Ask HN: Favorite podcasts?

239 points by adilmajid ↗ HN
Especially curious to hear about any programming or design related podcasts

142 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 252 ms ] thread
I have not listened to it but http://www.thetalkingmachines.com/ is a podcast about machine learning. It was posted on HN some time ago.
The Talking Machines is my favorite machine learning podcast. So far they've had interviews with many of the big names in ML: Yann LeCun, Goeff Hinton, Yoshua Bengio.
Developer Tea is a short, fresh and very interesting programming podcast: https://www.developertea.com/

It's just a delight.

I've been a fan of these since he started them, but I often end up wishing they were longer.
I feel the same, but I think the short form is a great feature. In fact, this format is inspiring me to start my own frequently published podcast (feels like something I can do, vs the longer formats)
For Design topics, check out 99% Invisible (http://99percentinvisible.org/) and Design Details (http://www.designdetails.fm/). I feel silly mentioning This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/) since it seems like everyone's heard of it, but the quality of the show is just so incredible I can't leave it out. There's the quality of TAL's storytelling and then there's everything else... Radiolab is also incredible (http://www.radiolab.org/) for more technical/scientific topics, but it's definitely not specific to engineering/software.
I can't recommend anything about programming/design, but I listen to Ask Altucher and The James Altucher Podcast. He interviews successful people – mostly entrepreneurs – from all walks of life. It's very interesting to hear all the past struggles and failures. James somehow makes the guests reveal the most intimate experiences. http://goo.gl/bJBMqN
Not at all tech related, but I like to listen to The Unexplained podcast with the British radio profile Howard Hughes. It's a bit out there, but his voice, and his broadcast pedigree makes it very relaxing to listen to, at least for me.

http://www.theunexplained.tv/

Have a great day Best Fredrik

Invisibilia is new but sure to be a hit: http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/

Also Startup: http://gimletmedia.com/show/startup/

Both dance around our world regularly enough to include them.

+1 for Startup. I listened to the last episode of season 1 this weekend -- the first half is the most honest discussion of entrepreneurship I've encountered.
I really like Startup and I'm an avid listener. But, while Alex does a great job of trying to present an honest view of starting a company, I don't think his experiences translate to the everyday entrepreneur.

Sure listening to his initial pitch to Chris Sacca is horrifying and hilarious, but eventually people just start throwing money at him. Everywhere he turns someone is trying to invest. I'm not saying this doesn't happen, but because of who he is the "money" side of things neatly works itself out for him.

Again, I love the podcast and I think Alex is completely honest in it, but he never has to confront the issue of runway which is probably the most nerve-wracking part of being starting a company.

I totally agree - it's not your representative founder story, and while I listened to all of it an enjoyed, I also got the distinct impression that a ton was omitted and or edited out. I guess this is to be expected with a high product podcast, but as it went on, I increasingly felt like large portions of the story were missing.
Very funny... I made it through two episodes of Invisibilia and couldn't figure out why it was pissing me off. Sure enough, vocal fry: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/545/i...
I had the same feeling, I couldn't stand the voice fry. I heard the episode you linked to and felt like a jerk, but I still can't get myself to listen to Invisibilia. The content of the episodes I heard were interesting though.
I am a premium member of Mixergy. I forget about it for months and then remember again, listen to a random interview and almost always take away something valuable. I like Andrew Warners interview style. He is very kind and respectful but he is still good at asking questions until you get down to the details that actually matter.
If you're interested in Apple stuff, ATP is definitely my favorite tech talk show. The mix of personalities is just perfect.
* Giant Robots | http://giantrobots.fm/ | weekly technical podcast discussing development, design, and the business of great products | ★★★★

* Kalzumeus Podcast | http://www.kalzumeus.com/category/podcasts/feed/ | infrequent show that is more focused on the business/marketing side of software products, hosted by @patio11 | ★★★½

* Ruby Rogues | http://devchat.tv/ruby-rogues/ | weekly panel discussion about programming (emphasis on Ruby) | ★★★ (can vary wildly based on topic/panel)

* The Bike Shed | http://bikeshed.fm/ | biweekly show discussing thoughtbot's experiences in web development (Rails-heavy) | ★★★

* TechZing | http://techzinglive.com/ | a "two people talking" genre podcast about programming, software business, general HN-like topics; a bit hard to approach but I've been listening for over 250 episodes so I'm fully dug in at this point | ★★★

Additionally I mix up all the technical podcasts with a couple others: Stop Podcasting Yourself (Canadian comedy podcast), Tim Ferriss Show (interviews with world-renowned experts), The Random Show (Tim Ferriss + Kevin Rose talking about random things that interest them), and Back to Work (Merlin Mann vehicle for talking about productivity/work-life balance).

# Setup

I use PocketCasts for Android (worth every penny) and a Griffin Technology BlueTrip AUX car adapter to listen to podcasts while driving. This replaces the radio/music for me when driving.

I get enough tech in my daily life, so I look to podcasts to enrich my life in other dimensions and teach me new things. Here are some of my favorites:

* Cooking, food, and molecular gastronomy; Cooking Issues: http://www.heritageradionetwork.org/programs/51-Cooking-Issu...

