It feels like every time I find a podcast about security/networking/technology the hosts end up saying some pretty off-color stuff, or I look them up and they also host right wing podcasts. Are there any that are more leftist, hosted by LGBT peeps, or at least not actively bigoted ?
Darknet Diaries. It’s more of a “stories in the web security space” kind of podcast. But I have not noticed any political leaning in the host so far.
Highly recommend it. I binged all existing episodes last year.
Yep. Darknet Diaries, Cyber, and Malicious Life are all good.
I really enjoy Darknet Diaries. It is unfortunate he went to a once a month release cycle but I understand it is for a better work life cycle.
If you are a fan of Darknet Diaries I would also recommend Hacked. It has two hosts which have a good dynamic. Plus they don’t touch politics so it avoids any controversy.
I’ll put it in my backlog! Thanks!
The wan show is one
The WAN show is a great option for a one stop shop for broad tech stuff. It is often very long but they add very clear chapters to the youtube video that make it easy to jump to the stuff that interests you. Luke is a software developer/manager so he is fairy knowledgeable in that realm, and Linus is a very transparent CEO of a tech media company, so the coverage is actually very good between the two of them. Just dont expect in depth conversations about RHEL forks and node.js code efficiency and stuff, its very much meant to be consumed by regular tech enthusiasts and not hyper deep code monkeys.
Oo this looks great, thank you!
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I love Laporte’s personality, although he’s not strong technically. I feel like 90% of schtick on TechTV was to act like a confused grandpa while others did the explaining.
But it’s a pretty good trick for running a balanced, and not overly technical, video stream.
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Thank you for so many suggestions and taking the time to write up descriptions, really appreciate it 😊
I’ll second Security Now!
Listened to it for years but kind of lost track when I stopped having to commute. Kind of miss it really but I don’t find as much time for podcasts these days sadly.
I 100% recommend TWIT, best tech podcast I listen to.
I usually listed at 1.2x speed with gap skipping on, because they can talk a bit slow.
Really great for weekly overviews of tech news, and excellent guests.
I’ll second TWIT too. Have to agree with the other comments, but I still stick with them. I listen on 1.5x which you get used to.
I occasionally listen to twit and my only major complaints are: 1) Leo interrupts his guests too much, and 2) whenever Amy Web or Owen Stone come on I have to skip the episode…
Everyone loves him but essentially the same reason I can’t watch/listen to Louis Rossmann. I support the right to repair cause but his other views go way off.
Don’t know anything about him other than right to repair. What are his other views?
He does a lot of videos shitting on New York and thus has brought in a lot of right-wing people who hate the “liberal elites” who live there. I don’t find his views too bad tbh but his comments sections are always a complete shit show. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has changed for the worst due to audience capture.
The thing about Rossman is that yes, he echoes some right-wing talking points. Unlike most of us, he actually is a small business owner who was been repeatedly harassed and mishandled by regional authorities in New York city.
He’s a soldier on the front lines of the over-regulation and regulatory capture crisis. And I think folks on the right and left can agree that big companies working hand-in-hand with government to suppress new business hurts poor people. Whether he’s talking about John Deere’s or Apple’s anti-repair stance, Amazon’s over-reach when banning accounts for frivolous reasons, or New York’s labyrinthine rules, he’s really talking about the same fundamental problem: big organizations using rules and regulations to hurt poor folks.
With that said, I think his opinions on those matters are pretty narrowly confined to the details of running a business. I’ve watched quite a few of his YT videos and I never see him going “out of his lane” to express opinions on broader social trends. He’s not opining on abortion or trans people or any of the other cultural touchstones on the right. He’s no Qanon nutjob.
With that said, he’s not a general interest tech presenter, and he probably doesn’t have much to offer the OP. He’s pretty narrowly focused on repair and government/corporate abuse.
So you’re saying commenters are jerks - which is out of his control - then you speculate that you “wouldn’t be surprised if he has changed for the worst”
This is how a bad reputation spreads - through speculation and low effort commentary. You’ve said nothing valid but insulted the guy without any basis.
Not attacking you here - we all get lazy, but cite a personal interaction or observation of him specifically. Because otherwise you could just be besmirching a genuinely decent guy who’s trying his best.
