Maker news with jank-aware judgment.
Hackaday Podcast follows the week’s clever, strange, and occasionally janky technology projects, from Doom on a toaster to laser-made PCBs. Its appeal is in the live back-and-forth: practical maker knowledge, sharp skepticism, and genuine delight when a hack actually works.
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Hackaday Podcast is a weekly conversation about technology as practiced by people who take things apart for sport and sometimes put them back together better. It is brisk. The show moves through Hackaday news, maker projects, hardware workarounds, software experiments, community events, and the kind of technical side quests that start with a joke and end in a real design question. Recent episodes range from Doom running on a toaster to music in LED strips, from early 3D printing engineering to Bluetooth-linked calipers and CAD interfaces. The conversations do not sand off the process. Half the appeal is hearing an idea get tested in real time, revised, challenged, and dragged back to the bench where it either works or does not. Linux kernel rules for AI-assisted code become a discussion about responsibility and legal uncertainty. Hurd becomes a problem of how to review an operating system from an ordinary user’s chair, especially when the ordinary user is still comfortable knowing that the kernel simply works. A used industrial caliper becomes a doorway into documented Bluetooth stacks, reverse engineering workflows, and the gap between a neat project and something a maker would actually use. The show is friendly to jank, but not gullible about it. Laser-made PCBs are measured against the boring convenience of sending files away and getting clean boards in the mail. Retro camera builds are appreciated for their cases, sensors, and software choices, not just nostalgia. Speculative IPv4X gets treated as a clever alternate history with practical consequences for NAT and addressability. Hackaday Europe updates, Green Power Challenge notes, mailbag prompts, and quick closing scraps give the show a recurring community rhythm. The tone is warm, dry, and technically fluent. It suits listeners who enjoy hardware detail, old computing references, open documentation, cheap tools, clever misuse of consumer electronics, and the occasional argument over whether too much computing power is too much.
Made for: For hardware hackers, software tinkerers, retro-computing fans, and engineers who like hearing how projects actually behave outside the clean demo. It also suits Hackaday readers who want weekly context around the site’s stranger and smarter builds.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is the bench-level reasoning between the headlines: price, documentation, workflow, real hardware, and failure modes all matter. It celebrates clever hacks while still asking whether they solve a problem anyone would actually have.
Hackaday Editors take a look at all of the interesting uses of technology that pop up on the internet each week. Topics cover a wide range like bending consumer electronics to your will, designing circuit boards, building robots, writing software, 3D printing interesting objects, and using machine tools. Get your fix of geeky goodness from new episodes every Friday morning.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hackaday Podcast turns unusual builds and technical curiosities into practical conversations about mechanisms, constraints, and the pleasures of making hardware behave differently.
Hackaday Podcast follows the engineering question hiding inside an odd object, from Bluetooth calipers and homemade cameras to wireless power experiments and aging storage hardware.
A Bluetooth caliper talks to CAD, and your junk drawer suddenly looks underqualified.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Kernel policy, AI-assisted code, and hardware reuse make this Hackaday hour feel grounded in practical engineering.
Hackaday Podcast episode 366 opens on Linux kernel policy and AI-assisted code, with submissions using an AI tool needing to be flagged and the human author still carrying responsibility for bugs.
Hackaday Europe news and a caliper-linked CAD idea give episode 365 its center.
Hackaday Podcast episode 365 opens with event news before settling into a more hands-on hardware conversation. Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi cover the first round of speakers for 2026 Hackaday Europe, then move into a new CAD interface built around a measuring tool, along with…
A loose, technically rich tour from conference planning to retro cameras that make modern sensors feel deliberately old.
"Clocks, Cameras, and Free Will" turns the Hackaday Podcast into a busy workbench, with Elliot Williams and Christina Panos sorting through conference planning, cardboard, laser cutting, 3D printing, and retro-camera tinkering.
Hackaday episode 362 pairs Europe ticket news with a clever speculative take on IPv4 expansion.
