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To stay ahead of a rapidly changing field, data professionals need to commit to lifelong learning. But not all of that continuing education needs to happen in the classroom (or online) – thanks to an abundance of informative podcasts, busy tech professionals can explore the latest in data science while driving to work, running on the treadmill, or making dinner.
With that in mind, here are nine podcasts every Data Scientist should be listening to.
Data Skeptic
This venerable data science podcast has been a longtime favorite for good reason.
Hosted by Kyle Polich, Data Skeptic delves into topics relating to data science, statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
In one popular recent episode, Polich was joined by Microsoft Bot Framework employees who dished out advice on building a good chatbot.
Data Skeptic also has a popular series of “mini” episodes, co-hosted by Linh Da Tran, which explore topics like p-values and Bayesian Updating in 15 minutes or less, with the added benefit of fun banter between the married hosts.
Linear Digressions
In this cleverly named weekly podcast, Data Scientist Katie Malone and User Interface Engineer Ben Jaffe have a gift for discussing complex machine learning subjects in a fun and approachable way for experienced Data Scientists and newcomers alike.
With episodes usually clocking in well short of the 30-minute mark, the hosts frequently explore data science issues with real-world applications in mind — for example, a popular episode on traffic metering algorithms.
They’ve also recorded episodes with career tips and a guide for how professional data science teams should pick projects.
Talking Machines
Promising a window into the world of machine learning, Katherine Gorman (a former public radio producer) and Neil Lawrence’s informative podcast features enlightening conversations with industry experts as well as discussion of the news and Q-and-A.
Recent guests include Google Brain’s Jasper Snoek, Adrian Weller of the Alan Turing Institute, and Eoin O’Mahoney of Uber. From the show’s archive, it’s worth checking out an interview with Google researcher Illya Sutskever about machine learning and magical thinking, as well as a season four episode in which the hosts chat about AI and religion.
Data Stories
This every-other-week show hosted by Enrico Bertini and Moritz Stefaner has a focus that sets it apart from most other data science podcasts: data visualization.
The hosts often take a high-minded or even philosophical approach to their topics. In one episode, the hosts welcomed scholar Catherine D’Ignazio to talk about feminist data visualization, while another episode featured Paul Slovic discussing “statistical numbing,” or the inability of statistics to elicit compassion or convey a sense of the scale of human tragedies.
O’Reilly Data Show
O’Reilly Media’s Chief Data Scientist Ben Lorica attracts some big-name guests to this big data podcast.
If the show’s technical perspective can occasionally confuse more casual listeners, they’ll want to stick around for interviews with the likes of Pinterest Lead Data Scientist Grace Huang, who shared lessons from the front lines of machine-learning experiments, or serial entrepreneur Aurelien Geron, who shared insights into becoming a machine learning engineer.
More recently, Lorica was joined by Avner Braverman, whose startup Binaris aims to bring serverless to web-scale and enterprise applications.
This Week in Machine Learning & AI
Host Sam Charrington is the founder of CloudPulse Strategies, an industry research firm focused on the business and consumer application of machine learning and AI, and his podcast is geared toward a highly targeted audience of Data Scientists, Developers, Engineers, CTOs, and Business Leaders.
Newbies might be better off getting their feet wet with a slightly less technical podcast at first, but those in the field will find a lot to like here.
One recent standout episode featured Trista Chen, Chief Scientist of Machine Learning at Inventec, discussing her experience deploying machine learning in an industrial setting, while another featured Nicole Nichols of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory delving into machine learning for security, threat detection, and software fuzz testing.
SuperDataScience
If you’re looking for a podcast that’s not just informative but also offers a motivational boost, look no further than this popular show from host Kirill Eremenko, a Data Science Coach and lifestyle entrepreneur.
Alongside engaging interviews with leaders in the field — recently, University of California San Diego’s Bradley Voytek stopped by to discuss his experience as Uber’s first Data Scientist, while Ellie Mae’s VP of Product Compliance and Strategy Luis Blanco offered a frank recollection of his time leading a team of Data Scientists at American Express — Eremenko also issues a short weekly Friday show simply meant to lift your day.
For example, a recent episode looked at acknowledging positive and negative emotions, while another explored guilt and shame.
Learning Machines 101
Billed as a “gentle” introduction to artificial intelligence and machine learning, this podcast — hosted by Richard Golden, a full-time Professor of Cognitive Science and Electrical Engineering — aims to demystify the AI field with an entertaining approach.
Some episodes do get quite technical, with recent instalments exploring how to choose the best model using AIC and GAIC, how to use first-order logic and Markov logic nets to represent common sense knowledge in algorithms, and how to represent knowledge using logical rules.
Other episodes — like a recently posted podcast exploring what computers can and can’t do using the Turing Machine argument — are fun even for outsiders.
Artificial Intelligence in Industry
One of the most practical podcasts on this list, Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research founder Daniel Faggella’s weekly show looks at the possibilities of AI in sectors including pharma, banking, retail, and defense.
A fascinating recent episode featured renowned Computer Scientist Jurgen Schmidhuber discussing the future of manufacturing, while in another Unity Technologies’ Danny Lange joined Faggella to talk about the application of simulated environments to the automotive field.
He also explores broader business topics that will be of interest to people working in any number of industries. For instance, one recent episode explored why executives should keep up with AI trends in business — with insight from Data Bricks Machine Learning Practice Lead Brooke Wenig — while Facebook’s Jason Sundram recently appeared on the podcast to share insight into building data science teams for AI projects.
