This Week in Podcasts

Unfortunately, the past week was relatively light in terms of new podcasts, and even more sparse with regards to great episodes. There are always a few, though, and this week was no different.

The Talk Show Episode 78: Live From Build 2014. In the previous installment of This Week in Podcasts, I linked to episode forty-two of The Prompt where Myke, Stephen, and Federico gave Microsoft’s BUILD keynote and the announcements made during it a pretty fair shake, and rightly so: Microsoft has started doing some very interesting things once again. This week, in the latest episode of The Talk Show, John released an episode recoded live at BUILD with Ed Bott, where they spent the entire show talking about Microsoft. Microsoft is becoming both exciting and relevant once again; I’m going to have to start looking for some Microsoft bloggers to follow.

Also worth noting, in addition to a great discussion between two obviously very intelligent and hilarious individuals, every aspect of this show relating to its production was exceptional: by any standard, and especially when considered as a live recording, the audio quality was superb. And the ad reads as well, put in in post (generally making for a jarring and poor listening experience) so as not to do them at BUILD, were done phenomenally with the help of Siri. Genius. If I could make one suggestion for podcasts recorded live, although not specifically this episode, I would suggest that the hosts mic the audiences better: take advantage of the fact that you have a live audience present and, in some cases, responding, and incorporate that into the show. All in all, though, a great episode.

Technical Difficulties 010: Going Back to School with Julia Richert. As an incoming college freshman this fall, I found Gabe Weatherhead and Julia Richert’s conversation on higher education and its challenges very interesting. A worthwhile episode for everyone involved in college, regardless of whether that be as a future student or a current one.

Debug 33: Ken Ferry on Auto Layout, Passbook, and Understudy. This week on Debug, Guy English and Rene Ritchie had Ken Ferry on for a great all-around interview about his time at Apple working on Cocoa, Auto Layout, and Passbook, as well as his current project, Understudy. Especially in the last twenty minutes or so, they all had some very interesting ideas about education.

The Weekly Briefly: Urgent vs Essential. It’s hard to do what we have to with so much of our focus relegated to the wrong things.

Quit! Episode #49: In My Apartment You’re Popular. After a brief hiatus, Dan Benjamin and Haddie Cooke returned with some characteristically great advice this time focused on preparing to strike out on your own and start your own thing.