Browse Episodes

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Story Types

Personal Journeys

Beautiful Code

Beautiful Code

#097 Feb 2, 2024 57:00

Inside Greg Wilson's Vision for Software Design

Have you ever felt like your code could be more than just functional, that it could be beautiful? Greg Wilson didn't just ponder this; he embarked on a quest to elevate software design to an art …

Full-Time Open Source

Full-Time Open Source

#067 46:08

with Andrew Kelley

Frontiers of Performance

Frontiers of Performance

#059 47:09

with Daniel Lemire

A Dark Room - From Code Hobo to Indie Game Developer

A Dark Room - From Code Hobo to Indie Game Developer

#090 40:41

with Amir Rajan

See all 67 episodes →

Technical Deep-Dives

Learning About Compilers

Learning About Compilers

#037 Sep 1, 2019 58:35

and Bytecode With Thorsten Ball

What do compilers do? What is the runtime of a language? What does it mean to compile something down to bytecode and what executes the bytecode. Throsten Ball answers these questions in this interview …

Design Principles From Functional Programming

Design Principles From Functional Programming

#004 51:12

with Runar Bjarnason

Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems

#012 66:26

with Steven Proctor

How to Build a Programming Language

How to Build a Programming Language

#032 56:13

with Bob Nystrom

See all 39 episodes →

Historical

Apple 2001

Apple 2001

#063 Apr 3, 2021 48:07

With David Shayer

David Shayer worked at Apple for 14 years, and he has a wild experience to share. Apple has a unique culture, and David will give us an insider view of what it was like for him at Apple during the …

JSON vs XML

JSON vs XML

#087 49:55

with Douglas Crockford

The History and Mystery Of Eliza

The History and Mystery Of Eliza

#078 44:06

with Jeff Shrager

Sun's Mobile Blunders

Sun's Mobile Blunders

#086 51:44

with Shai Almog

See all 17 episodes →

Investigations

The History and Mystery Of Eliza

The History and Mystery Of Eliza

#078 Jul 5, 2022 44:06

With Jeff Shrager

I recently got an email from Jeff Shrager, who said he'd been working hard to solve a mystery about some famous code. Eliza, the chatbot, was built in 1964, and she didn't answer questions like Alexa …

The Science of Learning to Code

The Science of Learning to Code

#091 50:44
Sloot Digital Coding System

Sloot Digital Coding System

#093 51:49
Why still 80 columns?

Why still 80 columns?

#077 39:22

with Krystal Maughan

See all 6 episodes →

Cautionary Tales

Coding Machines

Coding Machines

#100 May 3, 2024 48:11

With Don and Krystal

with Krystal Maughan

What if the tools you trust were actually betraying you? Join us for a riveting story where a team of software developers discovers that their compiler is compromised. What starts as suspicion of a …

ReiserFS

ReiserFS

#105 52:33
Sloot Digital Coding System

Sloot Digital Coding System

#093 51:49
Risk Rolls Downhill

Risk Rolls Downhill

#115 55:00

with Scott Darlington

See all 8 episodes →

Collections

Fan Favorites

Platform Takes The Pain

Platform Takes The Pain

#094 Nov 2, 2023 48:35

The Inside Story of Spotify's Engineering Growth

with Pia Nilsson

How did Spotify scale from 10 engineers to 100s to 1000s ...without slowing down? Without becoming corporate? Facing an IPO deadline, Pia Nilsson worked with 300 teams to transform how Spotify built …

JSON vs XML

JSON vs XML

#087 49:55

with Douglas Crockford

Shipping Graphing Calculator

Shipping Graphing Calculator

#085 46:46

with Ron Avitzur

From Prison To Programming

From Prison To Programming

#080 46:36

with Rick Wolter

See all 16 episodes →

Big Tech Stories

Inside Early Google

Inside Early Google

#118 Jan 2, 2026 37:39

Race Conditions, Java Pain, and the Birth of AdWords

with Ron Garret

Ron Garret left JPL for a 100-person startup he’d just discovered on Usenet. Four a.m. alarms. Burbank to San Jose on Southwest. A rented room in Susan Wojcicki’s house. He expected the search engine …

