Programming Throwdown
Episodes
186: Becoming a Manager
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
186: Becoming a ManagerIntro topic: plastic welding kitsNews/Links:Parse.bot, turn any website into an APIhttps://www.parse.bot/Gemini 3https://blog.g...
185: Workflow Orchestrators
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Asymmetric ReturnsNews/Links:NanoChat by Andrej Karpathyhttps://github.com/karpathy/nanochatPydantic AIhttps://www.marktechpost.com/2025/...
184: Asynchronous Programming
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
184: Asynchronous ProgrammingIntro topic: AI ScamsNews/Links:Coding Adventure: Ray-Tracing Glass and Caustics (Sebastian Lague)https://www.youtube.com...
183: Landing a Software Job in 2025
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:00 Intro00:01:58 Introducing Mark Cunningham00:07:01 How Do You Find A Job?00:15:43 How to Get the Best Interview00:33:06 Tips on How To Pass An...
182: AI Assisted Coding
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Getting an entry-level jobNews/Links:Mario Kart 64 Fully Decompiledhttps://gbatemp.net/threads/mario-kart-64-decompilation-project-reache...
181: Memory Management
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Video Game PricesNews/Links:Step one: Jump in the Lava - Abyssofthttps://youtu.be/WdadpHLAfdA?si=oXYnhB0EdkR_RaPEScalable world models fo...
180: Reinforcement Learning
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: GrillsNews/Links:You can’t call yourself a senior until you’ve worked on a legacy projecthttps://www.infobip.com/developers/blog/seni...
179: Project Planning
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Lego event space & retail store: https://www.instagram.com/bambeecave News/Links:StackOverflow Question Count Going Down https://gi...
178: Working from Home
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Smart homesNews/Links:SpaceX Starship Flight Test Five / Sixhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKI7y3DTXkShareDBhttps://github.com/share/sh...
177: Vector Databases
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Buying a CarNews/Links:Cognitive Load is what Mattershttps://github.com/zakirullin/cognitive-loadDiffusion models are Real-Time Game En...
176: MLOps at SwampUp
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
James Morse: Software Engineer at CiscoSystem Administrator to DevOpsDifference between DevOps and MLOpsGetting Started with DevOpsLuke Marsden: CEO o...
175: Resume Writing
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
175: Resume WritingIntro topic: DSLR Photography vs Camera PhoneNews/Links:Free Internet while flying by abusing edits to your profile namehttps://r...
174: Devops
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Social Media Auto Responder LLMNews/Links:Amazon releases Amazon Qhttps://press.aboutamazon.com/2024/4/aws-announces-general-availabili...
173: Mocking and Unit Tests
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
173: Mocking and Unit TestsIntro topic: HeadphonesNews/Links:Texas A&M University Physics Festivalhttps://physicsfestival.tamu.edu/Rust vs Cpp a...
172: Transformers and Large Language Models
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
172: Transformers and Large Language ModelsIntro topic: Is WFH actually WFC?News/Links:Falsehoods Junior Developers Believe about Becoming Seniorhttps...
171: Compilers and Interpreters
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Monitor setupsNews/Links:BlueScuti, Willis, beats Tetrishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJ5UuknsHUPalWorld accused of being an AI Produc...
170: 2023 Holiday Special Live
24 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Predictions:Jason VR for WorkLowering AI training cost/ improved efficiencyRISC-V takeoffPatrickAi claim of AGIAi peer reviewerAi Video GeneratorMore...
169: HyperLogLog
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Testing your car batteryNews/Links:Tech Layoffs still going onhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/tech/article/google-layoffs-california-companie...
168: Godot
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: What are expectations on developers that have nothing to do with programmingNews/Links:Pushing for a lower dev estimate is like negotiati...
167: Desktop User Interfaces
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Jogging MetricsNews/Links:Unholy LLMhttps://huggingface.co/Undi95/Unholy-v1-12L-13B The reverse red herring https://www.blameless.com...
166: Speedy Database Queries with Lukas Fittl
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
- pganalyze: https://pganalyze.com/- Weekly series "5mins of Postgres": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDV_1Dz2Ixgl1nT_3DUZVFw- How Postgres chooses...
165: Differential Equations
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Intro topic: Revisiting the power of SpreadsheetsNews/Links:LK-99 Isn’t a Superconductorhttps://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02585-7Normalizin...
