I’m fortunate enough to work in a creative field, which means I’m using a part of my brain that allows me to listen to music while I work. Instead of distracting me, it often helps keep in “the zone.” Music aside, I really love listening to industry-related podcasts – that is, anything that gives me insight into how others are handling the same sort of challenges that my peers and I face regularly. I find that I learn something new, or am given a new perspective on specific design principles almost every time I listen to a podcast from one of these sources. So whether you have a 30 minute drive or train ride to work, or you’re like me and can listen while you work; whether you’re a student or a grizzled vet, I highly encourage you to check  these out. They’re all entertaining, funny, and educational. Triple threat. Some are released with more regularity than others, but all are worth the wait.

Bethesda Podcast
An excellent podcast, I give it high marks. They do a really nice job with the editing, the hosts are great, and they do a fantastic job of bringing on guests to interview who are extremely interesting. My one and only critique is I wish the overall tone of the podcast were a bit more upbeat, but not in a fake or candy coated way. The music, for example, is often a bit on the somber side.

Blizzcast
Honestly, not my cup of tea. My chief problem with Blizzcast is that it needs to choose it’s target audience: developers or fans. Actually…I take that back. They have chosen, and they chose fans. Blizzcast goes under the pretense that it’s a game development podcast (i.e. you’re talking shop the way you would with fellow game developers), but 90% of the dialogue is answering questions from fans and about the latest hero dungeon, and the changes they made to some goblin guy and how it will effect your ability to earn such-n-such type of points. More to the point, the way in which they’re saying these things is the way you would talk to a fellow WoW player, not how you would speak to someone who develops games but doesn’t necessarily play WoW. Also, when they do interview developers, the interviews aren’t conversational and fun, they’re obviously just reading prefab questions off a sheet of paper, which makes the interviews feel stiff. I think Blizzard has a lot to offer in terms of amazing true game development information. Unfortunately this podcast isn’t putting that stuff forward.

The Bungie Studios Podcast
Hosted by Bungie’s community guys; Frank O’Connor, Brian Jarrard, and Luke Smith. Interviews with Bungie developers and, needless to say, there’s lots of discussion about all things Halo. Much like Blizzcast, I feel like they spend too much time appealing to their fan base, and not nearly enough emphasis is put on discussing the nuts and bolts of development.

Insomniac Games’ Full Moon Podcast
I really, really like this show. It’s one of my personal favorites. Hosted by James Stevenson, Insomniac’s Community manger, FMP does an excellent job of sharing information with their listeners about their development process in a way that’s both entertaining and extremely interesting. They also have a regular segment titled “I Want Your Job” where they have guests explain how to break into specific areas of the industry. I cannot recommend it enough.

Irrational Behavior / Irrational Interviews
Without a doubt the prettiest, most well polished game development podcast currently out there that I’m aware of. Irrational Games splits their podcast offering into two titles: Irrational Behavior covers general game design topics while Irrational Interviews is just that: interviews with development staff from their in-house team and other studios. Collectively called Irrational Podcasts, and hosted by Shawn Elliot, each episode is well polished and thoughtful. The audio treatment alone sets them apart from the crowd.

FXGuide’s FXPodcast
Take a peek into the minds of Visual Effects pros. FXPodcast covers everything from filmography to compositing to 3D animation, and pretty much everything in between. Every episode is an interview with some sort of Director from a recent film: Art Director, Technical Director, Director of Cinematography, etc. You get the idea, it’s always someone that really knows their stuff.

Games Industry Mentor
Aaron Canaday, Environment Artist at BioWare Austin, interviews all sorts of interesting folks from the BioWare team, and gives listeners some great tips on how to break into the games industry.

N.E.R.D.cast
Legendary creature designer Jurdu Schell and his buds talk about movies, books, artists, cons, making monsters, and all sorts of other great nerdy shit. These guys are hilarious!

RadioLab
The boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. If you aren’t listening to RadioLab, you’re missing out.