# Lex Fridman Podcast

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Lex Fridman Podcast and 19 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its guests and long technical interviews, with listeners saying Fridman lets guests speak. Critics most often say his questions are shallow and unprepared.

## Why people recommend it

- Good guests who get to speak (3 comments): "Fridman is quite good at letting the guest speak." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47013561)) "You don't really listen for Lex, but his guests." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47053389)) "I think he gets good guests." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47011266))
- Long technical interviews, better interviewing (2 comments): "I particularly enjoy his long technical interviews like the one he did with Peter." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038393)) "Much better interviewer IMO" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006089))

## What people warn about

- Shallow, unprepared questions (5 comments): "He never seems well prepared for his guest beyond a chatgpt summary, never gets any kind of interesting answer out of a guest that they weren't already going to give" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016968)) "Fridman is the one who continuously rambles some incoherent nonsense and completely lacks the intelligence and knowledge to ask reasonable questions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47012685)) "the superficiality of the questions that Lex Friedman asks his very technical guests" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005961))
- Called a fraud or charlatan (4 comments): "He's completely nauseating and the best thing I ever did on YT was to block those podcasts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47496948)) "Lex Friedman is a fraud/charlatan and shouldn't be listened to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47030827)) "He's just another alt right podcast grifter." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038092))
- Soft stance on Russia-Ukraine (3 comments): "On various occasions did he sympathize with the war and terror that Russia is doing in Ukraine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47036774)) "I lost all respect for Lex after seeing him interview Zelensky of Ukraine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052740)) "he tried to arbiter a "peace agreement" between Russia and Ukraine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052211))
- Little substance, low signal (3 comments): "These are really just ramblings, nothing of value is being said." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46749207)) "the signal to noise ratio is poor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49946804)) "it's effectively junk food" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500101))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Dwarkesh Podcast](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dwarkesh-podcast.md): 29 recommend
- [Oxide and Friends](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oxide-and-friends-podcast.md): 26 recommend
- [Acquired podcast](https://hackerapproved.com/p/acquired-podcast.md): 25 recommend
- [Behind the Bastards podcast](https://hackerapproved.com/p/behind-the-bastards-podcast.md): 18 recommend
- [Mindscape podcast by Sean Carroll](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mindscape-podcast.md): 18 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Lex Fridman Podcast", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lex-fridman-podcast/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).