Podcasts are an awesome way to get inspiration and entertainment in a very easy format – you can walk, work out, cook, edit photos etc. while you listen to them. It has definitely been a big craze for a while now and I feel like I have some good recommendations after listening to 150+ podcast episodes in the last year and a half. Over a year ago I wrote a post here with the podcasts I was listening to back then, but I’ve found a ton of even better ones since then, plus some of my recommended ones no longer produce new episodes. Without further ado, here are my current favorite podcasts!

The Adventure Stache

Payson McElveen, the host of this podcast is such a character – a team-Red Bull mountain bike and gravel bike racer, with a very retro mustache, great stories, and even better questions to his guests. Unsurprisingly, most of the podcast revolves around sports and adventure, as he interviews fellow athletes and it is my current favorite. Like The Stokecast, I found this one because Payson was interviewing my favorite photographer, Chris Burkard and I thought his questions were really good, getting more in-depth and personal with his interview subjects, diving deeper than most interviewers would.

If I was to recommend a few episodes, the interview with Justin Williams is a fascinating one – incredibly loose and unplanned, with random discussions about limited edition trainers, but also about equality in cycling and how to empower underrepresented groups in the sport. Another great one is with Lael Wilcox, who is an ultimate badass ultra-endurance athlete, who calls the upcoming 350-mile Dirty Kanza gravel bike race a “training ride” in the episode, then she casually went on to win it the day after recording. Chris Burkard was on the podcast twice and I especially enjoyed his second appearance, when they dissected his world-record setting bike ride around Iceland. This guy literally rode around Iceland non-stop, in 52 hours in the most brutal conditions. Absolutely mental. Other great episodes, just to mention a few are with Kate Courtney, Reggie Miller, Tommy Caldwell and Gwen Jorgensen.

One thing that stands out in this show is how many awesome female athletes are interviewed – many podcasts are not great on gender equality, but here over half the guests are women.

The Stokecast

The Stokecast is an old favorite at this point – similarly to my previous recommendation, a lot of it is related to athletic pursuits, but also touches more on art, travel and entrepreneurialism. Jonathan & Emily, the hosts of the show always find awesome guests and they are also super interesting people themselves.

It is hard to say what are my favorite episodes, since there were so many good ones and I’ve listened to over 25 episodes of the show. The interview with Alex Borsuk definitely stands out – she is a nutritionist and ultra-endurance athlete who I’ve been following ever since. The episodes (part 1 & part 2) with Steve House and Scott Johnston have also had a huge effect – I’ve been using their book, Training for the Uphill Athlete in my training this whole year. Ultra-Runner Clare Gallagher is a great early episode of the podcast, as well as the ones with photographers Christian Shaffer, Renee Roaming & Matthew Hahnel and of course Chris Burkard.

The Rich Roll Podcast

If you like deep dives, this one is for you! Rich is a fascinating guy, he battled with alcoholism and a lot of personal demons and turned his life around, became an ultra-runner and a successful entrepreneur. He is very soft-spoken, doing incredibly deep discussions with fascinating guests, with episodes often lasting 2-3 hours.

The episode that introduced me to the show was with Amelia Boone, who is an incredible obstacle course racer and successful lawyer, but this was not about her athletic pursuits – it was about her battles with eating disorders throughout her life. It is a very vulnerable and honest conversation that I think opened a lot of people’s eyes to seemingly successful people’s hidden problems.

Other favorites are with Rickey Gates, a great ultra-runner who inspired me to run every single street in my neighborhood (blogpost on that coming soon) – he took it to a bit more extreme level though, he ran every single street in San Francisco. Another interesting one was Tony Riddle, who wants people to “rewild” their lives, running around barefoot, getting rid of chairs, correcting posture, learning to squat, etc. Fun fact, I actually met Tony in London and we took a dip in the Hampstead Heath pond on New Year’s Day – that was bloody cold, but really fun.

Chase Jarvis Live

Chase has been an inspiration for years and his podcast always has fantastic guests if you are interested in artists and entrepreneurs. I’ve only recently started listening to his podcast, so I can’t really say much about it, but it has been great so far. Current standout episodes are with Chelsea Yamase (better known as @chelseakauai) and with another favorite photographer, Alex Strohl.

The Tim Ferriss Show

How could I not recommend Tim Ferriss? 40+ episodes in (although there are somewhere around 400 episodes out now), plus I’ve read all of Tim’s books, so I’m a bit of a fanboy. While Tim is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, he always has an all-star cast on his show, for example the latest episode is an interview with Jane Goodall, which I will soon listen to.

My favorite episodes are with Dilbert-creator Scott Adams, discussing hypnosis and the rise of Donald Trump (recorded before the 2016 elections), among other topics; and the one with Brandon Stanton, the man behind Humans of New York. Tim also does very long and in-depth interviews, which are often over two hours long, but trust me, it is worth it.

Single Episodes

Now, there are podcast episodes that I thought were great, but I haven’t listened to enough episodes to have a good idea of how good the show itself is, but I still want to recommend episodes. Chris Burkard appears way too many times in this blogpost, but here he is one last time… He recorded a podcast with his wife, Brea where they discuss how they have managed to balance their family life with kids (and alpacas) and crazy amounts of travelling.

Very nerdy, but super interesting if you are into running: the two episodes of The Real Science of Sport Podcast where they first dissect the sub-2 hour marathon attempt of Eliud Kipchoge; and later when they talk about the crazy Nike running shoes he (and many other marathon runners) used to break records and what that means for the sport.

Finally, one that I found fascinating was an episode of the Holistic Performance Nutrition show on the Endurance Planet podcast where the hosts were discussing the detrimental effects of a keto diet and intermittent fasting on women. I certainly plan on listening to more episodes of this podcast.

Conclusion

From my original list, only The Tim Ferriss Show remains – many of the podcasts on my original list aren’t around anymore, but also my taste has changed slightly. Looking at the list I can definitely see that I have strongly veered towards sports and endurance-oriented topics, which of course very much aligns with what I’m doing right now. Nevertheless, I still listen to many art and entrepreneurial ones too, just slightly less lately.

I hope I’ve suggested some good podcasts for you to check out and if you have something interesting to recommend for me, I’d love to hear it.

PS: Fun fact, I’ve just checked, and I’ve listened to over 150 episodes from 23 different podcasts on Spotify in the last year and a half.