Ask HN: Which tech podcasts would you recommend to a friend? There are a huge number of tech podcasts, but the quality is very hit & miss. Which podcasts do you go out of your way to listen to? Which podcasts keep you up to date on the latest trends & subjects? Which podcasts introduce you to new concepts & subjects in an engaging, informed, & intelligent way? Which tech podcasts do you trust? |
Covers random stuff, if you wanted programming specific I could suggest some of those but many are already pointed out by others
Test & Code
Rustacean Station
Talk Python to me
Darknet Diaries
Self hosted
Linux after dark
Linux unplugged
Linux action news
Django Chat
Talk Python To Me
The Real Python Podcast- TLB Hit
I cast a wide net in my information gathering, but I tend to still skim a boatload of content...
Because, I don't trust any of it. I take the skeptic (not cynical, there is a difference) on all content.
Because given that I have been on the internet for decades, I've seen how the sausage is made through a number of company lenses and roles....
However, as I age, one thing I have found out is that expertise atrophies at an incredible rate.
I was one of Intels DRG managers testing all sorts of kit, from private dealings with the initial Unreal engine, gaming testing on plasma monitors for subjective visual glitching etc...
But the space of tech is just so fn huge these days, and expertise (and relevancy) don't age well....
So, I just dont know who to keep up with given the scale of tech info out there... as Tech has become the Mycelium to the Human Organism (the fruit of the Tech-celium) - We built the ornaism that controls us.
- Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod (https://techpod.content.town/)
- Pivot (https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/pivot)
- The Vergecast (https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/the-vergecast)
- Decoder (https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/decoder-with-nilay-patel)
- Daily Tech News Show (https://dailytechnewsshow.com/)
- Hard Fork (Casey Newton of Platformer and Kevin Roose) (https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork)
Going more specifically into Software
- Frontend Happy Hour (Ryan Burgess from Netflix and other smart SWEs/managers) (https://www.frontendhappyhour.com/)
- Screaming in the Cloud (Corey Quinn) (https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud...)
- Syntax FM (https://syntax.fm/)
Probably one of the best episodes is the interview with Andreas Kling, the author of Serenity OS
He interviews well-spoken programmers and skill leaders from a variety of language ecosystems -- and usually the guests share his appreciation for simple, strongly typed, functional and pure functional programming languages (like Elm).
Currently Richard Feldman is building a new language and ecosystem inspired by Elm but for non-browser application domains -- and he often discusses concepts and engineering trade offs as related to the design and implementation choices that are being made while growing this (to me quite exciting) new language.
Richard is a unique host who isn’t afraid to bring on guests with differing views and dive into the weeds
- Randomly Typed (haven't seen a new episode come out in a while but these two Canadian guys are great!)
- Coding Blocks (I like their book club episodes a lot, specifically DDIA)
- Talk Python To Me
- Software Engineering Daily (most episodes that came out until 2020 or so are excellent and go to such depths that I haven't encountered from any other interviewer, quality of newer ones isn't consistent)
- Jane Street's Signals and Threads
- Techmeme Ride Home (tech news)
- Data Skeptic (data science)=
Mynoise (ive posted about it here in the past) is amazing.
If you have ADHD Insomnia (no drugs, just biology) and ASMR 'needs' -- Do church bells with thunder and the 1942 bomber static radio channel... EQ the bells up.
I had it saved years ago, but that mix will give you a lot to play with and be happy with.
Though often my mind does not stop and does the work on its own or I'm more relaxed and later on can focus better.
About systems programming and open source. The episodes go surprisingly deep and are still fast-paced and stream-of-consciousness with contributions from anybody who has something meaningful to say in their group call.
Data Stack show (https://datastackshow.com/) Data Engineering podcast (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/) Data Skeptic (https://dataskeptic.com/) The Data Scientist Show (https://www.youtube.com/c/thedatascientistshow/videos)
I also like Business wars but that's not "tech" exactly.
Fascinating listening to how others learn and grow.
