Today we bring Sam Aaron, the creator of Sonic Pi, a free code-based music creation and performance tool that lets you use simple code to turn your computer into a fully networked live coding music studio! It is also used to engage students in computer science and programming through music creation!

In this episode, we explore the origins of Sonic Pi, its deep connection with Raspberry Pi, and how it enables live coding for music creation, starting from it's Ruby-based language features, we discuss how Sonic Pi has evolved, the challenges of maintaining it as a sustainable open-source project and if you’re curious about coding, music, or both—this one’s for you!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Sonic Pi - https://sonic-pi.net/

Sam's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/samaaron

Sam's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samaaron/

Sam's X/Twitter: https://x.com/samaaron

DJ Dave: https://www.youtube.com/@dj_dave____

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:11 - Sonic Pi Origin Story

03:03 - Connection To Raspberry Pi

04:23 - But What Is Sonic Pi?

06:25 - Is Ruby The Primary Language Used In Sonic Pi?

10:25 - A Small Sonic Pi Showcase

17:53 - Collaboration through Git

23:12 - How Did Sam Get Involved In All Of This?

25:14 - The Feedback Loop of Sonic Pi

26:56 - How Does The Live Coding Experience Work In Sonic Pi?

32:01 - The Two Different Working Modes Of Sonic Pi

33:42 - How Does Debugging Work In Sonic Pi

38:55 - How Do The Different Components Fit Into The Architecture Of The Project

51:33 - Has Sam Been Full-Time On Sonic Pi Since Its Inception?

53:25 - Does Sam Want To Try Something Different?

56:25 - How Is Sam Finding More Sustainable Revenue?

Today, we bring a very special guest, one whose face you might recognise, one that appears on your homepages with a sporadic video and seemingly disappears. His name is Benjamin Burke, or simply Ben, he’s the co-creator of KRAZAM, a channel that consists of sketches that combine grotesque and absurdist humor with technological anxiety, satirizing the tech industry and the modern alienation of the corporate life in general.

In this episode, which admittedly is a bit different from the usual, we’ll focus on KRAZAM and its origins, creative process, and what future plans and ambitions the duo has. Both Ben and Shiva started in software engineering, met in college and started doing sketches just for fun, not expecting this project to explode in popularity in the way it did. Ben will also share their unique approach to content and why KRAZAM prioritizes loyal viewers over virality, comedic inspirations. Stay tuned!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

KRAZAM'S Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KRAZAM/videos

KRAZAM's X/Twitter: https://x.com/krazamtv

KRAZAM'S Website: https://www.krazam.tv/

Krazam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/KRAZAM

Ben's X/Twitter: https://x.com/bb_fresh

Ben's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnjmnbrk/

Shiva's X/Twitter: https://x.com/shivakilaru

Shiva's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shivakilaru/

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:58 - KRAZAM Origin Story

03:59 - How Much More Footage Is Left After the Recordings?

05:12 - Are Both Ben and Shiva Programmers?

06:46 - Inspiration Behind "The Hustle"

08:47 - Has Ben Read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations"?

09:25 - The Actual Introduction to KRAZAM

10:49 - Microservices

14:04 - Sending Birthday Messages Is HARD

19:06 - On Shiva Not Being in the Microservices Video

20:48 - Favorite KRAZAM Videos

22:22 - Most Underrated KRAZAM Video

32:00 - KRAZAM's Viewers Are Very Loyal

36:03 - Ambitions for the KRAZAM Channel

39:04 - How Did You Know KRAZAM Had Product-Market Fit?

40:59 - Ben's Comedic Inspirations

43:08 - KRAZAM Does Not Aim for Virality

46:47 - Was It Stressful to Do a Live Talk?

49:40 - KRAZAM's Video Release Frequency

51:46 - Competitive Excel

55:34 - Site Reliability Engineer Video

57:50 - AI Bots on Spotify

01:00:27 - Self-Hosting and The Good Old Days

01:02:31 - What's the Churn in the Industry?

01:05:21 - Where to Find Ben and KRAZAM

Lane chats with Chris Ferdinandi—creator of Go Make Things and ADHD for the Win—a frontend dev, educator, and all-around expert in making JavaScript (and learning) simpler. Chris has built a career helping devs cut through the noise, level up their skills, and embrace ADHD-friendly ways to stay focused and productive.

