OUR TAKE: DeLegge covers well-trodden ground, but his archives include excellent interviews, including chats with Vanguard’s John Bogle, who invented index investing, and Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal.

Sound Investing (www.fundadvice.com/sound-investing).
This weekly radio show is funded by Merriman Berkman Next, a fee-based money manager in Seattle. Not surprisingly, recent episodes have focused on how to protect your investments as markets take a pounding, usually advising listeners to remember that this isn’t the first crash in our lifetime.

OUR TAKE: Sound Investing has its vested interests, but unlike many corporately produced programs it keeps the focus on consumer education. Plus, it’s a refreshing antidote to the doomsayers out there.

The Dave Ramsey Show(www.daveramsey.com).

The tagline to Ramsey’s popular talk radio show is “where debt is dumb and cash is king.” In his Tennessee drawl, he counsels his callers on deferred gratification: “Sell yer truck, and don’t even think about that vacation until y’all have an emergency fund.” The free daily podcast on iTunes is a 40-minute abridgment of Ramsey’s three-hour radio show.

OUR TAKE: It’s hard to resist the voyeuristic thrill of listening to the financial lives of his callers, and Ramsay usually offers eminently sensible advice on getting out of debt and investing wisely. But every now and again he launches into right-wing tirades that are downright scary.

Wallstrip (www.wallstrip.com).

The name is a teaser: this video podcast is not the financial world’s answer to Naked News. It does, however, have a fetching, if fully clothed host named Julie Alexandria. In two-minute spots, she offers a satirical take on financial trends and publicly traded companies, with irreverent scripts and clever visuals, replete with pop culture references. The iTunes version lets you skip the commercials.

OUR TAKE: The financial news could use a little of Wallstrip’s humor these days. If nothing else, it’s way sexier than Bloomberg on the Economy.

EconTalk (www.econtalk.org ).

Produced by a non-political educational foundation, EconTalk is an erudite, in-depth podcast on economics hosted by Russ Roberts. His guests have included luminaries of the dismal science such as Robert Shiller, as well as popular authors like William Bernstein. Some refreshing surprises also crop up, such as a recent interview about how wildlife management in Africa affects poverty.

OUR TAKE: With podcasts sometimes exceeding an hour and a half, EconTalk is a break from the world of sound bites. Roberts is curious and engaging, and when he uses jargon, he’s careful to explain it for us non-economists.

Mass movements are soooo 20th century. The future will be shaped by multitudes of small groups that most of us are just beginning to notice. At least that’s the contention of Penn, a pollster, publicist and adviser to Hillary Clinton. In this book, he sniffs out some of the most interesting microtrends.

Our take: Vegan kids? Protestant Hispanics? Late-breaking gays? They’re all rising social forces, according to Penn. His intriguing book opened our eyes to a swarm of surprising developments.

2. A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark ($29.95, Princeton University Press)

People in 1750 lived not a whole lot better than people two thousand years before. Then England gave birth to the Industrial Revolution and, in a blink of history, we were rich. But what caused the revolution? And why aren’t all countries now rich?

Our take: Clark argues the English evolved biologically in ways that created prosperity. Before you dismiss the notion, read this brilliant tour of economic history.

3. The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan ($42, Penguin)

Did you know that the dour-faced former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board started out as a jazz clarinet player? Or that he dated Barbara Walters? His memoir tells all.

Our take: You’ll enjoy the first half of the book as Greenspan recounts his progress from jazz musician to central banker. The second half—a treatise on global economics—is best left to policy wonks with insomnia.

4. Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres ($32, Bantam)

Say good-bye to intuition. A computer and some basic stats can now reveal hidden patterns in everything from investing to car sales.

Our take: Ayres, a Yale professor, shows that number crunchers can scout baseball players better than grizzled coaches, diagnose diseases better than experienced doctors, and predict court judgments better than veteran lawyers. His book is a thought-provoking look at how computers can—and should—replace humans as decision-makers.

5. Your Money and Your Brain by Jason Zweig ($32, Simon & Schuster)

Neuroeconomists use economics, psychology and neuroscience to gain a better understanding of our behavior with money. Their research shows that many financial attitudes are hard-wired into our brains—which is why so many smart people are dumb with money.

