talkingkotlin.com

What It Is

Talking Kotlin is an English-language tech podcast centered on the Kotlin language and its surrounding ecosystem. The site shows that it is updated bimonthly, hosted by Hadi Hariri and others, and carries JetBrains-related branding. Its content covers Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform, the JVM, Android, interviews with library authors, open-source project practices, and more. It has a very focused positioning and primarily serves the Kotlin developer community.

Core Features

The website provides a list of the latest episodes, individual episode detail pages, episode length, recording and publication dates, guest introductions, Show Notes, related links, and subscription options via iTunes and a Podcast Feed. Topics visible from the indexed content include the evolution after Kotlin 2.0, Kotlin Multiplatform integration, Skip as a Swift-to-Kotlin translation solution, Kord as a Discord API library, and the open-source ticketing system pretix. It is not just a news broadcast; it leans more toward in-depth interviews and sharing real-world engineering experience.

Pricing

Based on the information shown on the site, Talking Kotlin is free to listen to, with no indication of memberships, paywalls, or paid subscriptions. Users can access content via “Listen now” on the website, iTunes, or a general Podcast Feed. The comment system uses Disqus, but that is not a core paid feature.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are its high level of specialization and the quality of its guests. Many interviewees are open-source library authors, tool founders, or active members of the Kotlin community, making it useful for gaining first-hand engineering perspectives. Episode pages are clearly structured and include Show Notes and further links, which makes follow-up learning easier. The downsides are that English audio is not very friendly for Chinese users, and if transcripts are unavailable, extracting information becomes less efficient. The bimonthly update schedule also means it is better suited for in-depth tracking than for getting real-time news. In addition, the site’s search, tag aggregation, and content reorganization capabilities appear relatively basic.

Who It’s For

It is very suitable for Kotlin, Android, JVM backend, and Kotlin Multiplatform developers, as well as teams evaluating cross-platform technology strategies. It is also valuable for engineers who want to understand the JetBrains technical ecosystem, open-source library maintenance experience, and mobile code-sharing practices.

Access from China

The main website’s regular pages can most likely be accessed directly, but iTunes, Podcast Feed clients, Disqus comments, and some external links may be unstable or partially restricted in mainland China. Overall, it should be considered “partially restricted.” Reading episode descriptions should generally be fine, but for stable subscription and listening, users may need to switch podcast clients or use a different network environment.