013 | Take 5: Listen to these.

One Thought 🧠

With my 5th year exams around the corner, I’ve decided to be completely selfish and alter the format of these weekly articles for this week and the next 2 weeks.

In a self-orchestrated series of recommendations (named Take 5), I will be sharing my favourite podcasts, people to follow online, and books that have changed my life.

1. Take 5: Listen to these. (this week)
2. Take 5: Read these books. (15th July)
3. Take 5: Follow these guys. (22nd July)

So, why talk about podcasts? The way we consume content is constantly changing but podcasts have massively grown in popularity and recurring listeners over the last few years. There is a real hype that surrounds them now.

“Alexa play the latest TED Talks episode”

Podcasts are changing the way we consume content with now over 850,000 podcasts in as many as 100 different languages. It makes sense - Driving? Working out? House chores? In all of these scenarios, you could be listening to a podcast and making efficient use of your time (not that you should always, it’s ok not to be productive 25/8).

With that, here are my top 5 podcast recommendations.

1. Making Sense with Sam Harris

🎙 - Listen to one of my favourite episodes here.

Sam Harris is a best-selling author, neuroscientist, and philosopher. In this podcast, he talks to some of the most popular names of current times to engage in deep conversations about the human condition, life in the past, now, and the future as well as tackling many culturally difficult topics. You’ll find some real big names on this podcast such as Yuval Noah Harari and Andrew Yang.

2. Not Overthinking

🎙 - Listen to one of my favourite episodes here.

Two brothers, Ali and Taimur Abdaal take on weekly discussions about happiness, creativity, and productivity. They talk in a very ‘mental models’ fashion and try to decipher big topics e.g. how to be a success in a more down-to-earth approach with an emphasis on human factors. I’ve personally enjoyed how raw the discussions can sometimes be, and perhaps a little heated even at times. They also discuss books, famous articles, and current affairs.

3. The Minimalists

🎙 - Listen to one of my favourite episodes here.

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus discuss living a meaningful life with less. With more than 50 million downloads and 200+ episodes, it’s an incredible podcast exploring important discussions from stoicism, essential minimalism, and mental clarity. I absolutely love how you can just feel the minimalism vibes just oozing from this podcast.

4. The Indie Hackers Podcast

🎙 - Listen to one of my favourite episodes here.

One for the startup folks. If you’re like me you’ve built this idea that one day you will bring to this world the next big unicorn and somehow this will completely revolutionise the way humans function. In this podcast, successful startup founders are interviewed and they are asked to share some very interesting insights from a “been-there-done-that” kind of perspective on building the next big thing from the ground up. I’ve learnt from these real-life examples just as much as I have from the plethora of business books and principles that exist today.

5. Big Picture Medicine

🎙 - Listen to one of my favourite episodes here.

One for the medically minded. Interested in the future of healthcare? Medic or non-medic this is an incredible podcast by Mustafa Sultan. He interviews trailblazers who are helping to shape the future of modern medicine. Think MedTech meets the Tim Ferris Show. The production quality on these episodes is just incredible. I’ve particularly enjoyed a recent episode discussing management consulting as an alternative career for medics.

This Week’s Quote 🎯

“Luck is like a bus,” he told me. “if you miss one, there’s always the next one. But if you’re not prepared, you won’t be able to jump on.” — Alex Banayan (The Third Door)

Resurfaced using Readwise.

This Week’s Recommendation 🚀

👨🏾‍💻 Tools - Carrd

A very simple-to-use platform if you are looking to create your own simple website. It works excellently for portfolios, business landing pages, links websites, etc. In fact, Medicroom’s website (my side-project) was built using Carrd in less than an hour. It’s very straightforward to use but if you really need a tutorial here’s a comprehensive one by Faisal.

About Me

I’m Yath and I am a student doctor at UCL.

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