PODCAST

Fallthrough

Fallthrough Media

A deep and nuanced conversational podcast focused on technology, software, and computing.

technology

All Episodes

70:30

What Even Is A [Programming|Natural] Language?

Fallthrough ·

2025/07/07

Whether you're talking to another person, talking to a computer, or just talking to yourself, we use languages every day. For a long time now, there's been a debate about whether natural languages and programming languages are distinct from each other. The creation of large language models and their ability to produce code from natural language has blurred these lines even further. In this episode, Kris is joined by Angelica, Matt, and guest co-host Steve Klabnik, to discuss language, what

67:43

SIMD & Go

Fallthrough ·

2025/06/30

Speed and software should go hand in hand, but with Moore's Law coming to an end and CPU clock speeds remaining steady over the last 20 years, software engineers need to turn to new techniques to improve the efficiency of their code. In this episode, Matt and Angelica and joined by Clement Jean to discuss one of these techniques: SIMD. They'll discuss what SIMD is, how it can be used from languages like Go, the various proposals to get better support for SIMD directly into Go and its

75:27

The Three Ps: Understanding Product, Project, and...

Fallthrough ·

2025/06/23

Building software is difficult and rarely can software engineers do it alone. In this episode, Kris is joined by Ian, Matthew, and Angelica to talk managing software projects and what three often used but rarely defined roles actually mean: project manager, product manager, and program manager. The panel also discusses how these roles interact with engineering managers, what they think these roles actually do, and whether product managers should actually exist.For our supporters, this

69:32

Go's Error Handling Is Handled

Fallthrough ·

2025/06/16

Error handling in Go is one of the language's most controversial topics. It ranks high in each Go Developer Survey and many different people have proposed many different solutions to the perceived problems. The Go Team's stance on error handling as a problem in need of a fix has changed recently, with a declaration that no proposals will be accepted for changes to Go's error handling syntax. In this episode, Kris is joined by Ian and Matt to discuss this news. They talk about whether error

78:26

A Discourse On AI Discourse

Fallthrough ·

2025/06/09

AI is a divisive topic. Some people are AI boosters while others are AI doomers. And then there are those of us who sit in the middle, feeling both sides are not just wrong but that they aren't experiencing a shared reality with the rest of us. In this episode, Kris and Matt are joined by Steve Klabnik to talk about the state of AI and the discourse around it.For our supporters, this episode contains extra chapters of discussion. Get access by signing up at

78:08

Building An Open Source Maintenance Company

Fallthrough ·

2025/06/02

We all use open source software on a daily basis. Even though the software is free to consume doesn't mean it's free to produce. Over the years, there have been many attempts to support open source development financially, from companies that sell support to foundations and many things in between. On this week's episode, Angelica and Matt are joined by Filippo Valsorda and Daniel McCarney to discuss Geomys, an open source maintenance company. The goal of Geomys is to provide open source

59:28

Event Driven Architectures

Fallthrough ·

2025/05/26

When it comes to building distributed systems, RPC and REST style interfaces aren't the only options. Events provide an alternative way to build a distributed system that can result in more robust systems that are easier to extend and deploy, while reducing the chances of a single bottlenecked service taking down the entire system. In this episode, your host Angelica is joined by Indu Alagarsamy, Ignacio Castillejos, and Chris Richardson to discuss what event-driven architecture is, what

74:01

Blown Glass Half-Full of WebAssembly & SQLite

Fallthrough ·

2025/05/19

From deploying WebAssembly all over the world, to using SQLite to keep track of distributed data, to blowing glass, this episode is quite the adventure! Your co-hosting power duo of Matt and Angelica are joined by Danielle Lancashire, a Principal Engineer at Fermyon, to navigate this discussion filled with insights and advice.This episode's extended content includes two chapters: one about the groups thoughts on artificial intelligence and another on the local tech scenes across the world

97:07

A Phoenix's Path to Principal

Fallthrough ·

2025/05/12

From implementing minesweeper on a TI calculator to becoming a prolific open source maintainer, Evan Phoenix has had quite the journey. In this week's episode, Matt & Angelica sit down with Evan to discuss his journey, from his early days writing basic on his TI calculator, to writing an alternative implementation of Ruby, being GitHub user #7, becoming a Principal Engineer at Hashicorp, starting his own company (with his wife!), and so much more. This episode is packed with life

71:12

The Language of Data Visualization

Fallthrough ·

2025/05/05

Little languages are powerful. From text processing with AWK to calculations with APL, domain specific languages help us do things more concisely and with more precision than with other languages. Anthony Starks knows this well, as he's designed several little languages, including decksh, the focus of this episode, which allows users to create powerful presentations without the hassle of pushing around pixels in Powerpoint. He joins Angelica and Matt to discuss the background of why he

