Every designer has a different way of “plugging in” when they start working on a new design. Listening to music is probably one of the best options when you go on a design sprint. You might prefer putting on a guilty-pleasure TV show in the background. But once in a while, you might want to switch it up and learn something new while you design your upcoming masterpiece.
So I compiled a list of every great design podcast to help you focus, gain inspiration, and stay entertained while you design. We’ve got everything from funny shows related to the industry to the best tech podcasts about design to podcasts that will help you look at your designs in a new way.
Let’s dive in…
ShopTalk is a live design and UX podcast hosted by Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert. Each week, the duo are joined by a special guest to discuss front-end web design and development and to answer questions submitted by listeners. There are over 260 episodes of this podcast, so it should keep you busy for a while.
If you’re looking for something to start your morning with every day, Adventures in Design has a new episode Monday through Friday. With nearly 600 episodes to date, this podcast covers “the reality of trying to live your creative dreams.” Topics run the gamut, and you’ll find a lot of fun banter with this daily dose of design.
Hosted by Bryn Jackson and Brian Lovin, this design podcast lets you learn from the best in the industry. As they put it, the hosts talk to the people who design their favorite products. In recent episodes, that includes interviews with a product designer at Slack, a creative director at Google, and the design lead at Shopify.
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
This podcast claims to be the world’s first podcast about design. Episodes are composed of conversations with designers, writers, artists, musicians, and other creative types who have unique perspectives on modern design.
Hosted by Tobias van Schneider, NTMY stands for “Nice to Meet You.” The show is a personal conversation-based podcast in which Tobias meets a new creative type each week. Past guests have included clothing designers, a designer-turned-comedian, and an artist. This one is a newer podcast, with just sixteen episodes so far.
This podcast takes a broad view of design, not just focusing on web development but on all types of design. Host Josh Miles interviews a different designer in each episode with focuses ranging from illustration to branding to architecture.
An offshoot of their popular Hacking UI newsletter, the Hacking UI podcast features creators Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner discussing their passions: design, development, entrepreneurship, time hacking, and tech. Episodes regularly feature interviews with some of the top designers working today.
UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy
A top UI/UX podcast, UI Breakfast is hosted by independent consultant Jane Portman. Originally from Russia, Jane brings in industry experts to share their knowledge and insights about UI/UX trends, products, marketing, and more.
Another great UX podcast, User Defenders is hosted by Jason Ogle. Jason offers up “inspiring interviews with UX superheroes.” The idea behind the podcast is to help newer designers learn from the best by getting at what makes these leading UX superheroes tick, what inspires them, and how they gained success.
The Deeply Graphic Design Cast
This design podcast keeps its focus on graphic design. A nice departure from the interview-based podcasts above, Deeply Graphic instead focuses on a different design topic each episode, taking a deep dive into subjects like designing with SEO in mind, working with subcontractors, and using mood boards.
Design Review is posted twice a week and focuses on different aspects of product design. Chris Liu and Jonathan Shariat talk about design thinking, tools, user experience and more. There are already 53 episodes, and they are still making new ones.
Code podcast—Sounds like something for developers? It is, but they also cover some design topics as well. This podcast is a great opportunity to learn about design from a developer’s perspective with design knowhow.
If you are interested in other designers’ approaches, Creative Honey is definitely for you. Great interviews, talks about design community, and a little bit of psychology. Unfortunately, they haven’t added any new episodes for a while, but there is still a lot of valuable content in their archives.