• Reading: T follicular helper phenotype predicts response to histone deacetylase inhibitors in relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma
• Watching: Democracy in action, and freedom of speech. Both are good, no? OK, maybe not
• Playing: Just One which is the perfect game to play with a precocious 8-year-old
• Feeling: Feverish. Let’s hope it’s just the vaccine.

• Reading: The Peripheral T-Cell Lymphomas: an Unusual Path to Cure
• Watching: Vitalik Buterin talks to Tyler Cowen. I don’t understand why this only has 2k views
• Playing: Season 2 of The Americans, and also its most excellent soundtrack
• Feeling: Good about today. Tomorrow, not so much.

• Reading: Edward Tufte’s website, in preparation for his new book which I will also read at some point this year, I hope
• Watching: These Tinderbox video tutorials are an excellent introduction to a powerful application
• Playing: Running with the Wolves at bedtime, on repeat. Don’t ask.
• Feeling: Thankful that my parenting skills aren’t a trending topic on Twitter.

• Reading: TCR and TCL1A collaboration in T-PLL, an article from late last year about T prolymphocytic leukemia, sometimes called T-CLL, both being misnomers.
• Watching: Video of a hawk (or is it a falcon?) picking on a rat carcass on top of a traffic light in DC, courtesy of my wife. I’ll spare you the gory details.
• Playing: Hunt a Killer, which is a birthday present I may finally get to since we are now 2 for 3 in rainy days this year.
• Thinking: If I am typing this on the phone is it still considered writing?

• Reading: My Name is Red and A Pattern Language, still. The beginning few chapters of the latter give the best explanation for why McMansions are a waste of space, with square foot upon square foot of single-use (or no-use!) space.
• Watching: Season 1 of The Americans soon to be completed. Tough stuff.
• Playing: Dark Souls III (or rather I will attempt to do so… the Elder Signs game went fine yesterday until the youngest decided sucking on monster tokens is great use of his time)
• Eating: black beans (like most cooking websites this one too has SEO’d itself into parody, but it is a good recipe)
• Thinking: Does birdwatching count as playing? Because with the gorgeous weather outside a walk in the woods will be in order.

• Read: Cell Biology by the Numbers online, My Name is Red and A Pattern Language offline. But American Registry of Pathology Expert Opinions: Recommendations for the diagnostic workup of mature T cell neoplasms is the only thing I’ll finish (and you can tell from the title it’s a page-turner)
• Watch: Season 1 of The Americans and also this YouTube channel in the background, as one of the children is quite the car enthusiast.
• Play: Elder Sign which is the perfect game to play on a rainy day, and what better way to welcome in the New Year than by fighting the Ancient Ones.
• Eat: Leftovers from The Federalist Pig (or The Capitalist Pig, as a friend tends to mispronounce it constantly in what is quite the Freudian slip).
• Think: How long can I keep this up? I give myself until the end of next week.

If there is a theme to this year’s list it is the intentional omission of all things biomedical, which I hope is self-explanatory considering (waves around) all this.

1. Omnibus, wherein two nerds, one professional the other amateur discuss topics of great interest, including bad architecture, bad cinema, a bad sister, and a very bad husband. It is at once entertaining, educational, and en…titilating?

2. Lex Fridman Podcast, wherein the said Lex Fridman, an AI researcher from MIT, discusses history with Dan Carlin, programming with Chris Lattner, cryptocurrency with Vitalik Buterin, Joe Rogan with Joe Rogan, et cetera, et cetera. File under “good for exploring the back catalogue, not so much for regular weekly listending”, like so many others.

3. 20 Macs for 2020, which is a weekly-ish countdown of notable Apple computers, with comments from notable Apple aficionados. Listen and appreciate how enthusiastic some people can be about some things.

4. Dithering, which is a — shock, horror — paid podcast, but one well worth your money and time if you know the two men responsible, Ben Thompson and John Gruber.

5. People I (mostly) admire, wherein an economist of some fame and with a good sense of humor talks to, well, people he (mostly) admires, including Ken Jennings of the first podcast on this list, and what a nice way to end it.

Previous editions: 2020

• 2019
• 2018
• The one where I took a break from podcasts
• The very first one

EconTalk with Russ Roberts is the best interview podcast I’ve listened to, period. Unlike Tyler Cowen Roberts focuses on an issue or two, not the personality being interviewed. He gives fewer if any passes. The effect is that I feel like I’m actually learning about the thing in question, not just getting acquainted with Cowen’s personality du jour. Whether any learning actually takes place at my advanced age is another matter.

My top 5 episodes:

• Keith Smith on free market health care
• Venkatesh Rao on Waldenponding
• Adam Cifu on the case for being a medical conservative
• Patrick Collison on innovation and scientific progress
• Andrew McAfee on more from less

Honorable mentions: Cowen, Holiday, Hossenfelder, Bertaud

Conversations with Tyler are as good as ever. This year’s favorites:

• Mark Zuckerberg and Patrick Collison
• Margaret Atwood
• Masha Gessen
• Emily Wilson
• Ezekiel Emanuel

(Note that the majority are episodes with women - Cowen has Roberts easily beaten here)

Breaking Smart with Venkatesh Rao I would recommend to anyone who’s enjoyed the above-linked interview Russ Roberts did with Rao on one of the better Breaking Smart essays. It’s 15-20 minutes of Rao performing mental stretching excercises, solo.

Plenary Session with Vinay Prasad is another podcast that shines with the solo performances, but the interviews aren’t half-bad either. That isn’t a surprise, since this year Prasad has talked to David Steensma, Frank Harrell, Adam Cifu, H. Gilbert Welch, and Clifford Hudis, among others. Sadly, the podcast still doesn’t have a proper website, so I can’t link to any of these episodes directly.

I started the decade childless and am ending it with three, so I have missed most of the 2010s’ pop culture. This includes the entire Transformers franchise and most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (so, not much missed then?)

• Film: “Get Out”
• Blockbuster/action film: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
• Album: “Hamilton”
• Single: “Rolling in the Deep”
• TV Show: “Veep”
• Single Season: “The Leftovers” season 2
• Book Fiction: “The Dark Forest” (or “Death’s End” if you count the publication of the first Chinese edition, but TDF is superior)
• Book Non Fiction: “Antifragile”
• Athlete of the Decade: The Đoković-Federer-Nadal trio, but if I had to pick one then obviously Đoković.

Movies and music were better in the 2000s, but oh what time to watch TV and follow tennis. It’s too early to judge the books (though it’s telling that my favorite was originally written in 2008).

1. Plenary Session. Many friends and coworkers are amazed that anyone would voluntarily subject themself to Vinay Prasad‘s tirades, but his podcast is well-behaved and a pleasure to listen. The monologues are better than the interviews, which is to be expected: he’s been monologuing his whole life and interviewing for less than a year. And yes, some of his guests/collaborators need too much coaxing, but sock puppets only reinforce the national meeting atmosphere that the name evokes.
2. Conversations with Tyler. Still great. You can start at the beginning, or with the one with Daniel Kahneman, but start somewhere. Most are excellent and all are good, even the ones you wouldn’t guess from the interviewee’s name and bio.
3. The Knowledge Project. Farnham Street/F.S. has gotten some good press, and for good reason. It’s self-improvement for people allergic to the self-improvement label.
4. Revisionist History. Yet to listen to the latest season, but I can’t see it going badly. Malcolm Gladwell is a pro.
5. The Glass Canon Podcast. In the absence of a regular gaming night (never schedule a campaign around three doctors’ schedules), I listen to other people playing tabletop RPGs. No better entertainment, I say.