If you are looking to level up without reading a book or a blog post, software engineer podcasts can be an untapped avenue you should exploit now. I have been listening to podcasts geared towards software engineers for a more than a decade now.
Due to no commute in the past 12 months, I found new times and ways to listen to podcasts. In this post, I am going to recommend 25 software engineer podcasts you should subscribe to instantly. It will be a journey across years of listenting to podcasts.
Table of contents #
- I have listened to them
- Software Engineer podcasts 2022
- Software Engineering podcasts 2021
- Software Engineering podcasts from 2020
- Podcasts I started listening to in 2019
- Podcasts from 2017-2018
- Some podcasts from 2016
- Going back to 2015
- Conclusion
I have listed to them #
A picture is worth a thousand words, here is a screenshot from Jun-2022 for all the podcasts I have listend to since 2017, I will let you be the judge :)
I wished I had more evidience, anyhow let's go to the list of 25 podcasts below:
Software Engineer podcasts 2022 #
Some of the podcasts I have stated or restarted to listen to in 2022 are:
Compressed FM #
Compressed.fm is a weekly podcast about web design and development. It is hosted by James Q Quick and Amy Dutton. They talk with guests about various topics from breaking into tech to Open source, git and other things in between. It is a great podcast to follow.
FSJam Podcast #
FSJam is a fun podcast. It is a podcast for developers, designers and enterpreneures. It is hosted by Christopher Burns and Anthony Campolo. They discuss about a wide range of topics with their guest. The topics include React, Prisma, Remix JS, Serverless to name some.
The Confident Commit #
Hosted by the CTO of Circle CI Rob Zuber, The confident commit is a podcast with conversations about how to deliver software better and faster. There are chats about devops, failure, pipeline security and engineering team efficiency.
The Rework Podcast #
The Rework Podcast is another gem of a podcast by 37 Signals, the company behing BaseCamp and Hey.com (email provider). Coming to your ears every 2 weeks, the cofounders of 37 Signals David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) and Jason Fried with the host Kimberly discuss a broad range of topics in an interesting and intriguing way.
At times the topics are based on the chapters of the book Rework. Sometimes there are timely topics like moving aways from the cloud. This podcast sound spontenous and very refreshing compared to other regular podcasts.
LogRocket podcast - Podrocket #
PodRocket is another superb podcast by LogRocket. They really spend a lot of resource on quality content from the blog to the podcast everything is really good. In the podcast, the hosts have deep converstaions with the guests on frontend web development related topics.
Some of my favorite episodes include the chat about Deno, Qwik, Remix JS, Cloudflare workers and RedWood JS. You must listen to this weekly podcast to stay up to date with the latest in web development.
Other great podcasts #
Some other amazing podcasts are:
I could proably go on and on :).
Next up, you will know about 3 more great podcasts that I started listening to in 2021.
Software Engineering podcasts 2021 #
Below are the year of 2021 below are some popular podcasts I have listened to:
Staff Eng Podcast #
Staff Eng has stories and guides for Staff plus engineers. The stories include engineers from companies like Dropbox, Stripe, Slack, and MailChimp to name a few. The Staff Engineer book by Will Larson is the main offering there but, recently they have started a podcast. Obviously, it is titled the StaffEng podcast hosted by David and Alex who are Staff plus engineers themselves.
The podcast started at the end of Mar-2021. I have listened to both of them and they are amazing. I really liked the Episode where Sarah Dylan from Algolia is interviewed.
The balance of things and how Staff engineers impact the whole organization is very well explained. She also talks about her career ladder and how leveling up was not easy.
The relationship between a staff-level engineer and an engineering manager is explained in a great way. You should listen to all episodes. The last episode of this podcast was published towards the end of 2021.
DevDiscuss #
Dev.to is a very popular developer resource. As a company, it has products like Forem and recently acquired CodeNewBie. They also have a podcast named DevDiscuss. From the archive, it looks like the podcast started in early July 2020, but they already have 4 seasons and 30+ episodes. They cover technical topics like things to know about JavaScript to non-technical stuff like improving onboarding for early-career devs.
One episode that stands out for me is the how to have effective meetings one.
