25 Jul The 15 best tech podcasts you need to listen to right now
Do you ever feel like technology is moving so quickly in so many different directions that there’s no way one human brain can keep up?
That’s what podcasts are for.
Whether you work in tech, run a startup, or just love learning about new technology and gadgets, podcasts can be a great way to keep up with major trends in the tech space. We’ve compiled 15 of our favorite podcasts that are not only entertaining but also can help expand your knowledge of a sometimes complicated industry. Some of these podcasts cover the general industry news of the day while others immerse you in specialty areas like crypto or electric vehicles. Some are short and hit just the highlights while others run longer and dive deep. But all of these great podcasts give you a chance to absorb useful knowledge in a relatively short period of time—even while your hands are busy doing something else.
Best tech news podcasts
Techmeme Ride Home
Techmeme has for years carefully aggregated and curated some of the best (and fastest) coverage of the most important news in the tech industry every day. Techmeme Ride Home gives you much of the news on the website, but in audio form, making it even easier to digest, especially if you’re multitasking. The podcast is hosted by Brian McCullough, who enthusiastically provides the key facts from the tech stories du jour, with a dash of commentary. The podcasts go up at 5 p.m. daily and are usually pretty brief, at about 15 minutes long.
The Hustle Daily Show
This podcast is another short, daily affair (many episodes are less than 10 minutes) that gives you a solid executive summary of what’s going on in tech news, plus a little bit of smart, and often funny, commentary. The Hustle Daily Show is hosted by The Hustle newsletter writers Zachary Crockett, Juliet Bennett Rylah, Jacob Cohen, and Rob Litterst.
Best gadget podcast
Waveform
Software may have eaten the world, but hardware and gadgets are still hugely important, and that’s the niche the Waveform podcast fills. It stars Marques Brownlee, who became well known among tech influencers for his reviews on YouTube of everything from smartphones to electric cars. Every week, Brownlee and cohost Andrew Manganelli look at all kinds of new gadgets, including gaming gear and virtual reality headsets, electric vehicles, folding phones, and pretty much anything consumer tech companies are putting out. These guys look at products with a critical eye, but they clearly love gadgets, which is part of what makes the YouTube cast fun to watch.
Best podcasts about Apple
Mac Power Users
Many of us love our Macs but also suspect we could get more productivity out of them if we just had a little expert advice. That, in broad terms, is what the weekly Mac Power Users podcast is all about. Guided by hosts David Sparks and Stephen Hackett, and featuring insightful guests from a wide variety of professions and backgrounds, the show teaches listeners new workflows for their Macs, as well as news and commentary on Apple’s newest hardware, apps, and operating systems. The show has been going since 2009, and just published its 649th episode. The episodes are pretty long, but they’re rich with tips, and Sparks and Hackett create a low-key vibe that’s pleasant to listen to.
Connected
Connected is a deep dive into Apple World, with weekly commentary on the company’s latest devices, apps, features, operating systems, and services—and how it all works together in the ecosystem. The podcast features MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci and Relay FM cofounders Myke Hurley and Stephen Hackett (also of Mac Power Users); and the three have a comfortable and polished repartee together, complete with long-running jokes and references. All three are long-time Apple watchers/influencers and speculate intelligently on what Apple may come out with next.
Best tech-and-pop-culture podcast
The Content Mines
The Content Mines covers the social-content side of the tech world, which includes things like the latest TikTok trend, crypto scams, hot tweets, Instagram influencer trends, and pretty much any kind of creative output that shows up on social media sites. The podcast is a weekly rap session featuring (Fast Company contributor) Ryan Broderick, who also writes the newsletter Garbage Day; and Luke Bailey, who runs digital for inews.co.uk. What makes the show click is the funny back-and-forth of the hosts and their obvious knowledge of the daily trending online topics.
Best tech startup podcasts
Acquired
Acquired tells the stories of great technology companies, including the hard lessons they learned while growing up. The podcast is cohosted by San Francisco-based angel investor David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert, cofounder and managing director of Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs and venture fund PSL Ventures. Rosenthal and Gilbert understand startups, and they regularly feature successful founders (such as Zoom CEO Eric Yuan) and investors (such as a16z’s Katherine Boyle) to talk about the strategies that help great startups become great companies.
