DFW has some of the worst commute times in America. Average is 28.4 minutes per the Census Bureau, and if you are on 635 or I-35 it is easily 45-60 minutes. Might as well learn something. Here are the tech podcasts worth your time.
Daily news (15-30 min):
- Hard Fork (NYT) — Kevin Roose and Casey Newton cover AI, social media, and tech culture. Best all-around tech podcast. Twice weekly.
- The Vergecast — Nilay Patel is the most honest voice in tech journalism. Weekly deep dives.
AI-focused:
- Latent Space — Technical but accessible. Best AI podcast if you want to understand what is actually happening, not just hype.
- Practical AI — Exactly what it sounds like. How to actually USE AI, not just talk about it.
- Last Week in AI — Weekly AI news roundup. Good for staying current.
Software engineering:
- Syntax — Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski. Web development focused. Entertaining and practical.
- Software Engineering Daily — Deep technical interviews. One episode per day.
- CoRecursive — Storytelling about software. Less news, more narrative.
Business/strategy:
- Acquired — Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal do 3-4 hour deep dives on tech companies. The NVIDIA and Costco episodes are masterpieces.
- All-In — Chamath, Sacks, Friedberg, and Calacanis debate tech and markets. Controversial but informative.
- Lenny's Podcast — Product management and growth. Essential if you are in product.
Guilty pleasures:
- Darknet Diaries — True stories of hacking and cybercrime. Binge-worthy.
- Reply All (archived but still good) — Internet culture stories that are endlessly entertaining.
DFW commute math:
- 45 min commute x 2 = 90 min/day
- 90 min x 5 days = 7.5 hours/week
- 7.5 hours = 15 podcast episodes
- That is a free tech education every single week
Source: Personal listening, Apple Podcasts/Spotify rankings, recommendations from DFW tech Slack
Acquired is the best podcast in any category. The 4-hour episodes fly by on the drive from Fort Worth to Plano. I have genuinely looked forward to my commute since I found it.