Podcasts Shopify Engineers Actually Listen To

Continuous learning is a core value at Shopify, and internal Slack channels frequently buzz with discoveries. After sharing book recommendations earlier this year, the engineering team turned to another medium: podcasts. We asked engineers, developers, data scientists, and security folks which shows they tune into, and curated their favorites—spanning front-end development, career advice, open source, and cybercrime stories.

Software Engineering Daily

Host Jeff Myerson conducts thoughtful, well-researched interviews with engineering leaders, approaching topics from a software engineer's perspective. The podcast covers a wide range of technical subjects and shines at deep-dives into popular open source technology. Conversations are technical but distilled into "subway ride length" segments. As a bonus, the show's mobile and web apps are open source, and listeners can contribute on GitHub.

Eric Mustin, Production Engineer

ShopTalk

ShopTalk Show is a weekly podcast from developers Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert covering everything from React to Docker. It focuses on front-end web development while managing to be informative, entertaining, and hilarious. As their slogan puts it: "Just build websites."

Jason Addleman, Senior Developer

Syntax

Syntax caters to modern web developers working in the JS stack. The hosts are respected community figures, and the content is easy to digest with witty banter. It launched right when one developer graduated coding bootcamp, and years later, she still checks the show for takes on new JS announcements. Not every episode is about web development, which offers a welcome break from day-to-day focus.

Heather Knowlton, Developer

Soft Skills Engineering

For those who enjoy advice columns but want software-industry specifics, Soft Skills Engineering fits the bill. Each week, Dave Smith and Jamison Dance spend 30 minutes answering two listener-submitted questions, exploring what makes a successful software engineer beyond just coding—with a dash of silliness. The hosts bring compassion to their advice, tackling career growth with a level of understanding one listener says has "leveled up" her professional development.

Anarosa Paredes, Senior Production Engineer

Hanselminutes

Scott Hanselman, a tech community model for "coding with kindness," shares his 30-plus years of developer experience across blog, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. His podcast features interviews with people from diverse backgrounds—PhDs, open source developers, entrepreneurs, and magicians—on topics ranging from technology to career development, imposter syndrome, and teaching. The guest list is diverse in race, gender, profession, and interests, making it a one-stop shop for varied perspectives.

Sunitha Patel, Developer

The Bike Shed

Produced by thoughtbot, The Bike Shed features hosts Steph and Chris discussing their day-to-day experiences as software engineers. Weekly episodes cover Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, and leadership. The challenges they explore are multifaceted and inspiring enough that "it just doesn't get boring."

Irmela Göhl, Senior Developer

Collaborative Craft

Produced by software consultancy 8th Light, Collaborative Craft focuses on craft, community, and consulting. It brings in guests from across the industry—including Shopify's own Aaron Patterson—to discuss those themes. Less technical than some software podcasts, it highlights the collaborative, "software as a team sport" aspects of engineering and is approachable for developers at any level.

Stephen Prater, Staff Developer

Darknet Diaries

Darknet Diaries explores hacking, cybercrime, and data breaches—not just the motives and actions of perpetrators, but also the people trying to catch them. One standout episode, "Dirty Coms," profiles young hackers profiting from insider threats, stolen identities, and physical theft. The show offers a refreshing look into a complex world of interesting characters, complete with personal anecdotes from the host.

Sam Mar, Security Incident Response Engineer

Freakonomics

Host Stephen Dubner excels at finding thought-provoking questions and diving deep with experts to surface interesting truths. The show cites great examples of stats and A/B testing, which is valuable for getting into a data science mindset. Dubner models one of the most powerful skills a data scientist can master: taking complex ideas and making the takeaways simple and fun to understand.

Mike Solty, Data Scientist

The Changelog

Hosts Adam Stacoviak and Jerod Santo bring in guests from across the software development world, covering a variety of topics. Discovered after one engineering blog writer appeared as a guest, the show keeps listeners learning something new with fresh, insightful takes and, as one listener notes, hosts with great voices—"a must for me to listen to a podcast!"

Anita Clarke, Engineering Blog Managing Editor