Heavybit Podcasts

On episode 27 of Open Source Ready, Brian Douglas and John McBride speak with Adam Hevenor, creator of Vibecheck. Together they explore the fundamentals of evals, how teams can run structured experiments across model variations, and why cost-efficient design matters more than ever. Adam also offers grounded perspectives on MCP adoption, Claude Skills, and the economics shaping today’s AI tooling e...

On episode 49 of Generationship, Rachel Chalmers sits down with Denise Koessler Gosnell and Kathryn Erickson to unpack their new book Tech Confidential . Together they explore burnout, leadership, motivation, and the surprising ways our emotional wiring shapes tech culture. It’s a candid, deeply human conversation about transforming toxic systems into something resilient, sustainable, and even joy...

In episode 4 of Data Renegades, CL Kao and Dori Wilson sit down with Micah Wylde. They trace his journey from building fraud detection at Sift Science to architecting massive real-time systems at Lyft and ultimately founding Arroyo. In this conversation, Micah breaks down the real complexity of streaming systems, why schema evolution is still the hardest challenge in data, and where the industry m...

In episode 48 of Generationship, Rachel Chalmers speaks with Sarah Novotny. They dig into why AI models fall short of true creativity, how the tech industry drifted into extractive incentives, and what real security and accountability might look like at scale. Sarah highlights lessons from Kubernetes, open source ecosystems, and political science to propose a more trustworthy technological future.

In episode 2 of Data Renegades, CL Kao and Dori Wilson speak with Simon Willison. Together they dive into the origins of Datasette, the evolution of data journalism, and the surprising ways open source tools shape global reporting. Simon also explains how LLM-based agents will redefine data cleaning, enrichment, and analysis. A must-listen for anyone building or scaling data teams.

In episode 26 of Open Source Ready, Brian Douglas and John McBride sit down with Quinn Slack. They explore how Sourcegraph built Amp, why unconstrained coding agents represent a major shift, and why AI economics make traditional SaaS pricing impossible. Quinn also breaks down the rise of open source models, the future of developer tooling, and why ads might be the key to making AI accessible to ev...

In this debut episode of Data Renegades, CL Kao and Dori Wilson dive into the unconventional paths that led them into developer tools, civic tech, and machine learning systems. CL recounts his experience building early open source infrastructure, mobilizing communities through data transparency projects, and now shaping how we design software around LLMs. This episode sets the tone for the show’s...

In episode 25 of Open Source Ready, Brian and John sit down with Rachel-Lee Nabors. They explore how AI agents are reshaping the web, from the decline of traditional browsers to the rise of agentic experiences powered by small language models and MCPs. Rachel-Lee explains why advertising models are collapsing and why the next web may depend on direct payments and open source innovation.

In episode 47 of Generationship, Rachel Chalmers chats with Dr. Milette Gillow and Sedinam Simpson, co-founders of The Tech Bros, about their mission to make tech more inclusive and inventive. They unpack lessons from their first accelerator cohort, debate the future of AI, and share what it takes to build confidence and community in an evolving industry.

In episode 24 of Open Source Ready, Brian Douglas and John McBride sit down with Ivan Burazin, CEO of Daytona, to explore how his company is building runtime infrastructure for AI agents. Ivan shares how Daytona pivoted from developer environments to powering the next wave of autonomous AI systems, and what it takes to make agents fast, secure, and scalable. They also discuss open source licensing...

In episode 86 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica Kerr sit down with Amarilis Campos from Nubank. They explore how Brazil’s largest digital bank uses observability to build resilience and autonomy at scale. Amarilis shares how Nubank’s culture of “acting like owners, not renters” and its journey from metrics and logs to tracing with Honeycomb helped the company grow to over 100 million customers.

In episode 45 of Generationship, Rachel Chalmers speaks with Allegra Guinan of Lumiera about the trust dynamics and design ethics of voice-based AI. Together they explore how human tendencies to anthropomorphize voice systems can both build and erode trust, underscoring the need for responsible design and diverse perspectives.

On episode 15 of Platform Builders, Christine Spang and Isaac Nassimi sit down with Amrit Dhangal. Together, they explore his journey building Acquire from a scrappy live chat tool to a venture-backed customer service platform. Amrit reflects on scaling challenges, personal sacrifices as an immigrant founder, and the lessons he’s carrying into his new company, Aero.

