Shorter than some, longer than many, my 1 hour commute to and from work each day used to be down time. Over the last three or four years, I’ve found that podcasts are a good way to fill the time. Scott Hanselman has just posted Hanselman’s Super Karate Death Car List of .NET and Software Podcasts and suggested that others do the same … here’s what occupies my commute.
Professional
The tech industry moves so fast that one could easily be left in the dust. Listening to podcasts that relate to my job, or to the jobs of people I work with, helps me keep up.
.NET Rocks
In many ways the granddaddy of them all, .NET Rocks predates the term podcast itself. Sometimes silly, sometimes frustrating, but always worth the listen, even if you’re not a full time .NET developer.
Hanselminutes
Shorter and punchier than .NET Rocks, Scott Hanselmans own podcast is often a good overview of a topic, giving me enough information to know whether I want to know more, and if I do, where to look.
RunAsRadio
All the software I write has to be deployed to production systems looked after by IT Professionals – listening to RunAsRadio helps me to understand what is important to them. Plus, it’s interesting stuff.
Interests
Some podcasts I listen to just for fun.
Astronomy Cast
A show about the entire universe – what do we know, how do we know it, what don’t we know – and how might we find out. Fascinating.
Stack Overflow
Not just the latest and greatest website for getting your hairy questions answered, Stack Overflow is also an entertaining blog from Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek) and Jeff Attwood (Coding Horror). Well worth listening to, just don’t expect to always agree with this dynamic duo.
More or Less
A radio show from the BBC, More or Less looks into the numbers behind the news – showing the truth behind misquoted statistics and how people (mis)interpret numbers.
TWiT
This Week in Tech is one of the front runner podcasts from the desk of Leo Laporte. TWiT is a weekly roundup of tech news and views.
Science Talk
Steve Mirsky presents an interesting weekly show on the latest developments in science. The weekly segment Totally Bogus is fun to listen to and to try and answer correctly.
Personal development
These I listen to because I just might learn something useful. They’re also fun and entertaining.
Get It Done Guy
<p Useful advice and commentary from Stever Robbins, the Get It Done Guy has tips on personal productivity and organisation. </p>Grammar Girl
Being able to communicate clearly and well is essential – even for someone like me who spends most of his time in Visual Studio, not Word. Listening to Grammar Girl helps me improve my writing so that what’s on the page more closely reflects what I wanted to say.
Writing Excuses
I’m not sure I’d go so far as to claim a dream of being a fiction writer – but the idea does have an appeal. Writing Excuses is an excuse to dream – and to listen to the author of one of my favourite web comics, Schlock Mercenary.
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