I don’t know if it is the ease of using them, the increase in quality of podcasts, or if this is just another example of our on-demand society, but podcasts are growing in popularity.

I personally love stocking up on them as I do any traveling, they are a great way to get caught up – but on my own time. As I prepare to do some road trips around the upcoming holidays, I decided to ask around the physical – and virtual – hallways at Ciena to see what podcasts could help me make the best use of my time.

Here are a list of ten podcasts I found that provide updates on the latest telecom industry happenings, analysis of key industry trends, and sneak peeks into conversations happening around the industry.

We would love to hear what podcasts you enjoy as well – what should we be adding to our next playlist?

• Packet Pushers Weekly Show – For over eight years (they’re up to episode 420!) this podcast has kept people up-to-date on network happenings. They describe their podcast as featuring industry experts, real-life network engineers and vendors to give the real information to keep your professional knowledge sharp.
  
  
• The Tech Blog Writer Podcast – Tech Columnist Neil C. Hughes interviews innovative startups, technology leaders, CEO's, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who are sharing their stories and experiences, so you can learn from their advice. This podcast concentrates on the benefits that tech is bringing to both business and lifestyle success.
  Podcast

  Episode 14: Telstra and Ericsson Discuss Key Trends Like 5G, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and their Impact on Today’s Network
  
  
  
• The Telecoms.com Podcast – This weekly podcast from Telecoms.com features different reporters from Telecoms.com and Light Reading, in a relaxed setting talking about the events of that week. They will also have guests from operators, analyst firms and vendors – and their casual dynamic will give you a few laughs as well.

•  The Light Reading Podcast – Light Reading has just recently launched their own official podcast, hosted by Phil Harvey the U.S. News Editor, it covers the technology, finance and people of the communications network industry. The show is an enjoyable deep dive of a few telecom news events from each week. You can even find a recent interview with Ciena’s CEO Gary Smith. 

• The Architect Show – This is a weekly podcast about the business of cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data science. It is hosted by Derrick Harris who used to write for GigaOm and provides interesting perspectives and insights with their strong list of guests.  
  
  
• The Ciena Insights Podcast – well we obviously can’t create a list without highlighting our own podcast, where each month we have an in-depth discussion with experts from customers, industry analyst firms, and our own innovators and thinkers, on the different trends that are pushing the boundaries of capacity, programmability and intelligence of the infrastructure for our future.
  Podcast

  Episode 10: Automation – A Critical Element of the Adaptive Network
  
  
  
• Recode Decode, Recode Media and Pivot – these three podcasts are all produced by Recode and cover a broad range of business, technology and entertainment topics. Recode Decode with Kara Swisher features interviews with key industry figures; on Recode Media Peter Kafka talks to business executives, journalists, comedians and fellow podcasters to get their take on the intersection of media, entertainment and technology; and on Pivot Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the way technology is shaping business and culture across media, advertising, politics and more. Here is also a great list of their 10 favorite episodes over 2018.
  
  
• Wall Street Journal’s The Future of Everything – A favorite pastime for us in the telecom sector is talking about what’s next. Well this podcast from the WSJ discusses how science and technology are revolutionizing the way we live, work and play.

We’re sure this list will give you hours of industry insights on your next listening binge. Let us know what you think of the above podcasts – and use the comment section below to share the next one we need to check out.