WP Builds

This episode of TWiW covers the latest in WordPress, with a strong focus on AI advancements, new products, and features expected in WordPress 7. The discussion includes updates on community events, challenges with in-person meetups post-pandemic, and the integration of AI tools for site management and design. The hosts also touch on debates around sponsored talks at WordCamps, the evolution of com...

In this WP Builds episode, Nathan Wrigley talks with Thomas Raef about WordPress website security. Thomas shares his journey founding We Watch Your Website, discusses the prevalence of attacks on US WordPress sites, and explores how hackers increasingly use stolen credentials and AI-powered methods. The episode gets into AI tools for both attackers and defenders, highlighting strategies like behav...

This episode with Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Marc Benzakein, Rhys Wynne explores the renewed importance of blogging and owning your content in 2026, discusses WordPress's educational initiatives and their overlapping complexities, reviews recent updates including the 6.9.1 release and a new Wayback Machine plugin, and gets into the prevalence of AI in WordPress development. Panelists deba...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with podcasting veteran Seth Goldstein about his 15+ years in the industry. They discuss how easy podcasting has become, the importance of having a plan and process, and how podcasts can serve brands and businesses beyond immediate monetisation. Seth shares insights on podcast production, discoverability, the role of websites and WordPress, pitfalls of AI-gene...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley talks with Carl Alexander, creator of Ymir (a scalable WordPress hosting technology), and Paul Carter from BuiltFast, about their new partnership. They discuss Carl's perseverance in developing Ymir, the technical benefits it brings to scalable WordPress hosting, and how BuiltFast plans to make this technology accessible to more users. The episode explores the chang...

This Week in WordPress #363 with Nathan Wrigley, Jess Frick, Marc Benzakein, Marcus Burnette. This episode covers a range of WordPress-related topics, including the upcoming release of WordPress 6.9.1, the launch of a new centralised home for WordPress education initiatives, and trusted companies and individuals in the WordPress ecosystem. The panel also dives into the evolving role of AI in WordP...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Taylor Drayson, a young WordPress professional who shares his journey into web development, inspired by his self-employed father. Taylor discusses projects like WP Extended, a modular plugin for WordPress agencies, and Snippet Club, his membership site offering code snippets and tutorials. He also talks about his work with WP Managed Ninja, managing commu...

Join Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Andrew Palmer, Marcus Burnette for the latest episode of This Week in WordPress. This episode covers the latest developments in WordPress, including discussions on the impact and future of AI in the ecosystem, details about the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release, the drop of older PHP support, and significant changes to plugin submissions due to a surge in AI-g...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Michael Campanella, a professional photographer and developer of the Folio Blocks WordPress gallery plugin. They explore the plugin’s visual gallery options, including grid, justified, masonry, carousel, video, and a unique modular gallery, designed to offer photographers greater creative control. The discussion covers Folio Blocks’ deep integration with...

Come and join us LIVE for the This Week in WordPress show. This week I'm with Michelle Frechette, Anne-Mieke Bovelett, Marc Benzakein and we're going to be going over the last 7 days in the WordPress space. This episode covers recent WordPress news and trends, with a strong focus on accessibility, including actionable insights for improving SEO and user experience. It explores plugin market change...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Dave Foy about his journey from classroom teaching to creating online WordPress courses. Dave discusses the challenges of keeping tech courses up-to-date, the struggle with perfectionism, and why traditional self-paced courses often don’t deliver the best results. He shares his recent shift to a live cohort-based teaching model, which encourages action, c...

This episode kicks off the new year with reflections on WordPress’ most-read news of 2025, covering both community achievements and challenges. The conversation explores resolutions, AI-powered tools for WordPress and app building, plugin submission issues, and the evolving role of AI in web development. Updates touch on upcoming WordPress releases, event schedules, and initiatives like the Zeel M...

In this episode of WP Builds, Nathan Wrigley and Rae Morey recap the past few months in the WordPress ecosystem. They talk about the new features of WordPress 6.9, discuss advances in AI tools and APIs, and highlight community news including sponsorship shifts, legal updates, and standout block themes like Ollie. The conversation also touches on flagship WordCamp scheduling challenges, the launch...

