The Weekly Dev's Brew

Everyone is selling 100x developer productivity, but David Cramer runs production software at Sentry and says LLMs are not making his own work faster. We talk about what actually holds up when AI meets real codebases, security review, open source economics, and why verification beats generation.

Mario Zechner has watched people generate 500,000 lines of code in a week with a swarm of agents. He'll tell you exactly how that ends. Mario is the creator of Pi, the minimal, self-modifying coding agent that took off after Claude Code stopped fitting his workflow. He now builds it alongside Armin Ronacher at Earendil. This one is a grumpy, honest conversation about where AI coding is actually he...

In this episode, I sit down with Minko Gechev — Google Engineer, former Angular team lead, and one of the most thoughtful voices on AI and developer productivity. We get into why AI won't replace engineers anytime soon (and what that actually means for your career), how Google's Angular team is affected by AI, the security risks of the current AI coding wave, and the single most valuable skill dev...

Micro-frontends promise to help teams scale development, but AWS Principal Architect Luca Mezzalira has seen some succeed and some just fall apart. In this conversation, he shares what he's learned from years of implementation work at companies like DAZN and through consulting with Fortune 500 organizations. Luca explains why micro-frontends are fundamentally different from components—something ma...

Why CSS is Now the Fastest-Moving Space in Web Development (with Una Kravets)While everyone's talking about AI disrupting development, Una Kravets from Google Chrome reveals a surprising twist: CSS has quietly become the fastest-evolving part of web development. In this conversation, Una breaks down how features that required months of JavaScript engineering are now landing as native platform capa...

What does it take to build a web browser when everyone says it's impossible? In this episode, we sit down with Andreas Kling, the engineer behind Ladybird—the only major browser project that doesn't take money from Google. Andreas breaks down a uncomfortable truth: Google funds every major browser through search deals. Chrome, Firefox, Safari—they're all dependent on Google's advertising revenue....

What does it take to accidentally become the maintainer of one of React's most popular libraries? In this episode, we sit down with Dominik Dorfmeister (aka. TkDodo), maintainer of React Query (now TanStack Query), to unpack his unexpected journey from answering Discord questions during COVID to maintaining a library with 10 million weekly downloads. Dominik reveals how spending months just helpin...

What does it take to build one of the fastest-growing database ORMs from scratch? In this episode, we sit down with Andrii Sherman, co-founder of Drizzle, to unpack their philosophy: "If you know SQL, you know Drizzle."Andrii breaks down why their "headless ORM" approach is winning over developers frustrated with traditional ORMs. We dive deep into Drizzle's smart migration system, the growing eco...

Ever wondered who actually decides how JavaScript evolves? In this episode, Jan-Niklas Wortmann sits down with Daniel Ehrenberg, President of Ecma International and long-time TC39 contributor, talking about how the language evolves—from vague idea to official spec. We unpack how proposals move through the stages, the philosophy behind JavaScript’s gradual evolution, and why some ideas never make i...

Join us in this insightful episode of The Weekly Dev's Brew as we sit down with Jeff Cross, co-founder of NX, to explore the evolution of monorepos and their impact on modern web development. Jeff shares his journey from working on the Angular team to launching his own successful ventures, offering a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the tech industry. Discover how NX is tr...

In this episode of The Weekly Dev's Brew, Jan sits down with Maya Shavin, Lead Software Engineer at Salesforce and mother of four, to explore an unconventional truth: parenting might be the best management training you never knew you needed. From navigating tantrums (both toddler and teammate) to mastering the art of patience in code reviews, Maya reveals how raising four kids transformed her appr...

In this episode of The Weekly Dev's Brew, Jan sits down with Michael Arnaldi, founder of Effect TS, to tackle a controversial truth: JavaScript's async model is fundamentally broken. From promises that lie about their errors to the nightmare of production-grade error handling, we delve into why traditional JavaScript tools in the realm of web development set us up for failure. Discover how Effect...

In this episode of The Weekly Dev’s Brew, Jan sits down with Daniel Roe to dive deep into a topic devs often overlook: web fonts. From performance pitfalls to implementation strategies, Daniel breaks down why your font choices might be slowing down your site—and what you can do about it. Whether you’ve been blindly copy-pasting Google Fonts or wondering how to ship faster, cleaner web experiences,...

In this episode of The Weekly Dev’s Brew, we dive into the current state of web development with Alexander Lichter, a core member of Nuxt and DevRel at Void Zero. Join us as we discuss Nitro, the innovative server engine powering Nuxt and its growing influence on frameworks like SolidStart and Analog. Discover how Nitro is transforming fullstack JavaScript development, allowing for leaner and more...

In this episode, join Jan-Niklas Wortmann and Ryan Carniato, creator of SolidJS and CEO of Signals, as they explore how signals are revolutionizing web development and reshaping JavaScript frameworks. Discover the ways SolidJS is competing with React through more than just superior performance, as well as the innovative features of Signals 2.0 and their potential impact on async JavaScript pattern...

In this episode, we dive into the impact of AI on web development with Rachel Lee-Nabors. Discover how AI is transforming user experience and the future landscape of software careers. We discuss the concept of 'enshittification' of platforms, the rise of personal agents, and revolutionary technologies like MCP. With AI changing coding practices and the significance of documentation for training la...

In this episode, Jan-Niklas Wortmann interviews Capeletto Matias, a key figure in the open-source community and a member of the Vite core team. They discuss Matias's journey into open source, the evolution of Vite, and the importance of community in the success of modern web development tools. The conversation highlights the technical aspects of Vite, its rapid growth, and the challenges of mainta...

Jan-Niklas interviews Josh Goldberg, a developer who transitioned from Microsoft to full-time open source work in the TypeScript ecosystem. Josh shares his daily routine, work structure, and insights on balancing passion projects with professional commitments. The conversation covers Josh's current projects including Bingo (a repository templates tool) and maintaining legacy projects like Yeoman....

Jan-Niklas Wortmann sits down with Mark Techson, a tech educator and engineer, to explore the intersection of education and technology. They discuss the importance of teaching methods that empower learners, the challenges of coding, and the evolving landscape of tech interviews. Mark shares insights on leadership in tech, the magic of modern development, and his journey with the Angular framework....

Tired of tech podcasts that sound like AI-generated hype machines? The Weekly Dev's Brew cuts through the noise with honest conversations about web development—no buzzword bingo required. Each week, we sit down with the actual builders of the web—from library maintainers and framework creators to thought leaders and CEOs—for authentic discussions over virtual coffee. This isn't another echo chambe...