Pragmatic

CURRENT


116 iTunes Ratings (4.8 Av)
106
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Pragmatic

Pragmatic is a discussion show contemplating the practical application of technology. Exploring the real world trade offs we look at how great ideas are transformed into products and services that can change our lives. Nothing is as simple as it seems.


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Show Blog

Total Listening Time: 6 days, 21 hours, 39 minutes and 26 seconds.

Selected iTunes Reviews
Egler H.
Quickly became one of my favorite podcasts

These guys are incredible in choosing their topics and talk about technology in detail, without becoming impossible to understand. Hope there will be a lot more episodes.

Andrew Saul
Engineering made fun & accessible

All around us there's vital pieces of manufactured items and technology that we interact with each day. Each of these have a rich story of how they work and how they came to be. They make these already relatable topics a lot of fun.

Zri
Well worth a listen

Excellent podcast with a really nice focus on the practical consequences of technology. It’s well researched and John Chidgey has a very thorough and well structured style while also being easy to listen to. Check it out.

berodrigues
Learning Experience

You can learn a lot of incredibly interesting things with this podcast. John is obviously very passionate about the topics covered, and there's a lot or preparation involved on his part. So thanks and thumbs up.

beezee05
One of the best!

One of the most well prepared, well researched podcasts. Always came away feeling like I learned something with every episode.

nam oidua
Informative and accessible.

These two cover lots of complex topics, but it’s never over my head. There’s something to be said about a podcast that can captivate you with a topic you didn’t think you were interested in. Kudos, gentlemen.

Uthaym
Move over Siracusa

Love the show. Gives me everything that the "old Siracusa" (circa 5by5 era) did and then some!

cajun on rails
Eloquent. Enlightening. Entertaining.

This podcast is a real treat for anyone interested in technology. John has a knack for concisely explaining technologies and concepts that most people struggle to communicate or even understand. You can tell that he puts in a lot of effort to prepare each episode.

Protactinium1234
So good

Great show. John has a great voice for podcasting and his breadth of knowledge is impressive. Very educational!

anttti
Excellent, in-depth podcast about tech

If you loved Hypercritical, this is the show for you. Super!

pitouthestar
Both entertaining and enriching

One of my new favorite podcasts. John is incredibly knowledgable about the topics he tackles and his passion is contagious. Time flies by and you learn a whole lot with every episode.

Maxim Harper
Just Fantastic

An analogy to describe this Podcast would be a broader Hypercritical (if you’re familiar with Siracusa), covering practical technology as a whole (rather than just Computing & Gaming specifics). Chidgey really knows his stuff as an engineer, structuring his discussion exquisitely and providing great follow up. Highly recommended.

JPC_pt
How things are thought and made to work

Great podcast for anyone who wants to know how the things around us are made to work. The presenters are knowledgeable on what they are talking about. This show reminds of Siracusa’s “Hypercritical” but about technology and engineering.

Jason Tate
Learn Something New Every Time

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to each week. The obviously well researched and knowledgeable host does a great job of making even complex topics fun to listen to and engaging. Highly recommended.

hldomingue
Thorough and Engaging

Absolutely love this podcast. The way John and his guests break down topics is fascinating, and I find I am always learning something new and interesting. I highly recommend this podcast for anyone who is curious not only about technology, but also the history and evolution of it. Even if you only listen to shows covering topics in your wheelhouse, it will be worth your while.

micktravis
Fascinating

Really interesting and completely engaging, this podcast is like a high-end explainer for everything tech-related.

Isaac Case
Wonderful new podcast

I love the amount of background and detail that John goes through. He really goes into great depth to make sure that the topic is well understood. I really appreciate the broad range of topics discussed. I also appreciate that John often tries to explain why tech decisions were made not just the results.

jed h.
Way better than a college lecture

Pragmatic is an extremely insightful podcast with very intelligent hosts. I've listened to every episode, and each of them have provided me with at least a dozen new/practical pieces of information. Anyone who wants a brief overview of a wide range of tech topics should really give this podcast a listen.

