Yes, the 43 Folders podcast is my favourite podcast. There are a few reasons why I consider it my favourite. Besides the obvious reasons such as “Merlin Mann is a geek like me”, and “I am obsessed with productivity tools” there is another difference between the 43 Folders podcast and 99% of all the other podcasts out there.
Most people listen to podcasts during their daily commute. Modern society forces people to spend a ridiculous amount of time travelling, and there are very few things you can do while driving a car. Most commuters listen to music or the radio, but that is a very unproductive activity. If you want to spend your car-time productively, you only have two options: audio-based learning and listening to podcasts. Long commutes are the perfect place for listening podcast, and most podcasters target their show to this group. The result is that most podcasts are either 30 minutes long or 60 minutes long, so listeners have handy building blocks to fill their car time. 30 minutes also gives the podcasters the possibility to add decoration such as jingles and music to their show, making podcasting more entertaining, but less productive.
My commute usually takes less than 10 minutes, so it makes no sense for me to listen to podcasts in the car. I listen to podcasts during my breakfast instead. I only take a sandwich and a coffee for breakfast, so the maximum podcast length is about 15 minutes. I searched around (why do none of the podcast directories have an advanced search feature where I can filter for podcast length?) and found only very few short podcasts. And out of this very few podcasts that fit my needs, 43 folders is my favourite.
