{"id":1192,"date":"2015-12-18T10:59:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T10:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2015-12-18T10:59:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T10:59:43","slug":"podcasts-for-tech-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/podcasts-for-tech-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcasts for tech writers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heading into the holiday season, I&#8217;m going to spend a bit less time in front of my laptop, but I&#8217;ll be keeping myself entertained and informed by continuing to listen to podcasts. Here&#8217;s a quick roundup of podcasts I find entertaining\/useful.<!--more--> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theallusionist.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Allusionist<\/a> is an entertaining but informative podcast about language by Helen Zaltzman. Topics cover everything from the etymology of specific words to the evolution of language systems. Episodes are typically 15-20 minutes long. Good for either transitioning into or out of work mode at either end of the day.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.quickanddirtytips.com\/grammar-girl\" target=\"_blank\">Grammar Girl<\/a>, presented by Mignon Fogarty, picks a technical grammar issue each episode and gives it a quick explanation with some examples. Episodes vary in length, but are typically in the 5-15 minute range. Good for a quick palate refresh between writing projects during the day.<\/li>\n<li>Tom Johnson&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/idratherbewriting.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">I&#8217;d Rather Be Writing<\/a> podcast has a strong emphasis on API documentation best practices and tools, but covers other aspects of tech writing too. Episodes include Tom&#8217;s personal musings on the field, interviews with other SMEs, and recordings of presentations at various conferences and other events. Episodes are lengthy &#8211; one to have on standby for commuting listening, or to keep your mind occupied while working on something repetitive that doesn&#8217;t require thinking.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.radiolab.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Radiolab<\/a> is a documentary series that covers a wide range of subjects. I think I&#8217;ve loved almost every episode I&#8217;ve heard, but the following couple are particularly interesting from tech and language perspectives: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radiolab.org\/story\/trust-engineers\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Trust Engineers<\/a> (about the inner workings of Facebook), and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radiolab.org\/story\/translation\/\" target=\"_blank\">Translation<\/a> (about language and, well, translation). Lengthy episodes again &#8211; one for the commute, or a lunchtime walk.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/qi.com\/podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\">No Such Thing As A Fish<\/a> is a round table with the QI elves, where they discuss a selection of the most interesting facts they&#8217;ve come across in their research in the past week. Occassionally language-\/tech-related, always fun. Episodes are usually 30-40 minutes long. Don&#8217;t try to listen to this at your desk &#8211; you <i>will<\/i> laugh out loud at some point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heading into the holiday season, I&#8217;m going to spend a bit less time in front of my laptop, but I&#8217;ll be keeping myself entertained and informed by continuing to listen to podcasts. Here&#8217;s a quick roundup of podcasts I find entertaining\/useful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,6,29],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-tech-writing","category-writing","tag-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1196,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions\/1196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharonmurphy.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}