Hackaday Podcast episode 362 opens with Hackaday Europe ticket news, including the note that early bird tickets disappeared within hours, and that the event is planned for Lecco, Italy on May 16 and 17.
Berlin, hackerspaces, and wireless power keep the episode tied to real hardware.
Episode 313, Capacitor Plague, Wireless Power and Tiny Everything, starts in Berlin and quickly settles into the mix of place, hardware, and community that Hackaday handles well.
Skynet 1A, old-school video tubes, and NIPCO disc cameras anchor a loose but engaging Supercon wrap-up.
Hackaday Podcast episode 296 opens on Skynet 1A, Britain's first communication satellite, then drifts into old-school video tubes, NIPCO disc cameras, and the familiar pull between transmission and reception.
Host Jack Rhysider narrates true hacking, breach, and privacy stories from the people involved.
David Pierce and Verge staffers cover AI industry news, gadgets, and tech policy weekly.
Long-form interviews on AI coding agents, infrastructure, and security, plus a recurring SED News roundup.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
David Sparks and Stephen Robles dig into Keyboard Maestro, Shortcuts, and Mac automation weekly.
The hosts discuss upcoming Supercon speakers and tease a sci-fi theme, covering topics like FPGA testing and badge life.
The Hackaday Podcast episode 296 covers a range of tech topics, starting with the mystery of Skynet 1A, a 1969 British satellite that has moved without records.
The hosts introduce episode 339 of the Hackaday podcast, discussing super con announcements, workshops, and a new sound guessing segment.
Elliot Williams and Jenny List open with stories from Hackaday Europe in Berlin, including badge assembly challenges.
Hackaday Podcast episode 366 moves from Linux kernel AI patch rules and Blue Origin's regolith-to-oxygen idea to a Green Power Challenge reminder.
Hackaday Podcast episode 365 covers 2026 Hackaday Europe, Intel 486 support in Linux 7.1, Espressif's ESP32-S31, Vic Oliver's PLA filament story, and a set of maker hacks.
["Hackaday Podcast episode 364, Clocks, Cameras, and Free Will, opens with Elliot Williams and Christina Panos covering Hackaday Europe on May 15-17, the Green Power Challenge, and Tom Nardi's Artemis updates.", "The mailbag segment follows Egon's Audacity decode of the What's That Sound intro, where 0 8 6 0 8 8 8 0 8 leads to the old Wanadoo.fr dial-up number.", "April Fool's posts include a 555 voltage-to-frequency circuit, a PC running with no system RAM, mercury-filled audio cables, and Julian Sheffers' fake CPU architecture.", "The back half moves through Mirko Permovsky's PVC enclosures, retro camera builds, Andy Isaacson's Momentous Clock, John's tape counter, a cardboard guitar, and Lewin Day's report on German balcony solar kits."]
The hosts discuss Hackaday Europe 2025 planning, talk selection challenges, and the Green Power Challenge.
Hackaday Podcast episode 364, "Clocks, Cameras, and Free Will," opens with Elliot Williams and Christina Panos sorting Hackaday Europe talks for May 15-17 and asking the university for more Sunday time.
Hackaday Podcast episode 363 features Elliot Williams and Al Williams discussing PLA’s plant-based origin, Google’s proposed Android restrictions, and several hardware projects.
The Hackaday Podcast episode 362 covers hardware projects and tech history through hosts Elliot Williams and Jenny List, opening with listener Kenny's audio message and a Mars seismometer sound-guessing challenge.
Elliot and Kristina discuss a heat pump disaster and Kristina's switch from Windows to Ubuntu after 38 years.
Tom Nardi and Al Williams recap Supercon 9, thank sponsors, and remind listeners about the Component Abuse Challenge deadline.
Elliot Williams and Jenny List discuss the winners of the Pet Hacks Challenge and announce the new 1 Hertz Challenge on the Hackaday Podcast.