Leaving Stripe

Leaving Stripe

#107 51:00

with Jon de la Motte

Inside Shopify's Layoffs

Inside Shopify's Layoffs

#106 42:00

with Allison Malloy

Leaving LinkedIn

Leaving LinkedIn

#098 47:30

with Chris Krycho

See all 8 episodes →

Redemption Stories

Coding Through Chaos

Coding Through Chaos

#112 Jun 3, 2025 49:00

Addiction, Recovery and Acceptance

with John Walker

What if your search for connection took you somewhere you never meant to go—almost costing you everything? John Walker grew up building computers and exploring early internet forums, always looking …

ReiserFS

ReiserFS

#105 52:33
From Prison To Programming

From Prison To Programming

#080 46:36

with Rick Wolter

Serenity OS

Serenity OS

#073 41:28

with Andreas Kling

See all 4 episodes →

Project Origins

HATETRIS

HATETRIS

#109 Mar 3, 2025 48:11

Obsession, Friendship, and World Records

with Felipe Oliveira

What if a simple game became a gateway to computational breakthroughs? David Freiberg and Felipe set out on a journey to conquer Hatetris, a notoriously difficult JavaScript game. Their interest …

Navigating Corporate Giants

Navigating Corporate Giants

#102 49:30

with Jeffrey Snover

Android's Unlikely Success

Android's Unlikely Success

#081 60:06

with Chet Haase

CPAN

CPAN

#079 56:02

with Krystal Maughan

See all 10 episodes →

Technologies

Functional Programming

Design Principles From Functional Programming

Design Principles From Functional Programming

#004 Jan 10, 2018 51:12

With Runar Bjarnason

Runar Bjarnason has been exploring how writing in a functional style increases modularity and compositionality of software for many years. He is co-author of functional programming in scala, a book …

Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems

#012 66:26

with Steven Proctor

The Little Typer

The Little Typer

#023 67:20

with Daniel P. Friedman and David Thrane Christiansen

Language Oriented Design

Language Oriented Design

#039 56:27

with Hal Abelson

See all 27 episodes →

Distributed Systems

Data and Scale

Data and Scale

#028 Mar 31, 2019 56:15

With Pat Helland

Pat Helland has a wealth of knowledge on building distributed data stores. He has been working on distributed data stores since 1978, when he worked on the tandem fault-tolerant database. Since then …

Portal Abstractions with Sam Ritchie

Portal Abstractions with Sam Ritchie

#050 35:10

with Sam Ritchie

Test in Production

Test in Production

#019 47:59

with Charity Majors

Microservices Architecture

Microservices Architecture

#014 66:32

with Jan Machacek

See all 12 episodes →

Open Source

Full-Time Open Source

Full-Time Open Source

#067 Aug 2, 2021 46:08

With Andrew Kelley

Today’s show: How to quit your job and work on open source full time. This story has it all -- balancing side projects and full-time employment, building up enough supports to leave your job, and …

Frontiers of Performance

Frontiers of Performance

#059 47:09

with Daniel Lemire

The Business Of Developer Tools

The Business Of Developer Tools

#043 37:00

with Lee Edwards

Open Source Health and Diversity

Open Source Health and Diversity

#038 41:33

with Heather C Miller

See all 29 episodes →

Developer Tools

Frontiers of Performance

Frontiers of Performance

#059 Dec 1, 2020 47:09

With Daniel Lemire

Did you ever meet somebody who seemed a little bit different than the rest of the world? Maybe they question things that others wouldn't question or said things that others would never say. Daniel is …

When AI Codes, What’s Left for me?

When AI Codes, What’s Left for me?

