Our UX Designers Love These Podcasts
Listen to our 6 favorite shows
There are thousands of podcasts by now and at Soda studio we‘re always out to find the next best one. We asked some of our designers to list their favorite podcasts and here’s what they came up with. Whether it’s about design, tech, or any other subject, our commutes aren’t the same without these podcasts!
Arjo
I’m a big fan of storytelling podcasts. I loved Bob, a Dutch show about an elderly woman’s memories of “Bob”. The creators start a search for him despite knowing if he’s a real or imaginary person. Other shows I loved are Serial by This American Life, and Dissect.
In Dissect, Cole Cuchna deconstructs songs on some of the most meaningful hip-hop albums like Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange” and Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and does a fantastic job explaining why tracks are the way they are. The season that opened my eyes was the first season, covering Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”. I already liked the album and thanks to Dissect, I learned to appreciate it even more.
The Dissect episode I chose, “Alright”, is a highlight to me because a lot of themes come together in a poetic form. Even though the song was released in 2015, it’s interesting to learn about its role on the album, as well as in today’s politics and society.
A show that’s semi-storytelling is the popular Reply All. It’s about the internet in the broadest sense: how people use it, and what good and bad effects it has on society. It turns out that many great stories would not exist without modern technology.
For Reply All, I recommend you listen to “Long Distance”. One of the hosts, Alex Goldman, tries to figure out who’s the person behind a shady phishing scheme. It’s an understatement to say the turns this story took are fascinating. The reporter goes to great lengths to meet the person behind a fake customer service.
Sjoerd
When YouTube and Netflix have nothing more to offer, I switch to podcasts. The first show I tune in to is The History of Fun, a show that tells us everything about all kinds of fun things like karaoke, LEGO, and Waterparks.
I recently discovered Imaginary Worlds, a show about sci-fi, fantasy, and their subcultures. My first listens were about Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. These episodes are specifically interesting as a gamer because of the impact they’ve had on video games that followed.
“Rolling the Twenty Sided Dice” was the first episode I listened to. Eric Molinsky goes into the rules, world creation, and fanbase of the Dungeons & Dragons table-top game. I loved to learn how this game works and why it became such a success.
A show I listen to regularly is Vector with Rene Ritchie, a tech podcast about the latest Apple products, news, and events (so you better be a fan!). Ritchie does this from aesthetic, UX, and business strategy perspectives. Each episode is compact (about 12 minutes) and is focused on one product or trend.
In “Conversations with AI”, Ritchie and AI expert Brian Roemmele examine the strategies Google, Apple, and others use for their voice assistants. It’s interesting how Apple’s Siri isn’t as intelligent but shines when it comes to pronunciation and the focus on privacy.
Tom
My podcast listening history goes back over ten years with shows like Diggnation and The Maniacal Rage Podcast. Nowadays, there are a few shows I listen to the day they come out and receive notifications for, like with Reply All or Supercomputer. When I get tired of the tech bubble I look for something different, like Heavyweight and other podcasts by Gimlet.
On each episode of Heavyweight, the show’s (hilarious) host, Jonathan Goldstein, helps people get closure on something emotional they’ve been carrying for a long time. Stories range from people being banished from their group without explanation, to someone whose foster mom kept them from following their passion as a child and has always been afraid to ask why.
An episode of Heavyweight that stuck with me was about “Rob”, someone who deeply remembers to have broken his arm as a child, while his parents and family deny this ever happened. The storytelling is funny, beautiful, but most of all really, really moving.
Supercomputer is a great little show that’s fairly new and pretty specific. The two hosts talk about anything related to productivity, making everyday things simpler, and smart homery. It’s the ideal podcast for me because they go into a lot of geeky detail like how to automate things with the Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad.
I’m a task manager fan. In the “Agile Turtle” episode, the hosts discuss OmniFocus and Things (❤). I thought it was interesting to hear about the different approaches to these tools and to getting things done.
So, what are your favorite podcasts?
What do you think our designers should listen to? Comment below and 👏 clap if you liked this!
P.S. Interested in our design work? Check out our website.
