Podcasts

Only a small set of podcasts is devoted specifically to DevRel. A much larger group covers the technical practice, open-source communities, developer marketing, and product decisions that shape the work. Developer podcasts covers that wider group in detail.


DevRel-specific podcasts

Community Pulse

The DevRel community’s own podcast. Long-running, multi-host format. Rotating hosts have included Mary Thengvall, PJ Hagerty, Jason Hand, Wesley Faulkner, Erin Mikail Staples, and others. Topics span advocacy, community management, career development, burnout, and industry shifts.

Why listen. Practical, peer-to-peer; addresses the hard parts of the work.

DevRelX Podcast

Operated by SlashData. Often features industry leaders discussing developer marketing and developer relations.

Why listen. Data-grounded analysis; connects the field to underlying survey research.

Hoopy / DeveloperRelations.com Podcast

Matthew Revell’s podcast covering DevRelCon talks and DevRel topics.

Why listen. Conference-talk archive in audio form; good way to consume DevRelCon retrospectively.

The Stack Overflow Podcast

Broader than DevRel but frequently covers community, developer-experience, and platform topics. The show has cycled through multiple host pairs.

Why listen. Industry-wide perspective on developer trends.


Adjacent: developer-marketing and craft

Latent Space

Shawn “swyx” Wang and Alessio Fanelli. Covers AI-engineering tools, practices, and companies, and frequently features senior DevRel and developer-product leaders.

Why listen. Standard reference for the AI-engineering category.

The Changelog

Adam Stacoviak and Jerod Santo. Long-running open-source and software-industry podcast.

Why listen. Founder-and-builder interviews; broad industry context.

Software Engineering Daily

Founded by the late Jeff Meyerson; continued by a team. Vast archive of long-form interviews.

Why listen. Reference archive of software-industry conversations.

Software Engineering Radio

IEEE Software’s podcast. More academic-flavoured than most. Hosts include long-running tech-industry voices.

Why listen. Deeper technical depth than the average interview podcast.

Hanselminutes

Scott Hanselman, weekly since 2006. Broad tech topics with a strong educational flavour.

Why listen. Curated guests; consistent quality.

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. Tech-company histories.

Why listen. Strategic context for the companies your product competes with or partners with.

CoRecursive

Adam Gordon Bell. Programming stories: long-form conversations with engineers about specific projects.

Why listen. Craft-focused; the kind of context that informs better technical writing and advocacy.


Domain-specific

JS Party

Changelog network’s JavaScript podcast.

Syntax.fm

Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski. Front-end / full-stack.

Go Time

Changelog network’s Go podcast.

Talk Python To Me

Michael Kennedy. Python.

Real Python Podcast

Real Python team.

Kubernetes Podcast from Google

Long-running; covers Kubernetes and CNCF ecosystem.

PodCTL

Red Hat / OpenShift.

The Cloudcast

Cloud computing.

Screaming in the Cloud

Corey Quinn; AWS-focused; mixes news with humour and pointed analysis.

Last Week in AWS

Same Corey Quinn franchise; weekly AWS news.

Arrested DevOps

Long-running DevOps podcast.

Practical AI

Daniel Whitenack and Chris Benson; practitioner-focused AI podcast.

The TWIML AI Podcast (This Week in Machine Learning & AI)

Sam Charrington; one of the longest-running AI podcasts.

No Priors

Sarah Guo and Elad Gil; AI and startup focus.

Cognitive Revolution

Nathan Labenz; AI deep dives.

Lex Fridman Podcast

Wide-ranging, AI-heavy, and long-form. It has a large audience; relevance and quality vary by guest.

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey. Data engineering.

The Pragmatic Engineer

Gergely Orosz. Tech industry / engineering management. Companion to the newsletter.

CodeNewbie

Saron Yitbarek. Aimed at newer developers; helpful frame of reference for DevRel teams whose product serves beginners.


How DevRel professionals use podcasts

Three modes:

  1. Listening for context. Stay current on industry conversations.
  2. Appearing as a guest. Direct audience reach via others’ shows.
  3. Producing your own. A high-cost, high-failure-rate option; works best for individuals with strong existing audiences.

For teams without an established show, guest appearances require less production work and provide access to an existing audience. A small number of well-matched appearances may therefore be a better use of the production budget; test that assumption with referral, signup, or other campaign-specific data.


How to choose guest appearances

Audience fit can outweigh size. A 5,000-listener podcast whose audience is your exact ICP often outperforms a 100,000-listener podcast whose audience overlaps yours by 5%.

Before accepting a guest spot:

  • Audience match. Does the listenership match your target?
  • Host preparation. Will the host actually research you, or will it be a generic interview?
  • Promotion. Does the podcast actively promote new episodes?
  • Cross-platform. Is there a video version, transcript, and social distribution?

Guest podcasting is an awareness option whose value depends on audience fit, preparation, distribution, and measurable response.

See also