Modern Web

Rob Ocel and co-hosts Tracy Lee, Adam Rackis, and Danny Thompson talk with tech educator Ankita Kulkarni about her journey from engineering leader to full-time educator. Ankita shares insights on teaching Next.js, bridging practical knowledge gaps, and helping developers tackle real-world challenges. They discuss Next.js as a React-based framework, its benefits, and the challenges it presents for...

Annie Sexton, Developer Advocate at Fly.io, to discuss Fly.io’s approach to simplifying cloud deployment. Annie shares Fly.io's unique position as a public cloud that offers the flexibility of infrastructure control with a streamlined developer experience. They explore Fly.io’s private networking and distributed app capabilities, allowing developers to deploy applications close to users worldwide...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, host Rob Ocel is joined by Adam Rackis, Danny Thompson, and guest Braydon Coyer, Senior Front-End Developer at LogicGate to talk about using Angular Signals for improved state management and DOM performance. Braydon explains how Signals simplify Angular development and offer better readability and efficiency compared to traditional methods like RxJS. The...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Danny Thompson, Director of Technology at This Dot Labs, hosts a conversation with Theresa Mammarella, JVM engineer at IBM, and Brian Sam-Bodden, Applied AI Engineer at Redis. They explore their talks at JCONF in Dallas, Texas, covering topics like GenAI architectures in the Java community and OpenJDK's Project Valhalla. Their conversation covers Java’s e...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, host Rob Ocel and co-hosts Adam Rackis, Tracy Lee, and Danny Thompson discuss the importance of unit testing for maintaining code quality and reliability, emphasizing its role in scaling projects and ensuring long-term stability. The conversation also highlights the benefits of TypeScript in improving code safety and developer productivity, sharing experi...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Danny Thompson, Director of Technology at This Dot Labs, sits down with Vincent Mayers, a seasoned tech conference organizer with over 15 years of experience. They discuss the intricacies of running successful conferences, including the challenges of selecting event locations, building community engagement, and creating memorable experiences for attendees...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Rob Ocel, Danny Thompson, and Adam Rackis talk with Michael Liendo, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS, about building practical AI applications and tackling challenges like scalability, multimodal functionality, and cloud infrastructure choices. Michael shares insights on tools like AWS Amplify and DynamoDB, discusses strategies for managing cloud costs, a...

Danny Thompson, Director of Technology at This Dot Labs, talks with Tanner Linsley, Creator of TanStack, about his latest project, TanStack Start. They discuss the challenges of existing frameworks like Next.js and Remix, the development of TanStack Router, and the future of React Server Components. Tanner also explains how caching strategies and fine-grained invalidation can transform the user ex...

Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel chat with Jason Torres about the challenges of breaking into tech, especially for self-taught and underrepresented developers. Jason shares his journey from a 15-year career in the film industry to pursuing software development, discussing the emotional and financial hurdles involved. They also discuss the importance of networking, finding a niche rather than mastering every...

In this episode of the Leadership Exchange, John Crichton, Chief Technology Officer at Lightning Step Technologies, shares insights on balancing privacy and compliance requirements while fostering innovation in the electronic medical records (EMR) space. The discussion explores the complexities of healthcare data, the evolving use of AI to improve efficiency and patient care, and the importance of...

Machine Learning and AI expert Shivay Lamba, discusses the evolution of machine learning tools, and his work on MLOps and deploying large language models (LLMs). The conversation covers the accessibility of AI, the power of JavaScript in machine learning through tools like TensorFlow.js, and the growing importance of ethical AI practices. Shivay also discusses the transition of web-based AI tools,...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Nick Taylor, Senior Software Engineer at OpenSauce discusses the current state of open source, including the challenges around funding, sustainability, and contributor burnout. Nick shares insights into how open source has impacted his career and highlights the growing importance of tools like TypeScript in the open-source ecosystem. The panel also discus...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, CSS expert Kevin Powell discusses the evolution of CSS, from the early days of CSS3 to the rapid advancements with Flexbox, Grid, and the latest innovations. Kevin explains how CSS is making strides to integrate features that previously required JavaScript, like scroll-driven animations and popovers, simplifying development and improving performance. He a...

