If you have not heard of it by now, let me take a moment and introduce you to a really good podcast called Packet Pushers Podcast (PPP for short).
PPP is a bunch of networking nerds and uber geeks getting together around a virtual workbench and talking about topics that are of interest to us networking people.  Past topics have ranged from Juniper Q-Fabric, LISP, MS Teredo, Arista Networks, Openflow, and many many more.  Some of these topics might be new to you, some of them are an old hat, but no matter what they it is a great opportunity to listen and learn to what others have to say.  Sometimes their view or understanding is different then ours.  Also what is nice – sometimes the Vendors step in and join the conversation, so you are getting first-hand information!
The primary topics focus on the core technologies – Routing, Switching, and Firewalls.  These are the core of what most of us do on a day to day basis, and lets be honest – how many of us have time to research all the technologies and changing industries that are out there?   We all can do some, but there are many more that we cannot look at, and this is where PPP is great.  It is a chance to listen to about an hour podcast and listen and learn.  I usually listen when I am either walking during lunch, cutting the grass at, or going for a bike ride after work (still trying to get rid of the CCIE 30.) (cont)


There are two main hosts to this podcast – Greg Ferro (CCIE 6920) who runs Etherealmind.com and Ethan Banks (CCIE 20655) who runs PacketAttack.org.  What is really nice is is that they invite industry experts and other uber geeks to join in on the conversation and contribute.  By adding other people to the conversations, a good balance is maintained with the content and opinions. One person might see something one way, one might have had to troubleshoot a previous installation, whilst another is just explaining why they installed it a completely different way.  Just reading a white paper on a topic is not going to provide you that kind of information!
I urge you to take a few moments and check it out, you will be glad you did.
You can get Packet Pushers via their website here and via iTunes