Cartoon Avatars
Logan Bartlett considers podcasting to be a regular part of his job as a VC, and he does it well. A partner at Redpoint Ventures, Bartlett is a good interviewer and has sharp insights on early-stage companies. Cartoon Avatars covers everything from the current tech news and trends to memes and Twitter beefs. Bartlett interviews the founders of important up-and-coming companies, some of them from the crypto world. The show—as well as frequent guest host Zach Weinberg, cofounder of health-tech company Flatiron Health—takes a skeptical view of blockchain companies and Web3, leading to some interesting exchanges. Bartlett often chats with other VCs, including notables like former a16z partner Benedict Evans, now an independent analyst.
Best e-commerce podcast
The Jason & Scot Show
The e-commerce industry is a world of its own, and it deserves its own weekly podcast. Stepping in to fill the need are two industry veterans—Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Communications; and Scot Wingo, cofounder and CEO of Spiffy, and former CEO of ChannelAdvisor. The Jason & Scot Show hosts a variety of guests, often founders of companies in the e-commerce ecosystem, who discuss pretty much every aspect of e-commerce, including supply chains, websites, delivery networks, and, of course, Amazon. Not the most entertaining podcast you’ll ever hear, but if you distribute products on the internet, it could be invaluable.
Best crypto and Web3 podcasts
Stacks
If you are crypto-invested or crypto-curious, Stacks, hosted by Luke Martin, seeks to immerse you in the latest crypto trends, blockchain projects, altcoins, NFTs, and more. The best part of the show, however, are the guests Martin brings on, which normally include institutional investors, hedge fund managers, and others who have gone deep in crypto trading.
Not Investment Advice
If you’re looking for a relaxing podcast, this one probably isn’t for you. Not Investment Advice is a high-energy rap session between influencers Jack Butcher, Bilal Zaidi, and Trung Phan about the nexus of finance and internet culture. This includes a wide swath of subject matter, including tech and media company news, acquisitions, investments, Web3, and a good deal of talk about crypto and NFTs. The podcast works because of the interaction between the cohosts, who seem like they’re having a blast every episode. It sometimes features well-known guests: In early July, the show welcomed crypto true believer Michael Saylor, whose company MicroStrategy holds 129,699 Bitcoin (worth about $2.9 billion at the moment).
Overpriced JPEGs
Overpriced JPEGs, hosted by Carly Reilly, former finance director for Andrew Yang, reliably covers the latest NFT projects, prices, and communities as they relate to Web3 and the metaverse. This podcast’s central question is whether NFTs contain real value or are really just “overpriced JPEGs.” A lot of other interesting topics stem from that question, including what creates the perception of value among the various communities of NFT holders and buyers.
Best auto tech podcast
Autonocast
“The zero BS podcast about autonomous cars, automated driving & the future of mobility,” that’s Autonocast—a weekly podcast covering all aspects of mobility, autonomous vehicles, and electric vehicles with cohosts Alex Roy, director of special operations at Argo AI; Edward Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors; and Kirsten Korosec, Techcrunch senior transportation reporter and editor. The show features founders of tech companies that are contributing to the emerging autonomous and electric mobility ecosystems; and experts who discuss a wide range of aspects of future mobility, from regulation and safety to AI challenges and infrastructure.
Honorable Mention
Proof
Tech VC Kevin Rose, who Bloomberg lists as a “top 25 Angel Investor” is the host of Proof, which, similar to Overpriced JPEGs, focuses on the strange world of NFTs. Rose interviews a variety of NFT artists, including both known names and up-and-comers. He and his guests also discuss NFT gaming and the metaverse, as well as people building new tools for NFT creators and collectors.
UpOnly
UpOnly is a crypto podcast, hosted by two guys known only as Ledger and Cobie—both well-known influencers within the crypto community, each with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. (In fact, it was a tweet from Cobie that outed one of the CoinBase employees recently charged in the Department of Justice’s first-ever Bitcoin insider trading tipping case.) The two hash out the biggest news within the industry, which lately has involved blockchain and crypto startups that have failed during the current market downturn. UpOnly has had some big-name guests, including investor Mark Cuban, Bitcoin investor Michael Saylor, and Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin. The only reason this podcast is listed under honorable mention is because of its slightly erratic publishing schedule.
Source: Fast Company
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.