59:09

Maintainers, Monetization, and Making The Time

Fallthrough ·

2025/04/28

Maintaining software is challenging, but monetizing it while properly valuing your time complicate matters even more. Doing all of this for open source projects is a challenge that few have figured out. In this week's episode Matt and Angelica are joined by Carlos Becker to discuss maintaining and monetizing open source projects, what it's like to work out an open source company, and how to value your own time. Plus, we've got some unpopular opinions at the end of the episode.Supporters get

75:29

From TinyGo to Takeoff

Fallthrough ·

2025/04/21

Most of us write code for servers and systems with terabytes of storage and gigabytes of RAM. This week, we're talking about Go in the small. Patricio Whittingslow joins Dylan and Angelica to discuss how he got started with Tiny Go; how he's used Go in software ranging from trajectory simulations to rocket fueling systems to rocket engine fuel injectors to 3D modeling; and so much more. To top it all off, he's got some unpopular opinions as well!Supporters get access to an extended

85:55

The Podcast Pipeline

Fallthrough ·

2025/04/14

Fallthrough is a podcast about having conversations in public, and over the last 3 months we've shipped 15 of them! In this episode, Kris, Ian, and Matt sit down to discuss the podcast so far: what we've enjoyed, the feedback we've gotten, how we produce episodes, and so much more. We're excited to take a look at the first 15 episodes we've produced and look forward to making the next 15!Supporters get access to an extended conversation including chapters on how we've pivoted the podcast,

89:23

APIs: Design Imperfectly, Improve Relentlessly

Fallthrough ·

2025/04/07

APIs are built, not born, so how do we go about actually building them? Well, it starts with design. In this episode, Kris and Ian are joined by Jamie Tanna to talk about API design. From creating a theory of your API, through building its foundation, to actively prototyping as you design, the panel discusses what they've learned over the years to design high quality APIs. At the end we have unpopular opinions, but we also have a bonus behind the scenes look at howe we create episodes of

142:17

APIs: Design Imperfectly, Improve Relentlessly

Fallthrough ·

2025/04/07

113:21

What Even Is A Senior Software Engineer?

Fallthrough ·

2025/03/31

What does it mean to be a senior (or staff) software engineer? How are we preparing the next generation of software engineers to maintain the software we've created? In this episode, Matt and Kris are joined by Bill Kennedy to discuss tech communities, training software engineers, the landscape of learning, how artificial intelligence is affecting it all, and so much more.Supporters get access to an extended conversation with Bill, where we get into more depth on artificial intelligence,

95:55

Translating The Law for Software Engineers

Fallthrough ·

2025/03/24

Software is hard to build. From knowing which regulations apply to us to understanding what's in our software, there's a lot to learn. On top of that, regulation is coming for all of us. In this episode, Luis Villa joins Kris, Ian, and Angelica, to discuss the laws and regulations that will change the way that you build and deploy software. We discuss the EU's Cyber Resilience Act, the difficulty in interpreting the law and staying within its bounds, how these new laws differ from what

146:35

The Intersection of Software & Law

Fallthrough ·

2025/03/23

Regulation is coming for your software! Prepare yourself with this episode. Luis Villa, our guest, joins Kris, Ian, and Angelica, to discuss the laws and regulations that will change the way that you build and deploy software. We discuss the EU's Cyber Resilience Act, the difficulty in interpreting the law and staying within its bounds, how these new laws differ from what we're used to, artificial intelligence, and so much more.Thank you for being a supporter!Thanks for tuning in and happy

109:01

Choosing, Expanding, & Evolving Communities

Fallthrough ·

2025/03/17

Communities play a vital role in our technical and non-technical lives, but how much thought have we put into what makes these spaces valuable? In this episode, Kris is joined by the panel and Kelsey Hightower to discuss communities and their intersection with the digital and non-digital world.Supporters get access to an extended conversation with Kelsey, where we discuss his views of AI and what he's been up to in retirement! You can get access by signing up at

170:52

Looking Forward While Remembering The Past

Fallthrough ·

2025/03/16

Today we're going to be talking about looking forward while not forgetting the past with Kelsey Hightower. We'll talk community, ML/AI, the future of conferences and DevRel and the role they play (or don't) in today's tech eco-system. We'll also hear about what Kelsey's been up to in retirement - spoiler alert, it's far more active than you may expect.Thank you for being a supporter!Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!Notes:What If CSS Grid Changes?The Infinite Game by Simon

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