The title of this post should be a big hint: Everything you need to know in order to win StartupBus North America 2022 is contained within a podcast. This is the third in a series of posts covering the “Startup Bus” series of episodes from Gimlet Media’s Startup podcast, which covered the New York bus’ journey during StartupBus 2017.
…and here are the lessons I took away from this episode:
If you can find teammates that are on your wavelength, you can achieve a lot. Although they’re on the Florida StartupBus and not the bus that the podcast is covering, they remain a source of fascination for Eric, the host. Not only do Robert Blacklidge and Trey Steinhoff get along so well, but they also work so well together, and the synergy will take them far together. (Full disclosure: I worked with Trey at Lilypad, and can vouch for the fact that he is a great teammate. I also know Robert and can understand why he and Trey got along so well.)
A conflict within the team doesn’t have to destroy the team; in fact, not only can conflicts be resolved, but they can even strengthen a team. Ash from the Denari team had rubbed many of his teammates the wrong way, and there was talk of kicking him off the team. Things have turned around in this episode: everyone’s getting along, and Ash is considerably less acerbic — even optimistic-sounding.
The StartupBus format borrows some of its ideas from reality TV game shows, which means that there can be intentional confusion. “The teams have been getting different information about the competition all day. They’re hearing conflicting things about timing, about whether or not pitch decks are allowed. And this confusion, it all feels weirdly intentional.”
StartupBus is supposed to be a challenge. It’s not supposed to be easy, and as anyone who’s done it before will tell you, it can be gruelling at times. And that’s a good thing — if StartupBus works as designed, you shouldn’t be exactly the same person at the end of the ride. As one of the Denari people puts it: “This is a Navy SEAL training program for startups. This is like we’re going to push you to that to the limit of your mental strength, like every single person on their team is that like living in a role that’s very different from what they walked on the bus wanting to do.”
Speaking about come out of StartupBus a little different, you can see some of the buspreneurs’ change — they’re more certain, more directed, more convinced of their ability to change their personal course through life.
You can most definitely incorporate singing and music in your pitch. The pitch for singing telegram startup Yeti featured one of their buspreneurs in a full Marilyn Monroe costume, singing Katy Perry’s Firework, but with StartupBus-specific lyrics. I also did that with the accordion at StartupBus 2019.
You can also use audience participation in your pitch. Tampa-based CourseAlign did that by asking the audience for a show of hands, using questions that would get a specific kind of result.
Be ready for tough questions. During the Q&A section of their pitch, Denari — the Blockchain-powered GoFundMe-like startup — is asked how they plan to prevent their system from being turned into a money-laundering platform.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. After getting that tough money-laundering question, Colleen Wong, who’s been leading Denari, felt bad about her answer and said that she didn’t feel that she was a good leader. Eric the host had to reminder her that she did the near-impossible — “Are you kidding me?! Have you, like, seen yourself this week?! …You, like, pulled together the, like, craziest team on the bus. It was a great thing.”
Anything can happen in the judging room. Eric the host was invited into the judging room to record a reenactment of judges’ discussion as they tried to decide who would move the next round. But as they reenacted their discussion, they started changing their minds. The judging process can turn on a dime.
There is a downside to making it into the finals: It means that although you’re in a party town, you can’t party. You’re going to be working on your product and your pitch for the finals. Trust me on this one — I was in New Orleans, one of the best party towns in the country, and I spent Saturday night with my team working on our startup.
Arguing Agile is new addition to this list, and it’s also the newest podcast on this list. Hosted by Brian Orlando and Om Patel, two mainstays of the Tampa Bay agile community and familiar faces at local agile events, this podcast features discussions — sometimes just between the hosts, sometimes with a local guest — and they cover all sorts of subjects, all centered around the process of making software in a timely fashion.
Their podcast has been around only a year, but Brian and Om have been absolute podcasting powerhouses, cranking out nearly 70 full episodes in that time, covering such topics as:
If you’re on a software team and you’re looking for ways to improve the way you and your team get things done, you’ll want to check out Arguing Agile.
Here are their 5 most recent episodes:
Episode 67: Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow — On this episode, Product Manager Brian Orlando pitches Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel on the team optimization suggestions from the book, Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow (2019), by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais.
Episode 66: Personal Agility & the Great Resignation, with Joey deVilla — When we think about unmitigated optimism and unwavering positivity, we think of none other than the unflappable – Joey deVilla! On this episode, we talk about how the great resignation has affected us and how a commitment to personal agility helps people and companies through tough times.
