Podcast Roundup II
Series: misc May 16, 2011
I’ve found a couple new podcasts that I have been listening to and wanted to share. I am still listening to the three shows I mentioned previously and would continue to recommend them.
On to the new podcasts!
#StackExchange Podcast
Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood
Weekly releases
Topic: StackOverflow and related sites
The StackExchange Podcast is the reboot of the now-defunkt StackOverflow podcast. I really enjoyed the StackOverflow podcast and it was actually the first podcast I listened to.
Maybe I have rose-colored memories about the old show, but I seem to remember it covering lots of interesting topics and interviews. Sadly, through the first four episodes of the StackExchange podcast, it has been very meta and focused only on StackOverflow related discussions. I think Scott Hanselmen (the guest on episode 3) captured my feelings when he noted that he was surprised how Joel and Jeff are still so interested in voting algorithms and flagging tools this far into StackOverflow’s life. I actually find the new podcast to be pretty boring.
I really want this show to be good, but I am pretty close to dropping it from my rotation in favor of some of the newer shows.
#Founders Talk
Adam Stacoviak
Sporadic releases
Topic: interviews with startup founders
I always felt that Adam was the weak link on the Changelog podcast, but he really shines in Founders Talk. He seems much more comfortable talking about the business aspects of founding a company than the gory technical details on the Changelog.
The interviews are really well done and the companies are an interesting mix. The interviews with Amy Hoy and Ryan Carson got me hooked to this show and I am been listening to the new releases since.
I should mention that the show has a very sporadic release schedule, sometimes there are no shows for a month and other times there are 3 episodes in two week period.
#Build & Analyze
Dan Benjamin and Marco Arment
Weekly releases
Topics: iOS, mobile web development, misc. freelance/startup stuff
I think I got off on the wrong foot with Dan Benjamin. I first listened to The Dev Show and I really didn’t like it at all. It seemed like they just machine-gunned through the Hacker News headlines for the week and added a sentence or two summary for each one.
I saw a recommendation for this podcast, so despite my dislike of The Dev Show, I gave it a shot and I was pleasantly surprised. Build & Analyze is co-hosted by Marco Arment, of Tumblr and Instapaper fame, and he and Dan have really good on-air chemistry. The show is focused on iOS and mobile web development, but they seem to go off-topic into other areas enough to keep me entertained. The show is also a bit longer than a typical podcast (around 90 minutes) so it has a similar feel as the TechZing discussion shows.
I don’t find myself rushing to listen to the newest episode or go through the whole backlog, but the show seems like a solid filler.
