Today’s DrupalFest post is on the lighter side. I am just going to talk about some of the podcasts I listen to related to Drupal, PHP, and software development in general. I’ll try to cover all the Drupal podcasts I know about. Let me know in the comments if I have missed something. As for others, I am just listing those I listen to. I don’t intend it to be a complete list.
Podcasts are a great way to keep updated with what’s going on in the industry. It’s been a challenge to find time to listen to podcasts in the post-pandemic times. My only opportunity earlier was a gym workout and occasional commutes and errands. Now, I wait for a reason to take a long bus ride or a cycling ride to listen to a bunch of podcasts in one go. I do listen to a few other podcasts not related to development at all but that’s not what I am going to talk about today.
To listen to the podcasts, I use Podcast Addict on Android. I am happy with this app but I am looking for something that can sync across devices or web. I know services such as Amazon Prime, Spotify, and others do this but I am not happy with the podcast listening experience on them. The biggest problem I face is a granular speed control. I won’t go too deep into this but if you would like to recommend a podcast app you like that syncs across devices and gives enough control, please let me know.
Drupal podcasts
Let’s start with Drupal podcasts in no particular order. Most of these podcasts have been active recently, some more than others.
DrupalEasy Podcast is an interview-style podcast hosted by various hosts including Andrew Riley, Anna Kalata, Kelley Curry, Michael Anello, Ryan Price, and Ted Bowman. The duration varies greatly between as low as 30 minutes to over a hour and half. My preferred listening speed is 2.6x for this podcast. Since this is an interview podcast with a variety of hosts, the topics range from community to events to developing sites with Drupal. As of this writing, the last episode was about 2 months back.
Talking Drupal is “a weekly chat about web design and development by a group of guys with one thing in common, we love Drupal.” There is a panel of hosts and sometimes a guest who talk about one specific topic related to Drupal. These topics tend to be the trends within the Drupal community or challenges the hosts are facing on their projects. The conversation is casual and highly organic. Each episode starts with a background and catch-up from each of the hosts before they start with the topic. Each episode tends to be about an hour long and I listen to this at 2.5x speed.
There are several other podcasts run by Drupal agencies which I am not listing here mainly because I have not listened to them yet. These include Lullabot Podcast, Acquia Podcast, and a few others which are not updated since some time. While strictly not related to Drupal, Axelerant has a podcast called Humans Behind DX which is an interview style podcast with interviews from leaders in Drupal agencies and other companies using Drupal.
PHP related podcasts
php[podcast] is a podcast from phparch where each episode goes along with one of their issues. Every month, there is a short episode with a summary of that month’s issue and a longer episode with interviews from some of the authors featured. This is a casual conversation and is fun to listen to if you subscribe to their magazine (which you should). I listen to this podcast at 2.5x.
Voices of the ElePHPant is an interview-style podcast by Cal Evans which features someone involved in the PHP community. The episodes are around 20 minutes each and I listen to it at 2.2x. I especially love the line “… and PHP is of course spelled E-L-E… P-H-P… A-N-T.”
Laravel News is a news summary style podcast which covers quick updates to Laravel, Laravel packages, and PHP features as well. Each episode is about 30-40 minutes long and I listen to it at 2.3x. Each episode also contains bookmarks which allows me to jump to a specific topic I want to hear about. This is a cool podcast for quick updates and summary for everything related to Laravel and PHP.
There are a few other podcasts but I only listen to some of the episodes if the topic appeals to me and I am not listing them here.
Software engineering related podcasts
Practical AI is a podcast series from Changelog that talks about practical applications of Artificial Intelligence in the industry today. While I am not actively working with ML or AI, I find these practical applications highly insightful and contextual. Each episode is around a hour long and I listen to it at 2.2x.
Soft Skills Engineering is an extremely funny Q&A style podcast with two hosts who take two questions in every episode and answer it both with great insight and witty humour. If any podcast can guarantee laughs, it’s this one. Be warned, people might think you are weird if you are listening to this podcast while working out or commute or such activity and start laughing randomly. Each episode is 20-30 minutes and I listen to it at 2.5x.
Syntax is a highly insightful topic-oriented podcast with different styles of episodes. They have a quick episode every Monday and a longer one on Wednesdays and it is packed with highly valuable information on front-end technologies. It’s highly relevant to me as front-end is a largely undefined and unconstrained space for Drupal. Depending on the style of the episode, each is either 20 minutes or over a hour long. I listen to this at 2.5x.
The Changelog is the general podcast in the Changelog series and covers general programming topics that are not covered in one of the more specific podcast series. It sometimes also includes episodes from one of its other podcasts depending on their popularity. These podcasts go deep in the topic and are highly insightful. Each episode is around an hour or more and I listen to it at 2.8x.
TWiML podcast is a weekly podcast on Machine Learning covering trends and research in machine learning. Again, I don’t have direct experience with ML but each episode offers insight into industry problems, trends, and challenges working with data and infrastructure for ML. Each episode varies in duration between 20 minutes to over an hour. I listen to this at 2.3x.
Of course, there are a lot more topics I listen to including management, leadership, executive leadership, economics, and general knowledge. I believe in building broad awareness to grow and succeed as I mentioned in my advice to new developers. I hope you find this list useful in the same way. If you would like to suggest a podcast, please leave a comment.