Want to grab some tech news and expand your knowledge while running errands or commuting? Here's a list of the best technology podcasts that will make it easy for you.
A QUICK SUMMARY – FOR THE BUSY ONES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The same number of Americans listen to podcasts and use Twitter. In the survey carried out earlier this year, 21% of people responded that they have listened to at least one podcast in the past month.
Why? Well, there’s compelling storytelling, great quality journalism, charismatic hosts, and quality content for executives managing software development teams.
But there’s also the fact that most of us feel pressure to get the most out of every minute of our day. And podcasts are perfect to make the necessary time we spend on daily chores even more productive.
They’re portable, easy to consume and packed with information. Believe me, even washing up is (almost) tolerable when you listen to good technology podcasts.
So here’s a handy list of 5 best technology podcasts (in no particular order) to enrich your daily commute or running errands with latest tech news and great reporting. Happy listening!
Episode length: 20-30 min
Hosted by Manoush Zomorodi, my favorite woman in the podcasting world, this tech show is about maneuvering your life in the digital age. The promise of technology is that it will make us smarter, more productive and simply happier, but let’s face it, most of us find it pretty damn overwhelming a lot of the time.
Note to Self is all about looking at tech from the human perspective: how it’s affecting our work, leisure, and health and how to get the most out of it without falling into its traps.
Previous episodes have covered topics such as internet surveillance, maintaining work/life balance and what happens when you leave your devices at home and get good old-school bored (Bored and Brilliant Challenge).
Episode length: 30 min – 1.5 h
You might already know Product Hunt, the platform for sharing and discovering new digital products. They extended their passion for tech and entrepreneurship through the Product Hunt Radio podcast, where they dig deep into the process that shapes the apps and websites we love and the ones that fail.
Founders, investors, and makers share stories about their obsession with innovation and surviving in the startup world. Previous guests on the shows included Jason Fried (CEO at Basecamp), Ezra Klein (Vox founder) and Emmet Shear (CEO and co-founder of Twitch.tv).
Episode length: 3-10 minutes
Produced by the legendary National Public Radio, this technology podcast delivers short snippets of tech news and commentaries almost on a daily basis. It’s like instead of bookmarking that article you can’t be bothered to read and eventually forget about, you just listen to it on the way to grab your takeaway coffee.
Pretty convenient, huh? If you’re looking for something brief, up to date and tech-centered with a business edge, it doesn’t really get better than NPR’s podcast. Previous episodes included Silicon Valley and the elections, where to take your phone rude colleague and double standards for leadership in tech.
Episode length: an hour and more
Living far from your office usually has only one advantage: you get to listen to podcasts. A lot. The Big Web Show with its hour-long episodes is a perfect one to really sink into. The host, Jeffrey Zeldman, invites experts from different fields to talk about all things web: from growing your business digitally through web design to Internet legislature.
As most great interviewers do, he strikes the perfect balance between anecdotal stories and real in-depth dissection of the topic. A quick warning/endorsement: this tech podcast does get a bit geeky, especially the web design episodes.
Check out Jeffrey Zeldman and his guests talking about information architecture, interaction design for games and more, and Node.js (!), our darling technology.
Episode length: over 2 hours long
This technology podcast has been running for over 10 years now which means it’s a proud member of a very exclusive circle of podcast veterans. Each week, Leo Laporte and his guests have a panel discussion loosely related to latest developments in the tech world.
They always cover the major news headlines, but the discussion format allows for much spontaneity so you’ll get your share of friendly banter and industry anecdotes, too. TWiT is a great treat for hardcore tech enthusiasts, but each episode lasts around 2 hours so it might not be the best choice for a complete podcast rookie. Just saying.
Just start with the last one.
Episode length: 30 minutes
Even though Reply All’s tagline describes it as „a show about the Internet”, it doesn’t actually have much of the tech component to it. It would be slightly misleading for it to make the cut as one of the 5 best technology podcasts. Having said this, it’s probably the best show out there, and any excuse is a good excuse to spread Reply All love, so there you go.
Zardulu is everyone’s favorite episode. If you think a podcast can’t make you cry, I dare you to listen to this one and if you want a sample of just how crazy this show can get, start with the LSD one. Or you can just start from the beginning: there are no bad choices here.
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A serial entrepreneur, passionate R&D engineer, with 15 years of experience in the tech industry. Shares his expert knowledge about tech, startups, business development, and market analysis.
A serial entrepreneur, passionate R&D engineer, with 15 years of experience in the tech industry. Shares his expert knowledge about tech, startups, business development, and market analysis.
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