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.
2024 Edit: see my 2021 and 2020 updates! and 2022 and 2023 and The Big 2024 Bankruptcy and reset. If you are reading this in 2024 and just want the current hotness, read that one.
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