10 Podcasts Every L&D and Instructional Design Professional Should Know

There are hundreds of podcasts touching on learning, HR, and professional development. Most are background noise — vague conversations about trends that won't change how you work. These ten are different: they deliver real craft knowledge, honest practitioner perspectives, and insights that hold up beyond the commute.

The list leans toward instructional design and L&D strategy. For German-language recommendations focused on HR and Personalentwicklung, see our separate post on German HR podcasts.

#For strategically-minded L&D professionals

#The Learning & Development Podcast

David James was Director of Learning at Disney before building this show, and that background shapes it significantly. With over a million downloads, it's the most-downloaded L&D podcast globally. Guests come from Netflix, Novartis, Ericsson, and other organizations that treat learning as a business function. Fortnightly, around 45 minutes, no filler.

#Learning Uncut

Michelle Ockers runs conversations that are more candid than most in this space — no polished consulting-speak, just honest accounts of what L&D leaders are navigating: what's working, what isn't, and why. Particularly valuable if you're in or moving toward an L&D leadership role.

#Talent Talks (TalentLMS)

AI in L&D, onboarding design, employee engagement, and scaling training programs — discussed by practitioners rather than consultants with something to sell. Fortnightly, well-produced, stays current on emerging topics.

#For instructional designers and learning designers

#The eLearning Coach Podcast

Connie Malamed is one of the most respected voices in instructional design. Her podcast covers online learning, visual design for learning, and the psychology of learning — mixing solo episodes with interviews. Particularly strong on design principles and learning effectiveness research.

##IDIODC (Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee)

Chris Van Wingerden and Brent Schlenker run this show live and interactively, with 250+ episodes. The deliberately informal format makes it feel like a genuine practitioner conversation rather than a produced interview. Good for anyone who wants to stay close to the day-to-day reality of instructional design work.

#The Dr. Luke Hobson Podcast

Dr. Luke Hobson is a Senior Instructional Designer at MIT. His episodes cover design principles, scenario-based learning, and career transitions into ID, with a storytelling approach and strong guests. Works well for both people entering the field and experienced practitioners.

#Demystifying Instructional Design

Rebecca J. Hogue examines instructional design across sectors — corporate, healthcare, government, military. The cross-sector perspective is genuinely rare: most ID content defaults to corporate learning without acknowledging how different the constraints and contexts can be.

#For L&D careers and practical entry points

#Become an IDOL

Dr. Robin Sargent founded IDOL Courses, essentially a trade school for instructional designers. Over 100 episodes on course production, portfolio building, landing ID roles, and the "do it messy" philosophy — start, iterate, improve. Most useful for people transitioning into the field, though experienced designers will find plenty of value in the production-focused episodes.

#Secret Society of the Instructional Designer

Behind the name is an honest, unhurried look at what instructional design work actually involves. Monthly, quieter in tone, focused on real problems and how practicing designers work through them. For anyone who finds the unglamorous side of the profession as interesting as the best practices.

#Trends & Issues in Instructional Design

Dr. Abbie Brown and Dr. Tim Green are university professors, and the show carries that academic grounding. Over 165 episodes covering educational technology trends, AI in education, and learning science. Best for practitioners who think empirically and want research-informed perspectives rather than practitioner opinion.

#Newsletters and adjacent shows worth following

#The Learning Hack

A podcast and newsletter focused on the science and practice of learning — covering instructional design, AI in education, and workplace performance. It occupies a less crowded space than the major L&D shows: more grounded in learning research, less concerned with trends. Worth following for practitioners who want evidence-based perspectives without the corporate buzzword filter.

#L&D Plus

A newsletter covering the intersection of learning science, instructional design, and the practical realities of running L&D in organizations. Useful for staying current on where the field is actually moving — particularly around AI and performance-focused design — without sifting through vendor content or conference-circuit polishing.

#Hidden Brain

Shankar Vedantam's NPR podcast on the unconscious patterns driving human behavior isn't an L&D show — but it's one of the most useful podcasts for L&D professionals. Episodes on memory, motivation, habit formation, social influence, and decision-making translate directly into better course design. Particularly valuable for practitioners thinking about why training often fails to change behavior even when knowledge transfers. One of the few shows that deepens how you think about the learner, not just the content.

Podcasts are a good source of perspective and professional development. Turning those ideas into structured learning inside your organization requires something more — a system for building, assigning, and tracking training at scale. That's where Scibly comes in.