Screaming in the Cloud by Corey Quinn. https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud...
Similar episodes plus more snark than you can poke a stick at.
For both of these, I like that the hosts are clearly biased.
https://latenightlinux.com/about/ - linux
https://changelog.com/podcasts - few podcasts about various tech subjects: tech/js/ai
https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/ - linux, self-hosting
https://www.latent.space/podcast - new podcast about ai
https://syntax.fm/ - mostly frontend webdev
https://shoptalkshow.com/ - mostly frontend webdev
I Spy - https://foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/ispy
Security Now - https://twit.tv/shows/security-now
Floss weekly - https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly
- https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing
Discussion about the trends
* over-use of sound effects
* shouty people
* unfunny jokes (might get a chuckle in the pub, but that's not why I'm listening)
* saturated by advertising
Darknet Diaries gets the balance right. I'd love to find more which provide that kind of value.
Over the last 2 years, he's been bringing on fewer and fewer tech-related guests while injecting more and more of his own (often political) commentary into the podcasts rather than simply asking good questions. The podcast has gotten worse, not better (at least from the perspective of someone who just wants to hear insights from proven tech leaders).
-- Chris Lattner -> Wrote the LLVM Compiler and lead/(leads?) development of the Swift programming language. Done a bunch of other cool things with RISC-V development too -- https://open.spotify.com/episode/5fpAb2OpRL3Uy8ZTq94vD8?si=b...
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fzFCgBznLjKvG2tJFLk3I?si=f...
-- Bjarne Stroustrup -> Creator of C++ programming language -- https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nfoXUYySjgyCtJVglb5LV?si=4...
-- David Patterson -> Turing Award Winner (Don't remember exactly what this guy did but the podcast was 4.5 hours and I listened to the whole thing so it must have been good) -- https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GgaJfeIZWLbofcapDbo18?si=8...
-- Brendan Eich -> Creator of JavaScript -- https://open.spotify.com/episode/5vLJaVnHrT6uWrgZdRaAkO?si=4...
-- He's had on Elon a few times too. -- https://open.spotify.com/episode/1E3ESPFzTHiAxJVXQPiRGd?si=f... He also had a bunch of really good physics and math guys on like Grant Sanderson (3 Blue 1 Brown guy) and Frank Wilcek (Nobel Prize Winner in physics, wrote "A Beautiful Question")
I'd also counter one of the previous comments and say that I think he challenges the controversial people he has on significantly more than almost anyone else doing podcasts right now. That's specifically one of the reasons I like him.
Some other good podcasts though: PodRocket -> Really good stuff on Web Development and general web technology
Command Line Heros -> Some really good episodes on the history of software. If you're young like I am this podcast gives you a really good rundown as to why things in software are the way they are and how it evolved.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg-> Great podcast for learning about how the tech ecosystem operates on a large scale. It's 4 guys who have been extremely successful in the tech/VC world and they breakdown current events in tech. I feel like it provides really good insight into where the tech world is/is going and also if you're interested in starting a company it helps wrap your head around the terminology that comes along with raising money and working in that world.
I'm also a big fan of Coder Radio (https://coder.show/) Tagline: "taking a pragmatic look at the art and business of Software Development" They called the layoffs and salary adjustments happening now back in April 2021
If you want to look at software from a non-coastal US perspective (and don't mind occasional [or in early episodes not-so-occsional] profanity) I like Friday afternoon deploy (https://friday.hirelofty.com/)
I also was to second the Go Time recommendation from another post (https://changelog.com/gotime) - while it is Go focused more often than not, in recent months they've done show on intellectual property, tech horror stories and code maintenance
I think he began running out of those people or just wanted to expand. Some of the new format guests are great, but I skip many episodes now, whereas before I enjoyed 99% of them.
Still, at its best it remains one of the most informative and insightful podcasts I know of, largely due to the guest expertise.
Disappointing that the one guy everyone holds up as neutral, curious party is just another partisan.