DARPA, TED and enterprise network experts want you to have a listen
While I acknowledge that my first choices for podcast listening tend toward entertainment (All Songs Considered, The Moth, This American Life), I also encourage myself to consume to those that might help me better understand networking and keep up on the general technology scene.
Here’s a short list of podcasts that enterprise IT pros might find useful –and even enjoyable.
Voices from DARPA
I’ll admit that this podcast intimidated me before I first listened to it, but it’s actually quite digestible even if you’re not a Ph.D. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency kicked off the series in September and pumps out one or two episodes per month, based on interviews by Ivan Amato with program managers from DARPA’s six technical offices (Biological Technologies, Defense Sciences, Information Innovation, Microsystems Technology, Strategic Technology, and Tactical Technology). Topics have included “Molecule Man”, “Space Sentinel” and “The Semiconductor Whisperer”, the latter of which gives a great short history of semiconductors and a look to the future. All episodes so far are less than 30 minutes long and several are under 20 minutes long.
Packet Pushers’ Network Break
This podcast, of which there are more than 100 episodes available, features a weekly chat with Packet Pushers’ Drew Conry-Murray and Greg Ferro (who does most of the talking). Ferro is excellent at synthesizing the news of the week, and providing strong tech and financial perspective. Recent episodes tackled some very enterprise network-focused topics, including who might buy Brocade’s IP business and Cisco’s Meraki strategy with managed service providers. Episodes run under an hour, usually around 45 minutes.
IpSpace’s Software Gone Wild
This is the most enterprise-tech focused of all these podcasts, with Ivan Pepelnjak (CCIE#1354 Emeritus) discussing topics such as VXLAN Ping and Traceroute with Cisco and more basic issues such as how to become a programmer. Software-defined networking and network functions virtualization are of particular interest to the host these days… Most episodes a little over a half hour.
Reply All
This podcast describes itself as being “a show about the internet,” and indeed it covers the ‘Net in all its peculiar glory. I’ve come late to Reply All, but was able to get a great flavor for the show by listening to its 2016 year-end roundup, in which they nicely updated a series of stories from throughout the year, including the crazy tale of how the Find my iPhone was sending a slew of people to some poor couple’s house outside of Atlanta. Episodes range in length from about 20 minutes to around 50 minutes.
TED Radio Hour
Not all of these are techie, but plenty are. You get snippets from original TED talks, plus interviews with the TED Talkers that dive into details of the presentations and provide updates. Multiple TED Talks are featured in each episode, most of which last a little more than 50 minutes. Techie topics have included Big Data and Solve for X, and there are dozens of podcast episodes from which to choose. There’s even a January 2017 episode titled “Networks”. Sometimes it helps to actually see TED Talks, but you can get most of the message via the audio podcasts. The podcast’s name clues you in to the length of episodes.
The Science of Social Media
Ok, this isn’t really enterprise technology-focused – it’s more marketing oriented – but it features interesting, tips-filled interviews with experts in social media. A warning to the curmudgeonly among you: This crew is hyper-upbeat, constantly heaping praise on guests and tossing out terms like “super curious”, “awesome” and “bonus-sode” (as in, a bonus episode). Three different employees of Buffer, which helps people manage their social media campaigns, conduct the interviews. Among the interviewees have been an Instagram expert, NASA’S social media leader, the University of Michigan’s social master, and yes, a podcasting authority. Most episodes come in at about a half an hour long.
NOTE: I’m sure I’m missing plenty of other good ones. Feel free to message me at the email address below with other suggestions and I can pull together another collection or add to this.