Join Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Courtney Robertson and Jesse Friedman. This episode covers highlights in the WordPress community, including upcoming events like CloudFest Hackathon, the Open Source Experience conference, and CMSConf. The panel discusses the release of WordPress 6.9, early planning for version 7.0, and new plugins. Other topics include the evolution of responsive block edi...

In this WP Builds episode, Nathan Wrigley interviews Anne-Mieke Bovelett about her experience leading a winning accessibility project at the CloudFest Hackathon 2025. Anne-Mieke shares her passion for digital accessibility, discusses the challenges and impact of her team's AI-powered WordPress plugin that converts infographics into accessible formats, and reflects on the need for ongoing support a...

On "This Week in WordPress #358," Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Davinder Singh Kainth and Marc Benzakein discuss the release of WordPress 6.9, including new features like block-level collaboration and accessibility improvements. They cover WordPress community news, ongoing Black Friday deals, trending plugins, and the growing impact of AI. The episode also highlights awards within the WordPr...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Dave Grey about Nag Me Not, a plugin and browser extension designed to clean up WordPress admin screens by removing nagging banners and ads. The conversation explores the unique approach Dave is taking to market and sell the tool, partnering with hosting providers and service companies to offer Nag Me Not as a free benefit to their customers, potentially...

In "This Week in WordPress Episode 357," Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Steve Burge, and Marcus Burnette cover a playful Cards Against Humanity Black Friday sale, Michelle’s tech award nomination, and the upcoming WordPress 6.9 release. They discuss the return of a three-release cycle for WordPress, plans for core AI integration, and recent Cloudflare outages. Other topics include WordPress s...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Jonathan Jernigan about Pie Calendar, a simple-yet-powerful WordPress event calendar plugin. They discuss the plugin’s evolution, including major new features like Eventbrite and ICS calendar integration for easy ticketing and syncing with external calendars. Jonathan also shares insights into his WordPress-focused community and YouTube channel. The conve...

In this episode, I'm joined by Taco Verdonschot, Jonathan Bossenger, Birgit Pauli-Haack to discuss WordPress 6.9, including new blocks, performance improvements, accessibility updates, and upcoming live events to help users prepare for the release. The panel pays tribute to WordPress contributor Zeel Thakkar, and covers news about a new leader at Jetpack, Black Friday deals, and community apprecia...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Rodolfo Melogli about the growing isolation in the WooCommerce and WordPress communities due to remote work and AI, and his mission to “bring humans back” through in-person interaction. Rodolfo shares his journey as a WooCommerce expert, the challenges of working remotely, and the inspiration for organising Checkout Summit, a people-focused, content-rich...

In "This Week in WordPress #355," Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, and Rhys Wynne discuss the Kagi search engine, Michelle's job search, and WordPress updates including 6.9’s new features like collaborative editing and abilities API. The episode covers the challenges faced by open source projects like FFmpeg, security concerns with AI-powered tools such as Telex, the Global Partner Program for...

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Nick Hamze, a quirky and creative force in the WordPress community. Nick shares his unconventional journey from law school to working at Automattic, running a wildly successful Pokémon card shop, and building unique WordPress blocks using AI tools like Telex. Their conversation gets into the joy of creating weird, fun projects, the empowering possibilitie...

On this episode of WP Builds, Natalie MacLees joins Nathan Wrigley to talk about the new accessibility tool, Aaardvark Accessibility. They discuss Natalie’s background in web accessibility, the evolution and importance of accessible web design, and how their SaaS platform helps agencies and developers find, fix, and monitor accessibility issues across client websites. The conversation also covers...

In this WP Builds podcast episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Amadeu Arderiu about three innovative WordPress AI projects: ploogins.com, an AI-powered search engine for both free and premium plugins. Joinchat, a plugin that adds an AI chatbot to your site, answering queries using your website's content. And Suggerence, an experimental tool that lets users interact with, and build inside, the Gutenb...