What podcasts are construction leaders listening to?

It’s hard to imagine what we did on long drives or flights before podcasts. They can be informative, entertaining, funny, short, long and everything in between. Here’s a quick list of some of the podcasts people in our sector are listening to.

Rory Kulmala, Vancouver Island Construction Association CEO

The Way I heard It – Mike Rowe

He tells some great stories that include unknown facts and some surprising endings in a way that only Mike can do!

– Kulmala

Michael Scott, building division vice president, Impact Recruitment

Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People – Earwolf and Chris Gethard

Every human has a story and people have some really ‘odd’ things happen in life. By being able to talk about your life things anonymously for an hour and not be judged is a great healing thing and helps us all to realize that weird stuff happens all around us and to all of us.

– Scott

Yasir Ali, Self Perform Operations at Turner Construction Company

Acquired – Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

This podcast is a long format episode ~3 hours each compared to the traditional 30-40min episodes of most podcasts. It does a really good job doing a deep dive behind the inception of a business/start up to where it is today with a focus on the people behind it. Would really recommend for an in-depth understanding and behind the scenes decision making that happens when businesses get acquired to also understanding multiple pivots that businesses make in being sustainable and relevant in an ever-evolving market.

– Ali

Shane McKernan, director of construction at Chard Development

Vancouver Real Estate Podcast – Matt and Adam Scalena

This podcast has had great insight to local market conditions and forecasts. They have some really good guests on too that’s worth a listen.

– McKernan

Erik Backstrom, Senior Planner for City of Edmonton

The Ezra Klein Show – Ezra Klein

A podcast with deep, insightful conversations about a wide variety of meaningful issues. 

– Backstrom

Nicholas Tountas, sheet metal worker at Orzech Heating and Cooling

Spitten Chiclets – Barstool Sports

As a huge sports fan I love the Spitting Chiclets Podcast. I love the other side of sports commentary (the absence of cookie cutter responses) and enjoy personal recollections of athlete’s journeys. Dark Topic is a podcast my girlfriend recently got me into. It’s a true crime genre where the hosts cover 911 calls and provide humour to obviously unsettling circumstances.  The banter is great, the stories are often quite disturbing, and the delivery of the show itself always keeps me wanting to hear the next episode.

– Tountas

Thomas Bamber, Air + Light technical lead, Integral Group

Crackdown – Crackdown Productions

It’s a podcast made by and about people in the downtown east side. I have lost track of how many people I’ve recommended this too. I just really admire the people who’ve made it. It has generated a lot of momentum towards helping people like me be less ignorant about the downtown east side community.

– Bamber

Sebastien de Ghellinck, SkillSignal founder and owner

Business Wars – Wondery

I love Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, but you never know when the next series will come out… so I’ll also mention Business Wars. It makes business history accessible and we can even listen to it as a family on road trips.

– de Ghellinck

Mary Van Buren, Canadian Construction Association president

How to speak so that people want to listen – Julian Treasure

We are all bombarded with communications and much of it is ignored.  In this TED Talk, the speaker points out some simple ways to be more effective.

– Van Buren

Russell Hixson, SiteNews Editor

More Perfect – WNYC Studios

If not for Sebastien mentioning it, I would have chosen Hardcore History which is far and away the greatest podcast of all time, in my opinion. However, as a former crime journalist who spent countless hours in courtrooms, I have a soft spot for anything that digs into the legal system. More Perfect does this.

– Hixson