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November 26, 2025 · The Bloomfield Team

7 Manufacturing Podcasts Worth Your Time

Manufacturing content online skews toward two extremes: academic research papers that take 40 minutes to parse a single finding, or social media posts that compress a complex operational challenge into a three-sentence platitude. Podcasts fill the gap. The best ones put shop owners and operators in conversation for 30 to 60 minutes about how work actually gets done.

We listen to a lot of manufacturing media. Most of it is vendor-sponsored content that reads like a product demo with a microphone. The seven shows below are different. They deliver operational insight that is useful whether you run a 15-person shop or a 500-person plant.

1. Making Chips with Jason Zenger and Jim Carr

The standard-bearer for manufacturing podcasts. Zenger runs Zenger's Industrial, a cutting tool distributor. Carr runs Carr Machine and Tool, a precision job shop. The conversations center on running a manufacturing business: hiring, pricing, customer management, technology adoption, and the daily grind of keeping a shop profitable. The show works because both hosts own and operate manufacturing companies, and they talk like it. Practical advice grounded in real experience. Over 400 episodes since 2014, so the archive alone is a library of operational knowledge.

2. The Manufacturing Executive

Hosted by Joe Sullivan from Gorilla 76, a marketing firm focused on manufacturing. The guests are manufacturing CEOs, COOs, and VPs of operations at companies ranging from $10 million to $500 million in revenue. The conversations tend toward strategy: growth, leadership, culture, and how to scale without losing the operational discipline that built the company. Useful for shop owners thinking about the next phase of their business.

3. MakingChips for Metalworking

A spinoff focused specifically on metalcutting and metal forming operations. More technical than the main Making Chips show. Episodes cover specific machining challenges, tooling strategies, and shop floor optimization in detail that operators and production engineers find directly applicable. If you are solving a specific machining problem, search their archive before you start googling.

4. The Augmented Podcast

Hosted by Natan Linder, co-founder of Tulip Interfaces. Covers the intersection of technology and manufacturing operations. The show leans more toward digital transformation and Industry 4.0 topics, but it stays grounded because Linder's guests are typically operators and plant managers who are actually implementing these technologies, rather than vendors selling them. Good for manufacturers evaluating where technology fits into their operation.

5. Minds of Manufacturing

Conversations with people who build things. The guest list includes machinists, engineers, shop owners, and manufacturing entrepreneurs. The format is informal, the topics range from shop floor problem-solving to business development, and the perspectives come from people who spend their days in manufacturing facilities. Shorter episodes, usually 20 to 35 minutes, which makes them easier to fit into a commute or lunch break.

6. Manufacturing Happy Hour

Chris Luecke hosts conversations with manufacturing professionals about technology, operations, and career development. The show has a lighter tone than some others on this list, which makes it accessible without sacrificing substance. Good coverage of how technology is actually being adopted on shop floors, with honest accounts of what works and what does not.

7. The Industrial Talk Podcast

Scott MacKenzie interviews industrial professionals across manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure. The show covers a broader range of industrial topics than the others on this list, which means not every episode is directly relevant to a job shop owner. When the topic aligns, the conversations are detailed and practical. MacKenzie's background in industrial sales gives the interviews a commercial awareness that other shows sometimes lack.

How to Get the Most From Manufacturing Podcasts

Do not try to listen to all of them every week. Pick two that match your current challenges and subscribe. Use the archives when a specific topic comes up. If you are working on pricing strategy, search Making Chips for their pricing episodes. If you are evaluating technology vendors, scan The Augmented Podcast's guest list for relevant conversations.

The people running these shows are builders. They talk about manufacturing the way people on the floor talk about manufacturing: specific, practical, and grounded in what the work actually requires. That is worth 30 minutes of your week.