Roundabout: Creative Chaos

Dave Thomas is a programmer, author, publisher, and one of the original authors of the Agile Manifesto. He co-authored The Pragmatic Programmer with Andy Hunt and later co-founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf, applying software development practices to the way technical books are written, produced, tested, updated, and published. In this episode, Dave talks about discovering programming as a teenager,...

Venkat Subramaniam is a programmer, author, educator, and founder of Agile Developer. His career has taken him from computer architecture and software development to teaching, consulting, speaking, and writing books. In this episode, Venkat talks about the unexpected decisions that changed the direction of his career, including volunteering to teach C before he really knew the language. We also ge...

Adam Tow has spent decades exploring what technology can do and building tools to solve problems he encounters along the way. A longtime Apple developer and technologist, he's created software ranging from early Newton applications to MixEffect, ActionPhrase, and his latest app, C1B. C1B grew out of Adam's experience helping care for his father during cancer treatment. Faced with medications, appo...

Bob Wegner has spent decades making music and digging into the history behind it. A multi-instrumentalist, music historian, archivist, and writer, Bob has worked with artists including Rush and Led Zeppelin and performed with Classic Albums Live. He is also the author of Max Webster: High Class, a book that took seven years to research and write. From his own music to his deep dive into one of Can...

Kaine "Korp" Kulczak built a creative community around a simple idea: drawing is something anyone can do. After more than twenty years working in an office, he transformed a lifelong passion for art into Korp Academy, helping people rediscover creativity without fear of making mistakes. Rather than focusing on technical perfection, Korp encourages people to pick up a pen, experiment, and develop c...

Anna Abraham studies one of humanity’s most fascinating abilities: the capacity to imagine something that does not yet exist. Her research examines how creativity emerges through the relationship between the brain, behavior, and environment. As a psychologist and researcher, Abraham explores creativity beyond traditional ideas of artistic talent. Through books and academic work on imagination and...

Ken and Roberta Williams, the co-founders of Sierra On-Line and creators of some of the most influential adventure games ever made, join host Tammy Coron for a wide-ranging conversation recorded while the two are sailing toward the Northwest Passage aboard their boat. Roberta designed groundbreaking games including Mystery House, the King's Quest series, Colonel's Bequest, and Phantasmagor...

David Arndt, author of Philosophy of Writing and a literature and philosophy professor at St. Mary's College of California, joins Tammy and Tim for a conversation that moves from the origins of a 25-year book project to what writing does to the person doing it. Arndt teaches in the Integral Program of Liberal Arts, a Great Books program at St. Mary's, where he has been on faculty for thirt...

AJ Porfirio and Evan Derrick of Van Ryder Games join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra to talk about what it takes to build an independent board game company. AJ started with a solo zombie game he designed in his living room. Evan came aboard a few years later. Together, they built Van Ryder Games into the publisher behind Final Girl, the first solo-only title to crack the BoardGameGeek Top 100. AJ is the...

Matt Parkin — 3D artist, game developer, and creator of The Polygon Pilgrimage — joins Tammy and Tim to talk about building games solo, shipping his first commercial title, and what it actually takes to go from a whiteboard idea to something playable on Steam. Matt has been running The Polygon Pilgrimage, a weekly tutorial series on YouTube, for over a decade. The channel covers 3D modeling, textu...

Herbert Wolverson has written three books on Rust and spent years teaching the language to engineers, chip designers, and conference audiences. He also co-maintains LibreQoS, an open-source networking tool that recently helped make school internet usable in Malawi for the first time. Herbert began programming at age six on a BBC Micro, detoured through law school, and returned to coding about a de...

Herb Baker — retired NASA manager, 42-year agency veteran, and author of the memoir From Apollo to Artemis: Stories From My 50 Years With NASA — joins Tammy and Tim for the return of Roundabout: Creative Chaos after a six-and-a-half-year hiatus, and the timing couldn't be more fitting. Baker spent his entire career at Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and NASA Headquarters, finishing...

After a six-and-a-half-year hiatus, Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra are back, and this episode is just the two of them catching up before the new season gets going. They piece together how Tim became co-host in the first place — he was a guest before stepping in on Jay Bonasenga's episode — and why they stopped the show, and how the editing process was a major factor in that decision. Tim also bring...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 142, which was recorded on October 23, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Mike Vinakmens. For the past ten years, Mike's been an award-winning copywriter and Creative Director. He's written and produced hundreds of commercials for TV, radio and digital. He's now shifting gears and pulling that experience into the world of voice over. If you like listeni...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 141, which was recorded on October 12, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Abbey Jackson. Abbey is a self-taught career changer, who after suffering a serious spinal injury, signed up for an 8-week iOS Bootcamp, and got her first tech job at 35. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative Chaos, and you want to know how you can help support the show, p...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 139, which was recorded on August 17, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Scott Gardner. Scott's been developing iOS app apps for about a decade, and he's been a Swift guy since it was first introduced. He's also an avid practitioner of reactive programming and has authored several books, video courses, and tutorials. If you like listening to Roundabout:...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 139, which was recorded on August 17, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Graham Lee. Graham makes it easier and faster to create and release software that respects privacy and freedom. And he does it all from his home base in Warwick, in England's West Midlands region. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative Chaos, and you want to know how you can...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 138, which was recorded on July 31, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Brian P. Hogan. Brian is a web developer, teacher, author, editor, and musician. He's developed web sites using HTML5, Elixir, JavaScript, and Ruby. He's also a coach and mentor, and author of several books, including his most recent, Small, Sharp Software Tools available at The Prag...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 137, which was recorded on July 25, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Kyle T. Webster. Kyle is an illustrator, designer, author, and educator. His work's been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other publications. Kyle is also the founder of the KyleBrush brand of Adobe Photoshop brushes. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 136, which was recorded on July 24, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Rick McGinnis. Rick is a Canadian photographer and writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Village Voice, and Entertainment Weekly. But it doesn't stop there, his photos have also appeared on LPs and CDs by artists such as White Zombie and Natalie Merchant. If you l...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 135, which was recorded on July 17, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Susan May. Susan May has sold more than 200,000 books since 2016 and is an international Amazon best-selling author. Her most recent book, Best Seller, is a mind-bending story of betrayal and twisted fate. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative Chaos, and you want to know how...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 134, which was recorded on July 3, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Daniel Pritchett. Daniel is the human purveyor of chatbots and the author of Build Chatbot Interactions: Responsive, Intuitive Interfaces with Ruby published by the Pragmatic Bookshelf. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative Chaos, and you want to know how you can help support...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 133, which was recorded on June 26, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Justin Marcucci. Justin is the Chief Digital Officer at Endava and is responsible for leading Endava's global digital practice. According to his Twitter profile, everything is his favorite. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative Chaos, and you want to know how you can help sup...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 132, which was recorded on June 20, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Jaimee Newberry. Jaimee is the co-founder of Picture This Clothing (PTC), which started as a passion project created with her partner in life and business, Ken. Prior to that, Jaimee worked in the Web Interaction Design & Development industry. If you like listening to Roundabout: Cre...

Join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra on Episode 131, which was recorded on June 12, 2019. On this episode, they talk with Chris Belanger. Chris is the Editor-in-Chief of raywenderlich.com. If there are words to wrangle or a paragraph to ponder, Chris is on the case. If you like listening to Roundabout: Creative Chaos, and you want to know how you can help support the show, please visit RoundaboutFM.com...