This post is the second one in a series of web development podcasts. The first one is here: Podcasts Part 1. In this post, we’ll cover software engineering podcasts, interview-heavy podcasts on various topics in web development, as well as a few podcasts specifically targeting open source.
Part 3: Security, Frameworks, Python
Part 4: Broad Topics
Engineering
Syntax – Tasty Web Development Treats – https://syntax.fm
Twitter: @syntaxfm
Number of Seasons: Ep 132
Creators/Hosts: Wes Bos, Scott Tolinksi
Add-on Stuff: shownotes, links
Duration per episode: 50 min
Rotation: disorderly, 2, 3 times per week on average
This is a podcast hosted by two full-stack web developers. The guys talk about everything from specific tools and libraries to more general topics like finding freelance clients on the internet, productivity hacks, speaking at conferences, and more.
Testing Podcast – https://testingpodcast.com
Twitter: @testingpodcast
Number of Seasons: Ep >50
Creators/Hosts: Michael Ensminger and others.
Add-on Stuff: shownotes, links
Duration per episode: 30-40 min
Rotation: every day
This is an engineering podcast dedicated to software testing. The hosts talk about testing, upcoming conferences in the field, as well as feature guest speakers. The episodes are not numbered, but the podcast is organized around different topics in software testing, so if you’re interested in something particular, you can choose the relevant category on the left-hand side of the podcast’s website.
Soft Skills Engineering – https://softskills.audio
Twitter: @SoftSkillsEng
Number of Seasons: Ep 151
Creators/Hosts: Dave Smith, Jamison Dance
Add-on Stuff: agenda of the show, questions answered
Duration per episode: 30 min
Rotation: weekly podcast, Mondays
Soft Skills Engineering podcast covers a wide range of topics from hiring, advancing in your tech career to speaking up at meetups and conferences. So basically, these are less technical conversations and more about engineering as a profession, challenges the developers face in and outside the workplace.
THE UNDEFINED – https://undefined.fm
Twitter: @theundefinedio
Number of Seasons: Ep 3
Creators/Hosts: Jared Palmer and Ken Wheeler
Add-on Stuff: links, picks
Duration per episode: 30-60 min
Rotation: disorderly
This is a super new podcast featuring only 3 episodes so far. Undefined guys represent themselves as a podcast with two drinks minimum, which is pretty hilarious as it turns out, but the conversations are definitely cursing-heavy (might be NSFW). Each episode hosts a different speaker talking about everything from the state of the web to team management.
Interview Heavy
How I Built It – https://howibuilt.it
Twitter: @howibuilt
Number of Seasons: Ep 117
Creators/Hosts: Joe Casabona
Add-on Stuff: links
Duration per episode: 40-50 min
Rotation: weekly, Tuesdays
Every week Joe Casabona talks to product owners, developers who have built specific products and are willing to share their stories from idea to execution. So if you’re in a search for inspiration or would like to learn how ideas and products evolve over time, then here it is.
Pursuit Podcast – http://hyperurl.co/zukdmh
Twitter: @pursuitpod
Number of Seasons: Ep 68
Creators/Hosts: Jessica Rose
Add-on Stuff: n/a
Duration per episode: 30 min
Rotation: twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays
The Pursuit podcast showcases different people in tech sharing their stories tackling specific challenges they faced during their careers in tech. The people recently featured include Sarah Drasner, Michelle Glauser, Keziyah Lewis, and others.
Product People – http://productpeople.tv
Twitter: @productpeopletv
Number of Seasons: Ep 100
Creators/Hosts: Justin Jackson
Add-on Stuff: questions discussed, shownotes
Duration per episode: 30 min
Rotation: disorderly
This is one of the oldest ongoing podcasts, which has been running for years since like 2012, meaning there are A LOT of conversations. There are only two episodes recorded in 2019, but each conversation lasts about an hour and is full of tips and inspiration. The last episode featured James Clear who talked about Atomic Habits, which was a pretty inspiring talk, so check it out, it’s about life-changing habits that form the actual people we become, so you can be everything and anyone you want just by adding a certain routine in your daily schedule or changing your behavior one step at a time and arriving at that goal you’ve always dreamed of.
ShopTalk – http://shoptalkshow.com
Twitter: @shoptalkshow
Number of Seasons: Ep 355
Creators/Hosts: Dave Rupert, Chris Coyier
Add-on Stuff: shownotes, timejumps
Duration per episode: 60 min
Rotation: weekly, every Monday
This heavily interviewed podcast is all about web development, particularly JavaScript, and people within the community. Every Monday, the hosts are joined with speakers from the JavaScript community and beyond. The thing is, I got pretty good laughs from listening to guys’ conversations and their daily challenges with replying to spam emails and everything. The recent episodes were about Next.js, Typetura, Vue.js (with Evan You, so that’s something!!!), Svelte, PreactJs, etc.
Software Engineering Daily – https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/
Twitter: @software_daily
Number of Seasons: > 50
Creators/Hosts: Jeff Meyerson
Add-on Stuff: transcription is paid
Duration per episode: 60 min
Rotation: almost every day
The weekly curated podcast features the best and newest topics in software development and software engineering community. The latest people featured include Holden Karau, Kevin Miller, Deepak Singh.
