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Dan Newton
Dan Newton

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What are your favourite podcasts? 🤔 🤔

What are your favourite podcasts to listen to? 🤔 🤔

I'll start by listing the ones I am listening to at the moment. Most of them are software engineering related podcasts and (at the moment) a single podcast for something else completely different.

  • Software Engineering Daily - Wide-ranging topics with 5 episodes a week for people like me that have long commutes, so the frequency of episodes provides me with plenty to listen to. Topics generally focus on higher level abstractions rather than how to actually implement features at a code level. Episodes generally last around 40-60 mins.
  • Coding Blocks - Although the name might actually be CodingBlocks.net and the fact that the hosts are from a more C# background, the information is still very useful no matter what your preferred language is. Coding Blocks is very different from Software Engineering Daily (look above) in that it focuses much more on implementation details and information around algorithms and Computer Science topics. Episodes are released once or twice a month and normally last at least 2 hours and frequently reach up to 3. I know the guys are on dev.to so hopefully, they see this and give me some love 😄.
  • Hanselminutes - Another podcast with a wide range of topics, varying from accessibility to game engines. This is a nice one to listen to for general knowledge that may or may not be useful but will always be enjoyable to listen to. Episodes last for around 30 mins and are released weekly.
  • The Bike Shed - Although the hosts changed recently I have still enjoyed listening to this podcast. Episodes normally focus on web development, specifically Ruby on Rails and Javascript. But, it has other languages are topics sprinkled in and is still interesting to listen to even though I don't focus on those languages much myself. Episodes of 30 mins are the norm and are normally released every week.
  • The Yak Shave - This is a newer podcast featuring one of the previous hosts of The Bike Shed. Since Sean (one of the hosts) is heavily involved in the Rust community, expect a lot of discussions about it (which I like since I tried to find more time for Rust but have failed to do so so far). On the hand, he is also heavily involved in Ruby on Rails, so expect some of that as well, although it is less prominent than the Rust discussions. That being said, the few episodes so far cover varying topics and since the podcast typically features two hosts discussing things, there are a lot of different directions that the episodes can go. Episodes normally last around 40 mins. The release schedule has not been cemented yet and they seem to be coming out at random intervals. Hopefully this gets sorted but for now, you will just have to catch them when they pop up.

Something very specific:

  • Life in the fast chain - Since I am quite heavily involved in the Corda community (Distributed Ledger Technology platform) this is something I listen to. This might not be something that will interest most of you reading this post, but if you are living in this niche area (at the moment) like I am, this is something worth listening to. Episodes normally last around 40 mins and are released every few weeks.

Something very different:

  • Critical Role - If the name didn't give it away, click the link and then maybe you might realise. Anyway, this is a DnD podcast, and yes that is very different from all the other Software Engineering related podcasts. This is what I listen to if I have already plowed through all the other podcasts or when I want something less demanding of my focus. Each episode lasts around 3 to 4 hours. I believe they are released each week, but honestly, I am so far behind and going through the backlog that I don't really know.

So, that's me.

Back to what I asked at the start.

  • What are your favourite podcasts?
  • Why do you like them?
  • Who would you recommend them to?

Remember they don't have to be software related, but that sort of field is probably a good place to start 😄

Top comments (27)

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k1pash profile image
Christopher Toman

20 Thousand Hertz is a great podcast about sound. Debunking very interesting topics with very ... "deluxe" production quality. They put a lot of love into it.

It's not a coder podcast, but I believe this one is pretty precious. Start with an episode that sounds interesting and you'll see.

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

sounds interesting

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desi profile image
Desi

The Adventure Zone is a fun DnD podcast!

I like CodeNewbie a lot, as well as Reply All and To Live and Die in LA.

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

Been considering listening to adventure zone as well but still have so much of critical role to go through I don't think I have time for both 😟

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

I really like "The Changelog", and another great podcast I listened to when I was beginning to write was The Art & Business of Writing by Chris Jones.

