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Planning a long road trip? Craving a commuting distraction? The MIT Sloan community brims with intriguing podcasts — from sports analytics to deep dives into the lives of successful CEOs. Ahead, four of our favorites.
Pathbreakers, with Andrew McAfee
MIT principal research scientist and New York Times best-selling author McAfee built his reputation on examining digital technology’s capacity to transform society. Happily, he also has a great sense of humor. His podcast is small but mighty: In nine episodes, he contemplates wealth inequality with Silicon Valley venture capital legend and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, chats with Yankees star Alex Rodriguez about Ivy League geekery in baseball’s front offices, and confronts the “fake news” phenomenon with journalist Thomas Friedman. His conversations are delightfully insightful—and delightfully human. The podcast was previously known as "Minds and Machines."
Data Made to Matter
This MIT Sloan podcast features a parade of academic luminaries putting fresh, real-world spins on data-based research. Professor of operations management Zeynep Ton explains why motivated workers mean big profits for big-box companies, social psychologist Evan Apfelbaum discusses how workplace diversity affects retention, and finance professor Antoinette Schoar pulls back the veil on suspicious financial advisors and prolific credit card offers.
Counterpoints
Do you ever wonder how New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady makes split-second strategic decisions? Is it possible to measure basketball IQ? How can kids become elite soccer stars as mere second-graders? And what gives athletes the greatest (legal) edge at game time, anyway? This sports analytics podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review features MIT Sloan senior lecturer Ben Shields and editor-in-chief Paul Michelman posing tough questions to experts in — and on — the field.
Zero to IPO
Okta COO Frederic Kerrest, MBA ’09, along with Epic magazine’s Joshua Davis, offers an unvarnished look at what it really takes to build a business — hiccups, pitfalls, disasters, and all. Here, titans of industry become human. Kerrest discusses his short-lived tennis-racket stringing business. Former Microsoft senior vice president and Frontier Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter reveals how an encounter with Bruce Springsteen’s father and a bold teenage dinner invitation she sent to Richard Nixon as a teenager foreshadowed her success. And former Netflix human resources head Patty McCord shares what companies should look for in their first 100 hires, why you might need to fire your family, and why conflict is important. It’s a vicarious dip into other companies’ triumphs and growing pains — and instructive for anyone contemplating launching a business.
