Peham · My 60 favorite podcasts in 2017

Let me get that right. I enjoy listening to podcasts. A lot.

So, this article is not aimed to convince you that podcasts are great.

This article is for those of you, who enjoy a variety of podcasts and other audio content.

What got me into podcasts?

As I mentioned on twitter and in other articles, I enjoy podcasts.

However, that wasn't always the case. I still remember the times when I wasn't sure if podcasts are something for me or not.

Then Serial came along. And it changed everything.

WIRED and other news outlets had a name for it. "The Serial Effect."

And as it seemed that Serial made podcasting mainstream, it got me hooked.

The perfect podcast setup

I listen to podcasts on a daily basis. No matter if I commute to work or while preparing dinner. Whenever I need some down time, or I just looking for a better alternative than watching TV.

These are all situations when my podcast list comes in handy.

I prefer Overcast as my main podcast player app, although I take a glimpse on other alternatives from time to time.

Until today, I found Overcast the most comfortable player.

Other than that, it's just my phone. If I'm in the car, I listen through my in-car audio speakers. Otherwise, I prefer my headphones as my main listening device.

My favorite podcasts in 2017

At the end of 2015, I shared my favorite podcasts on my German blog.

Looking at the list of podcasts today, a lot of things have changed, and plenty of podcasts came along.

This is why I'm sharing my favorite podcasts of 2017 with you.

As my interests are pretty diverse, I've divided them in the following categories:

News & Politics
Marketing podcasts
Business /startup podcasts
Tech podcasts
Design & development podcasts
Photography podcasts
Podcasts about life & love
Other podcasts

News & politics

This American Life

I'm subscribed to This American Life for multiple years now. Although it's not a podcast I'm listening to every week, I enjoy the stories on US politics and other social stories from time to time.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

Serial

As mentioned above, Serial has been the first podcast which made me stuck with the medium of podcasts. Although there are "only" two seasons, it's a must-listen podcast for everyone.

https://serialpodcast.org/

The Guardian's Audio Long Read

Yes. The Guardian does podcasting too. I particularly enjoy the Long Reads podcasts which are a selection of articles which also appeared in the paper and online.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/the-audio-long-read

Marketing podcasts

Beyond Writing

This podcast is a rather new one I'm subscribed to. It's a great podcast for writers, marketers, and anyone who wants to get better at writing.

With practical tips and interesting insights, it's a great podcast for every person working in (content) marketing.

https://dacharycarey.com/beyond-writing-podcast/

Call to Action

Call to Action is a podcast by Unbounce. If you work in digital marketing, you are probably pretty familiar with the tools of Unbounce.

In their podcast series, the people at Unbounce talk about anything marketing related.

A must-listen for every digital marketer out there.

https://unbounce.com/call-to-action-podcast/

Everyone Hates Marketers

Are you a marketer? Well, there's not a lot to say here. Just give this podcast from Louis Grenier a try.

He interviewed fantastic marketers such as Rand Fishkin, Seth Godin and much more.

https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/

Growth Marketing

A rather new and interesting podcast on the topic of growth marketing.

A while ago, Abdul - the host of the show - interviewed me for a podcast episode. And although this is not the main reason why this podcast made it on my list, you should check out this episode too. (I'm just kidding ;-)).

http://www.growthhackingmedia.com/

Business /startup podcasts

How I Built This

"How I Built This" is a podcast by NPR interviewing (mostly tech) founders and CEO about their journey of building and growing companies.

I still remember the episode which made me subscribe to the podcast. Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram, shared his story of building Instagram. Also, the episode with the founder of TOMS (shoes) is an absolute must-listen.

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

The Indie Hackers Podcast

Courtland Allen build up his podcast totally on his own. You might call him an indie hacker. In his podcast, he interviews freelancers, solo entrepreneurs and bootstrapped companies.

