Developers need more than just raw caffeine to really get into the zone. Podcasts let you start stretching your mental muscles while you meet the day and prepare for it; they’re like putting an extra shot in your cup.
Our R&D team is sharing some exceptional podcasts that cover a large variety of topics surrounding software engineering. We think you’ll appreciate this list!
Tech podcasts for ramping up your skill set
First and foremost, our developers listen to podcasts to become better developers and engineers. The technologies they learn about and the problems they discover how to solve can be implemented in their daily work. Here are their top podcasts for doing so:
1. Front end happy hour
Launched in 2016, Front End Happy Hour is a podcast that hosts speakers from Silicon Valley companies for a casual conversation on a variety of topics. From test engineering to website optimization to serverless, the Front End Happy Hour podcast provides engineers with valuable information that can be useful for their day to day tasks.
In addition, this technology podcast also covers ecosystem culture, discussing management styles, remote work, technical book writing, and more. This makes it a good source of information for answering many developer needs.
2. Software engineering daily
Software Engineering Daily is a podcast that covers almost only deep tech content. With a new episode released daily, this technological podcast covers a lot of ground, including topics in the realms of cloud engineering, open source, data and blockchain. In addition to recorded sessions, you can also follow and read the episodes’ transcript, if you want to delve deep into a topic, or if you’re a text person.
Not sure where to start? You can choose a category you’re interested in, follow the greatest hits list, or just sign up for their newsletter and let the episodes come to you.
Tech podcasts for helping you work better
Our developers like to build their hard skills, but they’re not shy about building up their soft skills, either. In addition to the Front End Happy Hour podcast from before, our developers also like to listen to:
3. This Developer’s Life
This Developer’s Life is a technical podcast that talks about non-technical issues developers deal with, from learning to hobbies to failures to risk-taking. It also talks about the impact of engineering cultures on developers, and how it can affect their self-esteem, wellbeing and social ties. According to our developer colleague who chose it as his favorite podcast, it “captures the unique perspective of developer personalities in the context of talking about issues that all humans face.” You can find the episodes here.
4. Soft Skills Engineering
“It takes more than great code to be a great engineer” states the Soft Skills Engineering website, and we couldn’t agree more. This weekly advice podcast covers issues like pay raises, hiring and firing, leadership, learning, promotions, quitting, etiquette, and more, which every engineer faces at some point in time and can relate to.
Tech Podcasts for your soul
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. No wonder our developers also recommend podcasts that are interesting and entertaining for them, well, just because.
5. Swimm Upstream
Swimm Upstream is a podcast devoted to engineering leaders and dev tool enthusiasts hosted by Tom Ahi Dror, Co-Founder of Swimm.
Swimm launched its very season of Swimm Upstream in November of 2021 with seven episodes about managing growth of engineering teams, onboarding and mentoring with Ryan Atkins (Head of Engineering Operations at Asana), Patrick Poels (Senior VP of Engineering at Synk), Tamar Bercovici (VP of Engineering at Box), Yuval Perry (Head of Backend Engineering at Wix), Liran Tal (Director of Developer Advocacy at Snyk), and Assaf Cohen (Training Delivery Manager at AWS).
Swimm launched the second season of Swimm Upstream in May of 2022 with six episodes about leading and navigating within engineering organizations. Season 2’s lineup includes Amir Shevat (Head of Product at Twitter’s Developer Platform), Jason Gauci (Director of Software Engineering at Argo AI), Jenna Quindica (Staff Software Engineer at Square), Brian Douglas (Director of Developer Advocacy at GitHub), and Basia Mucha (Director of Engineering at Compass).
You can listen to Swimm Upstream here
6. The Tech Guy
The Tech Guy is a bi-weekly podcast that discusses day-to-day implementations of technology, from smartphones to wifi to space. Follow it to stay up-to-date on news, trends, security and privacy issues and recent technological developments.
7. Making History (Osim Historia)
This Hebrew podcast is an entertaining collection of popular science stories made accessible through anecdotes, down-to-earth explanations and high-quality content. One of the most popular podcasts in Israel, Osim Historia has developed sub-podcasts, covering science, medicine, politics, families, relationships and more. One of its best sub-podcasts is “The Answer”, which provides answers to seemingly banal questions, like “Why isn’t there a microwave for cooling things down?” and “Did dinosaurs have feathers?”
Bottom line
That’s it! We hope you find this list of seven podcasts useful and interesting, and that you enjoy them as much as our engineers did! Do you also have some favorite technology podcasts you’d like to share? Message us and let us know, because we’re always looking for new and interesting ones!
Sign up for a Swimm product demo here.