We dive into his journey from discovering his own ADHD to reshaping how people learn to code. We talk about why so many devs have ADHD, how gamification can actually help (when done right), and how today’s tech is messing with our attention spans. Plus, we get into the psychology of learning and what actually works when it comes to staying engaged and motivated.

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

ADHD ftw! : https://adhdftw.com/backend-banter/

Go Make Things: https://gomakethings.com/

https://bsky.app/profile/cferdinandi.bsky.social

https://mastodon.social/@cferdinandi

00:00 - Intro

01:58 - Why so many devs have ADHD

03:21 - Quick explanation of ADHD

07:10 - Is ADHD actually more common now?

17:41 - ADHD, dopamine, and why we can’t put our phones down

20:50 - Trying meds for ADHD – what’s it like?

22:34 - How ADHDftw got started

24:21 - Why finishing big projects is so damn hard

25:54 - Best content styles for ADHD brains

28:40 - Gamification: What works and what’s just hype?

34:16 - Which gamer type fits ADHD folks best?

39:27 - Is TikTok basically junk food for your brain?

41:45 - Must-read books on focus and getting stuff done

43:43 - Where to find Chris and his content

46:26 - Is ADHD a gift or a curse?

59:30 - Brutally honest feedback for Boot.dev

01:18:58 - Outro

Like & subscribe for the algo if you enjoyed the video!

We’re joined by Danny Thompson, currently Director of Technology at This Dot Labs and technical leader and organizer of the Dallas Software Developers Group, where he fosters vibrant local tech ecosystem through workshops, cohorts, and meetups.

With a passion to help others learn and find jobs, Danny shares his stories and insights that he gained throughout his extensive and fascinating career! From working as a cashier to now giving talks and organizing meetups for which people fly out to attend, Danny talks about how he got into coding in the first place and his progression, his advice to new developers, how does AI impact jobs now and his perspective on how it will change in the future and a lot more!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player - https://www.backendbanter.fm

Danny's X/Twitter: https://x.com/DThompsonDev

Danny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompsondev/

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

02:14 - How Danny Got Into Coding

05:08 - Meetups and Affordable Conferences

23:37 - Overview of This Dot Labs

29:28 - Building Apps on Top of Stripe

30:30 - Businesses Focus on Functionality Over Aesthetics

33:00 - Danny's Career Progression

38:39 - Pros and Cons of Product vs. Consulting

43:12 - This Dot Labs Regarding AI

46:46 - Interest Rates &. AI: Impact on Developer Jobs

55:31 - The Pressure to Perform at a High Level

57:51 - Why Recruiters Do Not Call You Back

01:03:41 - Getting Feedback After Interviews

01:04:49 - Danny's LinkedIn Courses and Where to Find Him

This week on Backend Banter, we’re joined by Ryan Fleury, a talented game developer currently working with Epic Games on their Rad Debugger project. Ryan shares his journey from building games to creating powerful developer tools, offering insights into arenas, memory management, and the fascinating world of programming from the ground up.

In this episode, we dive deep into memory management, exploring the differences between stack, heap, and arenas, and how they shape modern development. We discuss the trade-offs of various allocation strategies, the magic of pointer stability, and how arenas simplify managing lifetimes in both games and other applications. Along the way, Ryan shares his approach to developing tools, insights into game development workflows, and practical tips for clean and efficient programming.

Learn back-end development: https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Ryan's Socials:

Rad Debugger: https://github.com/EpicGamesExt/raddebugger

Website: https://www.rfleury.com/

X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanjfleury

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

00:54 - Ryan Fleury's Path to Game Development

02:49 - From Engines to Debugging Tools

06:51 - Arenas Explained: Memory Management Basics

16:51 - Arenas vs. Garbage Collectors

27:40 - Real-World Applications of Arenas

31:39 - Why Pointer Stability Matters

42:57 - Dynamic Allocation Made Simple

48:48 - How Arenas Streamline Development

01:01:38 - Debugging Tools and the Rad Debugger

01:09:43 - Where to find Ryan

We're back for Backend Banter Season 2, and we bring a very special guest, José Valim, the creator of the Elixir Programming Language, one of the most popular and loved functional programming languages of today. (Fun fact: it's used in production at Discord).

