Oxide and Friends is the only computing podcast I listen to anymore. It's a bunch of fun and they have insights I actually value.
The original On The Metal podcast they did is incredible too. The interviews they had with computing legends are just fantastic.
I used to enjoy it much more before it became just another podcast extoiling the virtues of AI-assisted coding. I have too many of those already.
I appreciate their treatment of the current AI boom cycle. Just last night they had Evan Ratliff on from the Shell Game podcast[1], and it was a great episode. They're not breathlessly hyping AI and trying to make a quick buck off it, instead it seems they're taking an honest, rigorous look at it (which is sadly pretty rare) and talking about the successes as well as the failures. Personally I don't always agree with their takes, I'm more firmly in Ed Zitron's camp that this is all a massive financial scam, isn't really good for much, and will do a lot more harm than good in the long run. They're less negatively biased than that, which is fine.
[1] https://www.shellgame.co/
Has the audio quality / recording method for Oxide and Friends gotten better?
I have this horrible "completionist" tendency and I got stuck on a 2021 episode where the audio needed post-processing and I just never got around to it.
I loved On the Metal and it was a bummer to fall behind on the new show.
There's absolutely no shame in "falling behind" on a podcast when even the audio itself is subpar, your time and attention is way more valuable than that. If the hosts have problems with that, they can provide sensible extra aids such as high-quality transcripts, to help viewers catch up on what they've missed without placing undue demands on their time.
I love the new podcast but miss on the metal so much. It should be quarterly at least