I’m an avid podcast listener. Listening to podcasts is, to me, both a way to make long walks and commutes more interesting and a way to keep learning new things. Granted, podcasts are a very ineffective teaching format, and they are by no means comparable to proper study. Still, with ~2 hours of listening on an average day at x1.3 play speed, I find listening to podcasts useful and interesting.

I listen regularly to all of the podcasts listed in this page, so I recommend them all. I don’t like them all the same, and you might have a very different opinion. This is not an expert review or authoritative ranking. I’m generally interested in performance-oriented code, infrastructure systems, database internals, etc. This led to my mix of subscriptions.

My listening routine is as follows: once my playlist ends, I go over all the podcasts, pick up to a few episodes from each (or none, if none are interesting), and create a new playlist for the next couple of months. I don’t listen to all episodes in any podcast. I interleave non-technical podcasts in my playlist to lighten it up a bit. There are obviously numerous non-technical podcasts that are very interesting, and my “guilty pleasure” is music.

I tried to listen to conference talks (via youtube, sound only) or academic papers (text to speech) for deeper technical content. Didn’t work for me. I do read books regularly, in paper format. Visiting the library is a treat, but it takes me a few months to complete a book. I’m ok with that and am not interested in audiobooks.

Below is my list, divided into categories. I’ll be happy to get recommendations for other podcasts covering these topics via my linkedin post or the discussions page.

Databases and data systems

Generic but data-heavy

High performance, Low-level, hardware

C++

Research

Music

Stories and long interviews

Software in general

Storage

General systems

Staging area

The following are on my list but I didn’t listen to them yet so don’t have an opinion:

Other recommendations