In a recent episode of The Twenty Minute VC, Benchmark General Partner Peter Fenton said "the most interesting area for intellectual enrichment today is not books, although there are great books, but rather podcasts."

I completely agree podcasts are an amazing source of intellectual enrichment (and entertainment). I would also suggest supplementing podcasts with audiobooks. Why just choose one or the other when you can have both? The greatest advantage of the audio method of content delivery is exactly what Peter Fenton talks about in that interview - you can jump in and out of podcasts (and audiobooks) during short bursts of time when you don't have the ability to open a book and read.

My number one listening opportunity is while driving. I commute 2+ hours a day and I can knock out an audiobook a week in addition to keeping up with at least 10-15 of my favorite podcast episodes. I also listen when I'm doing dishes, rocking my baby to sleep, at the gym, and whenever I'm waiting in line for something.

Here are some of my favorites from the past few months:

Happy Year of the Rooster! This year I am embarking on many new endeavors and starting a variety of projects. I'm making more online videos - in particular, learning how to create viral videos, starting a podcast, getting back in shape, and angel investing in more startups. I'm loosely considering weekly vlogging or starting a video series related to investing and startups, but haven't sharpened the idea enough to execute on just yet. If anyone has suggestions or recommendations, I'm all ears.

One thing that hasn't and won't change is my love for audio entertainment. I'm already on the highest plan on Audible that's available but I still end up buying several credits every few weeks. I wish Audible had a better content discovery engine so that I can spend less time browsing and searching for new books to listen to.

Here are some of my top listens for this month:

Continuing to crush one audiobook after another this month. I've been lucky to hit a string of really great listens. I'm trying to push beyond my prior run of sci-fi books with ones like Orphan X, which was my favorite book this month. I've fallen behind on my podcast listens recently and I've only really been keeping up with Hello Internet and Cortex.

In other news, my favorite YouTuber Casey Neistat has quit daily vlogging. He also sold his startup Beme to CNN for $25M. I couldn't be happier for him but no more vlogs means a big disruption to my daily morning routine. Bittersweet. I wish him all the best.

Now that my commute is 1+ hour each way every day, I have been cruising through audiobooks faster than I ever have before.

The most frustrating part of listening to audiobooks and podcasts is that there is no effective way of discovering new content. While this is also somewhat the case for other forms of media such as video, at least YouTube has a somewhat decent discovery engine/algorithm that suggests other videos you may want to watch. In podcast and audiobook land, you're all on your own. Audible sort of tries to recommend some, but it's not as robust as I'd like. In podcast world, there's absolutely nothing. Someone should fix this...

Here are my top pics for this month:

Please let me know what audiobooks I should listen to next!

I apologize for the long hiatus in the podcast recommendations posts. Two primary factors (aka excuses) have contributed to this - 1) baby (see video here), and 2) audiobooks.

In the past few months, I've listened the following books, all of which I highly recommend:

• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
• Fear the Sky by Stephen Moss (book 1)
• Fear the Survivors by Stephen Moss (book 2)
• Fear the Future by Stephen Moss (book 3)

Seveneves is amazing. I first heard about it on the Adam Savage podcast and immediately downloaded the audiobook. It did not disappoint. Seveneves is also being turned into a movie so make sure to read the book first because there's no way a movie can cover the entire book in 2-3 hours. Once you read the book, you'll see what I mean.

I came across about The Fear Saga (3 books) as I was looking through other audiobooks narrated by R.C. Bray, the narrator of my favorite audiobook, The Martian (my review here). Once again R.C. Bray delivers an amazing performance and the books are great. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to turn this into a movie at some point.

I just downloaded How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, as it was recommended on an episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast recently. I haven't started it yet, but what really intrigued me is that the story is told in the second person perspective - meaning, the story is told addressed to "you." Not sure if that is gimmicky or genius, but I'm certainly looking forward to giving it a try.

My podcast recommendation for this month is:

I've been quite preoccupied with an audiobook this month - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - which I will finish by the end of this week. I found it through the Still Untitled Podcast with Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame. Overall, I am really enjoying the book, though I have some qualms with the first narrator and some of her accents and voices. There are also stretches of the book where it is just way too drawn out in unnecessary detail. But the story itself is very interesting and thought provoking. Depending on how it ends, I may consider picking up another one of Neal Stephenson's books called Snow Crash, which was recommended by CGP Grey on the most recent Hello Internet podcast's Audible ad. Anyway, here are my recommendations for podcast episodes this month:

​Happy new year! Here are some of my favorite episodes through the end of 2015. Given my love for podcasts, my new year's resolution for 2016 is to start my own podcast. In 2016, I hope to see more innovation in podcast apps. I currently use Overcast, which I LOVE, but there's still many features I'd like to see in the future such as interactive/improved show notes and better podcast discovery.

Lifeline and The Martian Official Game are both available on iOS and Android and are text-based games. It's the type of narrative where you end up down different decision tree paths depending on your responses. At least, that's the theory. These two games, while seemingly very similar, are vastly divergent in quality.
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​Lifeline gives you the sense that your decisions actually affect the outcome of the story. The plot is unique, engaging, and the gameplay through notifications via your iPhone or Apple Watch is quite interesting. After the game is over, you can play it in fast mode which accelerates the response time, which is a thoughtful feature. Not only did I not even get close to the end of The Martian Official Game, but the experience was the polar opposite. Maybe it was because I read the book and watched the movie already, but even the answer options and canned responses seemed extremely linear and boring. Both games are $0.99 but it's clear Lifeline is a better game. Just look at the 9,000+ ratings on iTunes or 47,000+ ratings in Google Play.

​Don't let this review of the "official" game to mislead you to think I am not a fan of the book. If you want to enjoy The Martian, I highly recommend the audiobook. It's one of my favorite books this year and a great way to get into the world of audiobooks.

See my prior post about it HERE.

This is NOT ​a paid endorsement.