12 professional podcasts every tech employee should have in their favorites
The Israeli tech community loves to consume and create podcasts. These are the local professional podcasts in English you shouldn't miss out on
Entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, engineers and salespeople. AI, branding, cybersecurity and psychology - these are just some of the people and topics filling the ever-growing variety of English-language Israeli podcasts targeting the tech ecosystem. With the boom in popularity of podcasts over recent years, it isn’t very easy to identify the most interesting and useful content among the vast variety available on the platforms. The number of published podcasts is massive, as are those that don’t succeed and come to an end after fewer than 10 episodes (more than 50%).
It only makes sense then that within the tech employee community, which is known both for consuming and creating podcasts, the number of podcasts is ever-growing. Some of the interviewers persist in uploading episodes at set times and over time, while others disappear after a single-digit number of programs. Some delve into the industry and people operating in the ecosystem, while others use the platform as a marketing or employer branding tool.
Professional podcasts in English presented by members of the Israeli tech community are relatively rare, which is why we decided to be as diverse as possible with a list of programs addressing different topics, and of different levels of depth and persistence.
Startup for Startup
Topic: monday.com’s podcast deals with the many challenges in building a growing startup: fundraising, recruiting employees, building a product, teamwork and more. Each episode features professionals from monday.com and other companies - developers, salespeople, senior leadership and others - who share their experience in the discussed topic.
Host: The English podcast is narrated by monday.com employee Dani Lester. (There is also a Hebrew version of the podcast hosted by Lior Krengel, Darya Wertheim and Adva Shisgal).
Podcast website: https://www.startupforstartup.com/ww/startup-podcasts/
Beginning / Duration: The podcast was launched during the summer of 2018, and has released a new episode every week since then. So far, there are 151 episodes - most of them in Hebrew and about 20 episodes in English - on various topics: product management, R&D, fundraising, HR, marketing, customer service, and many other challenges that startup founders and employees experience on a daily basis.
Fun fact: The Startup for Startup initiative was born from a series of meetings that monday’s founders and Co-CEO’s, Roy Mann and Eran Zinman, conducted with other startup founders, together with Lior Krengel that leads the initiative.
Notable guests: Professor Peter Cappelli from the University of Pennsylvania, who was named by HR Magazine as one of the most influential management thinkers.
Recommended Episodes:
Building an impact-driven culture
How to define KPIs for CS teams
20MinuteLeaders
Topic: The video show aims to showcase the stories of brilliant and inspiring leaders across a variety of industries, in 20 minute conversations.
Host: Michael Matias, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and an ex-8200 Officer, is the host of the show. Currently he is a VC and angel investor.
Podcast website: https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/category/27991
Beginning / Duration: The podcast began following the outbreak of Covid-19, and has been consistently releasing daily episodes. There are more than 750 episodes to the series, featuring guests from all over the world.
Fun fact: The 20MinuteLeaders series started as a pure passion project, with Matias seeking out advice from established entrepreneurs and investors in the California tech and investment industry and meeting them in person in between studying for his B.S CS at Stanford.
Notable guests: Group 11 founding partner Dovi Frances, ICON executive director and Israeli Shark Tank judge Yasmin Lukatz, Co-founder and managing partner of Innovation Endeavors Dror Berman.
Recommended Episodes:
Swimm Upstream
Topic: Swimm Upstream is a podcast devoted to engineering team leads and dev tool enthusiasts. Host Tom Ahi Dror, CBO & Co-founder at Swimm, interviews decision makers and stakeholders from leading engineering organizations, covering topics from managing hyper-growth of engineering teams, change management, onboarding and mentoring.
Host: Tom Ahi Dror, Co-founder & CBO at Swimm.
Podcast website: https://swimm.io/podcast/
Beginning / Duration: Season 1: 7 episodes.
Fun fact: Season 2 will break down how scaling engineering organizations go about implementing change.
Notable guests: Ryan Atkins, Head of Engineering Operations at Asana, Tamar Bercovici, VP of Engineering at Box, Patrick Poels, Senior, VP of Engineering at Synk.
Recommended episode:
Ryan Atkins, Head of Engineering Operations at Asana.
Hunters’ Hands-On Security
Topic: The podcast discusses practical cybersecurity topics. Each episode goes in different directions and the podcast is very diverse. The topics may go from newly discovered vulnerabilities, different ways to solve cybersecurity problems, and stories from experienced people from the industry. We decided to start it because we understood that hands-on security practitioners should get the spotlight and share real, technical tips and tricks to help other people in the community.
Host: The podcast is produced by Hunters and the host is Dvir Sayag, a former 8200 officer and commander, with five years of experience in the cybersecurity field.
Podcast website: https://fast.wistia.net/embed/channel/4ayc8yb6dg?wchannelid=4ayc8yb6dg
Beginning / Duration: The first episode of the podcast aired 11 months ago, in April 2021. A new episode is released every month, and now the first season of the podcast has ended.
Notable guests: Omer Tsarfati, a threat researcher that works for Cyberark, Amitai Ben-Shushan, Threat Researcher at SentinelOne's Threat Intelligence group.
The Production-First Mindset
Topic: Learn how the top brands wow customers through production-first engineering. This podcast explores how customer-centric brands approach engineering to create a competitive advantage, with interviews covering topics such as automation, issue resolution, team structure, DevOps, and more. In each episode, Liran Haimovitch, CTO & Co-Founder of Rookout, interviews an engineering leader in the field and covers topics such as such as automation, issue resolution, team structure, DevOps, and more while covering the tactics, methodologies and metrics used to drive customer value by engineering leaders who are actually doing it.
