I spend the majority of each day at a desk, either in my office at work or at home. Both locations have lightning fast internet access and are great places to consume information. But what about the 50 minutes per day I'm commuting in my car? That time is also an opportunity to be informed, educated, and inspired. I picked up an audio-book habit in San Diego, where the commute is much longer. In 2009 my work buddies peer pressured me into checking out podcasts. Believe me, they are awesome and you should give'em a chance.
Every day before work I scan around for a decent podcast. Most of them are published weekly, so here's my typical weekly playlist:
Monday - This Week in Tech (TWiT)
Optimist Leo Laporte and "tech grouch" John C. Dvorak do a weekly round up of technology news on Sunday with a variety of internet-famous guests. With an almost 2 hour runtime, I rarely finish it, but the first half is usually great.
Tuesday - Hanselminutes
Scott Hanselman is very energetic and entertaining shill for Microsoft and the .NET platform. He's actually very objective and has insightful interviews with folks in the .NET community. Best part: he keeps is to about 20 minutes. Quick & informative.
Wednesday - Buzz Out Loud
A crew of CNET's analysts review the daily tech news. They keep up a quick pace and usually fill up 45 minutes with great, informed content. This one is available every weekday, so it's a great alternative if some other podcast flakes out that week (*cough* StackOverflow *cough*)
Thursday - StackOverflow
My favorite podcast. Joel Spolsky and Jeff Attwood (both internet-famous software bloggers) discuss the business of software, coding topics, and their awesome website (StackOverflow). Joel has great stories from his experience as a developer/entrepreneur, and occasionally back-peddles from his most recent, controversial blog posts. Jeff talks about his latest development effort on the site. This stuff is pure gold, and it's free!
Friday - diggnation
Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose discuss tech and stories from the social news site Digg. They're are a lot of "dudes" and "bro's" thrown around, and banter that may be aimed a slightly younger audience. But, it's Friday. Relax a little, Mr. Worky-face, and enjoy the comedy.
Runner-ups
This Week in Startups - Jason Calacanis interviews .com entrepreneurs
Herding Code - 4 dudes grill a guest from the .NET community
I'm also planning on working through Scott Hanselman's list of .NET podcasts (http://bit.ly/7fwVSP) as a New Years resolution.
Do you have a favorite podcast? I would love to get your recommendation.