We cover the nitty-gritty of the language, ranging from simple topics such as the decision behind not making Elixir be statically typed, into the more complex cross-machine communication. We go over how Elixir's features compare with those of other languages, work habits of today's developers, José's own day-to-day development, and a lot more!

Today's talk encompasses a great variety of themes, so grab your coffee and tune in!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Livebook & Elixir Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pas9WdWIBHs

Elixir Programming Language: https://elixir-lang.org/

Livebook: https://livebook.dev/

Elixir In Action Book: https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action-third-edition

José's Socials:

X/Twitter: https://x.com/josevalim

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josevalim

GitHub: https://github.com/josevalim

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:06 - Embarrassing Stories with Foreign Languages

02:58 - Who is José Valim? (and Elixir's Popularity)

06:51 - Does José Use Phoenix a Lot?

08:28 - Why Isn't Elixir Statically Typed?

16:51 - External Input vs. Internal Code Logic

28:16 - Quick Overview of BEAM languages

31:23 - Elixir’s Equivalent to Golang’s Goroutines & Channels

42:43 - Cross-Machine Communication in Standard Libraries

49:15 - Do You Need RabbitMQ When Writing Elixir?

54:53 - Built-In Features in the Standard Library

01:01:52 - Why People Are Too Used To Work The Hard Way

01:04:22 - José and DHH

01:08:01 - Favorite Elixir Features & Immutability

01:17:49 - Purity in Functional Programming

01:21:35 - Where to find José

Today, we bring you the final episode of the first season of Backend Banter! It’s a wrap up for now. With 69 episodes behind us, we want to tell you the story of Boot Dev and how far we’ve come from our beginnings, and for that, we bring Allan Lires, the first official employee and the second person to work on our platform!

We’re going to cover our entire timeline, achievements, hardships, how Lane and Allan were able to go all-in on building Boot Dev and our visions and plans for the future.

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Allan's X/Twitter: https://x.com/AllanLires

Boot.Dev Discord: https://discord.com/invite/EEkFwbv

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:01 Last episode of Season 1 of Backend Banter

01:45 Boot.dev Story and what this episode will be about

02:26 How and when Allan was hired to work at Boot.dev

05:33 Timeline on Boot.dev

08:53 Guessing game

10:34 The Rebranding Process

12:43 Going Full-time

14:56 What was the curriculum in the beginning?

18:38 What was the original vision for Boot.dev

19:17 Being honest about how long it'll take you to learn to code

22:48 Setting expectations for difficulty

29:55 On learning the fundamentals

34:42 The Long Term vision of Boot.dev

41:30 Old gamification features and why we changed them

50:26 The Track is Never Complete

55:01 We cover a lot of the basics that traditional colleges don't cover

01:00:06 Why do we want to remove JavaScript from the learning course

01:06:12 Million Lessons Completed in a single month

01:08:28 You got to be comfortable being uncomfortable

01:13:25 Where to find Allan

Today we welcome Chuck Carpenter aka Charles The 3rd, co-host at Whiskey Web and Whatnot.

As two content creators in the tech scene, we discuss if and how celebrity developers and tech influencers are a good thing for the community, how we should be careful when choosing technologies based on influencers’ opinions, why so many people nowadays want to speedrun their whole career and how that could be self-sabotage, and a lot more!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Whiskey Web and Whatnot: https://whiskey.fm/

Charles' X/Twitter: https://x.com/charleswthe3rd

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:27 Does Charles listen to his own podcast episodes?

03:33 Are celebrity developers a good thing?

09:11 Podcasts are usually centered around a business

10:06 We are essentially entertainers

14:04 Tech choices being influenced by creators

17:37 Why ThePrimeagen stood out from other tech influencers

20:26 Career speedrunning

23:44 The biggest miss when starting something

24:51 What is wrong with Full-Stack application frameworks?

29:03 How Frankenstein is the Boot.dev web application stack

37:41 Rolling your own stuff vs using a provider

46:01 It's easy to screw up your architecture

50:53 What is Charles building with in 2024 and what is his preferred stack

56:39 Does it seem like people don't talk about security anymore?

01:00:30 Accessibility

01:02:02 The amount of people that are "kinda" interested in cybersecurity

01:11:03 Have some patience

01:11:37 Where to find Charles