It just feels so refreshing to hear all those people sharing their challenges and benefits on building companies without any outside money.

https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast

Inside Intercom Podcast

This is the company podcast from the folks at Intercom. As Intercom is pretty known for their product-focused company vision, the people at Intercom share everything product-wise.

https://blog.intercom.com/category/podcast/

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman

How do companies grow from zero to a gazillion? If you'd like to find out, I guess you must listen to this podcast ;-)

For me it's a rather new business podcast, and although you'll here a lot of typical Silicon Valley stories, some of those episodes are really interesting to hear.
https://mastersofscale.com/

The Official Saastr Podcast

If you work in SaaS, you're probably familiar with Saastr from Jason Lemkin. This podcast is all about SaaS, interviewing successful and hidden champions.

https://www.saastr.com/category/format/podcast/

The SaaS Revolution Show

The SaaS Revolution is one of the few SaaS podcasts I really enjoy. Hosted by the SaaStock conference, the SaaS Revolution podcasts covers the story of successful SaaS companies and gives great insights on the life of SaaS people.
http://saascribe.com/the-saas-revolution-show/

The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten

Let me be honest. I try to avoid most business and growth hacking podcasts as most of them do not provide any practical value for me. However, this one is a bit different. Steli Efti & Hiten Shah try to give actionable advice and tips and tricks for the daily business. A must-listen for everyone working in a startup.

https://thestartupchat.com/

StartUp Podcast

This one has been the first podcast from Alex Goldman. Basically it's him sharing the story of launching his startup, Gimlet Media. Just recently I started to listen to season one of StartUp, and it's super-interesting to learn about the early beginnings of Gimlet.

https://gimletmedia.com/startup/

Work in Progress

Work in Progress is the second podcast from Slack. As I really enjoyed their first one already, Work in Progress is a great business podcast talking a lot about the meaning of work.

Each week, you'll hear different stories of personal ambition and debilitating insecurities.

https://slack.com/podcast

Rocketship.fm

Rocketship.fm is one of those podcasts who cover business topics through interviews. A refreshing podcast with some highly inspiring interview guests.

http://rocketship.fm/

Tech podcasts

ATP

ATP, Accidental Tech Podcast, is a rather geeky one hosted by Marco Arment (the founder of Overcast podcast player), Casey Liss and John Siracusa.

Although it's mostly about Apple and it's technologies, the 3 hosts geek out on pretty much anything.

A great podcast for techies, programmers and gadget nerds.

http://atp.fm/

Hello Internet

At the time of me writing this, I just finished up with my latest Hello Internet episode. Actually, it's one of my favourite ones.

And although this is always my go-to podcast if I look for something new, it's pretty hard for me to describe or categorise this podcast.

Hosted by CGP Grey and Brady Haran, the podcast covers anything from Science, Tech, life, work, or Youtube. The main reason why I enjoy this one so much? Mostly, because I think both hosts are really nice people with whom you could have a great conversation.

http://www.hellointernet.fm/

The Talk Show with John Gruber

John Gruber is one of those bloggers which get to interview Apple executives from time to time. And his the person behind Daring Fireball. In his podcast, you'll find him talking about the latest Apple products, tech trends or other important news.

https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/

The Vergecast

I'm a big fan of The Verge. I really enjoy their Youtube review videos, tech articles, and podcasts. The Vergecast, hosted by Nilay Patel, covers the latest technology news and is a great add-on to its website.

https://www.theverge.com/the-vergecast

Design & development podcasts

99% Invisible

I think this podcast can be classified as a design podcast. However, it's not really about design itself, but rather about how design is everywhere. And how design is influencing our lives without us taking notice.

Roman Mars, the host, is just a fantastic storyteller.

This is another must-listen podcast for basically anyone.

http://99percentinvisible.org/

The Bike Shed

To be honest, The Bike Shed is a podcast I have mixed feelings. It's a podcast aimed at programmers. The hosts talk about the last development trends and their challenges with Ruby, Rails, JavaScript and other programming languages.

As I'm not a programmer by definition, it goes sometimes just to deep. However, if you're a programmer yourself, this is for you.

http://bikeshed.fm/

CodePen Radio

CodePen radio is another pretty techie podcast from the folks at CodePen.

From web development technologies, to project management workflows, to new design tools, the hosts of CodePen Radio talk about anything related to web software business.

As someone working in that area, I really enjoy who things work at CodePen.

https://blog.codepen.io/radio/

Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Let's get this straight: It's a design podcast aimed at designers.