I listen to the Changelog on my way to work is engineers talking about software, what's not to like. I really enjoy the podcasts that talk about how software was handled and developed back in the day when there was no cloud.

The A&B of writing I would recommend to beginner writers. I think I listened to every single podcast it gives the experience of each writer.

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

I am not sure why I haven't been listening to The Changelog yet 🤔, I might pick it up.

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niorad profile image
Antonio Radovcic

I listen to german non-dev podcasts mostly. I can't stand most podcasts, since they add too much advertising and start talking about it in the middle, pretending it's the normal conversation.

wrint.de (I made the logos for this one)

freakshow.fm

logbuch-netzpolitik.de

radionukular.de

imautokino.de

wochendaemmerung.de

Fest & Flauschig (Spotify)

imgegenteil.de/author/schnapsidee-...

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

Have you tried using a podcast player? The one I have lets me skip 30 secs forward with 1 button, letting me jump over ads (Podcast addict - android).

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niorad profile image
Antonio Radovcic

Yes I'm using Pocketcasts and I can skip with Siri.
That's why I prefer ads at the beginning/end, easier to skip 😬

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

100% agree with that 😄

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kenbellows profile image
Ken Bellows • Edited

Top two are Syntax, an amazing web development podcast that's very beginner-friendly, and Darknet Diaries, which is a sites of amazing stories about hackers and digital criminals and such.

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

Oh thats a good one to mention. SE Daily had an episode with the host of Darknet Diaries which piqued my interest. I might give that one a try.

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kenbellows profile image
Ken Bellows

Strong recommend, definitely give it a try, it's super well made

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ksnovak profile image
Kevin

I've been really enjoying Soft Skills Engineering. ~25-minute podcast weekly, where they answer viewer questions having to do with the "Soft Skills" of the workplace -- stuff like dealing with 2 bosses, or people who overwrite all your code changes, or meeting-interrupters

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

My favourites at the moment are ...

99 percent invisible - all about design and the things around us ... the host has the best voice - 99percentinvisible.org/about/the-s...

The Guardian Long Reads - immigration, business, crime, the arts theguardian.com/news/series/the-au...

This American Life - not all about America, just about life, this is a longish one at an hour or so - thisamericanlife.org/listen

Criminal - really interesting crime stories and interviews - thisiscriminal.com/

Death, Sex and Money - "the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation". wnycstudios.org/shows/deathsexmoney

Reply All - about weird stuff on the internet gimletmedia.com/reply-all

Soft Skills Engineering - a weekly advice podcast for software developers - softskills.audio/

Who the Hell is Hamish - the fascinating - and devastating - life of a serial conman - theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/podc...

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

I might give some of these a listen, been looking for more podcasts that are outside of the software domain. Already started listening to Reply All as it is a bit less tech-focused than what I normally listen to.

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

It’s definitely worth it for a change of pace. If it’s all software at work, software in your side projects and software in your podcasts you start to drown

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programazing profile image
Christopher C. Johnson

I mostly listen to Developer Tea, Complete Developer Podcast, and .NET Rocks.

You can find "The Ultimate List Of Developer Podcasts" over at Simple Programmer if you have time to kill.

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

That is the list that I originally used to find podcasts a few years ago! Lots of stuff there.

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ianknighton profile image
Ian Knighton • Edited

I listen to ~9 hours of Podcasts every day...so here are some of my favorites by category.

Tech:

Sports:

Politics:

Other:

Podcasts you should listen to from episode 1:
DON'T GOOGLE THEM...JUST DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN FROM EPISODE 1

There used to be a website you could share your OPML...but I can't remember what it was.

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Rachel Stevenson M.A.

So I listen to three podcasts that pertain to Dev work. 1.) Dev(up) i think the full name is Developing Up and the second one is Data Skeptic and lastly, Mappyist Hour, which because I am a Geodev ( a developer that focuses on building mapping applications) makes sense to keep an ear on Geo related things.