In episode 22 of Open Source Ready, Brian and John sit down with Benji Kalman, co-founder of Root, to explore the intersection of AI, software development, and security. They unpack "vibe coding," its impact on API proliferation, and the hidden costs of increased technical debt. Learn why a security vulnerability is just a bug with a purpose, and discover how AI agents can be used not ju...

On episode 14 of Platform Builders, Christine Spang and Isaac Nassimi speak with Anthony Presley. Anthony walks through his journey from early consulting to creating workforce management SaaS, highlighting how persistence and customer-driven development shaped his companies. Together, they dig into the complexities of restaurant software, the importance of open ecosystems, and where dining tech is...

In episode 21 of Open Source Ready, Brian and John sit down with Chad Metcalf, CEO of Continue, to explore the rise of continuous AI. Chad shares his journey from early embedded systems and platform engineering to leading an open-source-focused company building coding agents. They discuss automation, developer trust, open source attribution, and how AI is reshaping workflows across the entire soft...

In episode 13 of Platform Builders, Christine and Isaac explore the intersection of AI and medicine with ER physician Nathan Murray. Nathan shares how and why he founded DocAssistant, an AI-powered scribe and decision-support tool for emergency medicine. This conversation examines the challenges of integrating AI into clinical workflows and offers a unique perspective on the future of healthcare t...

In episode 43 of Generationship, Rachel explores the frontier of AI-driven cybersecurity with John Amaral, co-founder of Root.io. Together they unpack the promise and challenges of agentic systems that detect, patch, and remediate vulnerabilities automatically. This installment offers a mix of technical deep dives, AI optimism, and a vision of security that works more like an immune system than a...

In episode 20 of Open Source Ready, Brian and John sit down with data engineering and cognitive science expert Vasilije Markovic to explore AI memory and how we can build more intelligent systems. From the challenges of "context rot" to the practical applications of AI memory in construction, education, and finance, this conversation covers how to give your AI the context it truly needs.

In episode 12 of Platform Builders, Christine and Isaac chat with Mike Boufford, CEO of Otti and former CTO of Greenhouse. Mike unpacks hard-earned insights on topics like leadership philosophies, management best practices, and the unexpected moments that shape company culture. This conversation blends candid war stories with practical takeaways for anyone leading technical teams.

In episode 42 of Generationship, Rachel Chalmers speaks with Katie Hallett about why she and her team decided to build a web browser for machines, not humans. Katie explains the inefficiencies of traditional scraping tools, why Lightpanda is so much faster, and how AI is reshaping developer workflows. They also offer career advice to help new graduates stay ahead in the AI era.

In episode 41 of Generationship, Brighthive CEO Suzanne EL-Moursi joins Rachel Chalmers to unpack the “three-layer cake” of modern data architecture: composable stacks, agentic AI, and governance-first design. From integrating hundreds of data sources to enforcing real-time compliance, Suzanne shares how her team is tackling the grunt work of data so humans can focus on innovation. Plus, her visio...

In episode 19 of Open Source Ready, Brian and John speak with Josh Rosso, Principal Engineer at Reddit and author of Production Kubernetes . From his early days at CoreOS and Heptio to running Reddit’s massive compute platform, Josh shares insights into managing Kubernetes at internet scale, the business realities of open source, and the risks smaller OSS projects face. Lastly, they dive into AI’s...

In episode 11 of Platform Builders, Christine Spang and Isaac Nassimi chat with Greg Galant. Greg recounts his early entrance into podcasting, social media, and eventually PR tech. He shares war stories from the early 2000s, including launching a podcast before “podcasting” was popular, creating the viral Shorty Awards, and bootstrapping Muck Rack into a multi-million dollar SaaS company. The conv...

In episode 40 of Generationship, Salma Mayorquin of Remyx AI unpacks the shift from traditional MLOps to ExperimentOps—a framework for scaling insight in modern AI development. With stories from Netflix, Yelp, and Stripe, she explains how teams are bringing foundation models into production and what it takes to keep up. If you're grappling with LLMs, MLOps, or decision paralysis in GenAI, thi...