Episode 65: A Better Sprint Review Agenda — Does a perfect Sprint Review agenda exist? On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel ask this very question and try to figure it out! Using some original content from one of our favorite Agile Coaches out there, Vibhor Chandel, we review, discuss, and revise our way toward a Sprint Review agenda that we are excited to try with our teams, and that we hope you’ll try with yours.
Episode 64: Bad Agile Experiences, with Curtis Lembke — What creates bad experiences with agile; what do they look like, and how to we deal with them? On this episode of Arguing Agile, Curtis Lembke is back, joining Brian Orlando and Om Patel to talk through Bad Agile Experiences and why some people just totally against agile.
Episode 63: Get More Value from Your Scrum — Do you feel Scrum is not helping you to more effectively create software or solve problems? Do you feel Scrum is just another form of managerial control? Do you feel Scrum is not helping your organization be or remain agile? On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss experiences and share tips to make scrum more effective – thereby producing more value.
Space and Things is the newest podcast on this list, and it’s probably the most comprehensive podcast about space science, research, and exploration. It’s hosted by Emily Carney of Space Hipsters fame, and singer/songwriter/space fan Dave Giles.
STP92 – ‘For All Mankind’ Season 3 Preview – with Krys Marshall — This week we’re joined by one of the stars of AppleTV’s ‘For All Mankind’ – the one and only Krys Marshall who plays Danielle Poole. Season 3 premieres on June 10th, so this is a perfect time for a look back at seasons 1 and 2, plus a little preview into season 3, but don’t worry, there are no season 3 spoilers.
STP91 – Becoming Off-Worldly – with Laura Forczyk — This week we’re joined by Laura Forczyk to discuss her new book: Becoming Off-Worldly: Learning From Astronauts To Prepare For Your Spaceflight Journey.
…a show dedicated to helping developers to grow their career. Topics include Test Driven Development, Clean Code, Professionalism, Entrepreneurship, as well as the latest and greatest programming languages and concepts.
Here are their 5 most recent episodes:
Episode 245: Releasing Software with Tommy McClung — A software engineer by trade and multiple time entrepreneur, Tommy was the CTO at TrueCar for a number of years and is Co-founder and CEO of Release.
Episode 244: Eric Potter on F# and .NET Interactive Notebooks — Eric helps companies succeed by finding the right custom software solutions to their business problems. He has been a Microsoft MVP since 2015, and is currently Director of Technical Education at Sweetwater.
Episode 242: Temporal with Maxim Fateev & Dominik Tornow — Maxim has worked at companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and is currently CEO and cofounder of Temporal. Dominik is a Principal Engineer at Temporal. He focuses on systems modeling, specifically conceptual and formal modeling, to support the design and documentation of complex software systems.
Episode 241: gRPC in .NET 6 with Anthony Giretti — Anthony is a passionated developer, Microsoft MVP, and MCSD. He is currently senior developer @ Sigma-HR, specializing in Web technologies. We’re giving away several copies of Anthony’s new book, “Beginning gRPC with ASP.NET Core 6”. Leave a comment below for your chance to win!
Of the podcasts in this roundup, Thunder Nerds — “A conversation with the people behind the technology, that love what they do… and do tech good” — has been around the longest, with nearly 300 episodes to date. You’ve probably seen the hosts at local meetups and conferences; they’re Frederick Philip Von Weiss, Brian Hinton, and Vincent Tang.
Thunder Nerds is sponsored by a company that’s near and dear to me, Auth0! That’s partly because they have a great authentication, authorization, and identity service, and partly because I work there in my role as a Senior Developer Advocate!
293 – 💻 Remote Work & Top Talent With Zack Gottlieb — We talk with Zack Gottlieb, VP Head of Design platform at Atlassian. We discuss Zack’s career journey and what it takes to make it to Atlassian. Our main topic of discussion is the Great Resignation in the tech industry. We start the conversation by asking why so many people are leaving in the first place. Then we explore why companies want their employees back in the office. Additionally, we examine what companies are doing to retain their top talent.
292 – 🎯 Paid Media Strategies with Michelle Morgan — In this episode, we talk with Michelle Morgan: International Paid Media Consultant, Writer, and Speaker. We explore the realm of advertising on the most popular social platforms and investigate the unforeseen opportunities in others. Additionally, we discuss Michelle’s organization, Paid Media Pros, which provides PPC videos for advertisers with any level of experience.
