---
title: 4 Podcasts Software Engineers May Love
date: 2018-07-09T23:48:41+08:00
tags:
  - Podcasts
cover:
  image: http://weihanglo.tw/posts/2018/4-podcasts-software-engineers-may-love/podcast.webp
  caption: Image by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0
---

As a non-native English speaker, I often try several methods to improve my English skills. Listening to podcasts is one of the most interesting way to practice English, especially with fascinating topics I indulge in.

Therefore, I pick some of my favorite podcasts about software engineering to share with you. Enjoy these awesome shows and don't forget to give them some feedback.

_(written on 2018-07-09)_

## Software Engineering Daily

[![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music62/v4/6e/3a/7f/6e3a7f2d-b42a-fddd-8761-f2bc316d20b9/source/200x200bb.webp)][sedaily]

If you are not afraid of information explosion, you may love [Software Engineering Daily][sedaily] (SE Daily). SE Daily delivers interviews about software technical knowledge. On each episode, SE Daily invites software engineers to share their perspective on a technical topic along with a series of well-prepared questions. The topics in SE Daily cover a wide range of software engineering stuff, such as cloud computing, block chain, data science, and so on.

SE Daily believes learning technical knowledge from podcasts will help us understand how software works. We can even start listening to SE Daily without any solid software engineering background. Jeff, the host of SE Daily, is always generous to help audiences understanding technical details in layman's terms.

- **Episode length**: ~60 minutes.
- **Frequency**: Daily.
- **Sponsor**: As a company or via [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4173731).
- **Ad**: ~7 mins in an 1 hour episode. Mostly software related.
- **Transcript**: Available.

Gateway episodes:

- [Rust Networking with Carl Lerche](https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2018/06/19/rust-networking-with-carl-lerche/) (highly recommended)
- [Chrome and Chromium with David Bokan](https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2018/06/28/chrome-and-chromium-with-david-bokan/)

[sedaily]: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/

## The Bike Shed

[![](https://is2-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music118/v4/b0/76/fd/b076fd6a-dc35-570d-99cb-718b2d019f52/source/200x200bb.webp)][bikeshed]

If you hear a bike bell singing, you're right. [The Bike Shed][bikeshed] is coming! Hosts Derek Prior and Sean Griffin accompany guests to talk about their development experience from Ruby, Rails, Rust to whatever catches their eyes. The Bike Shed always tries to discuss hard topics in an more relaxing way. Makes the podcast more like a friends' talk than an formal interview.

The personal reason I pick this show is that one of the hosts Sean Griffin is the author of [Diesel](http://diesel.rs/), one of the best Rust ORM framework!

- **Episode length**: ~40 minutes.
- **Frequency**: Weekly.
- **Sponsor**: Inquire needed.

Gateway episode: [160: Praise Hands Emoji 🙌 (Vaidehi Joshi)](http://bikeshed.fm/160)

[bikeshed]: http://bikeshed.fm/

## Front End Happy Hour

[![](https://is2-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music125/v4/7d/15/39/7d1539eb-123b-8b45-badc-0bbfdedaf82e/source/200x200bb.webp)][frontendhh]

[Front End Happy Hour][frontendhh] is the most joyful podcast as far as I know. The ONE rule of Front End Happy Hour is _"Choose a keyword. If the keyword is mentioned, all panelists will have a drink"_. Sometimes the keyword is too common to be uttered accidentally, so all panelists try to speak in an funny way to avoid speaking out that word.

Hosted by software engineers from a variety of different companies such as Netflix and Evernote. The whole Front End Happy Hour panel discuss topics concerning not only front-end but software development within a short 50 minutes. In the end of an episode, panelists would share their own picks that might be off-topic but fascinating for audiences.

Subscribe this show if you are also a drunk front-end developer!

- **Episode length**: ~50 minutes.
- **Frequency**: 2 episodes per month.
- **Sponsor**: Inquire needed.

Gateway episode: [A/B testing - Ale or Bourbon?](http://frontendhappyhour.com/episodes/ab-testing-ale-or-bourbon/)

[frontendhh]: http://frontendhappyhour.com/

## Soft Skill Engineering

[![](https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music71/v4/56/d4/c2/56d4c2a4-be6e-5dcc-aec6-aa3817008e3e/source/200x200bb.webp)][softskills]

Unlike other podcasts mentioned above, [Soft Skill Engineering][softskills] does not talk about much technical details. It focuses on soft skills a software engineer needs to learn. Dave Smith and Jamison Dance would lead us to navigate every little but crucial things outside programming, such as quitting jobs without jeopardizing working relationship, or how to work with colleague who often writes code in bad grammer.

Software development is not like programming. Sometimes team management and collaborations take up a more important role than implementing features. Checkout it out if you want to level up your soft skills.

Gateway episode: [Episode 113: Quitting Your First Job and Too Many Responsibilities](https://softskills.audio/2018/06/25/episode-113-quitting-the-first-job-and-too-many-responsibilities/)

- **Episode length**: ~30 minutes.
- **Frequency**: Weekly.
- **Sponsor**: As a company or via [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/SoftSkillsEng).

[softskills]: https://softskills.audio/

## Bonus: IRL

[![](https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music117/v4/3a/07/e5/3a07e502-96b4-7ef2-aa07-7bcb2e2c4c7e/source/200x200bb.webp)][irl]

[IRL][irl], an original podcast from Mozilla, is a show not only related to software engineering, but also life online and real. Today, we are surrounded by digital signals and online activities, and the Web is tightly bound to our real life. Online trolling, net neutrality, privacy policies, and many more events affect both online and offline life. Host Veronica Belmont and guests share their stories about how the Web changes our future.

As a software engineer, I wish I can utilize technologies to make the world better. However, new technology is always a double-edged sword. IRL provides us a deep dive to rethink how our online behaviors affect the Web and the real world.

- **Episode length**: ~28 minutes.
- **Frequency**: About 1 episode / 3 weeks.
- **Sponsor**: Not available.
- **Transcript**: Available.

[irl]: https://irlpodcast.org/

---

That's all of my picks.

### Now, what is your favorite podcast about software engineering?

Leave a comment and share with us!
