Podcasts

If some you will think that I have been living under a rock 🧗‍♂️ – that’s fair 🤷🏽‍♂️. In the past year I got totally hooked on podcasts. I know, I know – the first podcasts started appearing as early as 2003 and exploded in popularity around 2010.

I guess it’s better late than never.

I was always a semi-news junkie, listening mostly to news in the car (and reading news a lot). The news on the radio is usually repeated over and over again so it can get boring rather fast. But the world of podcasts has opened a completely new world to me. The sheer number and the quality of podcasts is simply amazing. With so many amazing and educational podcasts, it’s like having a private radio station where you build and customize the playlist and can listen anywhere and anytime. Podcasts provide superb education, entertainment and are free.

I listen to podcasts when I drive, in the gym, walking to/from work, preparing food. I rarely listen to podcasts on BART as the old trains are super loud (the new trains are supposed to be a lot quieter) and Apple AirPods don’t have any noise canceling capability. On the train I usually read on my Kindle.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of amazing podcasts out there. Here is a list of podcasts (in no particular order) that I have listened to (or still listening). Most podcasts, I listened to all the episodes. There are also podcasts where I choose specific episodes. I know there are many more excellent podcasts, so please add a comment with your favorite podcast 🙏. I tried to put the podcasts into categories (my own), but these are very loose categories.

Technology

• Command Line Heroes – podcast about the people who transform technology from the command line up
• Food Fight – a podcast about DevOps
• The Newstack Context – a podcast about technology
• The Women in Tech Show – a women in tech podcast featuring technical interviews
• The Polyglot Developer – a podcast about web, mobile, and game development
• Google Cloud Platform Podcast – a podcast about Google Cloud Platform

Developer Relations

• DevRel Radio – a podcast about Developer Relations
• Community Pulse – a podcast about Developer Relations and community building

Investing/finance/money

• Afford Anything – a podcast about money, decisions, habits and life
• ChooseFI – a podcast about financial independence
• The Readback – a 15-minute story about Barron’s main story
• The Planner and the Geek – time-tested investing fundamentals with a (fun) twist

Startups/scaling/marketing/work

• Inside Intercom Podcast – a podcast about product management, design, startups and marketing
• Masters of Scale – how to grow your company from zero to scale
• SaaStr – a podcast about startups, scaling, marketing and sales
• Work Life with Adam Grant – a podcast about discovering the keys to a better work life

News/current events/serious topics

• Caliphate – NYTimes reports on the Islamic State and the fall of Mosul
• Dropout – the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos
• Serial – probably one of the best podcasts out there. There are three seasons and each season covers a different story. Again, one of the best
• The Dream – a podcast about multi-level marketing
• Sold in America – a podcast about the world of selling sex in the United States
• Phil Matier – a daily 5-minute podcast about Bay Area news, politics and culture
• The Big One – a podcast about a big (future) earthquake in Los Angeles and how to survive an earthquake

Curiosity/history/future/entertainment

• CRAZY/GENIUS – big questions and provocative conclusions about technology and culture
• Household Name – surprising stories behind brands we know
• Freakonomics – a podcast about socioeconomic issues
• The Secret History of the Future – a podcast about journey into the past and you’ll discover the secret history of the future
• Bay Curious – a podcast where listeners ask interesting questions about the Bay Area
• Inside Trader Joe’s – a fun podcast about Trader Joe’s stores, food, culture and history

Please share any good podcasts you recommend in the comments. If you want to read more about podcasts history, head over to How Podcasts Learned to Speak.