290 – 🎵 Little Music Boxes with Travis Neilson — In this episode, we talk with designer, musician, Travis Neilson. We discuss Travis’s career at YouTube Music. We dive into his day-to-day and what it’s like to work at YouTube. Then we explore Travis’s music, specifically his channel Little Music Boxes.
289 – ⚱️ The Digitization of Deathcare with Faisal Abid — In this episode, we talk with Faisal Abid: Speaker, Entrepreneur, Google Developer Expert, and co-founder of Eirene cremations. Eirene provides high-quality, affordable cremation services. Eirene allows families to plan an affordable cremation entirely online or over the phone. Leveraging technology to help provide a better funeral experience to families. Additionally, Faisal walks us through the unique business and technology challenges he faced at the beginning of Eirene.
You should be a regular listener/viewer of the Arguing Agile podcast, a YouTube show hosted by Tampa Bay techies Brian Orlando and Om Patel that features local techies talking about software development, agility, and everything in between, completely unscripted and unrehearsed — just real conversations about real tech work. In the past year, they’ve published 66 episodes, the latest of which features…me!
In this episode, titled Personal Agility and the Great Resignation, we talk about doing work in the brave new world of post-2020 and discuss things such as:
The power of team-building ceremonies and exercises, and why they have to be meaningful and not just “doing team stuff for team stuff’s sake.”
In the past couple of months, I’ve had my first chances to meet with my team at Auth0 (Developer Marketing) after working with them for a year and a half — first at a small summit in Salt Lake City, and last week in London.
Earlier in your life, it’s much easier to work ultra-hard in the quest to advance your career, but you can’t do it for an extended period. This is the exact thing that generates mid-life crises, and physical and mental health issues.
We talk about my time at Microsoft where I was a Windows Phone Champion, Albert Shum’s design for its “Metro” UI, and Microsoft’s thinking during the Ballmer era: “The mobile platform is the desktop platform, but lamer.”
I was at a gathering of P2P people at Microsoft in 2001 that was attended by Tim O’Reilly and Dave Winer, where we were told that “IE6 will be the last browser, because the future is applets.”
A story from my time at Cory Doctorow’s startup where how I show how hard it is to predict the future.
The importance of communication when working remotely and keeping Conway’s Law in mind.
Strip away the technology, and a teacher from hundreds of years ago would still recognize a present-day classroom and the lecture format.
We share stories about learning by doing, with Om talking about his daughter at med school and me talking about a story about the Logo programming language, where children learned beyond what they were being taught.
Our first computers: I had an Apple //e and Om had a Spectrum ZX, two serious Generation X machines.
I learned how to program at a computer store that tolerated my hanging out: Batteries Included, in Toronto.
Learning new languages: Python and Lingo, and picking up new languages to get the job done. This may be the first time on the podcast series where the languages Lisp and Prolog get mentioned.
A question that Brian asks during interviews: “Tell me about a time in the last 18 months where you did something to update your skills.”
Software isn’t a what, it’s a how. If you make software for an industry or field, you’re not in the software industry, but the industry or field that you’re making the software for.
About not participating in what Scott Galloway calls “the menace economy”: “I want to earn fair profit for my effort, but I don’t want to do it by stepping on somebody’s neck.”
There’s so much traditional culture force behind the way work is done. Ebenezer Scrooge’s accounting office in A Christmas Carol isn’t all that different from its modern-day counterpart.
Om: “I like to see a sitcom called The Home Office.”
The title of this post should be a big hint: Everything you need to know in order to win StartupBus North America 2022 is contained within a podcast. This is the third in a series of posts covering the “Startup Bus” series of episodes from Gimlet Media’s Startup podcast, which covered the New York bus’ journey during StartupBus 2017.
…and here are the lessons I took away from this episode:
If you run into a difficult person in the morning, you ran into a difficult person. If you run into difficult people all day, you’re the difficult person. I don’t want to reduce Ash, one of the buspreneurs, to a single quality — difficult person — but his “hey, I’m just being real” approach to everyone and everything is one of the hallmarks of difficult person-ry. One of the challenges of being a difficult person is that people will work with you only if you provide value that outweighs your difficulty, and that’s not easy to accomplish. This episode gives us a deeper look at Ash. While he can be a difficult person, we get a better understanding of who he is. Which leads me to me to my next observation:
“The thing about StartupBus is that it really is like a reality TV show. It’s so intense that every interaction, every personality can feel like a caricature of real life.”In the previous episode, Eric the narrator observed that StartupBus feels a lot like one of those “reality TV” competition shows. In this episode, he takes the observation one step further by noting that in a high-pressure setup like StartupBus, it’s all too easy to reduce your busmates to the most obvious aspect of their personality. Remember that people are more than what you see on the surface.
