Note: The podcasts listed below are available only in Russian.
Introduction
In my previous articles, I have referenced various methods of self-education, such as reading books, watching YouTube, exploring links, and listening to podcasts. This article will focus specifically on podcasts.
There are dozens of both Russian-speaking and foreign podcasts about IT. In each of them, over the course of listening, the hosts have their favorite languages and technologies, as well as those they don't like. Even if the podcast is hosted by 50-60-year-old gurus, their opinions cannot claim to be the sole truth. Unfortunately, this often misleads young listeners (when, over the course of 50 episodes, the hosts clearly praise certain technologies while disparaging others), leading to the impression that it is indeed the case. Listen to the podcast, but don’t take everything said there literally. Make your own conclusions. Nevertheless, for me personally, podcasts are a powerful tool for learning something new about languages and technologies, and they also allow me to stay updated on the latest news from global IT giants such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, and others.
Why I Needed All This
For about two years, I have been actively listening to various podcasts in small quantities. Among my favorites are «Cinkovyj prod», «5 minutka PHP», «Radio-T» and «DevZen». Not long ago, I set myself the goal of increasing the volume of podcast listening and adding 2-3 more podcasts to my regularly listened playlist, but I allowed for the possibility of having more, and I would simply follow some in the background, listening to specific episodes if the topics interested me. Additionally, I wanted to slightly change the organizational process of listening to podcasts. Previously, I listened to them through the «Podcasts» app on my iPhone; however, for someone who always works remotely, listening to podcasts on a PC/MacBook is a more convenient option, especially if the podcast has video accompaniment. In this regard, I set forth some requirements that I would like to see in the new organizational process:
- A single source for all podcasts
- Support for video format
- Ability to listen at increased speed
- A good and user-friendly interface
- An established notification system for new episodes
How I Collected Podcasts
Choosing podcasts, as it turned out, is not the quickest and easiest task. I already had a preliminary list of about 20 podcasts. After starting to analyze several podcasts from the list, I realized that the overwhelming issue with all podcasts is the different platforms for listening. I went back to the beginning of the list and started keeping a more detailed record of the platforms that support all the podcasts. During my research, I came across a few more podcasts, and in the end, I ended up with three dozen podcasts. A complete list and analysis of the platforms are provided in the table below (from left to right: website, YouTube, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, RSS, Google Podcasts).
Difficulties with Systematization
Support for video format is a purely individual matter (which I already knew), but I was still keen on storing all podcasts on YouTube. Moreover, you can listen at an increased speed there. It has a pleasant interface and a notification system works well. However, since only a small portion supports and uploads their recordings to YouTube, the idea with this option fell through. At one point, I would have been open to writing a program (or using an existing one) to work with podcast RSS feeds, but, as it turned out, not all of them have their own feeds. Analyzing the table, it became clear that Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts are the platforms where all authors publish their content. Thus, I was certain that my first requirement was met. It remained to determine where I could listen at an increased speed, as well as where there would be a convenient user interface and a good notification system.
If I had been using my primary device for listening on an iPhone instead of a Mac, I would have chosen the standard «Podcasts by Apple» app. Additionally, this app is available for some MacOS versions. However, it turned out that it is not available for my operating system. Podcasts could also be listened to via the iTunes app (which is definitely found on any Mac), but the problem is that you cannot speed up the playback there. Therefore, having found nothing convenient in the App Store for Mac, I opened Google Podcasts in the web version. This turned out to be a very simple interface solution, and most importantly, it allowed for increased playback speed. However, the web version does not display the statuses of new episodes for various podcasts, and checking emails for notifications is not very convenient and, most importantly, spammy. After a bit of searching, I couldn’t find an app for Mac that would allow listening to Google Podcasts as a standalone app with a notification system, so I additionally installed an app on my iPhone to track notifications. Now, if a particular podcast episode interests me, I set my iPhone aside to avoid distractions while on my Mac and to save the battery life of my mobile device, I open the episode on my Mac and study it in detail.
Conclusions
Of course, these are all minor details of perfectionism: which device to listen on and which source to use. Nevertheless, thanks to this analysis, some conclusions can be drawn:
- All podcast authors publish their podcasts wherever they see fit, meaning wherever they believe it is appropriate and where they are unlikely to be banned. However, even amidst all this variety, everyone strives to publish their works on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
- YouTube is not the best platform for maintaining a complete list of podcasts.
- Almost every podcast has its own website. However, few places allow you to listen to recordings at an increased speed, which can sometimes be a very important factor. Nonetheless, listening to podcasts through dedicated apps or Google Podcasts (web version) allows for easy adjustment of playback speed.
- Regarding user-friendly interfaces and notification systems, I would also prefer apps like Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, as they perform their primary functions quite well.
Of course, I physically won’t be able to keep up with listening to all nearly 30 podcasts, and some may seem boring, leading me to unsubscribe from them altogether. Nevertheless, I plan to closely follow new podcasts and delve into topics of interest in detail. I hope this list will be useful to someone. If you notice any errors in the table or want to contribute to it in any way, suggestions are also welcome.
Update: Since I wrote the draft for this article about three weeks ago, I have already gotten into a couple of new podcasts without sacrificing time from the old ones. Thus, it can be concluded that the thorough analysis of podcasts and subsequent systematization were not in vain.
