The Five Podcasts That I Never Miss an Episode Of

By Jack Forehand, CFA (@practicalquant)

Early in my career, I thought I knew everything. I started investing during a period where the types of strategies we run, many of which have significant exposure to both the size and value factors, performed very well. That made me think that investing is much easier than it really is. The past decade, when both of those factors have had significant negative premiums, has proven just how wrong I was about that.

Although it is humbling to learn that investing is much harder than you think, that lesson can have many benefits. For me, the biggest benefit was that it taught me that what I don’t know about investing far exceeds what I do know. That realization led me to what has probably been the most important tool in my education as an investor: investing podcasts.

Podcasts offer a unique combination of attributes for investors who want to learn more about the incredibly complex world we operate in. First, they offer access to some of the smartest minds in the investing world. And second, they offer it in a longer form than traditional media interviews that is more focused on content and learning and less focused on sound bites and things like predicting where the market will go next year.

I would assume most people reading this article already listen to podcasts, so I won’t go on and on about their benefits, but for me, they have completely changed the way I look at markets and investing.

The challenge that podcasts present for many investors, though, is that there are a large number of them. Since podcasts are easy to create and distribute, pretty much everyone is giving podcasting a try (and this includes me and my partner, Justin Carbonneau). I am currently subscribed to over 100 podcasts, and there is just no way I can listen to all of the episodes that come out every week. Filtering through all the content can be a significant challenge.

For most shows I listen to, that means that I can’t listen to the majority of the episodes that come out. But it also has led me to identify a small list of exceptional shows that I make sure I listen to every episode of because I am confident the content will be great.

This list is obviously specific to me because I am admittedly quant oriented with my investing approach and I like to listen to deep dives into what are sometimes very specific topics. But even the more technical of these shows also have episodes that are more general in nature, and I think any investor can benefit from the insights in them.

Here are the five investing podcasts that I never miss an episode of (in no particular order).

[1] Resolve’s Gestalt University – Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick, Rodrigo Gordillo and Jason Russell

In my opinion, podcasts are at their best when they are about searching for the truth, no matter how deep you need to dig to get it. This podcast is one of the best examples of this. Its strength, in my opinion, is that the hosts, and particularly Adam Butler, who does many of the interview episodes, will keep peeling back all the layers of any particular topic until they can get as close to the truth as possible. Obviously with many investing topics, the truth can’t be completely known, but I always learn a lot from listening to their process of searching for it.

My Favorite Episodes:

[2] Infinite Loops – Jim O’Shaughnessy and Jamie Catherwood

I was fortunate to have lunch with Jim O’Shaughnessy a couple of years ago (when having lunch with people was actually a thing), and what struck me about the conversation was that we didn’t talk about investing once. Jim has a great depth of knowledge on a variety of topics and that comes through in this show. Most of the episodes aren’t specifically about investing, but I have learned a lot from them that I have applied both in investing and other areas of life.

My Favorite Episodes:

[3] Flirting with Models – Corey Hoffstein

When we had Corey on our podcast, we spent some time before we hit record talking about the preparation that he puts into his podcast. That preparation really shows in the series of in-depth interviews Corey has put together.. This podcast is released in seasons, so it doesn’t come out on a regular schedule like the others on the list, but the content is timeless and the back-episode catalog is filled with deep dives into many topics that are very relevant for investors today.

My Favorite Episodes:

[4] Rational Reminder – Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore

This podcast offers an excellent blend of topics related to academic research and factor investing, and more general financial planning discussions. The best part of the podcast for me is the deep dives they do into academic papers. Academic research can be really difficult to understand, and they pull out the most relevant information from complex papers and extract the most important lessons from them. The regular interviews with both academic researchers and investment practitioners are also excellent.

My Favorite Episodes:

[5] Standard Deviations– Daniel Crosby, PhD.

Daniel Crosby interviewed me for an episode of Standard Deviations and managed to make me seem somewhat interesting. If there is anything that shows how great an interviewer he is, that is probably it. In all seriousness, though, one of the most important lessons I have learned in managing money is that psychology plays a role in everything we do as investors. And since we aren’t wired for success in this area, the role it plays is often a negative one. As a result, the process of understanding ourselves is likely more important than the process of picking investments for our portfolios, although most of us tend to spend much more time on the latter. This podcast offers excellent insights into how we operate as human beings, and how we can optimize ourselves to improve results in both investing and life.

My Favorite Episodes:

There are dozens of other podcasts that are very valuable, but these are the ones that standout to me week in and week out. Successful investing involves continuous learning and growing, and listening to these podcasts have helped me improve both as an investor and as a person. If you want to become a better investor, I think they will help you too.

Jack Forehand is Co-Founder and President at Validea Capital. He is also a partner at Validea.com and co-authored “The Guru Investor: How to Beat the Market Using History’s Best Investment Strategies”. Jack holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute. Follow him on Twitter at @practicalquant.