Even though the company you’re creating on the bus isn’t “real,” it helps to get real users, and you either get them through your social network or through advertising. It’s more impressive to the judges at the finals when you can say “Even at this early stage, we already have x users for our product.” You may be working under a compressed timeline, but it’s still doable, and not only do users give you cred with the judges; users can also give you valuable feedback.
Pay attention to the details when you’re spending money. One of the teams paid for Facebook ads, but clicking on the ads took users to https://phishly.io when their site actually lived at plain old http://phishly.io. That was 65 dollars down the drain.
StartupBus may be the “wild card” that you need in your life. As Madelena Mak, one of the conductors on the bus says: “I think like lot of people who join the bus have that same feeling I felt, like that they want to be dealt a wildcard. That they want to be pushed to the limits so they can break out of their own old molds. Like they want to be something more than who they think they can be. It’s not about the bus. It’s about learning something about yourself.”
The pitching gets tougher. As the bus approaches the destination city — New Orleans in the case of StartupBus 2017, Austin in this year’s case — you’ll be pitching in front of judges who’ll ask questions that will require you to have thought through more angles. For example:
Team Daisy — the folks behind the funeral-planning app — were asked if they’d considered handling issues beyond just the funeral, such as death certificates.
Team Denari — the team with the app for sending cryptocurrency to people in need — got stuck on a question that exposed their blockchain-induced blindness. When they said that they could outdo GoFundMe because it services only 19 countries, one of the judges countered with “You are talking about now securities exchange over multiple countries. Maybe there are reasons GoFundMe only deals with 19. Which I haven’t heard you guys say. Is it cause they don’t want to? Because that’s kind of what it comes off as. It’s like, ‘GoFundMe is the largest one, they’re only in 19 countries.’ Why is that?”
As the title of this post puts it: Everything you need to know in order to win StartupBus North America 2022 is contained within a podcast. This is the second in a series of posts covering the “Startup Bus” series of episodes from Gimlet Media’s Startup podcast, which covered the New York bus’ journey during StartupBus 2017.
Eric the narrator discovers the secret of StartupBus: it’s like a reality TV show, but in real life! “When I was growing up, my family was very into a particular kind of reality tv—competition shows… I thought I’d be reporting on a hackathon. I’d find one person, going through something interesting, and we’d just see how their week played out. Pretty simple. But when I woke up in a hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina that Tuesday morning, and I saw a giant “StartupBus” decal on the charter coach outside my window, I had this realization that would have thrilled my younger self to no end: “Holy shit. I’m not just reporting a story about a hackathon, I have landed inside a real life competition show.”
The lesson you should take from Eric’s realization: if you think you wasted your time watching Survivor, The Amazing Race, or similar shows, guess what…you didn’t! A lot of the personal dynamics on those shows is pretty much like those on StartupBus.
Be prepared to pitch constantly. Eric observes: “To get the day started, each team sends one person to the front of the bus to practice their pitch over the intercom. This is something that happens a lot on StartupBus—people are practicing their pitches constantly.”
Be prepared for surprise challenges and surprise obstacles. StartupBus borrows a big trick from reality TV shows: surprise obstacles. When the bus pulls into Charlotte, North Carolina, the New York team finds out that they’ll be pitching against two other teams — a bus that started in Akron, Ohio and another that started in…Tampa!
Don’t limit yourself to just software, because there’s a chance that some team on another bus isn’t limiting itself to just software. “And the Ohio bus is impressive in its own way. It turns out they teamed up with some people from San Francisco, and they’re manufacturing physical products. So they have 3D printers and computer aided design software. The whole thing feels like that scene in “The Sandlot” when the other team shows up in their actual jerseys and matching converse sneakers, and all of a sudden you realize, ‘Oh… this is some real competition.’”
Try not to fall into the trap of traditional gender dynamics. On one team, there’s a good news/bad news thing going on because they’re electing one of the women to be CEO; the bad news is that it’s a job that none of them particularly want, and a lot of it will be about reining in unruly behavior.
