My Favorite Podcasts
swyx 2020-02-02
I recently switched from iPhone to Android (Edit from the future: post here!) and had to port my podcast subscriptions from Overcast. I figured I would categorize and post commentary here for those who may be interested.
You are welcome to ping me for detailed thoughts on each of these, I didnt have time to write them down.
Table of Contents
Awesome Back Catalog
Evergreen Podcasts that are still worth going back through for (including Seasonal/Dead podcasts). This is a high compliment from me, although other categories also include podcasts I also LOVE.
- Dolly Parton’s America (rss, url) - I never grew up with Dolly and this fills a hole. One-season run.
- A Very Fatal Murder (rss) - HILARIOUS ads. One-season run.
- Common Sense with Dan Carlin (rss, url) - seems dormant but good to get a Carlin political rant.
- The Last Days of August (rss, url) - One-season run.
- Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff (rss, url) CEO interviewing CEOs is the BEST. Seems dormant right now and he’s no longer at Zillow.
- S-Town (rss, url) - the original podcast revival
- American Innovations (rss, url) - great history re-enactments
- Inside Star Wars (rss, url) - One-season run.
- Pessimists Archive Podcast (rss, url) - people shit on tech since the dawn of time.
- Ear Hustle (rss, url) - great stories from prison
- Tribe of Mentors (rss, url)
- Untold Stories (rss, url)
- Acquired (rss, url) probably the highest quality recent Tech History podcast I have ever come across
- Soundtracking with Edith Bowman (rss, url) - A-list celebs/directors talk about the sound behind their movies usually right after they come out
- Decrypted (rss, url) - dead now, but aki ito and brad stone were really great
- Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History (rss, url) - very infrequent but good history
- Beyond the Screenplay (rss, url)
- Mostly Nitpicking (rss, url) - Nando is great at nitpicking pop culture
- Swindled (rss, url)
- The Reductress Minute (rss, url) - dead, but hilarious
- Behind The Tech with Kevin Scott (rss, url) - Microsoft CTO interviewing his heroes, with Christina Warren
- The Missing Cryptoqueen (rss, url) - One-season run.
- Philosophy Bites (rss, url)
- The After On Podcast (rss, url) - great futurism from a fascinating author. dead now
- Business Wars (rss, url) - replays of great business rivalries
- Internet History Podcast (rss, url) - LOVE tech history. dead noe.
- Homecoming (rss, url) - One-season run.
Storytelling
Sometimes you just want a good story.
- Partners (rss, url) - Hrishi Hirway’s new thing
- This American Life (rss, url)
- Cautionary Tales (rss, url)
- 99% Invisible (rss, url)
- Radiolab (rss, url)
- Revisionist History (rss, url)
- Against the Rules with Michael Lewis (rss, url)
- The Moth (rss, url) - probably the only podcast that has ever made me cry.
Tech
Technical podcasts by people who code
Tech: Webdev/JS
- Thunder Nerds (rss, url)
- Modern Web (rss, url)
- JAMstack Radio (rss, url)
- The EmberMap Podcast (rss, url)
- Smashing Podcast (rss, url)
- SitePen (rss, url)
- React Podcast (rss, url)
- React Podcast (old) (rss, url)
- Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats (rss, url) - probably at the top of the game in this category
- Toolsday (rss)
- Full Stack Radio (rss, url) - everything adam wathan does is gold
- ShopTalk Show (rss, url)
- Programming by MGechev (rss, url) - still pretty new, but very high quality algorithms stuff
- The Undefined Podcast (rss, url)
- Ladybug Podcast (rss, url)
- That’s my JAMstack (rss, url)
- JS Party (rss, url)
- The Diff: A Podcast from Facebook Open Source (rss, url)
- The Babel Podcast (rss, url)
- Chats with Kent C. Dodds (rss, url)
- 3 Minutes with Kent (rss, url)
- CodePen Radio (rss, url) - love learning about codepen from codepen
- Front End Happy Hour (rss, url) - drinks format is amazing
- Fish and Scripts (rss, url)
Tech: Cloud
- Screaming in the Cloud (rss, url) - corey teaches me a ton about aws
- Serverless Chats (rss, url) - really good
- Arrested DevOps (rss, url) - i am newer to this but i like matty
- The New Stack Makers (rss, url) - oddball but occasionally good guests
- Google Cloud Platform Podcast (rss, url) - from gcp folk - just nice to keep tabs
Tech: AI/ML
- The TWIML AI Podcast (formerly This Week in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence) (rss, url)
- Not So Standard Deviations (rss, url)
- Autonocast (rss, url) - really good insiders podcast on autonomous driving
- Data Engineering Podcast (rss, url)
Tech: Design
Tech: General
- Hanselminutes - Fresh Talk and Tech for Developers (rss, url)
- The Bike Shed (rss, url)
- The freeCodeCamp Podcast (rss, url) - I’m on here!