Personally, I think he’s doing extraordinarily good things for the consumer world without a shred of reward for his efforts. Every gigantic company that enjoys screwing over consumers for extra profits hates him and tries to derail his work at every turn. He certainly doesn’t need to be shit on by someone who’s going purely on conjecture. So please don’t. :)
So you’re saying commenters are jerks - which is out of his control - then you speculate that you “wouldn’t be surprised if he has changed for the worst”
i don’t have a horse in this race but he absolutely has the power to moderate his comment section and his community’s vibes generally, and he is responsible for that (or delegating another person to do so) whether he thinks he should be/takes responsibility for that or not. the audience a creator has is ultimately a reflection of the creator’s priorities, and if he isn’t proactive in removing shitters from his community then you really can’t blame other people for assuming he’s in with or agrees with the shitters.
Why should a creator be responsible for the voiced opinions of their fans? That standard makes no sense no matter how you slice it. A creator’s job isn’t to police their audience, it’s to provide information/entertainment.
Just because he has the power to censor people you don’t like doesn’t mean he should, or that it’s a reasonable ask. Instead of passively alienating you by not acting, censoring those people would actively alienate them. He’s much better off letting individuals take responsibility for their own comments, rather than joining any given side’s thought-police.
As soon as you create the standard that you are responsible for what your fans say and do, you’ve lost. You can immediately be held accountable for the speech of the worst of them, and good luck regulating that.
Just because he has the power to censor people you don’t like doesn’t mean he should, or that it’s a reasonable ask. Instead of passively alienating you by not acting, censoring those people would actively alienate them. He’s much better off letting individuals take responsibility for their own comments, rather than joining any given side’s thought-police.
this is the kind of thing you say if you are a person who benefits from not being moderated and, unsurprisingly, your comment history has shit like “Parents should have a say what is being taught to their kids. LGBT values are an invasive culture change that is being pushed on kids without the interests of the parents in mind.” go away.
Glad they’re gone. Gross beliefs fr.
You ever moderate a YouTube comments section? It’s nearly a full-time job. And it would be one thing if he were just a YouTuber, but the guy does a ton of good in the real world, for real people.
You ever moderate a YouTube comments section? It’s nearly a full-time job.
i literally co-administrate this site seven days a week, often for hours a day. yes, i do know that. if you don’t want to do it, turn off comments. otherwise, assume the responsibility and cultivate a good community, or make peace with the assumptions people will make of you for not removing Respectable_Centrist’s comments about how Wokeness is destroying tech and how much they want queer people to shut up and not exist.
What can I say; I don’t read what random strangers say when my purpose of watching his videos is his videos. And I don’t hold him accountable for what those strangers say. I’m just focused like that. To each their own.
“Since I have no life and spend nearly every waking hour on the internet, I expect others to do the same.”
So you’re saying commenters are jerks - which is out of his control - then you speculate that you “wouldn’t be surprised if he has changed for the worst”
Not who you’re responding to, but despite it being “out of his control”, it still greatly diminishes my desire to watch the videos, to chat in live streams, or otherwise engage.
To each their own.
Besides the mentioned hating on NY, during last two elections he supported trump and republicans, bashed democrats and just leaned into that that whole saying something conspiracy related by saying “I dunno” which has been an almost dog whistle of support while trying to act open minded. I don’t believe he’s republican but his move to Texas and being anti government kinda points him in a certain direction.
Obviously that’s all fine of him to have those views. I just don’t like hearing it during a board repair or right to repair video.
Do you have a citation on Rossman supporting Trump?
I can’t say I’ve heard him express any political opinions outside of the fairly narrow lanes of right-to-repair and regulatory abuse.
https://youtu.be/JH8izpJknq0?t=5619
Now I know someone is going to say oh thats just one comment out of hours and he said he doesn’t like blah blah… his 2016 videos had lots of joking about trump, anti hillary, pepe etc.
That is a huge stretch to call him a trump supporter for that comment.
I regularly view Rossman content, but I guess I don’t really know anything about him politically.
From a quick search, it looks like he’s willing to talk about tech issues with just about anyone of whatever leaning (like Sam Seider), but I could just be ignorant on this subject.
Is there a place where he typically shares his political opnions? Might even be his own channel, but perhaps the YouTube algorithm has me only watching his “neutral” stuff.
