The best 6 web development podcasts for 2017

There are tonnes of ways to keep up to date with the latest news in web technology - reading on websites like Hacker News and Medium, attending web development conferences etc, but I find one of the easiest and most effective ways to broaden my knowledge is through web podcasts.

They are excellent to listen to on the train or drive in to work. I have around an hour commute each day in total, and do sometimes spend time listening to Spotify if I have serious brain ache from a hard day slinging divs, but most of the time it’s great to listen to a good podcast of a few people talking about the web.

This short post will list a few of my favourites I’ve discovered while Googling and looking at the recommended section in the Apple podcast app. I guess it depends what interests you on the web - some are light and easy to digest, whereas some take a bit of effort to concentrate as they go into some great detail. Ultimately it depends on your experience level, so I’ll list a few different types, building up to the one I like the most.

6. Javascript Air

jsAir is good for their selection of topics ranging from general Javascript ecosystem chats, to React Native, testing, and async development, going into some great detail. This may have been higher on my list but it seems to have finished in late 2016. It’s still worth going back though to the early episodes as they helped me out with some tough decisions a while back.

It was created by Kent Dodds who also made the AWESOME Prettier ESLint package.

Link: Javascript Air

5. The Web Platform podcast

This one is a good one to listen to if you want to get stuck in to a particular topic pretty deep. They last around an hour each and have fair few co-hosts specialising in all different areas, so they can hold excellent discussions which cover all you’d want to know about a given topic.

They have recently had episodes on Vue.js, Web Workers, and Web Components, and the host, Justin Ribeiro, has a great voice which leads me to imagine him on some sort of TV quiz show.

Link: The Web Platform Podcast

4. Toolsday

A fantastic podcast which always puts a smile on my face as it’s easy listening and the co-hosts Una Kravets and Chris Dhanaraj are energetic and fun to listen to.

It’s shorter than most, with each episode lasting around half an hour, but it’s just enough, as they don’t go too deep into topics and it lasts a journey to work pretty much bang on! They have recently had discussions on blog writing, CSS variables and GraphSQL.

Link: Toolsday

3. The Modern Web

Another great one as they dive very deep into some pretty complex topics in a short amount of time, which is perfect for giving you a bit of inspiration for what to Google the next time you want to absorb some new web tricks. It’s still going strong with episodes being released every month or so, and they have recently had discussions on topics like RxJS and Neuro Javascript - great subjects!

Link: The Modern Web

2. Syntax

I love this one. Created by Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski, it goes into a moderate amount of detail about some of the most prevalent and every day topics (like React, JS tools, and back end dev) in an excellent way. You may have heard of the hosts as they both have online courses and make a living by explaining web development to people, so they are perfect for podcasting.

The episodes last around an hour, and always leaves you walking away having learned something new. It’s very recent as the first episode was released in early July, so hopefully it lasts a while.

Link: Syntax

1. ShopTalk

My favourite web podcast, and has been for a few years now. The episodes alternate between going in-depth on a topic, to covering many random areas of web development in a single episode of their “Rapid Fires”. They often have some great guests to fill the gaps in some pretty complex areas, while still making it approachable for beginners.

The hosts are fantasitc - Chris Coyier, the creator of Codepen and CSS-Tricks, and Dave Rupert, the co-creator of Fitvids. They are inspiring and bring good conversation points around all things web.

Link: ShopTalk Show

New web podcasts come and go surprisingly often, and they are hard to find, so I’ll try to do a post like this every few months or add to this one.

Thanks for reading! Tweet me @jamescgould if there’s any others you’d recommend listening to.