6 Underrated Tech Podcasts You’re Probably Missing in 2026

The popular tech podcasts are popular for a reason. All-In is fun. Acquired is incredible. The Daily and Pivot serve their purposes.

But the most useful tech podcasts I listen to in 2026 are mostly not the famous ones. They’re smaller shows with sharper guests, less production polish, and signal-to-noise ratios that put the mainstream shows to shame.

Here are six. None of these is unknown, they all have respectable audiences. But none has the household-name status they deserve, and most tech-podcast listeners I know are still missing at least three of them.

If you only have time for one new podcast this month, pick one from this list, not from the bestseller charts.

1. Dwarkesh Podcast, Dwarkesh Patel

Why it’s underrated: Dwarkesh has, in maybe three years, become the best long-form interviewer in tech. The competition isn’t close. His preparation is legendary; his guests notice and rise to it. The conversations consistently go places other interviewers can’t get to because the other interviewers haven’t done the reading.

If you care about AI specifically, this is the most important podcast you can be listening to. Frontier-lab researchers, AI-adjacent thinkers (Tyler Cowen, Sarah Paine), and the occasional historian, all interviewed with a depth that makes most other AI content feel breezy.

Start with: Sholto Douglas (any episode). Then Patrick Collison.

Why most people miss it: Dwarkesh doesn’t market aggressively. The podcast grew organically through Twitter and word of mouth. It’s not on most “tech podcast” lists yet because the listicle authors haven’t caught up.

2. No Priors, Sarah Guo and Elad Gil

Why it’s underrated: No Priors is the most consistently smart AI podcast you can subscribe to in 2026. Sarah Guo (Conviction) and Elad Gil are both deeply technical investors with frontier-AI portfolios; their guest list is the people building the layer.

What sets No Priors apart from louder AI shows is the register. No hype, no doom, no breathless coverage of the latest model release. Just two thoughtful investors talking to founders and researchers about what’s actually happening.

Start with: the Sam Altman episode. Then anything with a Conviction portfolio founder.

Why most people miss it: because the mainstream AI conversation is so loud that subtle shows get drowned out.

3. Cheeky Pint, Patrick Collison

Why it’s underrated: Patrick interviews founders, scientists, and operators at a register most podcasts can’t sustain. The conversations are pitched at the level where both people have read the same dense things and don’t need to explain the basics. It’s the closest thing to overhearing the conversations you wish you were part of.

If you’ve been wanting a Acquired-adjacent show that’s more interview-driven and less narration-driven, Cheeky Pint is it.

Start with: any of the founder-and-scientist episodes. The catalog rewards browsing.

Why most people miss it: it’s newer than the big shows and Patrick doesn’t aggressively promote it.

4. The Logan Bartlett Show

Why it’s underrated: Logan (Redpoint) does a venture-style interview show with founders, operators, and other investors. The episodes are tight, the questions are sharp, and the guest list skews toward people who don’t do many other podcasts.

For founders thinking about company-building or fundraising specifically, this is one of the most underrated shows. Logan asks the questions about the actual mechanics of company-building that other VCs are too polite to ask.

Start with: any of the late-stage founder episodes.

Why most people miss it: Logan is one of many venture-side hosts and gets lumped in with bigger names. The quality is better than the brand recognition.

5. Grit, Joubin Mirzadegan (GV)

Why it’s underrated: Joubin interviews CEOs and operators specifically about the hard parts of building companies. Hiring failures. Near-death moments. Difficult board decisions. Most CEO interview shows are highlight reels; Grit is the opposite.

What sets it apart is Joubin’s willingness to sit in discomfort. When a guest brushes off a hard topic, Joubin doesn’t move on. He asks one more question, then another, until the actual answer surfaces. The result is conversations that go places other CEO podcasts can’t.

Start with: any of the recent CEO-of-a-public-company episodes.

Why most people miss it: the title doesn’t tell you what the show actually is, and the production is quieter than the big-name shows. The substance is the appeal.

6. Uncapped with Jack Altman

Why it’s underrated: the most informal, candid founder show I subscribe to. Jack Altman interviews founders and operators with a tone closer to a phone call than a produced podcast. You hear things on Uncapped that founders wouldn’t say on a more formal show.

For listeners tired of polished founder-podcast narratives, Uncapped is the antidote.

Start with: any episode where the guest is a sitting CEO talking about the present, not their highlight reel.

Why most people miss it: it’s intentionally low-production, which reads as “minor podcast” to people who use polish as a quality signal. The signal is in the substance.

Honorable mentions

A few more worth knowing about, in shorter form:

• In Depth (Brett Berson, First Round), the operating-detail podcast. Functionally an essential, but well-known enough that I didn’t put it in the “underrated” main list.
• Founders (David Senra), biographies-as-podcast. Increasingly mainstream but still underrated for how dense each episode is.
• a16z Podcast, the catalog is deep and the shorter explainer episodes are often the best ones.

How to actually deploy this list

Six podcasts is too many to add to your rotation at once. Realistically, you should pick one from this list to try this month.

If you’re an AI builder or thinker: Dwarkesh or No Priors.

If you’re a founder: The Logan Bartlett Show, Grit, or Uncapped.

If you want the higher-register conversations: Cheeky Pint.

If you want to be smarter than your competitors: Dwarkesh. (Honestly. This is the answer.)

A meta-observation

I want to make a small point about why the underrated shows are underrated.

The pattern across the six above is that they’re prepared. Each host has done the reading. Each conversation has a structure. The questions aren’t “tell me your story”, they’re specific, sharp, and informed.

This kind of preparation is rare. Most podcasts are built around vibes and chemistry, which is fine for entertainment but doesn’t compound into knowledge. The shows above compound. You learn something specific in every episode that you can apply, cite, or pass on.

The cost is that prepared shows are harder to produce. They scale less. They grow more slowly than personality-driven shows. So they remain underrated for years even after they’ve become the best in their category.

If you have limited podcast time, and you do, bias toward the prepared shows. The dividends are real.

One last thing

I capture podcast notes in Margin, the app I built for press-and-hold voice notes attached to Spotify episodes. The shows above are the ones I’ve gotten the most useful notes from, by a wide margin. Each episode tends to produce 2-4 high-quality moments worth keeping.

If you start one of these podcasts and want a way to capture the moments that strike you without breaking your stride, that’s what Margin is for. Get on the list at margin.fm.

But more importantly: subscribe to one of the six above. The popular shows are popular for good reasons. The underrated ones are underrated for bad ones. You can fix the second category for yourself by subscribing this afternoon.

Selinay