My Favorite Podcasts of 2021 (Premium)

With 2021 winding down, it’s time to take a look back at the podcasts---and podcast episodes---that I enjoyed the most this year.

And … it’s been a while, sorry. I move in and out of so many podcasts each year, I figured I’d never be able to keep track of it all. But Pocket Casts actually keeps a record of what you listen to, so it was much easier than I’d expected. So here we go…

.NET Rocks. Hosted by two of my favorite people, Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin, .NET Rocks focuses on Microsoft developer topics and often features some of my favorite people in the Microsoft space. I strongly recommend that all Thurrott.com readers listen to Episode 1766 with UX designer Billy Hollis in particular. It’s one of the very best things I’ve listened to all year.

American Scandal. This top-rated Wondery podcast is narrated and performed by the reliably excellent Lindsay Graham, and it covers a wide variety of multi-episode stories/topics each year. This year, I listened to The Unabomber, The Red Scare, and The Clinton-Lewinsky Affair, but you should check out their full library of content because there are a lot of great choices in there. I’ve listened to almost all of them.

Bardstown. This intriguing podcast examines a crazy true crime story that takes place in a small town in Kentucky.

Behind the Tech. Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott hosts this interview show and while I don’t listen to every single episode---some of the topics are just outside my interest zone---the ones I have listened to are fantastic. For example, he talked to Stevie Bathiche from the Surface team and Dr. Peter Lee of Microsoft Research this past year. But my favorite all-time episode is the very first one, with hero Anders Hejlsberg of C# and .NET fame. (And Turbo Pascal, Delphi, Object Pascal, and F#, and so much more.)

Dr. Death. This is another interesting Wondery podcast that focuses on a single true story each season involving doctors that betray their patients and others in dramatic ways. There are three seasons so far, but I’ve not listened to the third yet. And at least one of these has been made into a TV mini-series.

Maintenance Phase. New (to me) in 2021, this delightfully funny and informative podcast focuses on debunking wellness and weight-loss topics.

Rolling Stone Music Now. This is another of those shows where I only listen to some episodes. Among them this year were The Endless Beatles Revelations of ‘Get Back’, Wolfgang Van Halen on his Debut Album and Growing Up Van Halen, Michael Stipe on REM’s Legacy, The Secret History of Hair Metal (But Don’t Call It That), and more.

RunAsRadio. Hosted by my friend Richard Campbell, RunAsRadio is aimed at IT professionals in the Microsoft space, and this past year I’ve listened to episodes featuring Mary Jo Foley, Joey Snow and Rick Claus, Aidan Finn, Tony Redmond, and many of my other favorite people. I even appeared on the show twice this pa...