My Podcast Subscriptions

Based the following post by Sung Kim, I thought that I'd throw my two cents into the hat with regards to podcasts.

But first, Sung's Post:

My Podcast Subscriptions

Sung M. Kim ・ Sep 1 '18

#podcast #productivity

I spend almost all of my day listening to podcasts. Whether it's during my commute; waiting to pick up my morning coffee; in the elevator to the office; writing code; or queuing to pick up my lunch.

I'm an auditory learner, you see. So without the sound of podcasts or music to keep me on track, the quietest conversation can bamboozle or distract me away from what I'm doing.

It's why I don't read during my commutes these days: too many people making too much noise means that I have to re-re-re-read each sentence to make sure that I can process it correctly.

But what's great about podcasts is that they can provide you with targeted learning for free. And who doesn't like free stuff, right? I've written about how important podcasts can be for developers before, but that was a few years ago and the list of shows that I recommend now has completely changed.

Now that you've read that Sung's list, and I've explained a little about why I listen to podcasts constantly, I can start listing my recommendations. Don't worry I wont include my own podcasts in this list, because that would be big headed of me.

see the end of this post for links to those, in case you're interested

So here come five of my favourite development related podcasts (I could write a whole series of posts on podcasts which aren't related to development). Trust me, whittling it down to just five was really tough.

1. Weekly Dev Tips

tags: career tips, C, webdev
url: http://www.weeklydevtips.com/

Let's start out short, because everyone loves quick fire content right?

Steve "ardalis" Smith has over 20 years of development experience, and he manages to condense all of his knowledge on each topic down to a 10 minute (or less) episode.

Although Steve's background is C# and ASP NET/ASP NET Core, his advice is universal because of the way he talks you through a given point. Definitely start here.

2. Coding Blocks

tags: deep dives, technology agnostic, all forms of development
url: https://www.codingblocks.net/

We've had the short show, now for the deep dive.

What sets Michael, Allen and Joe apart is that they get together and tear a topic down to its barest bones, then build it back up again. All the while without dumbing it down or making it seem trivial.

Coding Blocks started as a .NET focused podcast, but in recent years they've moved to technology agnostic episodes. They've had an entire series on the Clean Architecture, for example - and lets not forget the entire series on 12 factor app.

3. All Things Git

tags: source control, git
url: https://www.allthingsgit.com/

Each and every one of us developers is going to need to use version control at some point in our careers, and most of us will use the number one source control system: git.

And who better to talk you through each of git's ups and downs than Martin Woodward(who introduced Microsoft to git and helped move them to open source) and Edward Thompson (who actively maintains libgit2?

These guys really know their stuff, and each episode covers only a tiny part of git itself. If you source control (and who doesn't?) you should listen to this show.

4. The OWASP Podcast

tags: security
url: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Podcast

Recently this has been renamed "DevSecOpsDays", but I prefer its older name: The OWASP podcast.

This podcast is all about security, and we all should be listening to it. Seriously, can you tell me that your web apps are secure against SQLi (there are new apps every day which are vulnerable), XSS, mime type and other attacks?

Then listen to this show. It's just that simple.

5. The Hello World Podcast

tags: developer life, histories
url: https://wildermuth.com/hwpod

As good as learning about the latest and greatest is, it can be just as good (if not better) to learn about the stuff which came before it.

Essentially, this podcast is a "who's who" of modern development. Each guest explains who they are, and what their developer story is - where they came from, how they got into tech, and how they got to where they are today.

It's fascinating to listen to all of these disparate engineers explain their personal back story and realise that theirs isn't all that different to yours or mine.

So there you have it: five podcasts that I think every developer can benefit from listening to. If you could only pick five development related podcasts to recommend to other developers, which would they be?

Oh, I forgot to mention the podcasts that I create (or co-create). Well, here they are:

• The Waffling Taylors
  • This is a stupid show, by an idiot and his younger brother
  • If you like retro video games, then you might like this show
  • I am the idiot
    • I'm not really an idiot
• The .NET Core Show
  • A new show that I've recently started.
  • It's all about .NET Core and the related technologies
  • But more than, it's about the community of developers who use, and contribute towards those technologies
• DevOtaku
  • Which is all about three developers and "the anime that they are digging on, which is currently Cowboy Bebop" (to quote one of my co-hosts, Jay Miller)
  • We haven't decided what shows to feature for season two yet, so let us know which ones we should check out
  • Each episode of the podcast is a discussion of an episode of an anime (currently Cowboy Bebop), so you can watch along and listen to us share our thoughts and ideas