This Week in Tech (Video)

Truly a long-running gem, Leo and TWiT’s flagship weekly show navigate many topics each week in tech and modern life for all of us. The panels include experts from many fields, taking the time to explore current issues and looking to the future. Highly recommended!

The show doesn’t only stick to the tech news, and that’s why I like it so much. Leo has such a charming and funny personality and it’s always a joy to hear him and his guests talk tech and random stories of the week. Thanks Leo!

Started in 2005, This Week in Tech (TWIT) is the longest running tech podcast and still the best! Each Sunday, Leo Laporte assembles 2-3 guest hosts to talk about the week’s tech news and dive deeper into their implications. The panels are fun, informative, diverse, and thought provoking. Even my non-tech wife enjoys the show. In this modern era when we are saturated with other podcasts, YouTube channels, and other media du jour, I still enjoy spending my time most with this crew. The 2+ hr shows go by in a flash. Laporte has built a professional podcasting network that includes over a dozen other shows, check them out on their website twit.tv where you can browse through recent episodes. Loyal fans stay connected during and between shows on IRC and Discord. It really becomes more than just a show, but a huge community.

I was introduced to podcasts and TWIT almost 4 years ago now. I became addicted to TWIT right away. Leo is a great host and has amazing tech guests. I want to name all the folks I enjoy but the list is too long. I always learn something and enjoy the differing opinions and perspectives that his guests have. Leo has great sponsors as well.

I was an early adopter of the podcast craze. In the beginning, there was plenty of junk to slog through, with reviews of neither the good nor bad to assist you in subscribing. TWiT (actually, I was listening *before* it even had a name) was a rare jewel back then: entertaining, engaging, and even informative. Lately, however, I find myself missing more episodes than not, due to my flagging certainty as to the authoritative value of the content. Don't get me wrong--some of the regular panel members are brilliant and clearly understand technology, especially computers and web 2.0. Unfortunately, these are often the same people who can't string an interesting and cogent sentence together. And Dvorak, for all his crankiness, is at least fun. As the host of record, Laporte is the most charismatic and well spoken of the bunch, but I am often left to wonder about his qualifications. It regularly surprises me how little he seems to know about technology; how has he managed to earn this reputation as a tech guru? Honestly, it smacks of P.T. Barnum-style marketing ("Your first podcast of the week is the last word on tech!") with little substance. A few of my friends easily outpace Laporte's knowledge and are just as charismatic, which leaves me wondering why Leo is the one who can afford to buy new Intel Macs as toys, while they scrape by as public and private sector IT guys. Update: Dvorak is MIA for the past year or so, reducing the entertainment value of the podcast even more. Did he and Leo have a falling out? No Agenda now ranks higher than TWIT in my priority listening. Update 2: Dvorak has returned, but the panel now seems to routinely turn to alcohol as a source of inspiration. The resultant "dialogue" is loud, meandering, without focus. If you want us to believe this show involves serious professionals authoritatively discussing the day's tech news, create an agenda for each show and save the booze for after the show. The only people who drink during the work day are alcoholics. Update 3: The TWiT network seriously needs new blood. All of the shows I have listened to are stale and lack coherent focus.

Leo and gang have stated that media/podcasters/YouTubers can of course publish whatever they want (free speech and all) but the larger your audience and the more the media source wishes to be considered legit - the more important it is for for the media source to get their facts straight and not misinform people. TWIT supposedly embraces this ideology which includes "Don't be like most media outlets and reguritate the sensational headlines and brainless, biased reporting". Yet I have found that Leo and his guests way more often than not are doing the opposite. They do very poor research on most of the topics they talk about - offering a lot of their very biased opinions (influenced from other hive-minded media sources and echo chambers). This is fine if stated as such, but too often their statements come across as facts and very often those facts are wrong, misleading, or completely out of context. I wanted to like TWIT because they talk about things that I am interested in, and for a while I really liked it. But I notice problems when they discuss topics that I'm very knowledgable of. They spew out much of the same, lazy, click-bait, misinformation on the subject matter that is trickling through the mass media like diarrhea. It is infuriating to hear them spread misinformation to their audience that naively trust them. If they can't do fair reporting on the subect I'm knowledgable of, then I certainly cannot trust TWIT on topics I'm not as knowledgable of. Yes you should always be skeptical of anything a media source reports of, but so many people are lazy and just trust a source like TWIT as being fair, balanced, objective, and informed. And yes, there are some of the guests on TWIT do actually seem to embrace these qualities - but most of their regulars including Leo do not. If you want real news that you can trust, don't come to TWIT. If you choose to listen to TWIT regardless, understand that much of what they speak of is likely to be regurgitated crap that you can find swirling around the sesspool of lazy journalists that have learned its all about sensational reporting to get attention and advertising.