The Big Web Show – http://5by5.tv/bigwebshow
Twitter: @thebigwebshow
Number of Seasons: Ep 187
Creators/Hosts: Jeffrey Zeldman
Add-on Stuff: shownotes, links
Duration per episode: 60 min
Rotation: disorderly
This webcast is all about the big web, in a sense, that it covers a huge range of topics from web publishing and copywriting to the web development and design per se. Every episode Jeffrey Zeldman is joined by a speaker, who shares their career goals, views on the future of web development, or any particular project they’ve been working on. Some of the cool guests recently featured include Matt Mullenweg, a founding developer of WordPress, Jason Fried, web software pioneer and New York Times best-selling author, and Jason Pamental, author of Responsive Typography from O’Reilly.
The Changelog – http://5by5.tv/changelog
Twitter: @changelog
Number of Seasons: Ep 340
Creators/Hosts: Adam Stacoviak
Add-on Stuff: notes, links, and a transcript
Duration per episode: 60 min
Rotation: usually weekly
The podcast’s description says they are featuring “hackers and innovators of software development.” In reality, though, there are a lot of topics covered from open source to singularity. Every episode the host talks to different guests, among already featured, were Greg Kurtzer, Mike McQuaid, Mehan Jayasuriya, and others.
Three Devs and a Maybe – http://threedevsandamaybe.com
Twitter: @3DevsAndAMaybe
Number of Seasons: >50
Creators/Hosts: Michael Budd, Fraser Hart, Lewis Cains, Edd Mann
Add-on Stuff: show links
Duration per episode: 60 min
Rotation: weekly
The last episode (from April 1, 2019) featured Mattias Geniar who talked about his foray into Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Moreover, Mattias is a frequent guest on the show, and that was actually his third appearance on the show. In the last episode, Mattias also covered topics like Ethereum’s planned consensus transition from PoW to PoS, Mimblewimble protocol, and Atomic Swaps. The previous episodes covered serverless PHP with Matthieu Napoli, PHP Test Tooling with Joe Watkins, The Symphony ecosystem with Nicolas Grekas, etc. Overall, this is a heavily technical and interesting podcast, featuring very interesting speakers, and a hugely broad range of topics.
Code Newbies – codenewbie.org
Twitter: @CodeNewbies
Number of Seasons: 8 (8 eps per season)
Creators: Vaidehi Joshi, Saron Yitbarek
Add-on Stuff: shownotes, transcripts
Duration per episode: 60 min
Code Newbies is a podcast featuring stories from people on their coding journey. There are currently seven seasons, so there’s a lot to digest and listen to. The last episode, which was released March 4, 2019, featured Ryan Hoover, a creator and founder of Product Hunt, who shared his tech journey without being a technical type himself. Ryan mentioned that coding was just not that much fun until he got to a certain point but that didn’t hinder him selling Product Hunt for the rumored 20 million dollars to AngelList. Some other people featured this season include Thorsten Ball, who talked compilers, Jaime-Alexis Fowler, a founder of Empower Work, who talked about workplace challenges, Carmen Bourlon, who’s very excited about offline tech, and others. It’s an interview heavy podcast, but very exciting people-wise and educational, if you’re looking for advice or mentorship. All episodes are close to 60 minutes.
Front End Happy Hour – http://frontendhappyhour.com
Twitter: @frontendhh
Number of Seasons/Episodes: Ep 77
Creators/Hosts: Ryan Burgess
Add-on Stuff: Picks (links to shows discussed, screenshots, companies & projects mentioned)
Duration per episode: 50 min
Rotation: 2 times per month
A podcast featuring panelists of engineers from @Netflix, @Evernote, @Atlassian & @LinkedIn talking over drinks about all things Front End development. Every time the guys hit a certain keyword (every show it’s different), they drink. This is not the only show where everyone’s involved are talking over glasses of alcohol, and, honestly, that makes conversations sometimes take very interesting and unexpected turns, which is plenty of fun. In the last 77th episode, the guys talk about careers in tech, promotions, and growth. Some of the episodes cover Netflix shows and the work that’s been involved in creating the stuff. So even if you’re not into coding, then this series might be something you’d also enjoy. The reviews on iTunes mention that through this exact show, people have been exposed to different frameworks and tools that they then used on their projects, so give it a try, might be a goldmine.
Open Source
Floss Weekly — twit.tv/floss
Twitter: @FLOSSWeekly
Number of Seasons: Ep 524
Creators/Hosts: Randal Schwartz, Aaron Newcomb
Add-on Stuff: links (there’s both audio and video)
Duration per episode: 60 min
Rotation: weekly
This show features various open source projects. You can actually see all the guests that have been featured or contacted for future webcasts within this google doc: FlossWeekly Speakers
Command Line Heros — https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes
Twitter: n/a
Number of Seasons: 1. Season 2, ep 8 (season 2 was over in dec 2018 and no new episodes so far)
Creators/Hosts: Saron Yitbarek
Add-on Stuff: shownotes, transcripts
Duration per episode: 30 min
Rotation: used to be 2 times per month
The podcast is another baby of Saron Yitbarek, the developer and founder of CodeNewbies. Command Line Heroes are about “open source rebels who are revolutionizing the technology landscape.” Not sure, if Saron will continue the podcast for the next season, but I truly hope she will, because the last season was particularly exciting. In the last episode, Saron talked to SGVHAK Group, which was one of the first to build their own rover, people from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who shared how NASA embraced open source and how it solved their groundbreaking problems with open software and crowdsourcing.