Have a plan for managing conflict. On another team, a “that’s just who I am” kind of guy butts head against a woman on his team. This is a pretty big topic, and I’ll write more about it in a later post. Just know that you may have to manage conflict within the team.
I’ll repeat what this post’s title is telling you: Everything you need to know in order to win StartupBus North America 2022 is contained within a podcast. More specifically, the “Startup Bus” series of episodes from Gimlet Media’s Startup podcast, which covered the New York bus’ journey during StartupBus 2017.
This five-part series covered the journey from its start in New York City to the finals in New Orleans. It features reporter Eric Mennel, who “embedded” with the StartupBus New York bus in July 2017 to follow the participants, talk to them, and report on what happened. It gives you a look not just into the teams and their projects, but the people in those teams, what drives them, and the very personal reasons why they chose to go on the bus.
Rule number one of StartupBus is that there is no “number two” on the bus. Bus toilets aren’t as well-sealed as airplane toilets, and if you poop on the bus, it will be bad for everyone concerned — especially you, because we’ll all be giving you the stink-eye from now on.
You’re going to make your first pitch very soon after the bus departs. At the start of the ride, every buspreneur stands in front of the bus and makes a first pitch. This pitch will be for two things:
Yourself: You’ll be selling yourself to prospective teams. You’re going to need to convince people why you should be on their team or why they should be on yours. It works best if you can have your unique value proposition ready in advance.
Your startup idea:If you have a startup idea — that is, if you have a problem and a solution — you should be ready to pitch it. You want your fellow buspreneurs to want to work on your startup idea!
Be ready for chaos after the first pitches. After the pitches, people will start looking for and forming teams. Be ready to move about the bus to talk to different groups.
Build a balanced team. You’re going to need a variety of skills to get the job done in three days.
Day one of StartupBus is about coming up with and validating your idea. Your idea will be tested, and you may need to modify it slightly — or make a big pivot. Be prepared to do either.
There’s a difference between a technology and a solution. One of the teams that initially looks like a collection of all-stars ends up without a product idea because they were focused more on blockchain than a solving a problem with blockchain. As the saying goes: “People don’t really buy drills, they buy holes.”
If the technology you plan to use isn’t something laypeople are familiar with, you may need to spend some time explaining it. The blockchain team ended up spending a lot of the time allotted to their pitch explaining what a blockchain was, and why it might be essential to the problem they hadn’t quite settled on solving. Remember, this was 2017, well before the time when crypto exchanges were easy to find online and celebrities were shilling for cryptocurrency companies; in fact, it would be a little bit before “BitConneeeeeeeeeeect!”. Keep this is mind if your startup is going to be NFT-based — you’re going to spend a good chunk of your pitch explain them to the judges, which will take away from the time to pitch what your project actually does.
The conductors are there to help you. Not only that; all the conductors have been on StartupBus before, so we’ve gone what you’re going through now, we learned from our experiences, and we’ve internalized those lessons. Our job is to actively help you make your startup, project, and pitch be the best they can be.
The conductors are there to challenge you. The ride to Austin will not be direct. There will be stops, where you will face challenges. A mere 4 hours after the New York 2017 bus departed, the teams had to make their first pitch in front of a panel of judges in Washington, D.C..
Try to avoid talking over other team members. Day one is about initial ideas and refinement, and there’s a lot of talking and brainstorming. Your team should try to make sure that team members don’t talk over other team members.
Find out why your fellow buspreneurs are there. There are all sorts of reasons why someone would go on StartupBus, but there are a few particular categories of “why” that you’ll definitely see:
Seekers: There are always a number of buspreneurs who are participating because they’re looking for something: options for a new career path, new perspectives, new experiences, a chance to see parts of the country they otherwise wouldn’t see, and meaning. They can be great “idea” people, as they’re on the bus with the specific goal of trying new things.
Shakers: There are also always buspreneurs who want to “shake up” their current situation. Perhaps they’re in a job or life situation they don’t like, feel they’ve fallen into a rut, or want some experience that will set them apart from other job candidates (this is one of the reasons I went in 2019). These are great “doers,” because their reason to be on the bus is to do new things.
Hackathon junkies: Just as there are people who regularly compete in marathons and triathlons, there are people who regularly compete in hackathons (and remember, that’s what StartupBus is). Having one on your team is a real help — they have experience delivering a proof of concept in short order.
