30 favourite web design podcasts

Podcasts are all the rage right now. They enable you to make the most of time spent commuting or exercising, and are a relaxing way to absorb information and inspiration.

If you haven't been bitten by the podcast bug yet, now is a great time to get started because "Launch a podcast!" seems to have been a new year's resolution for quite a lot of web folk.

We've asked some leading web designers to tell us what they're listening to at the moment, and what they get out of it.

Brian Suda

Iceland-based Brian Suda is a software developer, master informatician and author of A Practical Guide to Designing with Data.

As well as design, his passions include Microformats, XHTML and PHP.

Data Stories

"A great, occasional podcast about data visualisations from two of the world leading experts. Sometimes the discussion is very academic, but other times they experiment with audience participation. There's a wealth of knowledge in each episode. If you're into data viz, infographics, story telling, journalism and working with data, you need to be listening."

In Our Time

"The BBC's 'In Our Time' is an excellent weekly program and probably second nature to anyone from the UK. For the rest of the world, each week a small panel of excited experts discuss a subject near and dear to their hearts. It's always interesting and I always learn something new by listening."
 

99% invisible

"This is probably my favourite podcast. Only 15-20 minutes per episode, it's the perfect time for a nice walk or other activity. The production quality and stories are always amazing. If you're detailed oriented, this podcast focuses on the 99 per cent of the work that went into things you never even notice. For any designer, architect or innovator, listening should be mandatory!"
 

RadioLab

"RadioLab is from New York and popular in the US. It should be popular around the world. Some of the best storytelling and crazy adventures I have listened to come from this podcast."

Long Now

"SALT stands for Seminars About Long-term Thinking. It's brought to you monthly by the Long Now Foundation. Each episode is a commitment to listen to, but it's well worth it. In a world of 18 minute, sound-bite ridden shows and podcasts, each episode of SALT is 1.5-2 hours long. The speaker gets to spend the time giving their presentation, then another 45 minutes to an hour of interviews and questions. It's really deep thinking and digging into the topic rather than glossing over it with fancy speakers and effects. SALT really digs down to the core of the issue, whether it be nuclear power or evolution of cities and technology. There's no other organisation I know of thinking on the time scales as the Long Now. Their seminars will not disappoint."

Keir Whitaker

Keir Whitaker is co-founder of Viewport Industries, which makes products for web professionals, including the Insites book of interviews.

Keir lives in Bath, UK, and loves coffee, cocktails and slow, paper-based media. His favourite cocktail is the Old Fashioned.

The Frequency

"A great daily roundup of web, tech and more news from Dan Benjamin and Haddie Cooke."

Happy Monday

"Really nice and relatively short format show chatting with industry leaders."

The Entrepreneurs

"It's too easy to just look at your own industry. Getting inspiration from other sectors is - at least for me - great for getting new perspectives on how you do things in your own industry."

The Back to Front Show

"Would it be uncouth to mention my own podcast? [.net: Nope!] Last week Kieran and I launched "The Back to Front Show", a weekly podcast in which we discuss backend tech, frontend dev and plenty in-between with a view of sharing experiences, questioning trends and sharing interesting articles etc."

Amber Weinberg

Amber Weinberg is a freelance frontend developer based in Nashville, Tennessee.

She made Hired.im and is in love with Responsive Web Design and type.

Happy Monday

"I just started listening to Sarah Parmenter's Happy Monday. It's a quick (30 min or so) podcast of mini interviews and inspirations. It's really been great to listen to others speak about how they work and juggle personal and business."

Besquare interviews

"The Besquare interviews are great with interviews with both the normal names in the industry, plus some lesser well-known ones."

Unfinished Business

"Andy Clarke's new podcast 'Unfinished Business' is fantastic because it talks more about the business side of the web, which is something we don't often hear about."

Chris Coyier

Chris Coyier is the man behind CSS-Tricks and CodePen.

He creates websites and helps people make theirs better through writing, speaking and working on web applications.

Chris has a podcast of his own, ShopTalk.

"One of my favourite podcasts, that ran from January 2009 to June 2010, was 'A Life Well Wasted'. Described as 'an internet radio show about video games and the people that love them', it's really well produced. It has that '99% invisible' polished vibe to it."

Karen McGrane

Karen McGrane is a content strategist, UX designer and currently managing partner of Bond Art + Science.

"On a good day, I make the web more awesome. On a bad day, I just make it suck less."

Let's Make Mistakes

"Everyone in the web design and development industry should be listening to Let's Make Mistakes. Leah [Reich] and Mike [Monteiro] are a great combination."

Insert Content Here

"My favourite content strategy podcast is led by Jeff Eaton from Lullabot. Eaton is one of my favorite people in the industry [for his] wit coupled with enthusiasm."

Breaking Development podcast

"To keep up on what's going on in the world of mobile, there's no better source than the fantastic people who put on the Breaking Development conference."

Tina Roth Eisenberg

Tina Roth Eisenberg, aka swissmiss, founded and runs Creative Mornings, TeuxDeux, Tattly and coworking space Studiomates.

We interviewed her last year.

The New Disruptors

"I enjoy the The New Disruptors Podcast with Glenn Fleishman over on Muledesign.

"The series focuses on the profound changes in the current economy for making things. I truly enjoyed podcast number seven with Jim Coudal."

Dan Mall

Dan Mall has worked as a designer at Happy Cog and Big Spaceship, and this year he founded his own venture, SuperFriendly.

He also co-founded Typedia, he's a husband, a father and he plays keyboards for @four24.

BizCraft

"Carl Smith and Gene Crawford tackle issues related to design business. As someone starting a new business, everything they discuss is invaluable."

ShopTalk

"Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert talk about web design and development. They're scarily good at being on the cutting edge of what's going on in the web, and they're hilarious."

The Businessology Show

"If I could toot my own horn for a minute, I just released my own podcast called The Businessology Show with my CPA Jason Blumer. We talk about the business of design and the design of business, hoping to help give a kick in the butt to those who want to take their careers to the next level."

Dan told us more about The Businessology Show here.

Andy Budd

Andy Budd is a founding partner and managing director of Clearleft. He also goes by the title of user experience director depending on what mood he’s in. He's the author of CSS Mastery, curates UX London and is the man responsible for Silverback.

"I enjoy listening to the Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast and the BBC Click Podcast. Neither are aimed at designers and developers, so some of the topics can feel a little obvious at times. However, I like the fact that they address technology issues from a slightly broader perspective."

"For people who work on the web every day and are at the centre of these type of conversations, it's a great way to gauge how a more mainstream audience are reacting to things."

All time greats

No podcast roundup would be complete without a mention of the following excellent broadcasts:

• The Big Web Show Everything that's important on the web, hosted by Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin.
• Boagworld Hosted by Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington.
• Creative Coding Hosted by Seb Lee-Delisle and Iain Lobb.
• This Developer's Life Hosted by Scott Hanselman and Rob Conery.
• The SitePoint Podcast Hosted by Louis Simoneou.
• The ExpressionEngine Podcast Hosted by Lea Alcantara and Emily Lewis.
• Unmatched Style Hosted by the likes of Gene Crawford and Jay Barry.
• Founderscast Hosted by Craig Lockwood.
• The Gently Mad Hosted by Adam Clark.

And there you have it! 30 inspiring podcasts that will help you to soak up even more information about design, development, business and more.

We know we've only scratched the surface of the podcast universe, so please let us know about your favourite ones in the comments.

Main image courtesy of p_a_h under the Creative Commons licence.