When I first started the AoM podcast nearly 18 years ago, many people didn’t even know what a podcast was. This was a time before Conan, the Kelce brothers, and your sister-in-law all had a show, and there were only about a hundred thousand podcasts in existence.
Today, there are roughly 4 million.
That’s a lot of options for the limited slots you’ve got available in your listening time.
So today, allow me to offer 7 reasons the AoM podcast deserves one of them:
1. There’s no fluff. A lot of podcasts open with ten minutes of the hosts catching up about their weekends before they get around to the reason you hit play. You won’t get that on the AoM podcast. It’s all meat, and meat that’s been edited carefully and ruthlessly; we not only cut filler like ums and uhs, but longer stretches that didn’t end up going anywhere.
The result is a tight, value-packed show where everything left in is worthwhile.
2. The episodes don’t run longer than an hour. I don’t have two hours to sit and listen to a podcast, and I’m guessing you don’t either. The AoM podcast respects your time: in addition to being tightly edited afterwards, the rigorous preparation I do before each interview allows me to draw out a guest’s best insights in a focused way. Our episodes thus come in under an hour, while still capturing someone’s most useful and interesting ideas.
You can often digest an entire episode on your commute, listening to half on the way to work and half on the way home.
3. I let the guests talk. I’ve listened to interview podcasts where the host brings on a Nobel Prize-winning expert and then treats them like an Ed McMahon sideman — talking over them, interrupting mid-sentence, or turning every answer into a segue back to themselves: “That reminds me of something that happened to me.”
My philosophy is simple: if I’ve invited someone on because they’re the expert, I should get out of the way and let them be the expert. One of the most common compliments I get about the show is that guests actually get to talk.
4. Limited, predictable ad placement. Some podcasts cram in as many ads as they can and scatter them wherever. You’ll be in the middle of a fascinating story and suddenly there’s an ad for a mattress. We run ads in just two predictable places: at the top of the show and in the middle. And when that mid-roll break comes, I announce it so you’re not caught off guard.
Instead of trying to maximize revenue by maximizing ads, we aim to keep them tasteful and minimally intrusive. (I realize many people would love a show with no ads, but some advertising is necessary to keep a free show running.)
5. Non-political. Politics and current events seem to make their way into nigh near everything these days — from entertainment to sports to podcasts that are ostensibly about other things. But the AoM podcast doesn’t get political. That’s intentional. The world’s got enough bickering, hot takes, tiresome slants, and blowhard pontificating. I want the show to feel like a break from all that, where the focus is on timeless stuff that doesn’t fit into partisan categories and remains evergreen.
6. Family friendly. In a time when many podcasts come marked with the explicit E symbol, you’ll never hear strong profanity on the AoM podcast. You won’t be hit with crude content, either. You can play it in the car with your kids without keeping your hand hovering over the volume knob. And you won’t hesitate to pass an episode along to your sons or nephews.
7. Genuine variety. We’ve covered history, fitness, personal finance, philosophy, literature, marriage, parenting, mental health — and a lot of territory in between. Last week the subject was the mystery of courage; this week, it’s about healthy bowel habits.
This isn’t a podcast that hits the same topic over and over and over again. You’re not going to get bored with it from week to week, and odds are there’s something in the archive that speaks directly to whatever you’re currently interested in.
Because of the wide variety of topics the AoM podcast delves into, listening to it regularly is a chance to improve every single area of your life.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably the kind of guy who’d get something out of the show. So open your podcast app, search “Art of Manliness,” and hit follow.
That way, the next time you’ve got a drive, a walk, or a spare stretch of time, you don’t have to think about what to listen to — you’ve already got something worthwhile queued up.
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