Love them or hate them, podcasts are here to stay. On a variety of topics of varying lengths and generally available on-demand, they’re an easy way to stay on top of the latest and greatest in your industry.
As a developer, you have your pick of technical podcasts. According to more than 1,400 developers who responded to our Intuit Developer Twitter poll, these are the top four you should be checking out right now:
- Syntax
- Shoptalk
- Show.NET Rocks!
- The Changelog
About the top technical podcasts for developers
Why were these technical podcasts developer favorites? Let’s take a look.
Syntax. Based on our Twitter poll, 32.3% of our respondents voted Syntax the podcast to beat. Advertised as a “tasty treats podcast for web developers,” Syntax features Wes Bos, a full stack JavaScript developer, and Scott Tolinski, a web developer.
Their no-frills website allows visitors to jump directly into their podcast of choice. There are plenty to choose from, with more than 280 episodes covering a wide range of developer-approved topics. In fact, they ask their listeners to submit “potluck” questions that they answer in their potluck episodes. Episode 280 is an example of a potluck episode, and it covers a lot of ground with topics such as RIP Firefox?, Safari, changing careers, regression testing, Google Analytics alternatives, malicious Github users?, Mac vs Windows, and more.
If this sounds like the technical podcast for you, you can find Syntax on iTunes, Overcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, PocketCasts, and Google Play.
ShopTalk Show. With 25.3% of the votes, ShopTalk came in second with developers. Hosted by Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert, the live weekly podcast focuses on front-end web design, development, and UX. Each show highlights a guest who stops in to, what else? Talk shop. They also answer questions from their listeners.
With 429 episodes under their belt, they offer plenty of podcasts with topics that include CSS, career advice, WordPress, design, workflow, UX, JavaScript, performance, and much more. Additionally, the ShopTalk website provides listeners with a Job Board, posting employment opportunities for developers around the world.
You can subscribe on iTunes or via RSS.
.NET Rocks!. Though third in our Twitter poll with 21.6% of the vote, .NET Rocks!, a weekly show, comes in first with the most podcast episodes. Their 1,704 shows (and counting) focuses on programming on the Microsoft .NET platform.
.NET Rocks! was founded in 2002 by Carl Franklin, who was joined in 2005 by his co-host, Richard Campbell. Carl and Richard have extensive experience and accomplishments in the software industry, and they gladly share their expertise, as well as that of their guests’ knowledge, with their listeners. They’re so popular that they have a Fan Club.
Sample titles of their most recent podcasts include “Starting with Xamarin with Theodora Tataru,” “The Microsoft 365 APIs with Glenn Block,” and “Building Serverless .NET Apps on AWS with Robb Schiefer.” They also celebrate their 1,700th podcast with a look back at the most memorable moments of the past 18 years.
Interested in learning more? You can listen via RSS, or by visiting their website, streaming their show from Zune or iTunes, or getting the app.
The Changelog. Last but not least, The Changelog comes in with 20.7% of the vote. Hosted by Adam Stacoviak and Jerod Santo, the podcast is one of a number of podcasts produced by the independent media company. Others include JS Party, Go Time, Founders Talk, Brain Science, Practical AI, and Backstage.
According to The Changelog, their podcast episodes are “conversations with the hackers, the leaders, and the innovators of software development.” Their latest podcast, Episode #412, is on estimating systems with napkin math, a concept explained by Simon Eskildsen, principal engineer at Shopify. Episode #395 has the CTO of GitHub, Jason Warner, discussing Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub. Other podcast examples include learning the laws hackers live by, the one thing every dev should know, and “de-Google-ing” website analytics.
You can listen to The Changelog on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Android, RSS, and via email. You can also get the latest developer news, as well as join The Changelog Developer Community for access to their Slack community, exclusive community member features, discounts/special partner offers, and more.
Is there a technical podcast for you?
As you can see, there are a number of technical podcasts to choose from. Are you inspired to listen to one or perhaps a few? You may be surprised at how much you learn and how much you enjoy engaging with each podcast’s developer communities.
On that note, we’ll leave you with a few more developer recommendations you may want to check out: four online bootcamps for improving skills and the project management tool developers prefer.