Deep listening
For the long drive
Multi-hour company histories and biographies — the episodes worth saving for a journey rather than a commute.
Some of the best investing education is not in the form of advice at all. It is in long, detailed accounts of how specific companies and people actually got from nothing to something, including the years in the middle where it was not working and nobody could tell whether it would.
These are the shows that require a real block of time and reward it. A single episode can run four hours, which sounds absurd until you have listened to one.
- 01Acquired
The definitive version of the format. Three to four hours on one company, researched to a depth that makes most business journalism look thin.
- 02Founders
A biography a week, including entrepreneurs who built businesses centuries before venture capital existed. The durable lessons are the ones that survive that removal.
- 03Business Breakdowns
Shorter and more analytical — the economics rather than the story, which is the useful complement to the narrative shows.
- 04How I Built This
The most accessible of the narrative shows, and the one that ranges furthest outside technology.
- 05In Good Company
The other end of the telescope: the people running the finished article, talking about what actually endured.