When you’re an innovator, you’re constantly looking for inspiration. A big part of being an innovator is being a researcher—someone with continual learning in their mind. A great place for inspiration and information is the podcast realm. Here, people are constantly publishing content that revolves around inspiring innovation. To jumpstart your thinking, we’ve provided a top-ten list of innovation podcasts and recommendations of favorite episodes for each to get started with.
1. IdeaScale Nation
What It Is: In every episode, IdeaScale interviews one champion of innovation—an innovation manager, an intrapreneur, or a leader of a transformation. The company asks them about their program: how it’s organized, the challenges they’re having, the best practices they’ve adopted, and examples of results from their efforts. It’s a chance for other innovation leaders to obtain real insight into the mechanics of the corporate innovation discipline.
Favorite Episode: Princess Auto: From Digital Transformation to Cultural Transformation
Why We Like It: If you’re starting your own innovation podcasts program, it’s helpful to hear from others who have already done so. IdeaScale Nation proactively asks about challenges or even failures. It offers practical advice to anyone who might want to sidestep those problems or replicate practices in their own initiatives.
2. How I Built This
What It Is: Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world’s best-known companies.
Favorite Episode: Stasher and Modern Twist: Kat Nouri
Why We Like It: You hear a range of stories from inspiring entrepreneurs and get a sense of how many different ways there are for ideas to grow. Some companies have success due to collaboration. Sometimes it’s due to someone’s singular vision. Sometimes it’s because of dogged persistence or luck.
Subscribe to the How I Built This podcast here
3. HBR IdeaCast
What It Is: A weekly podcast featuring leading thinkers in business and management.
Favorite Episode: Working with Colleagues: Should You Collaborate or Compete?
Why We Like It: Apart from the fact that the name has interstitial capitalization, the enterprise also features big ideas that are flourishing in the workplace.
Subscribe to the HBR IdeaCast podcast here
4. Hidden Brain
What It Is: Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape choices, and direct relationships.
Favorite Episode: When Doing Right Feels Wrong
Why We Like It: This type of in-depth psychology gives us ideas for how to engage crowds, inspire creativity, and drive innovative thinking.
Subscribe to the Hidden Brain podcast here
5. Stanford Innovation Lab
What It Is: This innovation podcast explores innovation and entrepreneurship concepts being studied at Stanford. Tina Seelig empowers students to be more confident, creative, and entrepreneurial.
Favorite Episode: The Power Of Creative Friction
Why We Like It: Tina Seelig is an inspiring personality and has some practical approaches to creative thinking that can be applied by anyone.
Subscribe to the Stanford Innovation Lab
6. A16z
What It Is: A innovation podcast from VC fund Andreessen Horowitz that covers business best practices, emerging technology, inspirational entrepreneurs, and more.
Favorite Episode: Innovating and Deciding, for Companies and People
Why We Like It: A great innovation podcast if you want to think about the future of technology, from the people who are helping to fund it.
Subscribe to the A16z podcast here
7. WorkLife
What It Is: Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside the world’s most unusual workplaces to discover the keys to better work.
Favorite Episode: How to Rethink a Bad Decision
Why We Like It: We loved Adam Grant’s originals. His approach to presenting psychology concepts with practical case studies makes it seem like you could apply these great ideas anywhere. While this podcast has just wrapped up, the insights he offers are enduring.
Subscribe to the WorkLife podcast here
8. 99% Invisible
What It Is: Taking its name from the idea that good design is “99% invisible,” each episode looks at what goes into the design of the world around us, from the structure of food aisles to the numbers on airport runways.
Favorite Episode: Call of Duty-Free
Why We Like It: It encourages you to ask questions about the world around you, and why decisions were made that we never question.
Subscribe to 99% Invisible here
9. Radiolab
What It Is: Radiolab investigates the tension between the certainty of science and mysteries that inspire wonder.
Favorite Episode: CRISPR
Why We Like It: Radiolab looks at concepts both new and old from the peculiar intersection of ethics, science, civics, and philosophy, encouraging complex thinking after every listen.
Subscribe to the RadioLab podcast here
10. TED Radio Hour
What It Is: A journey through fascinating ideas: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.
Favorite Episode: The Meaning of Work
Why We Like It: It’s a great way to get a sampling of TED talks around themes that might help you solve problems, new and old.
Subscribe to the TED Radio Hour podcast here
This is a list of informative and engaging innovation podcasts that cover a wide range of topics related to innovation. From interviews with entrepreneurs to discussions on the latest technology trends, these innovation podcasts offer insights and inspiration for anyone interested in the world of innovation.
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