Essential Listening: Concrete Discussions

One of the reasons why a series like Essential Listening is useful is that it helps point busy professionals to podcasts worth a listen. This is partly because the world of podcasts is growing and evolving rapidly. Joshua Benton summarizes where podcasting is today in a great post from NiemanLab:

“The state of podcasting in 2015 feels a lot like the state of blogging circa 2004. The variety and quality of work being done is thrilling; outside attention is growing; new formats are evolving. We’re seeing the same unlocking of creative potential we saw with blogging, and there’s far more good work being produced than anyone has time to take in.”

If things play out as they did in 2004, Benton sees the world of podcasting becoming increasingly professionalized and podcast producers growing in stature and size. By and large, Benton believes this will be a net positive for listeners. That said, the podcasting landscape will shift: Audio quality will go up, but many quirky podcasts may go by the wayside.

With Thanksgiving coming up, you may be in need of some additional material for your travels. If so, don’t miss last week’s edition of Essential Listening and check out some new podcasts I think are worth listening to this week — or any other:

• Tyler Cowen of George Mason University recently sat down with Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management to talk about the paradox of momentum as well as market efficiency, high-frequency trading (HFT), and Marvel vs. DC. (Medium)
• Brett Steenbarger, author of the newly published Trading Psychology 2.0: From Best Practices to Best Processes, and Michael Covel consider the role motivation plays among traders, the importance of backtesting, and how trading is a creative practice. (Trend Following Radio)
• Jason Voss, CFA, shares his insight on the active vs. passive debate and why active managers sometimes fail due to “self-inflicted wounds” with James Osborne of Bason Asset Management. (Fireside Markets)
• Jerry Parker of Chesapeake Capital speaks with Sean McLaughlin about being an original Turtle Trader, how it changed his life, and what it takes to succeed long term in the markets as a trend follower. (StockTwits)
• Pat Light interviews Morten Sorensen and Ravi Jagannathan about their paper, “The Public Market Equivalent and Private Equity Performance,” which appeared in the Financial Analysts Journal. They discuss how their measure of private equity (PE) performance avoids the pitfalls of the internal rate of return (IRR). (CFA Institute)
• Lesley Stahl travels to East Africa to witness the future of money. In Kenya, cellphone provider Safaricom has created an alternative currency, M-PESA, that has taken over a great deal of the functions that banks (and cash) previously performed. (60 Minutes)
• David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein at Planet Money take us back to the 1970s when inflation was rampant. They profile (and interview) former chair of the US Federal Reserve Paul Volcker who defeated inflation with a zeal and strategy that were foreign to previous central bankers. (NPR)
• Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway talk with Zac Bissonnette, author of The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute. They discuss bubbles and how, for a time, the world lost its mind over collectible stuffed animals. (Bloomberg Business)
• Shannon Bond of the Financial Times interviews Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, about how our reliance on technology has made us unable to hold real, meaningful conversations anymore. (Financial Times)
• Adam Davidson and Adam McKay talk about concrete — yes, concrete. McKay, the director of the forthcoming movie The Big Short, shows how concrete could easily be described as the key to civilization as we know it. (Surprisingly Awesome)

Feel free to leave a comment with podcasts other Enterprising Investor readers might enjoy. I may highlight your suggestion in the next edition of this podcast series.

You can read more from Tadas Viskanta on his blog Abnormal Returns or follow him on Twitter @abnormalreturns.

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All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author’s employer.

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