My random two cents: - He was smart and exploited a resource: at first, it was MIT profs, etc., whom he would talk to. This happens to be an institution full of

My random two cents: - He was smart and exploited a resource: at first, it was MIT profs, etc., whom he would talk to. This happens to be an institution full of interesting people; he interviewed them, let them speak, and built an audience - Once he had an audience, he was able to connect to others beyond MIT. Which then grew the audience further. - And so on. I sometimes get annoyed when he doesn't push back on things but I suspect the problem every podcaster has is this: if you push too hard, some people won't go on your show. Overall, I think he does a pretty good job, and if you have long commutes or other long periods of time where you can listen to something, you could definitely do worse.