19 November 2019

My Favorite Podcasts: November 2019

It's nearly the end of 2019 and I figure it's time to update my favorite podcasts list.

In descending order of preference.

1. Techmeme Ride Home It's become a personal daily ritual on my commute home from work to listen to Brian McCullough's take on the day's tech news. His New York City perspective on Silicon Valley is refreshing.

2. Upgrade Jason Snell hosts many podcasts, but this is the one that I find most interesting. Snell and his co-host Myke Hurley tackle the week's tech news, with an emphasis on Apple and the streaming wars.

3. Accidental Tech Podcast Three software engineers talk tech news, but sometimes go deep with certain topics and opinions. Their perspective on software development actually helps me with ideas on how to be a better business systems administrator and analyst.

4. The Talk Show With John Gruber John Gruber's podcast is consistently good, with each episode running well over two hours, which I always listen to in its entirety. His opinions and insights on Apple are solid. He almost always has a guest, so I've found the range in quality of his episodes depend almost entirely on the quality of his guest.

5. The Well: A Podcast about Creative Inspiration with Branan Edgens and Anson Mount is a very personal, yet well produced program with interesting guests from many walks of life, with an emphasis on the entertainment industry. Anson Mount is best known for his portrayal of Captain Pike on Star Trek: Discovery, but also his leading role on AMC's Hell on Wheels.

6. 60-Second Science by Scientific American offers bite-sized episodes covering a wide range of science topics in a light and breezy format, without any risk of going too deep. I enjoy listening with my kids in the car.

7. The Chad & Cheese Podcast: HR's Most Dangerous Podcast Setting aside the fact that Chad & Joel recently published an entire episode interviewing me, this firmly remains my go-to podcast for keeping up with the recruiting tech industry. Their production values have noticeably improved and they've diversified their show formats, ranging from their weekly news roundup, to startup pitches (Firing Squad and Death Match), news briefs (The Shred), practitioner interviews, and a recently launched series of marketing industry episodes (Cult Brand), in which the boys put away their usual swear words and deliver exceptional business interviews.

8. 16 Minutes on the News by a16z. Sonal Chokshi astutely interviews key players from Andreessen Horowitz on a variety of tech news topics with a nice balance of depth and brevity, and an interesting Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm perspective.

9. Subspace Transmissions: A Star Trek Podcast I've tried listening to various Star Trek podcasts and none stay as focused and insightful as Cam and Tyler. While I admit I skip over sections or even entire episodes when they discuss VOY or ENT (the two series I have yet to watch and don't want spoiled), I am eager to hear what they have to say with Short Treks and the upcoming Picard series.

10. I Drink Two Beers and Try to Tell You How To Run Your Business Gary Chou's first, sponsored podcast is exceptionally good right out the gate. Gary is a social acquaintance of mine who has blazed a unique path in his professional career. After listening to only the first three episodes, it's clear to me it's worth recommending.

11. Deconstructor of Fun This podcast's content is amazingly insightful for those interested in the world of video game production. Console, PC, and mobile games are a tumultuous industry with plenty of stories to reveal from between the lines of weekly news articles. The biggest knock on this podcast is the production value is very inconsistent, with lots of undecipherable cross-talk, embarrassing extended periods of silence, and clearly no effort to edit the raw recording.

12. WSJ Tech News Briefing I only started listening to this podcast when their weekly tech news podcast, Instant Message, was abruptly canceled (on hiatus?). This daily podcast has a good round of tech news, with an emphasis on the corporate and investment perspective, as you would expect from the Wall Street Journal.

Honorable mentions to

Land of the Giants Excellent documentary mini-series examining Amazon.

Talent Makers Studio by Greenhouse Software, for publishing an episode interviewing me.