On the hunt for inspiration? Here are our favorite future of work podcasts, packed with ideas and reflections from industry leaders.
Future of work podcasts are a great resource into the minds of industry leaders — how they’ve been pioneering trends and where they’re seeing the landscape of work, workforce, and the workplace change.
Most of all, these shows offer authentic conversations, a chance to learn from leading organizations’ processes, mistakes, and frameworks.
In short, future of work podcasts are a goldmine of ideas on how to future-proof your company and get a competitive advantage.
With that said, though, time is finite - and often it's a struggle to find space to keep up with even your favorite shows. "Podcast fatigue" is real, with so much to listen to and so little time. If you want to add another show to your regular rotation, it better be worth it, right?
As big podcast fans ourselves, we understand the problem! And so, we explored the future of work podcast genre so you don't have to - and surfaced 15 of the most inspirational, genuinely useful shows out there.
Be sure to bookmark this article so you can reference it now and later down the line, if ever you're not sure which shows to tune into next:
3. Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan
4. McKinsey Talks Talent podcast
5. HBS Managing the Future of Work podcast
6. AI and the Future of Work podcast by Dan Turchin
7. Humanizing the Future of Work podcast by Deloitte
8. FRESH Takes on the Future of Work by LLUNA
9. The Future of Work podcast by UC Berkeley Extension
10. Inevitable: The Future of Work podcast by Jeff Lesher
11. REAL AF with Andy Frisella
12. Distributed, with Matt Mullenweg
13. The Modern People Leader Podcast by Daniel and Stephen Huerta
14. Leading the Future of Work podcast by Jacob Morgan
15. Future of Work Conversations podcast by The Adecco Group
Let’s go:
Rework comes from the founders of 37Signals (formerly Basecamp) and HEY, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson — known for their out-of-the-box thinking that challenges traditional business concepts.
This podcast will have you thinking as the thought leaders go against the typical scale fast and raise money faster narrative.
Essentially, Rework discusses remote work and its challenges while going behind the scenes on how Jason and David are managing their business by staying small, growing intentionally (read: slowly), and bootstrapping.
The best part? Episodes are under 30 minutes long, which makes the show easy to digest. You can even binge-listen to it if you’d like.
One reviewer commends it, writing: “Very fun, down to earth, informative discussion. It feels like we are sitting at a wine bar talking about these topics.”
If you’ve read his work in his book, Think Again, or followed him on social, you probably wouldn’t need to read the rest of this recommendation to start listening to WorkLife.
Dubbed “the Porsche of podcasts” by Inc., this podcast brings you stories from unusual professionals, uncovering the science behind what makes work not suck.
This makes Adam’s podcast a great resource for improving employee engagement and for learning about important things like:
To add, WorkLife was Apple Podcasts’ most downloaded new shows of 2018 and it topped the entire podcast chart for two weeks the same year.
Brave New Work explores the optimal way to work with insights into how teams can make work more human and adaptive.
The podcast’s premise is simple: what you produce or the results you drive boil down to how you work. It’s why it explores the ‘how’ and offers actionable solutions for improving the way you work.
The host, Aaron has extensive hands-on experience in the subject as he’s the founder of The Ready, which is an org design and transformation firm that has worked with names like Microsoft, Airbnb, Johnson & Johnson, Charles Schwab, and Kaplan among other world-renowned names.
A reviewer writes: “So grateful to Aaron, Rodney, and their team at The Ready for this podcast. Seriously, it’s my fav. Y’all kept me sane when I struggled to find a community on adaptive/human ways of working. I’ve learned so much from your conversations and now I get to do this work within my own org and our clients.”
The Mckinsey Talks Talent podcast is hosted by experts, Bryan Hancock and Bill Schaninger, aiming to help you navigate a fast-changing work landscape.
It addresses leading issues and trends shaping the future of work including topics like quiet quitting, creating an inclusive workplace, instilling culture in a hybrid workplace, etc.
At the end of the day, the show aims to leave you with advice that’ll give you competitive advantage as an individual and organization.
Episodes are short to medium length — under or around 40 minutes so each topic is sufficiently covered. And the show has an Apple podcast rating of 4.7 stars.
Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work podcast tackles hot topics like artificial intelligence, the gig economy, and flexible work strategy for shaping the future of work trends.
From the brilliant minds of HBS, professors Bill Kerr and Joe Fuller, this show welcomes guests like Cal Newport (known and respected for his book, Deep Work) who help you understand:
Each episode runs 30-40 minutes long and the show has an Apple podcasts rating of 4.6 stars.
AI and the Future of Work is a niche future of work podcast as it specifically covers artificial intelligence. It’s hosted by the CEO of PeopleReign, Dan Turchin.