Watch this blog for the next episode, and my notes from that episode!
Space and Things is the newest podcast on this list, and it’s about…well, you get three guesses. Just read its name.
Space and Things features two hosts:
Emily Carney: A veteran of the United States Navy, Carney became a freelance writer back in 2008 and started a blog called This Space Available, which is hosted by the National Space Society.In 2011, Carney founded a facebook group Space Hipsters, of which I am a member. Originally intended to be a place to share news and insights amongst friends, this community has now grown to close to 20,000 members including astronauts, engineers, scientists, historians and space flight enthusiasts from around the globe.
Dave Giles: Giles is a singer/songwriter from London, England who has always had a passion for space flight. Since his early years he’s been looking skyward and though he ended up wielding a guitar for a living, space exploration is alway on his mind and one of his most popular songs is about astronaut Gene Cernan, ‘The Last Man On The Moon’.In 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Giles visited all of the crewed space vehicles flown by NASA from Freedom 7 to the Space Shuttle Orbiters.
STP59 – Everything You Need To Know About Spacesuits – With Daniel Klopp from ILC Dover: This week we’re talking about space suits with Daniel Klopp from ILC Dover. ILC Dover have designed and manufactured all the of EVA suits used by NASA since the Apollo program. NASA decided to try and go in house for Artemis, but they’ve just opened it up for external bids as it didn’t go so well for them… so it’s likely they’ll continue that partnership.
STP58 – Through The Glass Ceiling To The Stars with Eileen Collins and Jonathan Ward: This week we got to speak to Colonel Eileen Collins and Jonathan Ward as the two of them are releasing a book about the life of Colonel Collins called Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars – The Story of the First American Women to Command a Space Mission”.
STP57 – Top Tips For Visiting Space Center Houston: Following Emily’s first ever trip to Space Center Houston in August, Dave and Emily decided to pull together their experiences to help you figure out why you need to go there and what not to miss!
STP56 – George Low, Marketing the Moon and $2 Bills with Richard Jurek: This week we’re joined by author and space historian Richard Jurek to cover a diverse set of subjects which he is interested in. Richard has released two books, ‘Marketing The Moon: The Selling Of The Apollo Lunar Program’ and ‘The Ultimate Engineer: The Remarkable Life of NASA’s Visionary Leader George Low’. He has also set up the Jefferson Space Museum to showcase his collection of flown $2 bills, and that’s a story that you won’t want to miss.
STP55 – Inspiration 4 – Post Launch Reaction Podcast: Inspiration 4 has launched the first all civilian crew into orbit, so we wanted to talk about it and what it means to us. We hope you’re as inspired as we are.
STP52 – Designing Mission Patches – with Tim Gagnon: This week we celebrate the completion of our first year of weekly podcasts by discussing mission patches with Tim Gagnon who has designed us an anniversary patch! Tim has designed patches for flown missions and has also released many fantastic commemorative patches, so as far as we’re concerned, he’s the perfect person to design our patch and explain how it all works.
STP51 – How To Talk To Someone In Space – Ham Radio: Due to Emily getting stuck in Houston thanks to Tropical Storm Fred, we’ve had to break away from our scheduled show and bring you this little nugget. If you could keep just one item from a museum what would it be? Today we find out Emily’s choice. AND IT’S NOT FROM SKYLAB!
STP50 – How To Go To Mars For 2 Weeks – With Britaney Phillips: This week we’re joined by someone who is going to Mars for two weeks, well kind of. Britaney Phillips is about to take part in an Earth analog mission run by HI-SEAS. An analog mission is where a situation is recreated down here on earth which will recreate some conditions that we might experience in space in order to help prepare for long duration missions.
STP49 – Gherman Titov – The Forgotten Man? – 60 Years Since Vostok 2 – With Stephen Walker: This week it’s the 60th anniversary of the flight of Gherman Titov on Vostok 2. One of the most colourful characters of the Soviet Union space program and someone who we should all know more about, but we don’t. So we asked Stephen Walker to come and talk to us about him and his life.
STP48 – Apollo 15 – 50th Anniversary Celebration with Francis French: It’s the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission so we’ve decided to celebrate the mission of Dave Scott, Al Worden and Jim Irwin by asking author and historian Francis French to join us again.