Host: Liran Haimovitch, CTO & Co-Founder of Rookout.
Podcast website: https://www.productionfirstmindset.com/
Beginning / Duration: The podcast was launched on August 1, 2021 and a new episode is released every week.
Fun fact: The idea for the podcast came to Liran through his experience founding Rookout. Almost everyone he spoke to was finding that they were encountering significant challenges and deep pains when working in production environments and that pain was affecting how businesses operated, created tech, and delivered customer service. Liran decided to take that pain - and the challenges born out of it - and create a podcast that delved into the world of production-first engineering.
Recommended episodes:
Jobvite's Ron Teeter - Own Your Code With Fullstack Observability
Anais Urlichs - Is It Worth Going The Extra Mile?
Malicious Life
Topic: The Malicious Life Podcast by Cybereason examines the human and technical factors behind the scenes that make the threat from cyberattacks so prevalent today. Malicious Life explores the insider stories about the people and events shaping the cybersecurity industry and its evolution. Host Ran Levi interviews hackers, researchers, practitioners and other security industry experts about everything from hacking culture to the most significant cyberattacks that define today’s threat landscape. The show has a monthly audience of over 250,000 and growing, and is consistently in the Top 20 iTunes Technology Podcasts.
Host: Ran Levi.
Podcast website: https://www.cybereason.com/blog/authors/malicious-life-podcast
Beginning / Duration: 5 Seasons, 154 episodes (as of May 14, 2022)
Fun fact: Malicious Life has a monthly audience of over 250,000 and growing, and is consistently in the Top 20 iTunes Technology Podcasts.
Notable guests: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, Art Coviello, former CEO of RSA Security, Malcolm Harkins, former CSO at Intel, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (retired) Bill Hagestad, a leading international authority on cyberwarfare.
Recommended episode:
Crypto AG - The Greatest Espionage Operation Ever (part 1, part 2, part 3)
Hybrid Identity Protection
Topic: The HIP Podcast is the premier podcast for cybersecurity pros charged with defending hybrid identity environments. It is hosted by 15-time Microsoft MVP and Active Directory security expert, Sean Deuby, and presented by Semperis: the pioneers of identity-driven cyber resilience for the hybrid enterprise.
Host: Sean Deuby, Semperis Director of Services and 15-time Microsoft MVP alumnus.
Podcast website: https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/hipconf
Beginning / Duration: Over 40 episodes. The podcast was launched in April 2020 and a new episode is released twice a month.
Fun fact: The Hybrid Identity Protection podcast won a silver award in the 2021 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards for Best Cybersecurity Podcast in North America.
Notable guests: Pamela Dingle, Microsoft Director of Identity Standards, John Craddock, XT Seminars Ltd., Sean Metcalf, Trimarc Security.
Recommended episode:
What to Do Before, During, and After a Cyberattack with Ben Cauwel of Accenture.
The Human Founder
Topic: The Human Founder is a podcast that tells the behind-the-scenes stories of people navigating the Israeli entrepreneurial ecosystem. Entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals come to the clinic to share their challenges, successes, experiences, disappointments, curiosities, and mistakes across their entrepreneurial journey, aiming to share the emotional, psychological, and mental aspects entailed in scaling a startup.
Host: Gali Bloch Liran, an Executive Coach & Advisor who specializes in consulting for startups, VCs, and entrepreneurs. Gali loves startups, new technologies, and innovation, but even more so, the people behind them. She is also an Entrepreneurship Lecturer at Reichman University in Herzliya.
Podcast website: https://www.galiblochliran.com/thehumanfounderpodcast
Beginning / Duration: Over 50 episodes, Approximately 20 of them in English
Notable Guests: Amir Shevat, Head of Product-Developer Platform at Twitter, Investor, Ran Harnevo, Serial entrepreneur.
Recommended episode:
What Does It Mean To “Be Yourself”? (Episode 35)
How To Heal Your Brain & Save Your Own Life As An Entrepreneur? (Episode 29)
Deep Dive into the Heart & Mind of a Seasoned Investor (Episode 23)
BOOST - Elevating Employee Experience and Performance
Topic: An employee experience variety show from Centrical. A series of podcasts that connect the world of Employee Experience/Engagement and Centrical's expertise, knowledge and customers, and why is EX so important in this era of "The Great Resignation" and a post pandemic world.
Host: Luke Jamieson and Laura Butvinik.
Podcast website: https://centrical.com/boostpodcast/
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Unboxing AI
Topic: Unboxing AI discusses, with top thinkers and leaders in the field, the successes, challenges and opportunities CV/ML engineers are facing.
Host: Gil Elbaz, co-founder and CTO of Datagen.
Podcast website: https://unboxingai.show/
Digital Transformers: Age of Completion
Topic: Digital Transformers: Age of Completion by Podcast by Lightico focuses on the challenges leaders address in digitizing their businesses - the how, the why, as well as lessons learned.
Host: Eytan Morgenstern and Graeme Gilovitz, Lightico employees.
Podcast website: https://www.lightico.com/digital-transformers-podcast/
Amazing women at Yotpo
Topic: AWaY is a podcast celebrating the women who work hard every day to help eCommerce brands build deeper relationships with their customers. Each episode features in-depth conversations with brilliant women who are making a difference.
Host: Talia Shani, Director of Marketing UK at Yotpo.
Podcast website: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3873224
