5 Podcasts on Innovation & Science

Posted on by KAUST Innovation

If you’ve never gotten into a podcast, now’s the time.

As the podcast-verse expands into further reaches of knowledge, we keep finding ones that glitter in the sea of random internet goodies.

Why you should listen: you can download them for a listen anywhere, and the right one can make time go by exceptionally fast. Which make them perfect for road trips, traveling to conferences, waiting rooms, international flights—any time suck you can think of.

What makes a good podcast? One that can simultaneously inspire you, thrill you and teach you. And because we love sharing what inspires us, we’ve even listed out a few specific episodes to get you in the mix.

Also, if you don’t know how to get a podcast on your phone, here’s a tutorial.

5 Podcasts on innovation & science! 

 

5. Star Talk

We know innovation comes from unlikely places. And sometimes that place is where science meets pop culture meets comedy. Star Talk is a delightful mix of experts in all these topics, having convos that make you feel you’re hanging around some good friends at a coffee shop.

Episodes to try:

 

4. Radiolab

Sometimes you’ve got to hear how people experiment with insane ideas—you know, the ones that got other people saying, “are you out of your mind?!” and see how they succeed. Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Illuminating those crazy ideas, blurring the boundaries of innovation, science and human experience.

Episodes to try:

  • “Words:” takes listeners into nebulous worlds where language does not yet exist.

  • “Sleep:” Scientists, professors and specialists examine the whys and hows of sleep. The strange biological and psychological machinations at play when we close our eyes.

 

3. Science Friday

Entertaining news about how science happened, current news stories and Q&As from the world’s experts. It’s a mesh between current affairs and the science that impacts these.

Episodes to try:

 

2. TED Radio Hour

An extension of TED Talks, each show is centered around a theme — such as the source of happiness, crowd-sourcing innovation, or inexplicable connections. An exploration off the TED Talks stage that brings interesting conversations to life.

Listen to:

  • Success: A look into how to define success that goes beyond the obvious.
  • Peering into Space: This episode is all about the universal sense of wonder that space inspires and keeps us curious.

 

1. How I Built This

 This podcast is our personal favorite. Each episode is a conversation with movers and shakers that have created some of the world’s biggest companies and brands. Think Richard Branson, Airbnb, TOMS. It is wildly inspiring and relatable at the same time.

Not only is the storytelling on point, the show dives into personal setbacks and failures of people that have made billions. You can’t go wrong with any episode; they all carry some sort of insight that’ll fire up the entrepreneur inside of you.

Listen to:

  •  Compaq Computers: In 1981, engineer Rod Canion left Texas Instruments and co-founded Compaq, which created the first IBM-compatible personal computer. This opened the door to an entire industry of PCs that could run the same software.

  • Warby Parker: In 2008, it was nearly impossible to buy a fashionable, affordable pair of glasses online. That simple frustration inspired the idea behind Warby Parker – and disrupted the eyewear industry.