When you load up your favorite podcasting app or website and enter a search related to "Software," a pretty large number of results come up. Unfortunately most of these results are short-lived podcasts that were started by a well-meaning developer 2-3 years ago and abandoned. Typically these are made up of only a handful of episodes and eventually landed in a sort of "podcast graveyard" with countless other forgotten podcasts. Some of these results are worth digging up and giving a listen, but they will not be the focus of this article. My intention is to provide you with my favorite ongoing podcasts, ones you can continue to listen to and grow with.
The Rabbit Hole
Touted as "the definitive developer's podcast," The Rabbit Hole is definitely my #1 favorite software development podcast to listen to. They do not typically focus in one particular language and instead choose to focus on topics important to developers of all areas and levels. JavaScript is their main working language, but they certainly don't limit their topics or guests by this.
A few of my favorite episodes include: Testing Pitfalls and Blunders, Stop Eating Al Desko, Imposter Syndrome, and Building a Personal Brand as a Developer. Building a Personal Brand is particularly special to me because without Zach Schneider's @zrschneider encouragement as that episode's guest, I would not have started writing these articles until much later in my career for fear I wasn't ready.
The Rabbit Hole releases an episode every week and sometimes do throwback episodes where they revisit an older episode that had high popularity. This is my favorite listen while commuting to the gym in the morning and I definitely look forward to every new episode.
CppCast
CppCast was launched in early 2015 by Rob Irving as an answer to his frustration at the lack of podcast content for C++ developers. As you may guess by its name, this podcast focuses on the C++ language, and is not afraid of digging into some of the more technical details surrounding libraries, testing, and syntax of the code itself. Common topics for CppCast are meetups, Conference Trip Reports, libraries, and the use of C++ in the wild (e.g.: embedded systems, game development, and cross-platform development).
I must admit I haven't listened to CppCast for awhile as I have been focused in developing my skills in C#, so I don't have any current favorite episodes to recommend, but I could definitely see myself coming back to this podcast as I begin branching back out into C++ development.
CppCast releases an episode every week, most of which run about an hour long, and feature a new or returning guest every single week. Some episodes are recorded on the road as the hosts regularly attend conferences, but in my opinion that adds to the charm and appeal. They have had guests from all over the world, with the youngest being a teenager, and of all different skill levels - including Bjarne Stroustrup himself.
Do you have any favorite development podcasts you'd like to shout out? If so, what are your favorite episodes? I'd love to give them a listen!
Top comments (11)
Thanks I'll check them out! Below are some of my favourites:
The Changelog (and anything under their umbrella, checkout their master feed)
Programming Throwdown
Frontend Happy Hour
Software Engineering Radio
Talk Python to Me
CodeNewbie
Command Line Heroes
Reactive (I think it's finished now, but has 101 episode of awesomeness)
They are all great podcasts! Enjoy
My current favourite would have to be Soft Skills Engineering.
They cover the non technical side of being an engineer and have some fantastic insights. It’s a really friendly and light show that is a good contrast to a lot of my other technical podcasts. Great for winding down on the train home after work.
+1 for Soft Skills Engineering. Such a good start to my week.
That sounds right up my alley - thank you!
Hi @rachel - your opening paragraph about how most end up in the "podcast graveyard" is one thing that drives me crazy too! I want some continuity - Might I suggest checking out the Coding Blocks podcast codingblocks.net/ - I'm one of the co-hosts of that and similar to how you describe the Rabbit Hole (I'm going to be checking that one out now too) - we don't focus on any one particular language - it's more about helping developers master what they do and make them aware of things that maybe they wouldn't know about because they can't study this stuff 24 hours a day! Would love for you to give it a shot and hear your thoughts!
I will certainly check it out! I have a long commute in the mornings and that's spent either podcasting or studying French, so I'm always looking for more material to consume!
My favorite is the Complete Developer Podcast. These guys are awesome!
Such a great show, and such a unique style and chemistry!
I prefer to listen to shows with limited interviews, and the Complete Developer crew is right up my alley.
Awesome, I'll give it a listen this weekend. Thanks for the recommendation!
Hi @rachelsoderberg , I didn't know The Rabbit Hole, thanks for passing it on!
That "podcast graveyard" you talk about is very real. I haven't missed a beat with my own Developer's Journey podcast for over two years, for fear of that slippery slope if I did 😅 Instead of focusing on a topic like most of the podcasts I know, I decided to focus on a person. Each episode is the tale of their journey into tech! I would love to hear your feedback about it.
In the last episodes, I'd highly recommend listening to Alice Goldfuss's story, one of my favorites!
+1 for Code Newbie and BaseCS podcasts