Our take: An entertaining look at all the ways we sabotage our own efforts to get wealthy. A great read for any serious investor.

Back in 1964, British documentary makers shot a black-and-white film of a bunch of seven-year-olds from varied backgrounds—some rich, some poor, some in between—as the kids talked about their hopes for the future. Every seven years since then, the filmmakers have caught up with their cast to see how reality has measured up to their childish hopes.

Our take: This is the mother of all reality shows and it’s still the best. Watch these 49-year-old lives unfold and you can’t help but reflect on how fate plays tricks on all of us—sometimes, it turns out, pretty nice tricks.

2. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling convinced Wall Street that Enron was an unstoppable profit machine. When the machine blew up in 2001, Lay and Skilling walked away with millions of dollars while thousands of Enron employees lost their jobs and their pensions.

Our take: This terrific documentary depicts the swaggering nerds, downhome liars and true believers that made Enron the multi-billion-dollar con job it was.

3. The Great Happiness Space (2006)

Can you sell love? Well, maybe not, but you sure can merchandise a reasonable facsimile. This documentary explores the world of an Osaka “host club” where young women splash out small fortunes for the chance to talk to giggling, overgroomed boytoys.

Our take: Your jaw will drop as you learn how much seemingly intelligent people will pay for a small moment of poorly simulated affection.

4. The Corporation (2004)

This documentary examines the role of the corporation in modern society. It concludes that large companies are, by nature, psychopathic.

Our take: Put us down as unimpressed. This smackdown of business is as gullible as a 16-year-old, as one-sided as a Soviet show trial. If its creators truly believe that corporations are evil, they should try living in a society without any—North Korea, for instance.

5. Just for Kicks (2006)

How did the ugly white running shoes worn by yuppie joggers get all jiggy and become the dopest icon of the inner city? This film tells the story.

Our take: Don’t miss this hilarious, street-wise account of how hip-hop culture jumped into bed with huge sneaker corporations. It demonstrates how capitalism exploits artists—and, better yet, how artists exploit capitalism.

Fortune magazine named Bogle as one of the four investment giants of the 20th century,
which seems only fitting since Bogle practically invented the modern index fund. In this book, the father of index investing explains why he thinks his invention is still the best strategy for most investors.

Our take: Bogle’s message can be repetitive, but he presents a powerful case for indexing. If you’re tired of paying high fees for belowaverage performance, you’ll love his book.

2. The Sleuth Investor by Avner Mandelman ($29.95, McGrawHill)

That indexing stuff is for wimps, roars Mandelman, a money manager who thinks of himself as
Sam Spade with an MBA. According to Mandelman, you make money by acting like a private eye and ferreting out information no one else has.

Our take: If you don’t have a day job, Mandelman’s approach makes sense. For most investors, it doesn’t. If inside information were that easy to get, wouldn’t more mutual funds beat the market?

3. Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse by Peter D. Schiff ($33.99, Wiley)

Now don’t go thinking any happy thoughts there. The U.S. is headed for disaster because of its freespending ways, according to this book. So build your bunker and load up on gold and nonU. S. stocks, says Schiff.

Our take: Schiff exaggerates the negatives. By all means, hold a globally diversified portfolio—but don’t ignore U.S. companies.

4. Grande Expectations: a Year in the Life of Starbucks’ Stock by Karen Blumenthal ($30, Crown Business)

If you want to understand how the market works, this book may be just your cup of halfskim frappuccino. It follows Starbucks shares over a year to illustrate the forces that cause a stock to soar or dive.

Our take: If you’re a novice investor, this book is an entertaining way to see how the market evaluates not just Starbucks, but any stock.

5. The Aleph Blog by David J. Merkel (AlephBlog.com, free)

We’ve become addicted to this blog for its intelligent takes on the stock market and corporate finance. Merkel makes his living as an investment analyst in the U.S., but he writes this blog specifically for small investors.

Our take: We like Merkel’s explanations of why he’s buying or selling specific stocks. Even more, we like his emphasis on controlling your risk, because whether you’re an indexer or an active investor, managing risk is the key to success.