If you are a designer, or interested in UI / UX, you should give it a try.

http://www.debbiemillman.com/designmatters/

Full Stack Radio

Another great podcast for developers. Why might wonder why I listen to so many development podcasts? Although I don't work as an engineer or programmer, I work with plenty of them on a daily basis. So, it's always good to know what's going on in the development world.

http://www.fullstackradio.com/

Let's Make Mistakes

It's a design podcast. Or at least the hosts talk to design people in every episode. And although the common ground is design, you'll hear them talking about anything but design.

Nevertheless, it's a great podcast if you're into design or the Silicon Valley hype ;-)

http://www.mistakes.show/

Scriptcast

Scriptcast is a new podcast by Stefan Baumgartner, who also hosts the Scriptconf event. Scriptcast is a series of interviews with programmers, JavaScript experts, and other techies.

https://scriptconf.org/blog/

Photography podcasts

How to become a rockstar photographer podcast

This podcast is by my friend and concert photographer Matthias Hombauer. As photography is one of my interests, I really enjoy listening to Matthias and his guests as they share some super interesting insights on what it really means being a photographer.

https://www.howtobecomearockstarphotographer.com/podcast/

Photofocus

Photofocus has been the first podcast on photography to which I'm subscribed to. Every week the Photofocus team has a different theme.

https://photofocus.com/

Podcasts about life & love

DTR

Technology has changed our love lives. And so has Tinder.

This podcast - a cooperation between the people at Gimlet Creative and Tinder - gives insights on how people use Tinder, backed by scientific studies.

Although there's only one season available right now (season 2 is coming soon), it's an entertaining and diverting podcast.

http://creative.gimletmedia.com/shows/dtr/

The Heart

The description of the podcast matches my impression pretty fine.

The Heart is an audio art project and podcast about intimacy and humanity.

http://www.theheartradio.org/

Love + Radio

As this the name already states, it's all about love and relationships. Hosted by the great people at Radiotopia, this is a podcast I just listen to randomly.

Yes. It's a podcast about love, sex, relationships, and basically about human life.

http://loveandradio.org/

Millennial

3 years ago, Megan Tan started her podcast project. And although she didn't know where she will end up with this, she collected thousands of followers along her way, and published some fantastic stories on manoeuvring her 20s.

Just recently she announced that she's saying goodbye to her podcast. And although she did so, you should definitely check out her two seasons.

www.millennialpodcast.org

Note to Self

Note to Self is about technology and life. And how one influences the other.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/notetoself

My Dad wrote a porno

Yes this is about Jamie Morton, and his dad. His dad wrote a erotic book. And whilst most people would try to ignore that fact, Jamie did the opposite. With every episode he and two of his friends are reading a chapter of the book.

And without any spoiler alert: It's hilariously funny.

http://www.mydadwroteaporno.com/

Science & art & internet podcasts

Radiolab

I'm a long-term listener to Radiolab. And despite this fact, I have a hard time describing Radiolab. The official description goes like this:

Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.

I guess this is a perfect description of Radiolab.

http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/

Reply All

When people ask me which podcasts I listen (or which ones I'd recommend), Reply All is always on top of my mind. I'm not sure if it's my favourite one, but it's definitely one my most beloved ones.

It's a podcast "about the internet" by Gimlet. Or as the Guardian puts it:

A podcast about the internet that is actually an unfailingly original exploration of modern life and how to survive it."

Need some tip where to start? Check out the recent episodes on Alex Goldman traveling to India to investigate on telephone scammers.

https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/

Science Vs

Yet another Gimlet podcast you might think? Well, the people at Gimlet definitely know how to produce great audio stories.

Sciences Vs is all about Science. But not in a boring way. In a rather funny, educational way. Science Vs finds out what's fact, what's not, and what's somewhere in between.

https://gimletmedia.com/science-vs/

Other podcasts

Football Weekly - The Guardian

Are you into football (yes - I'm talking about soccer, not American football)? The Football Weekly podcast is the podcast of your choice.

It curates the news and analysis of the Premier League and other major European tournaments and leagues.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/series/footballweekly

Sampler

Sometimes you are just overwhelmed with the sheer content of podcasts, right? Well, you should definitely listen to Sampler then. Sampler - hosted by Gimlet - brings you the best moments from the world of podcasts.

If you're not sure which interests and topics you enjoy listening to, Sampler you is your go-to podcast.

https://gimletmedia.com/sampler/