A Huntley, Illinois, business owner, Rick Tsakalios spent nearly a decade as a tech support professional working for a prominent technology company. To stay abreast of his interest in business, technology, and local and world news, Rick Tsakalios listens to a variety of podcasts.
Among several events-focused podcasts, Rick Tsakalios enjoys listening to The Daily. As the name implies, The Daily is a daily podcast produced by the newspaper The New York Times. During the week, episodes of The Daily reflect articles covered in that day’s The New York Times newspaper. The 20 to 30-minute-long episodes cover a wide range of topics and include interviews with multiple journalists from The New York Times.
Rick Tsakalios and other podcast fans have been able to listen to The Daily since its launch in 2017. The podcast released its 2,200th episode in March 2025. The free podcast is downloaded millions of times per week.
Rick Tsakalios also listens to All Things Considered, a popular news program produced by National Public Radio (NPR). NPR launched All Things Considered as a radio show in 1971. While the program is not available as a podcast, NPR launched a partner podcast, Consider This, in 2020. Listeners like Rick Tsakalios can enjoy 15-minute episodes six days per week. The Consider This podcast covers a single story each day, providing a comprehensive breakdown of all angles and featuring reporting from NPR and affiliated journalists from around the country.
NPR listeners like Rick Tsakalios can enjoy many additional podcasts from the network, including Hidden Brain. Regularly rated as the No. 1 science podcast in the United States, Hidden Brain explores the human mind and how the mysteries of the mind translate into human interactions. Host and editor Shankar Vedantam brings over 25 years of experience in human behavior and social science research to the podcast. Rick Tsakalios and other listeners can learn more about Vedantam’s research in his book Hidden Brain, which introduced the concept in 2010.
Rick Tsakalios listens to another NPR podcast, How I Built This, an ideal program for innovators and entrepreneurs. Each episode features an interview subject who explains the business, innovation, or movement they built and how it was constructed.
In addition, Rick Tsakalios is a fan of Serial, another podcast that provides a comprehensive analysis of a single story. A Peabody Award-winning series, Serial is an investigative journalism podcast focusing on nonfiction, crime-related stories that are narrated over the length of multiple episodes. Hosted and co-produced by Sarah Koenig, Serial is one of the most popular podcasts of all time. The first season ranked No. 1 on the iTunes chart before the first episode debuted and retained the ranking for several weeks. The first two seasons alone have amassed upwards of 340 million downloads, a podcast world record.
Finally, as a fan of Twenty Thousand Hertz, Rick Tsakalios keeps up with all of the latest developments in the world of sound. The podcast covers a breadth of material, ranging from pop culture music to the intricate scientific details behind sound. Past guests have included the likes of scientist Bill Nye, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Hans Zimmer’s film-scoring team. Rick Tsakalios also enjoys learning about the finer points of songwriting and recording through the podcast Song Exploder.