – some stretching way back into early 2022 – that I still want to get to. I typically only listen to podcasts when I’m cooking, doing the dishes, or driving, which means I usually only have time for about an episode or two per day.
Below are the shows I listened to regularly in 2022, arranged (very loosely) in order of preference and consumption frequency (and kinda by topic). The descriptions below are mostly copied and pasted from each podcast’s website.
If you listen to only one of these shows make it EconTalk, even if you’re not interested in economics.
- EconTalk, “conversations for the curious” is a podcast hosted by economist Russ Roberts.
- Conversations with Tyler: Esteemed economist Tyler Cowen engages with today’s most underrated thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between.
- All-In: Industry veterans, degenerate gamblers & besties Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks & David Friedberg cover all things economic, tech, political, social & poker.
- Dithering: A podcast from Ben Thompson and John Gruber. Two episodes per week, 15 minutes per episode. Not a minute less, not a minute more.
- Stratechery interviews are hosted by Ben Thompson and typically relate to business strategy, startups, founders, media, and technology.
- Hidden Brain: A conversation about life’s unseen patterns. These shows are hit or miss. I don’t listen very often, but every now and then an episode blows my mind.
- The Peter Attia Drive Podcast: A deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing longevity, and all that goes into that from physical to cognitive to emotional health. With over 50 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including exercise, nutritional biochemistry, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more.
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- Honestly with Bari Weiss: The most interesting conversations in American life happen behind closed doors. We’re prying them open.
- GoodFellows: A weekly Hoover Institution broadcast, features senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H.R. McMaster discussing the social, economic, and geostrategic ramifications of this changed world.
- Uncommon Knowledge: For more than two decades the Hoover Institution has been producing Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, a series hosted by Hoover fellow Peter Robinson as an outlet for political leaders, scholars, journalists, and today’s big thinkers to share their views with the world.
- China Global: Bonnie Glaser’s China Global podcast on Chinese foreign and security policies decodes Beijing’s ambitions as they unfold.
- The Little Red Podcast: Interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway from the University of Melbourne’s Horwood Studios. Hosted by Graeme Smith, China studies academic at the Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs and Louisa Lim, former China correspondent for the BBC and NPR, now with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University.
- The Asia Chessboard features in-depth conversations with the most prominent strategic thinkers on Asia. Co-hosts Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS, and Michael Green, Henry A. Kissinger Chair at CSIS and CEO of the United States Studies Centre, take the debate beyond the headlines of the day to explore the historical context and inside decision-making process on major geopolitical developments from the Himalayas to the South China Sea. Experience the hard calls and consequential debates that drive US policy towards this critical region of the world.
- Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything, plus the true stories of minimum wage, rent control, and the gender pay gap.
- The Bill Simmons Podcast: Sports, media and pop culture. I just listen to episodes on the NBA.
- The Ryen Russillo Podcast: A weekly breakdown of “the biggest topics in sports.” I just listen to the episodes on the NBA. The life advice segments at the end of each episode are also hilarious and fun.