I’ve followed Louis Rossmann for more than 5 years and despite his channel has gone completely into opposing politics in wide themes, I haven’t got anything else out of his political views than that he is a democrat despite he opposes Biden and deBlasio in general.
For me, as a very anti-political follower and hater of every politician and party, I really admire how Louis has ability to oppose and point out the problematic themes in omnious way and always unrelated to party, which I find very rare in the US.
(English is my 3rd language)
Will Smith and Brad Shoemaker made a tech podcast: https://techpod.content.town/
Will Smith was a co-founder of tested.com and has gone on to do things within the games industry specifically in VR. He currently works at Stray Bombay in communications.
Brad Shoemaker was a part of Gamespot, GiantBomb, and is now a part of Nextlander. He was a games journalist but now I would say Nextlander is less games journalism and more just personalities playing video games.
Ive been listening to these two for years. I highly recommend anything Brad Shoemaker-related.
Some favorites of mine are The WAN Show, Command Line Heroes, Darknet Diaries, Linux Unplugged, Destination Linux and Surveillance Report All of these cover a lot of cool areas in tech, and I have never heard any right-wing views (or really any political views) voiced in any of these.
Do you listen to risky.biz?
I haven’t, but I’ve seen it in my Spotify recommendations. I also subscribed to the newsletter, though I haven’t had much time to read it much.
Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod - https://techpod.content.town/
Brad Shoemaker of Gamespot/GiantBomb/Nextlander and Will Smith of Tested.com and several other things (but not THAT Will Smith) both dive into tech issues and are more to the left. They also have a separate FOSS Pod.
Came here to recommend this
Seconded, one of my favorite podcasts.
It might be too much fluff for you, but the Vergecast is hosted by a trio of flaming liberals. I avoid the website these days, but I honestly think they do a better a job with the podcast.
I really like Vergecast.
I have listened since the time it was the Engadget podcast, then This Is My Next, then the Vergecast. Yes, it’s fluff and not deep technical info, but it’s really useful for keeping up with the overall zeitgeist of the tech industry. Also it’s often funny. It’s a nice, refreshing thing to listen to while making coffee on a Friday.
I agree. They go from technical to policy and all points in between, and they have senses of humour… I miss hearing Deiter Bohn, but such is life.
Welcome to the vergecast, the flagship podcast of left wing propaganda
In all seriousness though, this is one of the podcasts I tune in to religiously. It’s just too fun and serves as a great high level of “what’s up in big tech” even when my brain is mush.
I was just reading an article on The Verge, and let me tell you, it was not pleasant. Bad site to go to on a mobile browser without adblock.
It’s been a bit since I got an episode up but you could check my podcast - https://shellsharks.com/podcast. It’s tech / infosec-themed. I’m pretty sure I take a lot of jabs in the other direction haha.
Hanselminutes by Scott Hanselman. Covers a variety of tech topics. He’s kinda like the Mr. Rodgers of programming and tech podcasts.
The Mozilla Foundation did a tech podcast called IRL. It hasn’t updated in nearly a year, and I don’t know if it’s ever coming back, but some of their back episodes are worth listening to.
It’s a niche, rather than general technology, but the Internet of Things Podcast - Stacey on IoT is always professional. It’s hosted by Stacey Higginbothem and it’s refreshing to have womens perspective in a heavily male dominated industry.
The Homelab show. Hosted by the owner of Lawrence Systems Canadian managed services firm along with another guy who I can’t remember. Very cool podcast for people who like to tinker with servers at home, or in the cloud.
I think techwontsave.us is want you didn’t know you want, but maybe you’ll enjoy it. It has some really interesting guests and topics.
I felt the same way about different privacy/security forums after a bit. Every time I checked the off topic forums I was seeing highly political, often extreme content, mixed with slurs that would made me blush…and I grew up around racist fishermen and homophobic truckers.
I think a lot of American privacy/security folks start with realizing the US government isn’t about privacy, so they want smaller government, but the only party pushing for smaller government pushes bigoted views to so the privacy folks get sucked into that mental space… not condoning them at all but I think this situation is the result of two-party government. I’m in security sector, but I do research and so there are a lot more left-leaning people around me. Sorry I don’t know any podcasts to recommend though.