#113 40:00

with Adam Gordon Bell

A Dark Room - From Code Hobo to Indie Game Developer

A Dark Room - From Code Hobo to Indie Game Developer

#090 40:41

with Amir Rajan

Navigating Corporate Giants

Navigating Corporate Giants

#102 49:30

with Jeffrey Snover

See all 19 episodes →

Programming Languages

Krystal's Story

Krystal's Story

#052 May 18, 2020 40:23

Chasing Your Curiosity and Continuous Learning

with Krystal Maughan

Things are easier to learn when you are passionate about something. A lot of great careers are built on curiosity and obsession including Krystal Maughan our guest for today's episode. Krystal will …

Full-Time Open Source

Full-Time Open Source

#067 46:08

with Andrew Kelley

Learning About Compilers

Learning About Compilers

#037 58:35

with Thorsten Ball

We're Teaching Functional Programming Wrong

We're Teaching Functional Programming Wrong

#055 46:39

with Richard Feldman

See all 63 episodes →

Databases

Portal Abstractions with Sam Ritchie

Portal Abstractions with Sam Ritchie

#050 Apr 17, 2020 35:10

How abstract algebra solves data engineering

with Sam Ritchie

Today the story of how twitter engineers came up with a unique solution to data engineering. Adam interviews Sam about how the abstract algebra and probabilistic data structures help solve fast …

Godbolt's Rule

Godbolt's Rule

#116 00:44:13

with Matt Godbolt

Test in Production

Test in Production

#019 47:59

with Charity Majors

Data and Scale

Data and Scale

#028 56:15

with Pat Helland

See all 7 episodes →

Game Development

A Dark Room - From Code Hobo to Indie Game Developer

A Dark Room - From Code Hobo to Indie Game Developer

#090 Jul 3, 2023 40:41

With Amir Rajan

Have you ever been frustrated with your job? Maybe not burnt out, but getting close to there? You used to love what you did, and it felt so creative and empowering, but then it starts to feel a bit …

One Million Checkboxes

One Million Checkboxes

#108 55:00

with Nolen Royalty

HATETRIS

HATETRIS

#109 48:11

with Felipe Oliveira

Code, Kickflips and Crunch Time

Code, Kickflips and Crunch Time

#099 57:00

with Mick West

See all 7 episodes →

Compilers

Learning About Compilers

Learning About Compilers

#037 Sep 1, 2019 58:35

and Bytecode With Thorsten Ball

What do compilers do? What is the runtime of a language? What does it mean to compile something down to bytecode and what executes the bytecode. Throsten Ball answers these questions in this interview …

How to Build a Programming Language

How to Build a Programming Language

#032 56:13

with Bob Nystrom

Language Oriented Design

Language Oriented Design

#039 56:27

with Hal Abelson

To The Assembly

To The Assembly

#057 41:19

with Matt Godbolt

See all 6 episodes →

Security

Coding Machines

Coding Machines

#100 May 3, 2024 48:11

With Don and Krystal

with Krystal Maughan

What if the tools you trust were actually betraying you? Join us for a riveting story where a team of software developers discovers that their compiler is compromised. What starts as suspicion of a …

One Million Checkboxes

One Million Checkboxes

#108 55:00

with Nolen Royalty

Coding Through Chaos

Coding Through Chaos

#112 49:00

with John Walker

Smart Contract Rescue

Smart Contract Rescue

#064 34:57

with Daniel Robinson

See all 6 episodes →

Machine Learning

When AI Codes, What’s Left for me?

When AI Codes, What’s Left for me?

#113 Jul 2, 2025 40:00

with Adam Gordon Bell

I’ve always found meaning, and a lot of strength, in building things. Now, with AI coding agents changing the way we work, it’s easy to feel threatened, like something essential might get taken away. …

Reinforcement Learning At Facebook

Reinforcement Learning At Facebook

#061 38:05

with Jason Gauci

Beautiful and Useless Coding

Beautiful and Useless Coding

#041 52:19

with Allison Parrish

See all 3 episodes →

DevOps

Test in Production

Test in Production

#019 Aug 31, 2018 47:59

With Charity Majors

Today's Interview is with Charity Majors. We talk about how to make it easier to debug production issues in today's world of complicated distributed systems. A warning, There is some explicit language …

Navigating Corporate Giants

Navigating Corporate Giants

#102 49:30

with Jeffrey Snover

Configuring Identity

Configuring Identity

#092 42:53

with Adam Jacob

Microservices Architecture

Microservices Architecture

#014 66:32

with Jan Machacek

See all 7 episodes →
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