Hello! I’m Siobhan Cooney, Principal Consultant of Cooney Collaborative and avid podcast listener.
Once I transitioned into consulting and started working at home, podcasts became a “go-to” form of professional development. With podcasts, I can learn while taking care of mundane household tasks and carting my kids to and from school. Here I highlight my “Top Five” podcasts for evaluators.
Rad Resources:
- Consulting Success. This podcast, with a near constant focus on developing new business, is best suited for independent evaluators and for-profit firms. One of my favorite interviews is with Rochelle Moulton in which she discusses attracting clients on Twitter.
- Data Stories. Currently boasting 71 episodes, the Data Stories podcast is a great resource for evaluators with a keen interest in data science, data journalism, data visualization and analytics. These podcasts do not constitute DataViz 101 and assume a certain level of pre-existing knowledge. To get started, try episode #3, How Do You Evaluate Visualization?
- HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review is amazing for its easily digestible and practical information on management, leadership, working in teams and virtually every “soft skill” an evaluator can bring to relationships with clients and coworkers.
- The Stanford Social Innovation Review website offers 4 podcasts billed as “audio talks from leaders of social change,” which feature Hallie Preskill, Lisbeth Schorr and Lucy Berholz, among others. These talks tend to be longer than your average podcast and are probably best for long car rides (and half-marathons).
- Adventures in Evaluation with James Coyle and Kylie Hutchinson is sadly no longer in production, but for the 35 episodes it ran, it covered the full gamut of evaluation-relevant topics from facilitation to mobile data collection to evaluation rubrics to effect sizes.
Hot Tip: Did I miss any of your favorite podcasts for evaluators? Leave them in the “comments” section below or tweet them to @Siobhan_eval.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.
I’ll add to the list EvaluLand from Dana Wanzer. https://evaluland.fireside.fm/
Thanks Sarah! I’d add that I have a list of evaluation related podcasts on the EvaluLand podcast website as well: https://evaluland.fireside.fm/other-eval-podcasts
Please note that I have updated the URL to the list of other evaluation podcasts: https://danawanzer.com/evaluation-podcasts/
Really great recommendations here! The podcast is a really great way to succeed. Thanks!
Oops, a little late to the party, but Brian Hoessler (http://www.strongrootsconsulting.ca/) and I very recently started a new evaluation-themed podcast, Eval Cafe, taking after the grand tradition of Adventures in Evaluation. We started a few weeks ago and we’re up to Episode 2 so far! https://evalcafe.wordpress.com/
Thank you for the great links. I can’t wait to dive in!
Here is a podcast that I really enjoy: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bestpractice/
I have found many interesting connections with evaluation in this podcast… “Best Practice brings you the big ideas in workplace culture, leadership, innovation and trends.”
Thank you for this great list! I agree with Elizabeth’s additional suggestions. The Rad Presenters podcast (www.radpresenters.com/)is also great, and run by two evaluation folks.
Thanks, Jessica! I’ll check it out!
Jim Coe, a UK-based advocacy strategy and evaluation consultant, has a new podcast The Advocacy Iceberg. You can find it on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-advocacy-iceberg/id1088558005?mt=2
Sounds great, Rhonda! Thanks!
Great recommendations Siobhan! I also enjoy the PolicyViz Podcast and Manager Tools.
I have really gotten into Manager Tools since I saw your recommendation on Twitter. Thanks!
Loved Adventures in Evaluation, sad it’s no longer running!. Been listening to the Rad Presenters Podcast. That’s another good one!
I agree! I was so sad when I realized it was really ending and not just taking a hiatus. Thanks for the tip on Rad Presenters!