YK Sugi, Senior AI Developer Advocate at Sourcegraph and founder of CS Dojo, shares his journey from coding with MATLAB to working at Google and founding his YouTube channel, and how ChatGPT inspired his shift towards AI-driven applications. Along with our hosts, he discusses AI's impact on coding, particularly in large codebases, and the role of tools like Sourcegraph’s Cody and GitHub Copilot in...

Rob Ocel, Tracy Lee, Adam Rackis, and Danny Thompson sit down with Kyle Tryon, Senior Developer Advocate at Depot, to talk all things Docker, dev containers, and modern build systems. They break down how Docker simplifies development by solving those "it works on my machine" problems, how cloud-based caching speeds up builds, and why tools like Kubernetes are becoming essential for scaling modern...

Nate Emerson is both a self-taught developer and a computer science university grad. How is that possible? In this episode, Nate talks about his unusual career trajectory, and what it has taught him about the differences between being self-taught vs. formal education in software development. Along with Tracy Lee and Jason Torres, he discusses leadership principles, such as extreme ownership, the v...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, we sit down with Shashi Lo, Senior UX Engineer at Microsoft and the founder of the Gridiron Survivor project. Shashi shares his approach to mentoring junior developers by helping them bridge the gap between boot camp and their first job in tech. We cover the challenges of onboarding, the importance of code reviews, and how companies can better support new...

In this episode, Rob Ocel sits down with Gant Laborde, CIO at Infinite Red, to explore Gant's journey in the tech industry, his transition into leadership, and his role as a Chief Innovation Officer. Gant shares insights into the challenges and rewards of innovation within a company, how to manage upward and downward effectively, and the importance of trust in leadership. They also discuss the evo...

In this episode of the Modern Web podcast, Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel sit down with Sarah Shook , a UI/UX engineer at Hunter Industries. They discuss the topic of Sarah’s THAT Conference talk on color theory, exploring the intricacies of RGB, HSL, and hex color models. The discussion also touches on the importance of understanding how color accessibility impacts your page’s performance. Chapters - 00:...

Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel sit down with Mark Thompson, aka "Mark Techson", to explore key themes around personal branding, workplace culture, and leadership. Mark shares his journey of building a strong personal brand, discussing how consistent online presence can shape public perception and create professional opportunities. The conversation provides valuable insights into the art of leading without...

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Anthony D. Mays discusses code exercises, landing your first job, and how to succeed in interviews. He shares his personal journey to becoming a software engineer and career coach, and emphasizes the importance of not only having technical knowledge but also a strong problem-solving process. The conversation also touches on the role of senior engineers in...

Kent C. Dodds joins Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel at THAT Conference-WI for a discussion about his journey from being an Angular developer to becoming a leading figure in the React community. Kent shares his motivations for making the switch, detailing how React's focus on JavaScript fundamentals and its incremental adoption of new features appealed to him. He also reviews his current and upcoming projec...

Rachel Lee Nabors talks about the challenge of remaining current with new APIs and libraries, and how to prioritize which technologies you should invest your time in. Along with Tracy Lee, Rachel discusses their project of refactoring a demo using modern APIs and the benefits of challenging oneself with browser native APIs. The conversation also covers Rachel's involvement in standards development...

Jonan Scheffler talks about bridging gaps between a brand and a developer community while also discussing the challenges DevRel teams face when aligning their goals with organizational objectives.  Sponsored by This Dot Labs Watch this episode on YouTube Read more on our blog

Tim Neutkens, Co-author and Tech Lead for Next.js, discusses how open source maintainers are simplifying the web, and covers the challenges faced with the current Next.js setup. Tim  talks about TurboPack, a solution that optimizes bundling, improves parallelism, caching, and module graph calculations. He also talks about TurboAC, which focuses on addressing performance and compatibility issues, p...