Podcast episodes remain available outside a social feed, and recurring programmes give listeners repeated exposure to the same hosts and subjects.
The major developer podcasts
General software industry
- The Changelog. Adam Stacoviak, Jerod Santo. Long-running (since 2009); open-source and software-industry focus; the flagship of a podcast network.
- Software Engineering Daily. Founded by the late Jeff Meyerson; long-form interviews on practically every software topic.
- Software Engineering Radio. IEEE Software; long-form, often academic-flavoured.
- Acquired. Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal. Tech-company histories; massive recent growth.
- Hanselminutes. Scott Hanselman, weekly since 2006. One of the longest-running tech podcasts.
- CoRecursive. Adam Gordon Bell. Programming stories.
- InfoQ Podcast. InfoQ.
JavaScript ecosystem
- JS Party. Changelog network; multiple hosts.
- Syntax.fm. Wes Bos, Scott Tolinski. Front-end / full-stack.
- JavaScript Jabber. Devchat.tv.
- The CSS Podcast. Adam Argyle and Una Kravets (Google).
- Frontend Happy Hour. Netflix-engineer-hosted.
Python ecosystem
- Talk Python To Me. Michael Kennedy.
- Real Python Podcast. Real Python.
- Python Bytes. Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken.
Go, Rust, and language-specific
- Go Time. Changelog network.
- The Rustacean Station. Rust community.
- Java Off-Heap. Java.
- Ruby Rogues. Devchat.tv.
DevOps / SRE / infrastructure
- Arrested DevOps. Long-running; multi-host.
- The Cloudcast. Cloud computing.
- Screaming in the Cloud. Corey Quinn; AWS-centric humour-and-news.
- Last Week in AWS. Same Corey Quinn franchise (also a newsletter).
- PodCTL. Red Hat / OpenShift.
- Kubernetes Podcast from Google. Long-running.
AI engineering
- Latent Space. swyx, Alessio Fanelli. An AI-engineering podcast.
- Practical AI. Daniel Whitenack, Chris Benson.
- Lex Fridman Podcast. Lex Fridman. Crosses AI, science, and broader culture; large reach.
- Cognitive Revolution. Nathan Labenz.
- The TWIML AI Podcast. Sam Charrington (long-running).
- No Priors. Sarah Guo, Elad Gil.
DevRel / community
- Community Pulse. Mary Thengvall, PJ Hagerty, Jason Hand, Wesley Faulkner, Erin Mikail Staples (rotating hosts). The DevRel community’s own podcast.
- DevRelX Podcast. SlashData.
- DeveloperRelations.com Podcast. Hoopy / Matthew Revell.
Industry analysis
- The Pragmatic Engineer. Gergely Orosz (newsletter + podcast).
- CodeNewbie. Saron Yitbarek; aimed at newer developers.
Database / data
- Data Engineering Podcast. Tobias Macey.
- The Stack Overflow Podcast. Stack Overflow.
Podcast distribution
- Apple Podcasts. Still the discovery default for many listeners.
- Spotify. Aggressively investing; many shows publish exclusively or first to Spotify.
- Pocket Casts, Overcast. Power-listener clients.
- Podcast Index. Open directory.
- YouTube. Many podcasts now publish video versions; significant share of audience listens via YouTube.
How DevRel teams use podcasts
As guests
Guest appearances by senior team members require less production work than operating a company podcast. A 60-minute appearance on The Changelog, Latent Space, Syntax.fm, or Community Pulse reaches an audience already interested in the programme’s technical subject.
As sponsors
Most major developer podcasts run sponsored segments. Approximate rates (US, 2024 to 2026):
| Audience size per episode | Mid-roll rate |
|---|---|
| 10K to 30K | $1K to $4K |
| 30K to 100K | $4K to $15K |
| 100K+ | $15K+ |
The top tier (Acquired, Lex Fridman, top-three AI podcasts) commands substantially higher rates and often books months out.
As publishers
Some companies operate their own podcasts. Notable examples:
- Heavybit’s Developer Love and JAMstack Radio.
- Cloudflare’s Cloudflare TV (more video than pure podcast).
- AWS’s various podcast properties.
- Stack Overflow Podcast.
- Sentry Podcast.
Producing a successful podcast is harder than appearing on others’; most companies’ attempts fail or atrophy. The ones that succeed are usually anchored by a strong individual host.
Why podcasts work for DevRel
- Sustained attention. Listeners may spend 30 to 90 minutes with one discussion.
- Archive value. Episodes can continue receiving listens after release.
- Discoverable. Show notes and transcripts are SEO surfaces.
- Cross-promotion. Guests and hosts can distribute an episode to both audiences.
Operational notes
- Provide a transcript. Accessibility and AI ingestion both require it.
- Show notes with linked references. High-value for SEO and listener follow-up.
- Cadence beats production polish for organic growth.
- Cross-publish to YouTube (with video, if possible) to capture that audience segment.