STP47 – So Much More Than Apollo 13 – An Interview With Fred Haise: This week we’re joined by Apollo legend Fred Haise. Known for being the lunar module pilot on the ill fated Apollo 13 mission, but we wanted to talk to him about the other parts of his life which often get left behind, in particular the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests, of which he commanded three on the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
STP46: Rescuing a Spacecraft From The Bottom of the Ocean The Incredible Story of Liberty Bell 7 With Jim Remar: This week we’re joined by Jim Remar, CEO of the Cosmophere in Hutchinson, Kansas, the home of Liberty Bell 7, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of it’s flight carrying Gus Grissom into space. A truly remarkable story, not just because of the mission being just the 3rd crewed launch of any vehicle into space, but because the capsule was lost at the bottom of the sea until 1999 when it was recovered and restored by the people at the Cosmophere.
STP45 – The Making Of An Ordinary Spaceman and Billionaires in Space with Clayton Anderson: This week we were joined by retired astronaut Clayton C. Anderson to discuss his new podcast ‘Making Of An Ordinary Spaceman. In a wonderful honest and inspirational interview, we talked about his journey learned a bit about him as well as talking about ‘cashtronauts’. As well as interviewing Clayton, Emily and Dave also carry on that discussion about billionaires in space and the remarkable story of Wally Funk.
STP44 – The Man Inside The Suit – with Bruce McCandless III: This week we’re joined by Bruce McCandless III as he is just releasing a brand new book about his father, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II who is most famous for being the astronaut floating about the earth untethered back in 1984. One of the most iconic photos from spaceflight and yet not much is actually known about the man inside the suit. The new book is out next week and is called ‘ Wonders All Around’.
…a show dedicated to helping developers to grow their career. Topics include Test Driven Development, Clean Code, Professionalism, Entrepreneurship, as well as the latest and greatest programming languages and concepts.
Episode 217 – The Senior Mindset with Swizec Teller: Swizec is a software engineer, instructor, blogger, vlogger, conference speaker, and author. He has trained the engineering teams from multiple Fortune 500 companies on React, Redux, GraphQL, Serverless, and other modern web technologies.
Episode 216 – Visual Studio 2022 with Mads Kristensen: Mads is a principal program manager on the Visual Studio Team and has published over 150 free Visual Studio extensions. He blogs about anything related to Visual Studio and extensibility, and is a home automation enthusiasts.
Episode 215 – Rebuilding the Plane Mid-Air w/ David Merk: David is a Software Engineer, Mentor, Organizer, Volunteer, Speaker, Workshop Creator, and unabashed Career Changer, specializing in C# .NET, N-Tier and Microservice Architecture.
Episode 214 – Open Source Software with Tanner Linsley: Tanner builds open source software that is currently used by hundreds of thousands of developers at companies ranging from fortune 500 companies all the way down to startups and indie developers. He has a focus in JavaScript using React, Remote/Server State Management, Data Grids/Tables, Data Visualization, and Enterprise Application Architecture.
Episode 213 – Developer Best Practices with April Edwards: April is a senior cloud advocate for Microsoft specializing in application transformation and DevOps ways of working. Her focus is working on Microsoft Azure to take customers on a journey from legacy technology while enabling them to take full advantage of DevOps.
Episode 212 – Don’t Sacrifice Quality: While “quality” can be subjective, certainly there are items with which we can agree? • This is what Roy was saying • Clayton is weirdly zen • Azure DevOps Podcast with Jeffrey Palermo & Capers Jones missed requirements • When agreements have been broken, understand the constraints? • Team Agreements?
Episode 211 – Git for Programmers with Jesse Liberty: Jesse is a principal developer, specializing in web and mobile and has been programming in C# for 20 years. He is a Microsoft MVP, a Xamarin MVP, an author, and he creates on-line courses for Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Pakt. He is the author of 18 books, the latest of which is Git for programmers.
Episode 210 – Compiler API with Jason Bock: Jason Bock is a Developer Advocate at Rocket Mortgage and a Microsoft MVP (C#). He has over 25 years of experience. He is the author of several books including “.NET Development Using the Compiler API”. He is a leader of the Twin Cities Code Camp and holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University.
Episode 209 – Elastic Leadership with Roy Osherove: Roy Osherove has worked in the software industry for over 20 years, and has authored several books including “The Art of Unit Testing”. These days, he is working as a freelance consultant & trainer on-site for various companies across the world.
Episode 208 – Software Consultancy with Ryan Vice: Ryan has published programming and architecture books, been awarded Microsoft MVP and frequently talks at conferences and users groups. He started Vice Software 6 years ago and has grown to over 40 developers and continues to grow 50% year over year.
