The Open Podcast Prefix Project is a free and open source podcast prefix analytics service committed to open data and listener privacy. This hits close to home for us in a couple ways, so we invited the project’s creator, John Spurlock, Backstage to learn more about it.

This is Adam and Jerod’s pre-show call before hooking up with Chris Coyier to record episode 500 of The Changelog. We’ve been doing these off and on for awhile now. We hang out for 30ish minutes before the show begins and ship that conversation as a bonus for our Changelog++ members.

We’re doing this one different. You don’t hit a round number like this very often. So, here it is. A standalone Backstage episode. Thanks for listening and here’s to the next 500! 🥂

We’ve been using Parker Selbert’s Oban library for years and he even helped us hold it right by improving our open source implementation!

So, Jerod invited him Backstage to discuss the library, how we’re using it, Parker’s plan to make it financially sustainable, his “freedom number” of Oban Pro subscribers, and a bunch of other random stuff along the way. Let’s go!

For the first time ever, we’re producing somebody else’s podcast! Our friends at Grafana asked us to help them launch a show for the observability community. It’s called Big Tent and on this episode we are backstage with Tom Wilkie, Mat Ryer, & Matt Toback talking through what they’re up to and why we’re helping out.

Simey de Klerk recenty dove head-first into our transcripts repo and coded up a super-cool feature that’s been on Jerod’s wishlist for awhile now. So, of course, we invited him Backstage to tell the tale!

We upgraded to the new MacBook Pro M1 Max and decided to share our first impressions of the new hardware, how we migrate data and settings from our old machines (or don’t), which apps were “instant installs” for each of us, which apps we’re trying to live without, and how we get our new machines set up for work and play. Nerd out with us!

We’re “doing it live” with Jerome Hardaway, a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft and the Executive Director of Vets Who Code — a veteran-led and operated 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that focuses on training veterans, active duty military, and military spouses in software development and open source with the goal of starting careers in the technology industry.

This is a lengthly conversation in and around Jerome’s story, the Vets Who Code mission and impact, the experience of being in the United States Military, and the opportunity and potential of 1.5x’ing one of the most elite group of people on the planet.

After months of talking about and planning this episode, we decided near the very end to invite Paul from Heavy Spoilers to join us for a deep, spoiler filled, discussion on the movie Tenet, which was directed by Christopher Nolan and released September 2020. If you’re a fan of Tenet, you’ll love this episode.

Warning: This episode literally includes heavy spoilers. So come back after you’ve watched the film, or proceed if that doesn’t bother you.

Adam and Jerod sit down to answer a listener question (Hi, Alex! 👋) about how we podcast. Not how we create podcasts, but how we consume podcasts. Along the way we share an update on our comments feature, discuss the Apple Podcasts rollout debacle (and how it affected us launching Ship It!), and give a few personal recommendations of podcasts we’re listening to.

Jerod and Adam share their thoughts on Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, et al, then discuss the value and weight of hosting commentary onsite vs on Twitter, Slack, etc. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Marc Beinder is building a podcast hosting web application as a part of his senior project while at Lindenwood University. In this brief Backstage episode, Marc picks Jerod’s brain about how we built our platform and challenges we ran into along the way.

We’re joined by co-founder of Plataformatec and curator of the excellent Elixir Radar newsletter, Hugo Baraúna. We talk Elixir podcasts, the start of a new chapter for Hugo, his experimentations with Elixir Radar, curating content, how to make money, stuff like that.

Adam and Jerod take a moment to review the soft launch of Changelog++ and feedback received from members and the community. We talk through some of the feedback we’ve received, how some folks still want the ads, updated thoughts on extended and bonus content, hiccups and lessons learned, the “Working in Public” winners, and where we go from here.

We first launched a membership back in 2013… before they were cool! 😆 Now we’re back with a brand new edition. It’s called Changelog++ and we hope you love it. This episode of Backstage is a tell-all about the program. Why we think the timing is right, what we hope it can become, how we’re experimenting with ideas to make it great, and what you can do to get involved.

We’re bringing Brain Science backstage — Mireille puts on her interviewer hat for a deep dive into Adam’s backstory. When and how did he get involved with podcasting? How did he get in to software development? When did he get his first shot at leadership? How did he learn about sales? Why is he so curious?

Long-time listener (and YouTube aficionado) Owen Bickford joins Jerod backstage to discuss his recent contribution to Changelog’s Elixir/Phoenix-based open source platform.

On this special re-broadcast of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Quincy Larson (freeCodeCamp’s founder) interviewed Adam and Jerod in the ultimate Backstage episode to celebrate a decade of conversations, news, and community here at Changelog. Yes, this month we turn 10 years old! We go deep into our origin stories, our history as a company, becoming and being a leader, the backstory of our branding, our music from Breakmaster Cylinder, and where we might be heading in the future.

Go Time panelist Mat Ryer joins Jerod to talk through the pros and cons of GraphQL vs REST for a future Changelog API. There’s also a fair bit of language chat around Go and JavaScript, a section on Machine Learning, and some inside baseball on where Go Time is heading.

In a world where an ex-hit-man named John Wick comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that killed his dog and stole his car — three die-hard fans (Adam, Jerod, and Brett) spend nearly 2 hours discussing the John Wick trilogy and then some.

Come hang with Adam and Jerod at OSCON’s expo hall. Normally here is where we list off the topics of the conversation, but we’ll shoot it straight with you. We didn’t have any topics. We talk about blockchain and serverless, but not insightfully. This is just us hanging out, being nerds, and making each other laugh. If you’re in to that, you’ll be in to this.

Jerod, Adam, and Nick get together mere minutes after Apple’s 2019 WWDC keynote to talk about all the news and announcements. Will we be buying the new Mac Pro? What about that drool-worthy 6k retina display? Will iOS’s dark mode deliver where Mojave’s hasn’t? Expect all that and at least 2 bad puns in this episode of Backstage.

Nick Janetakis joins Jerod backstage to talk shop. We discuss how Nick is using the Changelog.com source code as a guide to build his video course platform, coding practices we’ve developed over the years, how to balance between shipping features and creating content, newsletters as the new social network, how Nick makes his videos, and a whole lot more.

Our hottest of hot takes right after Apple’s March 25th special event. We discuss the tough questions: Do people care about privacy? Will we subscribe to Apple News+? How much will Apple Arcade cost? Is Visa cooler than MasterCard? Are there any takeaways for developers? Is that Burt Reynolds?!

Adam, Jerod, and Tim get together to talk about Plex! Plex is a media server which allows you to store your movies, TV shows, music, photos, etc. Turns out, you can actually use it together with an antenna to watch live TV and DVR content. They chat about what has Adam so excited, the pros and cons (or as Adam said, “trade-offs”), and how to get started.

Adam, Jerod, and Tim sit down to talk at OSCON 2018 about their favorite parts of the conference, meeting new people, seeing old friends, and telling people about all the new things happening at Changelog.