Every so often, the question gets asked - what are the good tech podcasts that I should be listening to on my commute? (or while dog walking, on the plane back from Barcelona, whilst downhill skiing etc.) OK, I couldn’t help it, we’re talking about podcasts so bonus points for knowing what podcast that kind of journey related stuff comes from. When thinking of 30 posts to do in a month for #vDM30in30, this was one of the first ideas I jotted down and started work on. What follows is my own list of favourite podcasts, what they are all about and why I like them.

Co-incidentally, earlier today I saw a tweet from Paul McSharry (congrats VCDX 234!) asking for podcast recommendations and a response from Tim Hynes, who I now know has similar tastes to my own. That prompted me to get this blog post finished!

Datanauts ”Infrastructure as a Podcast (IaaP). Exploring the world of enterprise data centers. Hosted by @ChrisWahl and @ECBanks” This is one of the newer podcasts, starting summer 2015, but they’re already up to 58 episodes released at the time of writing. This means they’re regular (which is a good thing). You want to hear about Silo-busting Full-stack engineers? This is the place to go. A diverse range of topics, a seemingly endless stream of authoritative guests and all backed by the packetpushers network. This show tells me stuff about where my career is going.

The Geek Whisperers “The Geek Whisperers - your secret sauce for career growth in Enterprise IT. John Troyer @jtroyer | Matthew Brender @mjbrender | Amy Lewis @CommsNinja” How to grow your Tech career, how to develop yourself, you know - really important stuff! This ones not been on my playlist long, but it’s definitely worthy. I love the whole give yourself the job title you think you deserve approach that runs through a number of the episodes I have listened to. Different from the more technical focus of other podcasts I have listed here.

The Hot Aisle ”Uniquely focused on delivering content for the next generation of Systems Engineers while giving Customers and Partners equal access to the journey. Hosted by @BrentPiatti and @intheDC”  OK, so this one’s quite new as well, October 2015. I was initially curious about the content of this one as it was hosted by a couple of EMC guys, but in truth it’s the most “out there” podcast on my list. By that I mean the most open-source, possibly the least hardware centric, the most infrastructure as code related and again, a solid range of guests. I get something different from this show as it’s out of my normal area of focus. That’s why I like it.

In Tech We Trust “Enterprise Technology Podcast with your hosts @NigelPoulton @RickVanover @GoFarley @Bacon_is_King and…. @malhoit” - and don’t forget @porterdeleon too. Now moving Solidly past 100 episodes, I like how the presenters have changed over time, but the general ambience of the show has not. This is the podcast I’m most likely to listen to whilst having a beer. Don’t take that as a bad thing! There’s a lot of storage related focus on this podcast due to the backgrounds of the hosts, but I really like this podcast as the team keep me up to speed with who’s “hot or not” and I don’t just mean that segment of the show, but who’s getting funded, who’s not, who’s buying who or who’s had to let people go. Oh, and they have stickers.
  
OpenTechCast “The Open TechCast. Find us on iTunes & Stitcher! Hosted by @garethedwards86 @amitpanchal76 @kev_johnson @alexgalbraith & @atherbeg”  The newest podcast on my list, with a sum total of 4 episodes out. Clearly I like this podcast the best cos I am on one of the episodes. Not quite true, that’s not the reason! I’m one of the founder members of the OpenHomeLab project that spawned this podcast, so I have a certain affinity to it. The guys have a lot of great ideas for many more shows and you can see them in person at VMUGs areound the UK, including the UK VMUG UserCon on 17th Nov. Host Gareth Edwards is also doing #vDM30in30 and has a blog posting on getting in to podcasting. And - Stickers.

Speaking in Tech ”Biggest Podcast in Enterprise Tech - The Speaking in Tech Podcast is available on iTunes and on The Register” Hosted by @edsai and @knieriemen and a host of presenters from other podcasts it seems, with guests thrown in too. The longest running podcast on this list so far, starting in 2011, also up there as one of the funniest, although the team clearly also know what they are talking about. Always relevant! SiT are doing “Podcast Idol” right now, looking to fill a presenters slot, but you’re probably too late to apply!

vNews “Your regular News Bulletin from around the Virtualisation industry. With hosts @stu_mchugh and @vColossus” Almost thought this one was gonna drop off my list but the boys came back with a new episode after a short break. Of a Year.  One of the first podcasts I got in to listening to as it was around when I started attending LonVMUG and is hosted by two of the guys I met there. Good for their “we read the news so you don’t have to” approach and this is also where the random modes of transportation bit comes from which I mentioned at the top of the post. Keep ‘em coming please chaps!