In the show’s medium-length episodes, you’ll learn AI-related emerging technology in its entirety including:
You’ll also learn from interesting guests like Uber’s Head of Enterprise about their real-life experiences with AI, the way they're leveraging it, and what role they think it’ll play in the future.
A reviewer also applauds Dan’s interview skills: “Dan does excellent work by inviting key people in tech and asking really hard and important questions. I will recommend this to all the founders, VCs and techies.”
Think of this podcast as your AI playbook.
Next up: Humanizing the Future of Work podcast where Deloitte’s internal subject matter experts share insights, experience-based stories, observations, and lessons learned.
The podcast’s main focus? Addressing the human element of the future of work as it looks at the why and how organizations can improve employee wellbeing with the transformation.
You’ll find brilliant insights into less covered issues like:
Since this is a relatively new podcast as compared to others in this list, it doesn’t have any reviews yet but a full five-star rating in Apple podcasts at the time of writing this.
FRESH Takes on the Future of Work, covers what its name suggests: it brings fresh perspectives, interesting ideas, and actionable advice from business leaders and HR professionals.
All episodes, however, tie back to FRESH — an acronym for Freedom, Resourcefulness, Empathy, Simplicity, and Happiness, which in a nutshell are the values that define the future of work.
Hosted by LLUNA’s CEO, Jess Podgajny, each episode is under 25 minutes episode.
The Future of Work podcast is a monthly talk show featuring leading experts who discuss:
Episodes are 30-50 minutes long, covering topics like soft skills to learn, things to unlearn with intent, and data democracy.
Inevitable: The Future of Work podcast pairs research, recommendations, and stories from experts from diverse backgrounds to give advice on embracing change to move forward.
To this end, the podcast not only discusses opportunities but also challenges and solutions related to the core future of work topics.
Each episode is around 45 minutes long and there are already well over a hundred episodes published already. So there’s a vast library of episodes to explore and choose from.
A reviewer shares you’ll find value in each episode by noting: “It’s obvious Jeff puts extraordinary effort in covering salient topics and finding guests that are authentic and truly care about being a positive force in this world - the insights they bring to bear are still mind-blowing every. single. time.”
Real AF is a long-running podcast by entrepreneur, bestselling author, consultant and public speaker, Andy Frisella.
It ranks at the top in various podcast directories like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Episodes are deep dives that run longer than an hour, giving you useful insights into prevailing work-related issues such as growing comfortable with conflict and preparing employees for leadership.
The podcast’s format also includes Q&A sessions where you submit questions and Andy answers them for you.
What’s more, the show episodes are uploaded to YouTube as well. This way, you can also enjoy the video element (think: facial expressions and jokes Andy shares with his guests).
Distributed comes from an industry-leading expert, Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic.
In this show, Matt shares his real-life experience of managing and growing a remote workforce of 1,300 employees for 15-plus counting years. He also brings in executives, HR leaders, and CTOs, among others to understand how their teams coordinate outside the traditional office walls to get things done.
Lots of the episodes are over an hour long, taking you deep into the various aspects of remote teams, a future of work trend that’s here to stay.
A reviewer even praises the show by saying it’s “a masterclass in building a distributed company.”
The Modern People Leader Podcast is a weekly show with hour-long episodes.
Hosts, Daniel and Stephen interview different experts like chief people officers, and CHROs on:
So the show is basically a deep dive into the minds of people setting and moving forward into the future of work.
There’s also a repurposed LinkedIn newsletter that Daniel writes, which shares the top takeaways from each episode. You can always subscribe to it to determine if you’re interested in tuning into the week’s episode.
Leading the Future of Work podcast is by Jacob Morgan, a four times best-selling author and speaker with extensive authority on leadership, employee experience, and the future of work.
In his podcast series, Jacob welcomes some of the top business leaders, thinkers, and authors like CEOs from companies like Volvo, Deloitte, and Volvo and authors like Seth Godin and Dan Pink. He also invites researchers, phycologists, and researchers for interesting conversations around work trends.
A review says, “Jacob Morgan does an incredible job of finding the best and brightest to bring actionable advice and tangible tips to each listener!”
The show has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 rating on Apple Podcasts. Plus, episodes are a mix of bite-sized, under 10 minutes episodes and long deep dives. So you can tune into whatever you like to get a taste of this podcast.
Lastly, the Future of Work Conversations is a short, under 20 minutes show that leaves you with insightful nuggets to absorb and execute.
It shares real-life examples of how companies are shifting to the future of work as it shares stories from experts, decision-makers, and C-suites.
In short, this podcast is great for anyone who wants to become future-proof.
