General

Podcasts for the Colorado Tech Geek

Last week I decided to stop recording the Colorado Tech Weekly Podcast. It was a fun experiment and I’m glad I tried it. It gave me the confidence to talk more freely about my knowledge and I’m proud that I gave podcasting a try without spending money on all the cool audio toys… although I did make an Amazon wishlist of audio toys.

I decided to stop the podcast because I realized that it was not working towards my goal of becoming a software developer. The whole reason I have this site is to show the work I am doing so I can get that developer job. The whole reason for the Colorado Tech Weekly series is to give people a reason to come to my site to read the news and see my project updates. Therefore the podcast should have been working towards that same goal. It wasn’t. In fact it seemed to be taking up time and effort that I could be spending working on projects and posting project updates on this site.

I also had big, cool ideas for the podcast which would make the podcast cool but would also take away more time from my primary goal. I love the idea of doing interviews and having co-hosts and panel discussions that focused on the Colorado technology community. How cool would it be to hear Tamara Chuang, Greg Avery and Jess Ryan discuss the current tech news on a monthly basis? That would be awesome! But it would take up way more time than I have. The ideas I have for the podcast are great. It could work and it could be awesome. Unfortunately I am not the person to make that happen right now.

Since I am not making a podcast anymore, I figured I would let you in on the podcasts that inspire and entertain me…

  •  5280 Geek – Smurf hosts a mostly weekly podcast with a small group that talk about comics, pop culture, TV, movies, games and cosplay. There are serious opinions, “inappropriate” jokes, euphemisms and interviews. Great all around geekiness.
  • The Boop Show – Hosted by Scott Johnson. This is another mostly weekly podcast where Scott talks about the latest news in the video game industry. It’s mostly Scott by himself but he does try to incorporate listener feedback.
  • The Daily Tech News Show  – One of my favorite podcasts and the reason I thought I could ever do my own podcast. Tom Merritt hosts the show with different co-hosts every day and talks about tech news from around the world. It’s every thing I wanted the Colorado Tech Weekly Podcast to be.
  • EleventyTwelve – Hosted by Jared Ewy and Aaron Templar in Jared’s basement in Englewood on a weekly basis. Jared and Aaron take on Colorado stories and interests where each episode is under 30 minutes on purpose. It’s like a good morning radio show if morning radio shows weren’t annoying but weekly and there’s no weather or traffic updates (mostly).
  • Mostly Harmless with Dammit Damian: A Punk Rock Podcast – Do you like punk rock and comics and nice guys named Damian who live in Denver? If you think you might, give this podcast a listen. In the same way I love showing off how much Coloradans contribute to the tech world, Damian loves showing off local artists, authors and musicians. He also says “Hey buddies!” a lot so it sounds like he’s your nice beer drinking, punk rock loving friend.
  • Pixels – An internationally hosted podcast about the video game industry recorded about twice a month. It’s hosted by Patrick Beja who is from France but just moved to Japan and includes co-hosts from America and Europe so it truly is international. It’s like the Boop Show but more conversational but still sometimes includes Scott Johnson.
  • The Avs Hockey Podcast – This podcast is hosted by huge Avalanche fan and ringleader of the #AvsTwitterPsychic twitter game, Jay Vean and the amazingly well traveled and awesome guy, James “Tapeleg” Gralian. It’s recorded every 1-2 months and Jay and James chat about news and interests involving the Colorado Avalanche and NHL hockey since their last recording. The only thing that would make this podcast better would be if they recorded it more often.
  • The Nerdist – Hosted by the nicest and most popular nerd in America, Chris Hardwick. The podcast is mostly Chris having genuine conversations with is friends and with cool, famous people in movies. It’s awesome. I love Chris. Listening to him makes me feel good about being a fan of anything.
  • The Sword and Laser – After I started listening to The Nerdist and feeling better about being a fan of nerdy things, I decided to finally give The Sword and Laser a listen. It’s a bi-weekly podcast hosted by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont who are just as nice and just as nerdy as Chris Hardwick (and maybe more popular in some circles). The podcast is an extension of the Sword and Laser book club on Goodreads that discusses sci-fi and fantasy books.
  • These Things Matter Podcast – Another Colorado-based podcast of general geekery. This one is hosted by local stand-up comic, Kevin O’Brien and Taylor Gonda. Every week they have an interesting guest and talk about a pop culture thing and it’s generally just fun to listen to.

I also just subscribed to 5280 Nerd, Denver Business Podcast and Turnpikers for more Colorado specific shows so I don’t know much about them yet.

What podcasts inspire and entertain you?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *