University Of Chicago Podcasts: I Give Them An A+

 One of the many benefits of podcasting is that quality in that medium can originate from the most unlikely of sources. Right now, we have corporate-branded podcasts such as Shopify’s podcast TGIM, Inside Trader Joe’s and #LIPSTORIES (Sephora) as three stellar examples. 

Mattress Firm has been successful with iHeart's Chasing Sleep. Mattress sales are up, due, in large part, to the show.

How about an entire podcast network started by a University -- and the podcasts are an A+, and I'm not grading on a Bell Curve.

I'm talking about the University Of Chicago.

The University of Chicago was incorporated as a coeducational institution in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society, using $400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller, and including land donated by Marshall Field.

Today, The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, with its main campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. University of Chicago scholars have played a major role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools in various fields.

Unlike some universities that have a podcast or two, The University Of Chicago has a podcast network, and their podcasts are informative, which you'd expect, entertaining, which might surprise you, and insightful, which you'd demand.

The podcasts I'll cover are fairly uniform in format and consistent in tone. It's a university podcast network populated by professors and academics, so sometimes being pedantic and prosaic is part of the overall package.

What's refreshing is that, despite conservative media blathering about academic elites who promote a Marxist, dissolute, and predatory lifestyle, the academics on these podcasts offer opinions, declarations, solutions, analysis, insights, and prescriptive thought that transcends strict political ideology. In effect, the data they mine and then interpret can fall on both sides of the political landscape.

The hosts of these shows aren't in the class of Michael Barbaro from The Daily (who is?), but they're competent, incisive, and sneaky funny. 

Here's an abridged list of the university's podcasts.

Big Brains is an award-winning podcast that features stories about the pioneering research and pivotal breakthroughs by scholars at the University of Chicago and leading universities across the country. For example, recent episodes about the benefits of music, the health costs of air pollution, solving societal and economic inequality, and the importance of gut health can help listeners

Capitalisn't Is capitalism the engine of destruction or the engine of prosperity? On this podcast, hosts and guests talk about the ways in which capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today. Hosted by Vanity Fair contributing editor, Bethany McLean and world renowned economics professor Luigi Zingales, we explain how capitalism can go wrong, and what we can do to fix it.

Episodes of note include "Why America's poor remain poor" with journalist Matthew Desmond, An April show with sociologist Elizabeth Berman about economics' role in public and political life. In a May show, the co-hosts discuss labor markets with guest MIT economist David Autor, who explains his views on the connection between wage growth and inflation, the impact of Chinese exports on U.S. manufacturing, and the impact of technology on labor.

Not Another Politics Podcast  With all the noise created by a 24/7 news cycle, it can be hard to really grasp what's going on in politics today. We provide a fresh perspective on the biggest political stories not through opinion and anecdotes, but rigorous scholarship, massive data sets and a deep knowledge of theory. Understand the political science beyond the headlines with Harris School of Public Policy Professors William Howell, Anthony Fowler and Wioletta Dziuda

Why This Universe  -- The biggest ideas in physics, broken down. Join theoretical physicist Dan Hooper and co-host Shalma Wegsman as they answer your questions about dark matter, black holes, quantum mechanics, and more.

 Nine Questions With Eric Oliver  is my personal favorite. Twenty years ago, Dr. Eric Oliver started teaching a course on how to know your self at the University of Chicago. In the class, Eric would ask his students nine questions that were essential for crafting “a well-examined life.” For this podcast, he poses these same nine questions to some of our wisest and most interesting fellow humans.

The University podcast network also includes notable podcasts such as Entitled (about personal rights), Carry The Two (about Math), and CNN's The Axe Files with the founder and director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, David Axelrod.

We live in a society in the U.S. where combatants with disparate worldviews meet only to do battle, returning between rounds to their safe echo chambers of self-confirmation and opinion disguised as news that exists only to denigrate the opponent. 

These University Of Chicago podcasts offer listeners perspectives on life, culture, the universe, and economics derived more from data, analytics, research, and studies, instead of divisive opinion masquerading as news or fact.