I live and breathe podcast. I listen to 2 podcast episodes a day since probably 2017. One episode for commuting my way to the office and one on my way home. On weekends, i still listen to podcast while cooking and doing dishes. That like 500-600 episodes a year. It might classify as an addiction by this point.
In this article, i share four podcast on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Topic i really passionate about, so much so i took master’s degree on that specific topic. These four podcast has been my go to inspiration list to find new ideas at work. Doing innovation is hard, listening to stories of how other people went through the process help me to push forward the hardness. If you’re in the business in finding new ways to do something, in the midst of pivot or trying to start a business in these covid times, these four podcast are for you.
I use Spotify and Google Podcast app to listen to podcast. All podcast here should be available in other players as well.
Lets start
How I Built This
How I Built This (HIBT) is my gateway drug to further podcast down the line. In every episode, HIBT interview one founder and they tell stories of trials and tribulations how they build their business. The host, Guy Raz, usually starts with their upbringing as a child, how they get their ideas , how they scale and so on. The episode then usually ends with reflective question, which
How much do you attribute your success to hard work or luck ?
Guy Raz
HIBT have impressive repertoire of guest, from tech founders : Brian Chesky (AirBnB), Stewart Butterfield (Slack); non-tech founders : Draymond John (FUBU), Blake Mykoskie (Toms); and even musician : Troy Carter (producer), Logic (rapper).
My recommendation to start HIBT is this amazing episode telling the journey of Casey Neistat.
Spectacular Failures
If HIBT tells the journey of success, Spectacular Failures (SF) podcast is telling the journey of massive failures.
In every episode, SF pick a big failed company and then backtrack the history and decisions that led to that failures. Its useful podcast to remind us that success rarely last forever. Companies featured in this podcast, at some time point of time was giants of their respective, however all of them are histories now. From Toysrus, Forever21 to Kodak, SF offers insightful materials to help us avoid
My pick on great episode to start is this one about Napster. This will take you back to Winamp and MP3 glory days.
Pessimist Archive
One of the learning from my Innovation degree that sticks with me is this : Inventing great product is just half of the journey, the other half is convincing people to use it. Why? because the default reaction to any innovation is rejection. There is a whole body of knowledge in Innovation studies that learn about how to spread innovation to the masses.
Do you know that even the most simple innovation like forks, take 500 years before getting mainstream. This is the kind of stories which you can hear in Pessimist Archive (PA) podcast.
PA examine the mundane things we take for granted today like fridge, elevator and bicycle then take you to the history of its invention and how all of those stuff are rejected, sometimes aggressively. For example, bicycle was rejected because people afraid that it will change the shape of your face.
Weird right ? but if you look at the context of time and societies at that point of time, the rejection made sense.
My favorite episode so far is the Fork episode. The humble tools was experiencing rejection on various grounds from religion to social norms for almost five centuries. Go listen to this, while using forks to eat your fruits for maximum effect.
James Altucher Podcast – Side Hustle Fridays
Altucher blog was one of the first blog i follow back in my undergrad days, circa 2005-2006. I remember he advocated to write 10 new ideas a day and email those ideas to CEOs of company that youd like to get a job. As college student reading that, i thought the idea was bonkers. First of all, i dont have that much self esteem. Second, my ideas were garbace. Last but not least, how the fuck do i get a CEO email out of the blue ?.
But the more i follow James’s content over the years, it become more and more make sense to me. Along with Seth Godin, Altucher teach me since ideas are cheap, hence i have actively churning new ideas regularly and then share it. Because the value is not the idea itself, but its in the recognition that you are the guys with lots of ideas to share.
In his podcast, James usually talk with various people about wide range of topics. But in covid times, every Friday his podcast specifically brainstorm about what kind side-business you can start right away with only laptop and internet connections.
If you are looking to start a business or if right now you’re having pay cut and looking for side-jobs to make ends meet, go listen to Side Hustle Fridays on James Altucher Podcast. Start by listening to this episode on creating email newsletter. Surprisingly it can bring quite good of an income.
Thats all for today’s post. If my podcasting habits are still intense, expect to get more post recommendations like this. Do you also listen to podcast ? do you have any recommendation on great podcast i should check ? drop the comment below or mention me in twitter @kikiahmadi.
Thank you and stay healthy!.
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