Best of the Best Podcasts: The Rest 4Q18

Today we have my favorite sports and “the rest” episodes from the last quarter. We have episodes with Lebron James, poker champion Annie Duke, and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. All of these are must listens, and if you enjoy, do me a favor and forward the list to a friend who’d be interested!

To view last quarters best of the best lists, click here: Business | Sports | The Rest | Books

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Sports

• Capital Allocators: Michael Lombardi — Leadership Through Football. Lombardi is a former NFL front-office executive who worked for the Bill Walsh and the 49ers, Al Davis and the Raiders, and Bill Belichick and the Patriots, and most recently released a book called Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL. While I’ve listed this in the Sports section, this is an episode geared towards leadership and culture building that applies to everyone, and maybe the best leadership episode I’ve listened to date. Also — if you’re an NFL junkie, his bi-weekly podcast episodes on GM Street (Tuesdays and Fridays) is my favorite NFL listen every week. [November 12, 2018–52 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify | Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link
• The Tim Ferris Show: #349: Lebron James and His Top-Secret Trainer, Mike Mancias. Lebron rarely does appearances like this so it was great to hear him be open and honest about a lot of topics. He is also joined by his trainer who has been with him since his rookie season. We have all seen his crazy workouts, so it was great to hear some insight to the thought process behind them. They talk about pre-hab and rehab, what they believe has led him to have such a prolonged career compared to his peers, his recovery process, what is off-limits for him to eat/drink, and how much longer he hopes to play in the NBA (long enough to play with his oldest son). [November 27, 2018–1 hour, 7 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify | Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link
• Capital Allocators: Michael Schwimer — Moneyball as an Investment Strategy. This is one of the more interesting episodes I’ve listened to. Schwimer is a former professional baseball player who applied his knowledge of statistics to baseball. He founded Big League Advance, a company that makes investments in Minor League baseball players in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of their future earnings. He used data analytics to create a model over the course of a year to refine which players are best to invest in. If you enjoyed the Capital Allocators episode with Astroball writer Ben Reiter, you’ll enjoy this. [October 15, 2018–55 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify | Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link

The Rest

• Capital Allocators: Annie Duke — Thinking More in Bets. Duke is a former professional poker player and author of Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts. This is the second time she has appeared on Capital Allocators and this episode is just as good as the first, which is one of my top 5 episodes of the year. This is a conversation between her and host Ted Seides at The Investment Institute’s Fall Forum, where she discusses ways we can become better decision makers, separating signal from noise, how to work in groups, and the formation and confirmation of beliefs. They wrap the discussion with two great stories from her poker days. [November 19, 2018–47 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify | Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link
• North Star Podcast: Daniel Gross: Dreams and Determination. Gross is a partner at Y Combinator and provides a lot of great insights during the episode. First and foremost, his idea of treating life as a video game to create environments that allow for flow experiences was great. They discuss a broad number of topics, including lessons taken from John D. Rockefeller and why the U.S. is is so innovative compared to other countries (Gross is from Israel so has unique insights to this). [October 10, 2018–1 hour, 7 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Overcast | Website Link
• Talks at Google: Barbara Oakley: “Learning How to Learn.” If you’re reading this newsletter, you clearly are an individual who is focused on self-improvement and this episode will help you become a better learner. Oakley once failed her way through math and science in school, only to later go back and become a professor of engineering at Oakland University, which led her to write Learning How to Learn. Her talk talk covers her story, the brains two modes (focus and diffuse) and the role they play in learning, the importance of exercise and sleep, advice for improving test taking, and how chunking helps us learn. [December 3, 2018–1 hour, 10 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify| Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link
• The TED Interview: Daniel Kahneman wants you to doubt yourself. Here’s why. Kahneman is a nobel prize winning behavioral economist and author of the best seller Thinking, Fast and Slow. He begins with his background & what unique life experience helped him decide he wanted to go into behavioral economics, advice on how to deal with our biases, thoughts on happiness, and Systems I & II which he discusses in his book. [December 11, 2018–42 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify| Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link
• The School of Greatness: Scott Harrison: Live with Purpose or You’ll Live with Regret. Harrison is the founder of Charity: water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. He’s raised over 320 million dollars and provided water to people in 26 countries. The episode is incredibly moving and inspiring. He talks about his journey that led him to found the organization, their unique business model that addresses people’s concern that 100% of their money may not go to the cause they donate to, and how he’s avoided burnout after all these years. I highly recommend this episode. Harrison talked about donating his birthday to raise money for the organization, which inspired me to do the same this year. [October 1, 2018–1 hour, 18 minutes] iTunes Podcast| | Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link
• The Tim Ferris Show: #341: Nick Kokonas — How to Apply World-Class Creativity to Business, Art, and Life. Kokonas is the owner and co-founder of the Alinea Group of restaurants, which have been named the Best Restaurant in America and Best Restaurant in The World by organizations and lists as diverse as The James Beard Foundation. He has a fascinating background, spending a decade as a derivative trader. Kokonas and Ferris have a wide-ranging conversation on his time spent as a trader, what led to a career change, and the unique approach he’s taken with his restaurants. [October 18, 2018–3 hours, 5 minutes] iTunes Podcast| Spotify| Overcast | Stitcher | Website Link