Episode 205 – Polly with Bryan Hogan: Bryan is a Software architect, Microsoft MVP, Pluralsight author, Podcaster, and Blogger. He has twenty years experience; focusing on development of web applications, micro services and desktop applications.
Episode 204 – Comet and .NET MAUI with James Clancey: James is a PM Architect at Microsoft. He joined Xamarin in 2011 and has been at Microsoft now for 5 years. He joins us to talk about Comet, .NET MAUI, and a little bit about Xamarin Forms.
Episode 203 – NuGet and TikTok with Jon Douglas: Jon is a technical product manager, YouTuber and podcaster. He enjoys exploring the systems, strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier, and more productive lives.
Of the podcasts in this roundup, Thunder Nerds — “A conversation with the people behind the technology, that love what they do… and do tech good” — has been around the longest, with 289 episodes to date. You’ve probably seen the hosts at local meetups and conferences; they’re Frederick Philip Von Weiss and Brian Hinton.
Thunder Nerds is sponsored by a company that’s near and dear to me, Auth0! That’s partly because they have a great authentication, authorization, and identity service, and partly because I work there in my role as a Senior Developer Advocate!
289 – ⚱️ The Digitization of Deathcare with Faisal Abid: In this episode, we talk with Faisal Abid: Speaker, Entrepreneur, Google Developer Expert, and co-founder of Eirene cremations. Eirene provides high-quality, affordable cremation services. Eirene allows families to plan an affordable cremation entirely online or over the phone. Leveraging technology to help provide a better funeral experience to families. Additionally, Faisal walks us through the unique business and technology challenges he faced at the beginning of Eirene.
288 – ⚖️ Digital Ethics, Rights & Responsibilities with Ali Rizvi: In this episode, we talk with Ali Rizvi, Vice President of Product Management at Star2Star, a Sangoma company. We discuss digital ethics, rights & responsibilities of technology companies such as Facebook. There are many aspects to how these entities influence our political climate and unnaturally distort social behavior. Some of the social media algorithms are presented to make our lives better, but do they? Are these types of technologies a fundamental threat to the whole of humanity, or just misunderstood?
287 – 🧠 Learning in Public with SWYX: In this episode, we talk with SWYX, author, speaker, podcaster, and learning in public evangelist. We dive into his career history in finance and how he transitioned into development. We also discuss the challenges of Developer Experience, the advantages of learning in public, and lessons learned from podcasting. Additionally, we get a musical performance from SWYX himself. Bonus: We have Software Engineer, Arit Amana as a guest co-host.
286 – 🌩️ Effective Conflict Resolution with Joshua Mauldin: In this episode, we get to talk with design director and conflict resolution expert Joshua Mauldin. We discuss the most effective techniques for conflict resolution, how to establish trust, and employ empathy. Joshua explains when we should use a third-party mediator, start a conversation with safety checks and lead a talk with facts. Additionally, we dive into disaster recovery. The approach of creating a shared purpose in building alignment.
285 – 🎯 Essential Marketing Strategies with David Portnowitz: In this episode, we get to talk with David Portnowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Star2Star, a Sangoma company. We discuss Star2Star, their solutions, and how they’re providing services that address the challenges of our new normal. We also delve into Marketing in the 20s and leverage the lessons learned from 2020 to ready business for the future. Additionally, we evaluate the current marketing trends and hypothesize which opportunities hold the most value.
284 – 2021 ❤️ Conf-amigues 4 Life: In this episode, we get to talk with Baskar Rao Dandlamudi, Santosh Hari, Super Di, Faisal Abid, Sivamuthu Kumar, Todd Libby, Vincent Tang, Tessa, Jared Rhodes, and Stacy Devino. It all began with a tweet; we should do a show where we connect with some of our best conference friends and have a virtual conference… So we did, check it out ❤️! We also discuss COVID: Going to events, work-life balance, and should/can we go back to the office.
Friends That Code is hosted by Mike Traverso, whom locals may know from the Tampa Bay Google Developers Group meetup and other Google-y events. In this podcast, he showcases…
…some amazing people I know that just happen to write code for a living. Whether they started off intending to code or just happened into it, we get to hear about the types of people you’ll meet, things you’ll get to do, jobs you’ll have along the way, and advice from some awesome coders along the way!
Here are the most the three most recent Friends That Code podcasts:
