The Programming Languages Podcast with Fexingo: Python, Rust, JavaScript, and Modern Coding

Haskell has long been viewed as an academic curiosity, but in 2026 it's quietly powering production systems at places like GitHub, Meta, and a handful of fintech startups. Lucas and Luna explore how the language's strict type system and lazy evaluation are solving real-world problems around correctness and concurrency. They walk through a specific example: how a small trading firm used Haskell to...

In 2026, the Java Virtual Machine powers more than just enterprise monoliths. This episode explains how GraalVM native compilation, Project Loom virtual threads, and the rise of Kotlin and Scala on the JVM have made it a surprising contender for cloud-native and microservices workloads. Lucas and Luna drill into specific numbers: how a typical Spring Boot app starts in under 200 milliseconds with...

Lucas and Luna dive into Erlang, the 40-year-old language built for telecom-grade concurrency and fault tolerance. They explore its actor model, how it achieves 'nine nines' reliability, and why it still powers critical infrastructure from WhatsApp to Ericsson. With specific case studies on WhatsApp's 2 million concurrent connections per server and Ericsson's AXD 301 switch achieving 99.9999999% u...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into Zig, a new systems programming language that's gaining momentum in 2026. They explore why Zig's compile-time execution and manual memory management without hidden control flow are attracting developers frustrated with C's legacy baggage. Lucas breaks down how Zig handles cross-compilation out of the box, a major pain point in C development. They also discu...

Lucas and Luna explore the concept of 'vibe coding' — a new approach where beginners describe what they want in plain English and let AI generate the code. They discuss how tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Replit are reshaping the learning curve, with examples from a recent study showing 40% faster prototype completion. They debate whether this makes programming more accessible or risks crea...

Lucas and Luna break down why WebAssembly, originally designed for browser speed, is now becoming the runtime of choice for server-side computing. They explore how startups like Fermyon and existing cloud providers are using Wasm to achieve near-native performance with sandboxed security, and why this matters for microservices and edge computing. Specific examples include Fastly's 40% latency redu...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore why Kotlin has become the dominant language for Android development in 2026, overtaking Java. They dive into Google's 2024 decision to make Kotlin the default for Android APIs, discuss how Jetpack Compose has reduced boilerplate by 40%, and examine case studies from companies like Uber and Airbnb that saw 30% fewer crashes after migrating. They also touch on...

In episode 122 of The Programming Languages Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore Raku—the language formerly known as Perl 6—and its unique approach to concurrency. They dive into how Raku's built-in concurrency model, with features like promises, supplies, and channels, makes writing parallel code more accessible for everyday developers. The conversation contrasts Raku's design with traditional threadi...

In this episode of The Programming Languages Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why Julia is emerging as the go-to language for scientific computing and data-intensive research in 2026. They dive into a specific case: how researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science replaced a decade-old Python and MATLAB pipeline with Julia, cutting simulation runtimes from 72 hours to 9 hours. The conversat...

Episode 120 of The Programming Languages Podcast explores why Go, originally a niche language for concurrent systems, has become the default choice for cloud-native infrastructure. Lucas and Luna break down how Go's goroutines, fast compile times, and opinionated simplicity powered tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform. They examine specific metrics: how Go's startup time and memory footpri...

In Episode 119 of The Programming Languages Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why Elixir is becoming the go-to language for real-time, scalable applications in 2026. They dive into its origins on the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM), how its actor-model concurrency solves modern problems like WebSocket-heavy apps and IoT backends, and a concrete case: how the ride-sharing platform Flit (a European comp...

Episode 118 explores the surprising staying power of COBOL, the 1960s programming language that still processes trillions of dollars in daily transactions. Lucas and Luna dive into the SSA's COBOL-based benefits system, the shortage of skilled developers, and why modern languages like Java haven't replaced it. They also discuss IBM's latest COBOL compiler update and how the language is quietly evo...

In this episode of The Programming Languages Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore why C++ remains a critical language in 2026 despite the rise of Rust, Zig, and other modern systems languages. They focus on the specific case of the Bloomberg Terminal, where C++ handles millisecond-latency data feeds that serve half a million financial professionals daily. Lucas breaks down how Bloomberg's...

Lucas and Luna explore why Ada, a language from the 1980s, remains the gold standard for safety-critical systems in aviation, rail, and medical devices. They dive into how Ada's strong typing, contract-based programming, and runtime checks prevent errors that could cost lives. The episode uses the example of the Boeing 777's fly-by-wire system, which runs Ada code, and contrasts it with modern lan...

Swift, Apple's programming language launched in 2014, has quietly become a contender for server-side, cloud, and even cross-platform development. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace Swift's journey from a niche iOS tool to a language with first-class Linux support, a growing package ecosystem, and an open-source roadmap that includes Windows and embedded targets. They discuss the Swift Server Wo...

In this episode of The Programming Languages Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why Dart, not just Flutter, is becoming a strategic language for Google and beyond. They dive into Dart's origins as a JavaScript replacement, its unique ahead-of-time and just-in-time compilation, and how it powers everything from Google Pay to upcoming embedded systems. With 2026 seeing Dart expand into server-side and...

Episode 113 of The Programming Languages Podcast explores OCaml's quiet dominance in high-frequency trading and financial systems. Lucas and Luna break down why firms like Jane Street choose OCaml for its type safety, performance, and expressiveness — and how its functional programming model prevents costly bugs in multi-million-dollar trading pipelines. They discuss the language's unique module s...

Episode 112 of The Programming Languages Podcast dives into Rust's dominance in 2026's memory safety landscape. Lucas and Luna break down how the U.S. government's push for memory-safe languages and major industry shifts have cemented Rust as the go-to for systems programming. They discuss the White House Office of the National Cyber Director's 2024 report, Microsoft's 70% memory safety bug findin...

Lucas and Luna dive into Svelte's rising developer satisfaction scores and its unique compile-time approach that eliminates the virtual DOM. They examine how Svelte 5's runes syntax is reshaping reactive state management, and why companies like Apple, Spotify, and The New York Times have adopted it for certain projects. With specific benchmarks showing 2x faster initial render times compared to Re...

Lucas and Luna dive into TypeScript's explosive growth in 2026. With over 60% of JavaScript developers now using TypeScript in production, and major frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte shipping first-class TypeScript support, the language has become the de facto standard for large-scale web development. They explore why TypeScript's gradual typing, rich IDE support, and ecosystem maturity have...

This episode explores why Lua remains a dominant scripting language in gaming and embedded systems in 2026. Lucas and Luna dive into Lua's lightweight design, its role in game engines like Roblox and World of Warcraft, and its surprising use in IoT devices. They discuss LuaJIT's performance advantages, the trade-offs between Lua and Python for embedded scripting, and why Lua's simplicity makes it...

Episode 108 of The Programming Languages Podcast dives into Haskell's role in the financial industry. Lucas and Luna explore how banks and trading firms use Haskell for high-stakes systems that demand correctness and reliability. They discuss Jane Street's trading infrastructure, the use of Haskell in smart contracts for blockchain, and why functional programming reduces bugs in critical code. The...

When we think of modern programming, Fortran doesn't come to mind. But in 2026, Fortran remains a cornerstone of high-performance computing, especially in weather simulation, physics modeling, and scientific research. Lucas and Luna dive into why Fortran persists: its unmatched array syntax, decades of optimized libraries, and the sheer cost of rewriting validated code. They discuss real examples...

Episode 106 explores how Erlang and the OTP framework continue to underpin the world's most reliable telecommunication systems. Lucas and Luna break down the actor model, hot code swapping, and the 'let it crash' philosophy, using Ericsson's AXD301 as a concrete case study. They discuss why modern cloud-native platforms like WhatsApp still lean on Erlang's decades-old design for fault tolerance, a...

Most developers have heard of Rust. Fewer have heard of Zig. Lucas and Luna explore why Zig—a small, unassuming systems language without a garbage collector or a borrow checker—is quietly gaining traction in performance-critical niches like game engines, embedded firmware, and build tooling. They walk through a concrete example: a game studio that dropped its custom C++ build system for Zig's comp...