- Function with Anil Dash (rss, url)
- Darknet Diaries (rss, url)
- Software Engineering Daily (rss, url) - I’m on here! also previously wrote a whole piece on it
- The Changelog (rss, url)
- On The Metal (rss, url)
- Talk Python To Me - Python conversations for passionate developers (rss, url)
- Acquired (rss, url) - ALLTIME GREAT podcast
- Under the Radar (rss, url)
- Software Engineering Radio - The Podcast for Professional Software Developers (rss, url)
- The Laravel Snippet (rss, url)
- BookBytes (rss, url)
- Soft Skills Engineering (rss, url)
- React Native Radio (rss, url)
- Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots (rss, url) - winner: best name
- GraphQL Radio (rss, url)
- egghead.io developer chats (rss, url) - I’m on here
- devMode.fm (rss, url)
- The Python Podcast.init (rss, url)
- Coding Blocks (rss, url)
- DevRel Radio (rss, url)
Tech: No Code
News
Stuff happens, people react and report. I keep in touch with Finance stuff due to my background. I try not to spend too much time in News, but its nice to have a convenient place to get the lowdown on things.
News: General
- The Daily (rss, url)
- Axios Pro Rata (rss, url) - dan primack is a little overrated but gets good access.
- Stay Tuned with Preet (rss, url) - preet is amazing and should someday run for office.
- The Intelligence (rss, url)
- The Diplomat | Asia Geopolitics (rss, url) - i dont know why these people are so interested in asia geopolitics lol but its great to tap into their world every now and then
News: Tech
- Exponent (rss, url) - Ben Thompson and James Allworth talk through Stratechery stuff.
- AWS Morning Brief (rss, url)
- AWS Podcast (rss, url)
- Techmeme Ride Home (rss, url)
- The Indicator from Planet Money (rss, url)
- 16 Minutes News by a16z (rss, url)
- Editor’s Picks from The Economist (rss, url)
- The Information’s 411 (rss, url)
- Pivot (rss, url)
- Above Avalon (rss, url) - all about Apple
- The WIRED Podcast (rss, url) - Vergecast but british
- The Vergecast (rss, url) - I enjoy the “no bullshit” tech industry chats
News: Finance
- What Goes Up (rss, url) - another chummy panel, no BS podcast
- Slate Money (rss, url) - I have loved Felix Salmon from his days at Reuters.
- WSJ Heard On the Street (rss)
- FT Alphachat (rss, url)
- Odd Lots (rss, url) - Joe Wiesenthal is just the right mix of no bullshit finance guy but also nice and surprisingly good at singing. Tracy Alloway keeps him in check.
- Money Talks from Economist Radio (rss, url)
- Snacks Daily (rss, url) - for noobs but high energy and good to see what they see
- The Journal. (rss, url)
- Exchanges at Goldman Sachs (rss, url)
- Behind the Markets Podcast (rss, url)
Founder Chats
A lot of podcasts are interviewing founders which is a mix of business and tech. So I split them out here.
VCs
- The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch (rss, url)
- a16z Podcast (rss, url)
- Venture Stories (rss, url)
- Greymatter (rss, url)
- Y Combinator (rss, url)
- Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital (rss, url)
- Analyse Asia with Bernard Leong (rss, url)
Founder Interview
- How I Built This with Guy Raz (rss, url)
- 7-Figure Small with Brian Clark (rss, url)
- Below the Line with James Beshara (rss, url)
- Startup School Radio (rss, url)
- Invest Like the Best (rss, url) - surprisingly good investor/founder guests.
