My Podcast List

Recently, my wife has started listening to a lot more podcasts, and that has the two of us talking about what we listen to a lot more. She and I have pretty differing tastes when it comes to our podcasts, but occasionally our tastes will overlap. I like the more conversational style podcasts, while she leans towards the NPR, story type podcasts.

The beauty of podcasts is that there is simply so much out there to listen to these days, there's really something for everyone. But if you're looking for something to listen to, here's my list of shows that I try to keep up on:

Tech

The Accidental Tech Podcast - This is a great, heavy tech podcast. All of the guys are programmers, and they can even get a little too technically deep for me when they get in to architectures and whatnot. Still, this has become one of my favorites.

Connected - Definitely the most Apple focused podcast that I listen to. Federico, Myke, and Stephen have pretty different ways of approaching technology, which makes for some fun discussions. I especially like when Federico starts discussing his use of the iPad and Health apps.

Upgrade - This podcast often overlaps a lot with Connected and ATP, but it's worth it for getting Jason Snell's perspective on tech topics. His experience at IDG writing for MacWorld gives him a really good insider look not just at tech topics, but also the culture surrounding the media around tech topics.

Welcome to Macintosh - Mark Bramhill has managed to make one of the most interesting Apple podcasts ever. He doesn't release very often, and he's on hiatus for the summer, but the content that he does put out is always well thought out, well researched, and really fun to listen to. Notable episodes are the MacWorld episode and the Trip to alphaSyntari.

Clockwise - This is my "I don't have time to go through 2 hours of tech stuff, I just want a few distilled thoughts" podcast. It's always full of great guests, and it manages to cover a lot of ground in exactly 30 minutes.

Productivity

Back to Work - I have a weird relationship with Back to Work. Some episodes I just can't get enough of, and sometimes it feels like it rambles. A lot. But when Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin really get going on a topic, there's great stuff there. I also use B2W as a great example of what a two person podcast should sound like. It's less two people sitting down to make a podcast, more two people sitting down and having a really good conversation that is sometimes guided by a topic.

Cortex - This could easily have gone up in the technology section, but the real meat of this podcast is hearing Gray explain his workflow processes. It's amazing to hear what someone whose whole job is writing and podcasting does to organize his life to be more efficient. The fist two episodes are especially excellent.

Culture

This is a long section. Buckle up.

99% Invisible - A podcast about the invisible things that affect us in our day to day lives. Roman Mars has the perfect voice for radio, and 99% Invisible covers some of the strangest things but makes them incredibly interesting.

StartUp - It started as an awesome view into what it takes to start a company. It has expanded from one company to another, and they're getting ready for a third season, which should introduce another startup. It's really interesting getting to hear what these companies go through, the conversations that normally take place behind the scenes. Start from the beginning here.

Reply All - Stories about Internet culture. The stories are great, well researched, and always interesting. Reply All is part of Gimlet, as is StartUp. Those guys have really established themselves as a podcast network full of great content...

Mystery Show - ...like Mystery Show. A show all about solving those weird mysteries that we run across in life. This is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to while running, even though it tends to make me the weird guy laughing while he runs at the gym.

Still Untitled with Adam Savage - Yes, the Adam Savage from MythBusters. He and the other guys from Tested have a great podcast. It hits great DIY topics, it gives you some behind the scenes for MythBusters, and there's usually a few good stories in each episode. I listen to the audio version, but there is a video version as well.

Analog(ue) - This podcast really only makes sense if you listen to ATP and some of the other Relay.fm shows. It's Casey from ATP and Myke from Relay talking about their lives, feelings, and the analog parts of our lives. It provides a really fun contrast to the other tech podcasts.

Whew, I think that's it. I try to keep up with all of these podcasts, but some weeks I'll fall behind. Unlike Twitter, I'm not exactly a podcast completionist. If I miss a week on some of the tech podcasts, I'll often just skip that week and listen to the next episode. I do, however, manage to listen to just about everything in the culture section. And of course, I do all that listening through Overcast still, it's pretty much the best podcast client out there, period.

You might notice that there aren't any security podcasts in that list. That's on purpose. I'm a firm believer that everything you listen to or read seeps in to the stuff that you do yourself, and I always fear that I'll unintentionally steal something from another security podcast. Instead, I prefer to have my own opinions about any security news that we talk about on The Southern Fried Security Podcast. There are certainly other good security podcasts out there, I just don't listen to them.