

Ask HN: What's your favourite podcast? - kevt

Hey guys, I'll be driving down from Toronto to San Jose next week and I'm prepping my podcast list for my trip.  So far my list includes ECorner, This Week in Startups, The Startup Success, Mixergy, and Startup Story Radio.  Would love to hear what you guys find interesting/education/enlightening.  Thanks!
======
hardik988
I've having a lot of fun with WNYC's RadioLab podcast. It's more of an
experience when you listen to them, you feel like you're in the world they're
describing. Every episode is really well done, and the guys put a lot of
effort into it. <http://www.radiolab.org/>

------
doorhammer
I definitely second The History of Rome. I haven't kept up with it lately, but
I loved it when I listened to it.

My favorite programming podcast is se-radio ( <http://www.se-radio.net/> ) I
especially like this one for getting a general overview of a variety of coding
related categories and practices. Being self-taught, it's been been an
invaluable source for broadening my basic understanding of the field. The guys
that run the podcast definitely strike me as being more involved in the
corporate space, but the topics are relevant to just about every topic in
software construction, from episodes on embedded real-time systems, an
interview on the internals of the gcc compiler, clojure, and tons of others.

I listen to This American Life frequently. The stories are always fascinating
and well-produced.

Stuff You Should Know has always been one of my favorites. It's like
spastically browsing the internet in audio form. You learn all kinds of super-
interesting things, but never really learn much about any one subject. I'd
suggest this for long car-trips when you're not trying to accomplish anything,
heh. Love it, though.

howstuffworks.com has a lot of interesting ones outside of Stuff You Should
Know, but I'd hit that one first.

those are my favorites, off the top of my head

History of Rome, Software Engineering Radio, This American Life, Stuff You
Should Know

~~~
odyniec
+1 for Software Engineering Radio, I listen to it on a regular basis and like
it a lot.

For other software-related podcasts, I recommend FLOSS Weekly
(<http://twit.tv/FLOSS>). They cover interesting open source projects and
interview their creators, as well as other influential people of the open
source world.

------
salemh
For those along the lines of "History of Rome," I would recommend Dan Carlin's
Hardcore History (which has a 3 part series on the Fall of the Roman Empire
(which goes back several hundred years). He also has a 4 part series on the
Eastern Front of WWII, "Toughness" in generations in History, and many other
interesting podcasts.

He is very engaging and informed (he was / is an investigative journalist and
a history buff, taking from multiple sources and citing biases or clashes with
alternative sources.) <http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive>

He has a separate podcast "Common Sense" for politics.

Phil Windley (of Kynetx, local to UT) has diverse tech podcasts:
<http://www.windley.com/>

------
drRoflol
Mysterious Universe (Plus+) for a healthy dose of paranormal entertainment.
The hosts are (most of the time) aware of the fact that alot of the things
they cover are pretty dumb, and they do laugh of it. It's one of the more
professional podcasts I've ever listened to, sound quality is excellent, the
music is good, and the hosts are really funny. Check it out!

Also, to feed my hunger for gadgetery, "The 404" and "Buzz out loud" from
cNet.

And if you're into history Dan Carlin has two podcasts, "Common sense", about
US politics, and "Hardcore History" on history. Good shows by a smart host.

Drive safely, and merry christmas!

------
unignorant
Econtalk - deeply interesting interviews/conversations about economics

Radiolab - unique stories (often science-based) and great production values

------
protomyth
Red centre @ fxguide if you are interested in digital video (they have
expanded well past the Red Camera).

Know Tech is basically a geek conversation, but is biased towards Mac and
video.

Independent Misinterpretations is the new podcast by James Robertson formerly
of Cincom about Smalltalk and episodes about other dynamic languages.

------
butayni
Security Now - with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte
<http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm>

A nice weekly round-up of current security issues. As well as some in-depth
explanation of some aspect of security - like the inner workings of ssl
certificates.

------
veb
Someone make software to turn these podcasts into lovely readable texts for
me. /hearingimpairmentsucks

------
hardik
This American Life; this is how an audio programme should be! (and I am not
even an American :) )

------
brandonkm
I've been enjoying the 'A minute with Brendan Eich' podcasts. They're short,
insightful, and always about very recent technology topics surrounding
JavaScript.

<http://www.aminutewithbrendan.com>

------
xpaulbettsx
This has nothing to do with startups or tech, but Dan Savage's Savage Love
podcast is excellent. Anyone who is in a relationship or wants to be in one
should listen to it and save themselves a lot of stress and heartache learning
things the hard way.

------
rguzman
NPR's Planet Money. The Moth.

I also +1'd This American Life, and Radio Lab.

At some point I liked You Look Nice Today -- it is really funny, but
intellectually vacuous.

Econtalk is quite good, but a bit dry.

------
dmazin
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is fascinating, and you can trust that the
information you hear is valid. <http://www.theskepticsguide.org/>

------
staunch
The History of Rome. By far my favorite non-startup/tech podcast. I have a
long held fascination with ancient Roman history, but even others who don't
seem to really enjoy it.

------
Raisin
Techzing hands down. 2 guys just talking about startups and trying to make it.
The guest are fantastic and they always drill down into topics.

------
knowsnothing613
NPR Fresh Air with Terry Gross

------
sga
B.S. Report by Bill Simmons

------
karanbhangui
Hey you wanna car pool? I'm going from Toronto to mountainview!

Email is karan.bhangui@gmail.com

------
sahillavingia
Mixergy.

------
rick_2047
My favourites are:

Decoder Ring Theatre at <http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/> Bells in the
batfry at <http://thebatfry.com/>.

Both are low frequency (DRT is twice a month, and batfry is when ever john
bell feels like doing it), but I think they will remain my favourites.

------
J3L2404
ThisWeekInScience:

<http://www.twis.org/>

Science, humor and World Robot Domination.