- Level Up Your Course Podcast with Janelle Allen: Create Online Courses that Change Lives (rss, url)
- How to Start a Startup (rss, url)
- Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman (rss, url) - weirdly overproduced podcast from Reid remixing his former founder interviews
- Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (rss, url)
- The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship (rss, url)
- Masters in Business (rss, url)
- The 6 Figure Developer Podcast (rss, url)
- Scale or Die (rss, url)
- Product Hunt Radio (rss, url)
- Well Made (rss, url)
- Escape Velocity - with Dan Martell (rss, url)
- Subscribed Podcast (rss, url)
- Side Hustle School (rss, url)
- Mixergy - Startup Stories with 1000+ entrepreneurs and businesses (rss, url) - andrew warner presses his guests on details
- Business of Software Podcast (rss, url)
- The Indie Hackers Podcast (rss, url)
- This Week in Startups - Audio (rss, url) - Jason is arrogant but earns it
- Wharton FinTech Podcast (rss, url)
- Double Your Freelancing Podcast (rss, url)
- The Official Saastr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors (rss, url)
- Without Fail (rss, url)
- UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy (rss, url)
- Intercom on Customer Engagement (rss, url)
- The Tropical MBA Podcast - Entrepreneurship, Travel, and Lifestyle (rss, url)
- China Tech Talk (rss, url)
Founder Couple
A little more unstructured, but telling the story as it happens
- The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten (rss, url)
- To Be Continuous (rss, url) - Paul Biggar of Darklang, Edith Harbaugh of LaunchDarkly
- Startups For the Rest of Us (rss, url) - Rob Walling
- The Forbes Interview (rss, url)
- Building Infinite Red (rss, url)
- Inside Intercom Podcast (rss, url)
- Out of Beta (rss, url)
- Rework (rss, url)
- The Art of Product (rss, url)
- Bootstrapped Web (rss, url)
- Build Your SaaS – bootstrap in 2020 (rss, url)
Misc Topics
Stuff that didnt fit anywhere else :)
- The Psychology Podcast (rss, url) - general academic psychology
- Psychology of Video Games Podcast (rss, url) - games are applied psychology
- The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos (rss, url) - positive psychology
- Babbage from Economist Radio (rss, url)
- Steal the Show with Michael Port (rss, url) - speaking by professional speakers
- Get Together (rss, url)
- Intelligence Squared (rss, url)
- The Meb Faber Show (rss, url)
- The Science of Social Media (rss, url)
- More Than Hashtags (rss, url)
- Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin (rss, url)
- The TED Interview (rss, url)
- TED Talks Daily (rss, url)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI Podcast) with Lex Fridman (rss, url) - has become more of a generalist podcast recently, but gets the top of the field
- Freakonomics Radio (rss, url)
- seanwes podcast (rss, url)
- Mike’s Notes (rss, url)
- TED Radio Hour (rss, url)
- Data Skeptic (rss, url)
- The Economist Asks (rss, url)
- Naval (rss, url)
- Linear Digressions (rss, url)
- The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish (rss, url)
- Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates (rss, url)
- Conversations with Tyler (rss, url)
- The Portal (rss, url)
- Talking Points (rss, url)
- Lingthusiasm - A podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics (rss, url)
- EconTalk (rss, url)
- The History Chicks (rss, url)
- The Art of Manliness (rss, url)
- Your Undivided Attention (rss, url)
- Simplify (rss, url)
Fun
- Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! (rss, url) - Peter Sagal is amazing
- Ask Me Another (rss, url) - i love Ophira
- The Weekly Planet (rss, url) - aussie’s shit talking is the best
- Change My View (rss, url)
- The Good Place: The Podcast (rss, url)
- Office Ladies (rss, url)
- Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 (rss, url)
- The West Wing Weekly (rss, url) - ended now. but still amazing
- Harry Potter and the Sacred Text (rss, url)
- CLUBLIFE (rss, url)
- Eelke Kleijn | DAYS like NIGHTS Radio (rss, url)
- Popcast (rss, url)
- Coffee Break Spanish (rss, url)
- The Jordan Harbinger Show (rss, url)
- The Soundtrack Show (rss, url)
- x72D7;熊有话说 (rss, url)
- Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast (rss, url)
- Lights Camera Barstool (rss, url)
- Travel Genius (rss, url)
- The Modern Mann (rss, url)
- Pop Culture Happy Hour (rss, url)
- LeVar Burton Reads (rss, url)
- Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (rss, url)
- So, Here’s My Story… (rss, url)
- Song Exploder (rss, url)
- Switched on Pop (rss, url)
- The Hamilcast: A Hamilton Podcast (rss, url)
- Twenty Thousand Hertz (rss, url)
- Tiny Desk Concerts - Audio (rss, url)
To Skim
High volume things that are occasionally good but I really skim
- The Talk Show With John Gruber (rss, url) - i hate the rambling but ben thompson swings by every now and then
- The Tim Ferriss Show (rss, url) - it’s Tim.
- Channel 9 (rss, url) - a glimpse into microsoft-land
- BxJS Weekly (rss, url) - decent js coverage from someone who has way too much time doing this :)
- The Moment with Brian Koppelman (rss, url) - celebs, writers
- All Songs Considered (rss, url) - occasionally boring but sometimes really good
- The Joe Rogan Experience (rss, url) - celebs
- Whiskey Ginger w/ Andrew Santino (rss, url) - celebs