Granvilled
A Gem

This podcast is a rarity. It delivers fresh, diverse, well-researched, and entertainingly delivered content week after week. Chidgey's enthusiasm and thoroughness are truly contagious. The highest compliment I can give is to admit that I invested in better hearing protection because of John Chidgey. :-)

apulianas
Extremely interesting topics

As an engineer myself, I really appreciate listening to this podcast and learning more about technologies I have not read up on. The show talks about the trade offs of design which is the essence of engineering.

Selected Tweets

Boost-A-Gram Leaderboard (rules) for Pragmatic
  1. 2155 sats for Episode: "106: Wind Farming" from Dave Jones
  2. 2119 sats for Episode: "106: Wind Farming" from Dave Jones
  3. 2116 sats for Episode: "106: Wind Farming" from Dave Jones

Latest Episode

Scott Willsey returns to pull apart the Google AI Overviews feature, the risks of trusting LLMs and Generative AI and the OpenAI Scarlett Johansson saga. Also John’s returning to the USA in September and embracing Dumb Watches along with a host of other updates.

With Scott Willsey and John Chidgey.

Episode Gold Producers: 'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Lesley, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring and Ian Gallagher.

Watching photography evolve in the past few years had demonstrated with computing power comes the possibility of ditching the SLR entirely and going mirrorless. Clay returns to discuss the mirrorless revolution. And yes, Clay called it first.

With Clay Daly and John Chidgey.

Episode Gold Producers: 'r' and Steven Bridle.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, John Whitlow, Kevin Koch, Shane O'Neill, Oliver Steele, Lesley Law Chan, Hafthor, Jared, Bill and Joel Maher.


Lockdowns due to the pandemic of 2020-2021 has shifted a lot of peoples computing needs with working from home on their computer now a real driver for many people. We look at how it’s impacted John and take a walk down history lane of Vic and John’s various Macs for the past few decades and how it led to a controversial purchase.

With Vic Hudson and John Chidgey.

Episode Gold Producers: 'r' and Steven Bridle.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, John Whitlow, Shane O'Neill, Kevin Koch, Oliver Steele, Lesley Law Chan, Hafthor and Bill.


A team of podcasters and developers are working on the next evolution of podcasting they call Podcasting 2.0. Dave Jones joins John to talk about their goals, RSS, XML and JSON pieces and how they fit together. To top it all off, we also dive into BitCoin, Lightning and distributed monetisation in podcasting.

With Dave Jones and John Chidgey.

Episode Gold Producer: 'r'.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, John Whitlow, Kevin Koch, Oliver Steele, Lesley Law Chan, Hafthor and Shane O'Neill.


Ian Norman from Lonely Speck joins John to talk about photographing the MilkyWay with just your DSLR and without spending a fortune. We cover everything from Star-Trackers, Red-light filter removal, Pollution Filters, Focussing techniques, Image stacking and lots more.

With Ian Norman and John Chidgey.

Episode Gold Producer: 'r'.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, John Whitlow, Kevin Koch, Oliver Steele, Lesley Law Chan, Hafthor and Shane O'Neill.


Episode 100: Oh My NAS

12 December, 2020

Casey returns to join John in an episode where we explore all things NAS - specifically the Synology. How we use it, what we use it for and how we neither of us can ever live without one anymore!

With Casey Liss and John Chidgey.

Episode Gold Producer: 'r'.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, John Whitlow, Kevin Koch, Oliver Steele, Lesley Law Chan, Hafthor and Shane O'Neill.


Acknowledgements
  • Intro music for all episodes credit to Ludwig Van Beethoven: Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59 and Bia 515) “Für Elise” performed in 2000 by John Chidgey on my beloved K. Kawai GE-1A that I no longer have (SOB)
  • Outro music to Markus Kaarlonen from his original MOD file SpaceDeb.MOD

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