A few weeks ago I started to draft a blog post asking where all the HR bloggers had gone and bemoaning the lack of good opinions around all things people and culture. 

But then of course it dawned on me – they’ve all gone over to podcasts.  Of course they have. Every bugger with an opinion now seems to have a bloody podcast!  

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good podcast and they are brilliant for filling my commuting time (one hour each way since you ask).  So I thought I would highlight a couple of new, recently launched, locally produced additions to my playlists that are keeping me entertained and enlightening me in equal measures. 

The first is an old friend and collaborator, Troy Hammond.  Troy is a Wellington icon – outspoken, funny, rude and authentically himself about all things recruitment.  Just like Marmite apparently, you either love him or loathe him.  

As the founder and owner of Talent Army working in the tech space, he has recently launched a podcast with the awesome title of We F*@kin Love Startups.  Over the last month or two he has attracted a steady stream of interesting and authentic interviewees from the local startup community and just lets them talk about their careers, lives, beliefs, successes/failures and what makes them happy.  Every episode has been superb and Troy does a great job of drawing out his subjects and drilling down into areas of interest.  He’s got the balance absolutely perfect of asking the right questions and just letting them talk.  

A recent episode on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is well worth your time if, like me, you struggle to understand financial stuff and what it all means.  Highly recommended.

Next up is Nicola Knobel’s podcast.  I haven’t met Nicola yet but she is presenting at the upcoming DisruptHR Wellington event and I am MC for the night.  Nicola’s podcast is called Let’s Break Up and focuses on toxic workplaces. With her American co-host Gina, the two have riffed on their shared experience of working in a toxic workplace and having guests share their experience or expertise around workplace culture.  They don’t hold back!

It’s a little less polished than Troy’s podcast but the co-hosts work well off each other and sometimes get amusingly side-tracked. A recent conversation on blow job technique with a top lip full of Botox was…well, I suggest you go and listen for yourself.  

Both pods are available in all the usual places.  Go and check them out.  As for me, I’m a writer not a talker!