Procrastinate Like Me: Podcasts
Podcasts are the quintessential activity of effective procrastination. In particular, I find that audio podcasts allow you to concurrently complete another productive but mindless task (such as grocery shopping). It’s quite likely that you’ve at least tried listening to podcasts, but I would like to outline some of the podcasts I find most interesting and useful.
The TWiT network is one of the largest and oldest tech podcast networks, and it is what got me addicted to podcasts many years ago. Security Now is one of my favourite podcasts; not only does it keep me up to date with security and privacy, but it also provides much of the fundamental knowledge every computer science major should know. Tech News Today ensures I know all the current happenings within the tech world very soon after the news breaks. FLOSS Weekly is a very interesting way to learn about useful open source software and general programming topics. These three podcasts are what I believe every person interested in tech (particularly if you’re a programmer) should listen to.
The next couple of podcasts cater to a different interest of mine: mathematics. The Math/Maths Podcast is a very interesting hour long weekly discussion about current events in math. The two hosts, Samuel Hansen and Peter Rowlett work well together to produce an entertaining hour of interesting, non-overwhelming discussion of mathematics. Combinations and Permutations is another mathematical podcast hosted by Samuel Hansen. It features a light-hearted discussion about a mathematical topic and many semi-related tangents. Both of these podcasts work well because they are an extremely entertaining way to learn about one of the most interesting yet difficult subjects in the world.
I listen to a wide array of podcasts, but these five provide an interesting diversity for a computer science student if you only have a little time to procrastinate. If there is ever a time for you to listen to my ramblings, this is probably it. Please go and try listening to these podcasts (if you don’t already); I’m sure you’ll enjoy at least a couple.