* Outdoor adventure; Dirtbag Diaries: http://dirtbagdiaries.com

* Music and poetic music breakdown (uniquely well-suited to audio as a medium); Song Exploder: http://songexploder.net

* History; the Memory Palace: http://thememorypalace.us

* Design; 99% Invisible: http://99percentinvisible.org

* Electic subjects: http://loveandradio.org

* RadioLab: http://www.radiolab.org

I'd love to find a good fiction podcast, with either short form stories or episodic long form arcs in the fashion of old-school radio shows.

> I'd love to find a good fiction podcast, with either short form stories or episodic long form arcs in the fashion of old-school radio shows.

Afternoon drama: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qrzz

15 Minute Drama (15 minutes per weekday, total 1hour 15mins per drama) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qy2s

Book of the week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qftk

Book at bedtime: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtlx

If you like Song Exploder, a friend of mine and I started a music production podcast where we dissect one song each week that you might also like: http://songaweek.net/
Somebody already mentioned Welcome to Night Vale, which is a serial fiction podcast in the form of public radio news announcements from a town where all the weirdness of the world is true.

Also, there is The Thrilling Adventure Hour. This is a comedic take on old-school radio serials. There are multiple ongoing series within the show. This is a really funny show, with great production values, and some high profile guest stars.

The New Yorker fiction podcast is quite good
The New Yorker fiction podcast is quite good
If you like horror, you might be interested The NoSleep Podcast: readings of the cream of the crop of short stories from reddit's NoSleep forum. Really good voices and sound design, and it won a Parsec Award for speculative fiction in 2014.

http://thenosleeppodcast.com/

Agreed. I listen to very few tech podcasts, for the same reason: I'm exposed to it so much elsewhere (HN, RSS etc).

But yeah, as you'll see by this list, I LOVE podcasts.

Here's what's in my 'Listen First' feed, which I listen to as soon as they're published:

  * Do You Link Prince Movies?
  * The BS Report w/ Bill Simmons
  * Grantland NFL Podcast
  * Grantland Pop Culture
  * Grantland Sports
  * Here's the Thing with Alec Baldwin
  * Hollywood Prospectus
  * Jalen & Jacoby 
  * Rembert Explains
  * Serial
  * Startup
  * Adam & Drew Show (Adam Carolla & Dr Drew)
  * Upvoted by Reddit
  * This American Life
And here are the others that I've subscribed to and listen to when I don;t have anything in the "Listen First" feed:

  * 1 Day Business Breakthrough (haven't listened yet, but it's in my feed)
  * 99% Invisible
  * Bret Easton Ellis Podcast
  * Criminal (haven't listened yet, but it's in my feed)
  * Deadcast (Sports, from deadspin.com)
  * Entreprogrammers (haven't listened yet, but it's in my feed)
  * Here Be Monsters (haven't listened yet, but it's in my feed)
  * Kalzumeus Podcast (patio11 & others)
  * Mixergy (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * NPR Fresh Air (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * NPR Invisibilia (haven't listened yet, but it's in my feed)
  * PO'd with Dennis Miller & Adam Carolla (probably going to remove this soon)
  * Reply All (haven't listened yet, but it's in my feed)
  * Startups for the Rest of Us (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * Adam Carolla Podcast (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * Andy Greenwald Podcast (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * Dr Drew Podcast (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
  * WTF w/ Mark Maron (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
  * You Made it Weird w/ Pete Holmes (I mark a lot of these as listened without listening)
The Memory Palace is so good. I wish Nate DiMeo had more time to produce it. I love how Roman Mars from 99% Invisible ripped off Nate's intro.
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Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

Here's a good starting point: http://dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-41-thors-angel...

I've heard Carlin's podcast recommended several times, but latel I'm tired of history that primarily gives me a finished narrative, andam interested more in finding accounts where they spend a lot of time discussing sources (e.g., I'm less excited about hearing about Ben Franklin's life than I might be about the letters of Ben Franklin).

How does Hardcore Hisotry stack up in this regard?

Hardcore History is all finished narrative. Where Dan Carlin really shines is taking facts from history, like body counts from ancient battles and making them visceral so that you can really feel how terrified people would have been if there city was being besieged by Mongols, or if you were a soldier in Stalin's army and were used as so much cannon fodder against the nazis.

If you are more interested in the primary sources, he's probably not for you, but if you want to feel history rather than just hear about it, then I highly recommend.

Not a podcast, but I found many of the history courses on The Great Courses series (which is now available on Audible) are like what you desire. Not all of them are, but it's usually possible to tell based on the description.
For in depth world news and technology trends I listen to the no agenda show with John c Dvorak and Adam curry; their weekly Hunt through the news and c-span broadcasts saves me endless time and the voluminous show notes will be your handy reference too!

http://www.noagendashow.com

In the words of the great Kenneth Robinson: "neither a bayer or lender be!" Enjoy No agenda!

The best podcast in the universe.
In the morning!
Woah, John C. Dvorak is still alive and podcasting? I remember listening to him on Leo LaPorte's podcast back in like 2004 (before I got kinda sick of LaPorte) and thinking Dvorak was the entertaining cranky old man of tech back then.
If you like history and aren't listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, go do that now. See you in a month.
I've been listening to PartiallyDerivative, although it is mostly a rehash of top HackerNews articles from the week. It's also curious that the two data scientist hosts do a lot of math bashing.
Bill Burr Monday morning podcast
Bill Burr Monday morning podcast