November 06, 2014

Podcasts, again

Yesterday a couple of my new coworkers were talking about podcasts and what they should listen to. And that reminded me that I haven’t updated my Summa post on podcasts(1) for almost a year. So let’s make a diff.

Changes

Reading back over that list a few things have changed.

  1. The Talk Show is no longer on Mule Radio, moving into Gruber’s Daring Fireball house.
  2. The Moth used to have an RSS feed so you didn’t have to use iTunes, but not so anymore. You can listen online but downloading requires iTunes.
  3. The Incomparable is also on its own now, and part of a whole family of like-minded shows.

Additions

Some new things have drifted in as well.

  1. Exponent - After ATP (and sometimes before) this is my favorite technology-related podcast. Ben Thompson (who writes Stratechery(2)) and James Allworth talk about the technology landscape, mostly from an economics standpoint. Both are very sharp, but one of the unique things I love is that they have genuine arguments, and sometimes they even change each other’s mind!
  2. Serial - Sara Koenig from This American Life focuses on a single story for as many weeks as it takes. The first story is about a 15 year-old murder, and you don’t really know how it’s going to end.
  3. Startup - Alex Blumberg from This American Life and Planet Money is starting a company to create podcasts, this is the process. There was an episode (3?) where he decided to find a co-founder. Once he did, he then had to figure out how much of the company to give him. The moment when he did was way more emotional than I can convey.
  4. On Being is one I’ve downloaded recently – specifically, the episodes with Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin – but haven’t listened to yet.

Noteworthies

  1. Software Engineering Radio had a couple of great recent episodes (209 and 212) with Randy Shoup on hiring and company culture.
  2. SE Radio also had a great (as usual) recent one with Stefan Tilkov
  3. Dan North had another good presentation on mastery.
  4. Martin Fowler was on the Ruby Rogues recently talking about refactoring.

(1) Sorry for the formatting on that where the links are impossible to see, out of my control.

(2) You should subscribe to this. Ben is a great writer and a perceptive synthesizer. And I think the model – giving money directly to people so they can think and write – is going to be the more sustainable and trustworthy one going forward.

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