I used to hate podcasts, but that didn't last long. I got a longer commute, bandwidth became less of an issue and podcasts, frankly, got better. Of course, I'm a smidge biased.

I listen to a number of podcasts, not all technical, of course. I also watch the nightly news and a number of other news and political TV shows delivered not over the air or via cable, but by podcast.

Here's some technical podcasts, collected and recommended by my folks and friends on Twitter. I've heard some, and added my thoughts. Others I look forward to listening to. They are listed in no particular order. I threw mine in there as well. ;)

NOTE: If you've created a list of YOUR favorite .NET Podcasts, send me a link to your blog and I'll add it here:

And here's mine:

Hanselman's Super Karate Death Car List of .NET and Software Podcasts

Thoughtworks IT Matters - I respect a lot of the guys over at Thoughtworks so I'll give this a listen just based on that. It looks like it's updated infrequently, and there's no dates on their shows on the site (the RSS includes them), so hopefully they'll get a nice meter going and perhaps commit to a monthly or weekly schedule. Looks promising and fairy platform-agnostic, so likely useful for anyone programming in any language.

Hanselminutes - I'll let Scott Bellware's tweeted review of my show speak, rather than toot my own horn: "the one i look forward to is hanselminutes. know it? host is a bit of a nut, but ethical and with a heart :)"

I'm a .NET person, but I also dabble in Ruby and did some time at Nike coding Java. I also like gadgets so the show has become all of the above plus (I think) interesting interviews.

.NET Rocks - The first and longest running, now on show #418 which is CRAZY. Richard and Carl set the standard for those that followed them. Often interviews, sometimes random, always interesting, .NET Rocks is the gold standard.

ALT.NET Podcast - "You're the type of developer who uses whatever works while keeping an eye out for a better way, you reach outside the mainstream to adopt the best of any community, you're not content with the status quo and you realize that tools are great, but they only take you so far..." this might be the podcast for you.

Sparkling Client - Entirely focused on Silverlight and RIA (Rich Internet Application) technologies, I'd call this an "up and comer" in the .NET podcast world.

ASP.NET Podcast by Wally McClure - The site design is a little wacky, but Wally's got 130+ podcasts focused entirely on ASP.NET and the content continues. He has covered Azure, lots of ASP.NET AJAX, jQuery and many other topics.

Polymorphic Podcast - Craig Shoemaker works for Infragistics and hosts this .NET focused podcast. It's a little spotty as far as the frequency of updates, but he has an easy style and focuses a lot of ASP.NET. He's also had a couple of killer interviews like his one with craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

Herding Code - Hosted by K. Scott Allen, Kevin Dente, Scott Koon and Jon Galloway, this is kind of the TWiT of .NET podcasts. If you ever wish you could go to coffee and shoot the sh*t with some really smart folks, but you just can't find enough find enough smart guys or enough coffee, look no farther than Herding Code. Each host has a different perspective that adds to the conversation. The sound quality and leveling can be a little off, but not enough to distract from the good content.

Deep Fried Bytes - "Deep Fried Bytes is an audio talk show with a Southern flavor hosted by technologists and developers Keith Elder and Chris Woodruff ." Also tends to be a little irregular as far as publish dates, but they always have interesting guests. Mostly Windows focused, but not in a fanboy way, they've had a Linux/Gnome guest and are off to a fine start.

Software Engineering Radio - A language and platform agnostic show, these folks have over 120 shows in the can. The audio quality has been a little inconsistent, but the content is diverse and the guests are first class. Frankly this is one of the most diverse podcasts out there, and they do it without sacrificing depth. Recommended.

The Java Posse - To understand .NET, one has to understand that which came before. The Java Posse has hosts from Sun, Google and Navigenics and is a really quick and terse way to get up to speed on what's happening in the world of Java. It tends to be a little random and conversational, but they have VERY thorough show notes and links. If you're into Java or selling against Java, a podcast to watch.

OpenWeb Podcast - It's new, but it's got John Resig. They are still getting the handle of the audio and tend to have problems overdriving the microphone and have issues with leveling and so that's a little distracting. However, it's got some really smart Google and Mozilla employees talking about the Open Web and how to keep it open. They also get +2 Charisma for publishing not only in MP3 but also in (the kind of irrelevant but totally open) OGG Vorbis format.

They have been REALLY spotty, publishing only every month or two, but that's probably because they are DOING things to make the web better. Let's pressure them to publish more.

Ruby on Rails Podcast - Also pretty spotting on their publish dates, but always a good overview about what's going on in the world of Ruby on Rails. Tends to be a little chattier than I like in a technical podcast "Hey, how's it going, good, how's the weather" but that's a stylistic thing.

This Week on Channel 9 - This is kind of "The Daily Show" for Microsoft Developer Geeks. "Every week Dan Fernandez and Brian Keller sift through hundreds of blogs, videos, and announcements to find the most important stories in the developer community." It's a video podcast primarily, but they also off an MP3 download version as well as versions for iPod and Zune. I visit this show in person every few months , and it's a lot of fun and a great rollup of the week's goings on.

Elegant CodeCast - With a spin towards the Agile/TDD crowd, Elegant CodeCast puts on a show on a roughly twice a month basis.

About Scott Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Enjoy! I say give each one a trial or two and see which shows stick. That's what I do. Then I revisit them a year later to see if they stick differently.