In this awesome episode Andy talks about his elaborate experience of meeting and how we can make meetings effective. The meeting agenda template including “WW, DW, BW” - Who will do what by when is simply superb.
The agreement tips provided by him are also amazing. Here is a written summary of that podcast if you would like to read it.
In Depth Podcast #
First Round is a seed-stage venture firm focused on building a vibrant community of technology entrepreneurs and companies. They have a blog called First Round Review with surely above-average content like the In Depth Podcast. For instance, the post about how to spot and magnify powers of engineering superheroes is extraordinary. The way the blog post goes into the types of software engineers like Aquaman, Spielberg, etc is really commendable.
First Round also has a podcast called In Depth. Its tagline is: “Going deeper on the advice startup leaders need to grow their teams, their companies and themselves.”, they surely live up to the expectations. An episode that stands out for me is the one on employee engagement with Russ Laraway. The advice he gives about how to keep employees engaged is incredible.
The way he emphasizes the skills of the manager and how to measure it is great. The stress he puts on clarity, career, direction, and coaching is praiseworthy.
There are surely other exceptional episodes in the In Depth podcast.
Software Engineering podcasts from 2020 #
Some great software engineering podcats I have listened to in 2020 include:
Command Line Heroes (from Redhat) by Saron Yitbarek #
Command line heroes is a gem of a podcast. The topics are well researched and in-depth. It covers a wide range of topics that are very relevant to all software engineers. I remember listening to the episode about serverless from Season 2. It was a breath of fresh air having comments from Saron, bytes from the archive, and great add-ons by multiple guests including Andrea Passwater.
This award-winning podcast defines itself as:
Command Line Heroes tells the epic true tales of how developers, programmers, hackers, geeks, and open source rebels are revolutionizing the technology landscape.
Amongst other seasons, my favorite was Season 3. There first episode about Python was simply amazing and enlightening. I was happy to know about the Python programming language’s benevolent dictator for life: Guido van Rossum who created this multipurpose language.
Saron has other podcasts too like Coding Newbie which is great too. Command line heroes’ episodes are not that long but the way the music, commentary, and other things are blended together show the mark of a great podcaster. The starting generally hooks you in to listen to the whole episode.
Developing Up By Mike Miles #
Developing up is an amazing software engineering podcast. The good aspect of this podcast is it focused on the non-technical side of our careers. I think having great soft skills is crucial to do a software engineering job well as well as indispensable to climb up the career ladder. I remember the episode pretty well where Mike and Karl talk about public speaking. It was definitely a great one among others.
Developing up describes itself as:
A podcast focused on the non-technical side of being a developer, because your career is about more than the code you write.
With 50 episodes since 2016, listening to this software engineering podcast you will surely learn some needed non-technical skills. Ranging from Pair programming and code reviews to working remotely and imposter syndrome.
The episodes are relatively short and Mike does a great job of asking amazing questions. This brings out insightful and relatable information. I would really recommend you to subscribe to this software engineering podcast. The last episode of Developing up is from Feb-2020 but the content they have is still great.
The SAAS Podcast by Umer Khan #
The SAAS podcast is something more related to the business side fo things. As software engineers, if we understand the domain and why we are doing things this way it makes our work much more meaningful.
One episode I remember pretty well is the chat between Dave and Umer about ClickFunnels. Dave describes the ClickFunnels journey and how it made millions of dollars.
The SAAS podcast defines itself as:
Over 250 in-depth interviews with proven SaaS founders and entrepreneurs. Get actionable insights to help you build, grow, and scale your SaaS business
There are many other episodes I like from THE SAAS software engineering podcast, like the one where Krish talks about scaling a SAAS business. Omer does a great job of researching and interviewing the host. The episodes are a bit long but worth the time.
Podcasts I started listening to in 2019 #
Some useful podcasts I started listening to in 2019 are:
Developer Tea by Jonathan #
Developer Tea is an exceptional podcast to listen to. Jonathan sometimes does an interview and most of the times it is a discourse on software engineering related topics. A recent episode on Mid-Year Resolutions was a strong reminder that half of the year is gone and in less than six months we will reach 2020.
Agile Thoughts by Agile Noir #
Simply put, Agile thoughts is an unconventional podcast. Don’t be scared by the unusual looking cover of the podcast, the content is good. Mostly conversational with some characters, the episodes are short and address day to day issues. I remember episode 29 The value TDD gives to leadership being an intriguing one.
This is one podcast I don't listen to much coming into 2022 and going to 2023.
Inside Intercom #
Inside intercom is a superb podcast focusing on the product side of things rather than just the technical aspects. The most recent episode on why product teams should focus on outcomes over output was an eye-opener.
Podcasts from 2017-2018 #
Some podcasts to highlight from 2017 and 2018 are:
To Be Continuous by Heavybit #
To Be Continuous is a great podcast. Hosted by Paul and Edith it has the right mix of technical and non-technical content Paul is the co-founder of Circle CI and Edith is the co-founder of LaunchDarkly. Together they make a great pair They put forward their ideas about continuous delivery and software engineering topics.
Sometimes they even bring in guests which is like a cherry on the cake. The last episode #28 on Goal setting was amazing.
This is a podcast by HeavyBit which has more software enginneer podcacst like JAMStack Radio and Olly cast. Their last episode was in mid 2020. They have above average content and super relevent in 2023 and beyond.
Mixergy by Andrew #
Another admirable podcast is Mixergy hosted by Andrew Warner. With over a 1000 interviews with proven entrepreneurs, he knows how to ask the right questions. Andrew sometimes elicits such insightful information out of his guest. It is intriguing how he does it.
If you ever want to learn how to interview people this is one podcast you can't afford do miss. He generally interviews tech entrepreneurs. The interviews usually last like an hour. You even as a software engineer get to know important things about how to run a business.
This is not purely a technical podcast. If you don't have business acumen and curiosity being a software engineer you will not be able to scale the high mountains with just technical skils.
Some podcasts from 2016 #
Here are some podcasts I have listened to from 2016:
Software Engineering Daily #
Software engineering daily is a daily podcast hosted by Jeff Meyerson. He has worked at Amazon and knows what he is talking about. The interviews are in-depth, long and enjoyable. Jeff is sharp, there is never a dull moment in the one to one interviews he conducts. He covers a wide range of subjects from docker/kubernates to logging and git.
Scurm Master Toolbox #
Scrum master toolbox podcast is another daily podcast with a theme for each weekday. Vasco Duarte hosts this podcast. He conducts the interviews with ease and a purpose to get the best out of his guests. Regardless of you do scrum or not this will help you in your career. Software engineers are solution providers. Understanding team dynamics, product management and change management is important in our work life.
I am not listening to Scrum master toolbox podcast much these days.
Going back to 2015 #
Some podcasts that were my favourite in 2015:
Full Stack Radio #
Full Stack Radio is a podcast hosted by Adam Wathan. A guest joins in the podcast. The duo talk about software development related topics from product design to system administration. The podcast has a consistent quality and good selection of topics. One of my favorite is when Adam talks with Chris hunt about how Github does remote work.
The last episode of Full Stack Radio was in Jan-2021. It has 150+ episodes which is a great deal of content. Adam Wathan is the person behind Tailwind CSS.
Western Devs #
Western Devs is another podcast that I like listening to. They have a panel of 5-7 participants and talking about tech topics. At times some of the participants seem to be quite still the discussion they have is informative. I liked the episode when they talked about Devops.
The last episode of Western Devs was in Dec-2018. They have good content if you want to take a trip down memory lane.
Startups for the rest of us #
Startups for the rest of us is not a technical podcast. You should listen to it because software adapts to business and not the other way round. Many times its not about having that perfect code or applying that amazing pattern. It is about solving problems for people who were doing things in a manual way for example.
If you have a business idea and want to start a startup this is a must listen. I liked the episode where they talked about
things that done scale.
This podcast still has good episodes coming out even in 2022.
Conclusion #
I have listed some high-quality podcasts in terms of content, production, and the way guests are interviewed by the hosts. There is a mix of both technical podcasts and non-technical but very useful podcasts. I hope you liked it.
Enjoy listening to these amazing podcasts!