164: Choosing a Database For Your Project With Kris Zyp
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Things to consider when choosing a databaseSpeed & LatencyConsistency, ACID ComplianceScalabilityLanguage support & Developer ExperienceRelati...
163: Recursion
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 163 - RecursionIntro topic: Electric CarsNews/Links:Snake Game in 101 Bytes in a QR Codehttps://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/15ab4ct/...
162: Interactive Fiction
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of Programming Throwdown, we delve into the captivating world of interactive fiction. We explore: Wordnet, Inform, and how games...
161: Leveraging Generative AI Models with Hagay Lupesko
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
MosaicML’s VP Of Engineering, Hagay Lupesko, joins us today to discuss generative AI! We talk about how to use existing models as well as ways to ...
160: Position Localization
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Where are you now? It’s a question that may seem easy to answer on the surface, but in truth hides more complexity than people expect. In today’s ...
159: GraphQL with Tanmai Gopal
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
GraphQL is one of the biggest API enablers in software development, but just how complicated can things be? Tanmai Gopal – Hasura’s CEO extraordin...
158: Software Supply Chain with Bill Manning
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, Jason and Patrick dive deeply with JFrog’s Senior Solutions Engineer, Bill Manning. With the conversation tackling the depth a...
157: Kubernetes with Craig Box
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s more than what meets the eye when it comes to Kubernetes, and Craig Box – ARMO’s VP of Open Source & Community –is one of several ...
156: Perl and Regular Expressions
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Should AI research be paused? How far ahead have deepfakes come? Join Patrick and Jason as they tackle their answers to these timely questions – plu...
155: The Future of Search with Saahil Jain
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to untangling the complexities of what lies ahead for search engines in this age of AI, few are as deeply versed in the subject as You.c...
154: Python Again with Jason C. McDonald
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A second Jason joins this episode of Programming Throwdown! Jason McDonald – Python evangelist, author, and more – talks to Patrick and Jason abou...
153: ChatGPT
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
ChatGPT has made a mark on the world as we know it, but that’s only the tip of the AI iceberg. Join us as we discuss how the field of artificial int...
152: The Future Database with Sam Lambert
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Databases are key to almost any project, large or small. Most database systems in the cloud are designed for heavy use and the costs can get expensi...
151: Machine Learning Engineering with Liran Hason
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Machine Learning Engineer is one of the fastest growing professions on the planet. Liran Hason, co-founder and CEO of Aporia, joins us to discuss th...
150: Code Reviews with On Freund
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick and I are always stressing the importance of code reviews and collaboration when developing. On Freund, co-founder & CEO at Wilco, is su...
149: Workflow Engines with Sanjay Siddhanti
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At scale, anything we build is going to involve people. Many of us have personal schedules and to-do lists, but how can we scale that to hundreds or...
S1: Holiday 2022 Special
26 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
S1: Holiday 2022 SpecialToday we field questions from Programming Throwdown’s listeners about AI, machine learning, and more practical matters as de...
148: Package Management with Max Howell
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Package managers are an often-overlooked aspect of any operating system, but their importance is not to be underestimated – especially in today’s ...
147: Quantum Computing with Yonatan Cohen
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Yonatan Cohen – Co-Founder & CTO of Quantum Machines – joins us in this episode to tackle quantum computing! Did you know anyone can run qua...
146: RubyShield, Ruby Central, and Shopify with Mike Dalessio and Evan Phoenix
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this tour-de-force, Mike Dalessio – Engineering Director at Shopify – and Evan Phoenix – self-described “long-time Rubyist” – join us f...
145: Unsupervised Machine Learning
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we discuss adventures, books, tools, and art discoveries before diving into unsupervised machine learning in this duo episode!00:00:22 Introduct...
144: Kotlin Coroutines with Marcin Moskala
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we go back to our programming language roots with author, KT Academy founder, and Kotlin rockstar Marcin Moskala. We talk about how Kotlin mak...
143: The Evolution of Search with Marcus Eagan
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Finding something online might seem easy - but as Marcus Eagan tells it, it’s not easy to get it right. In today’s episode, MongoDB’s Staff Prod...
142: Data Ops with Douwe Maan
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Douwe Maan’s journey sounds too fantastic to be true, yet the tale that Meltano’s founder shares with Jason and Patrick today is very, very real. ...
141: Social Gaming with Chip Morningstar
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:01:03 Introductions00:04:47 Mojovision00:06:07 Chips’ storied journey00:11:06 Project Xanadu00:18:45 Getting into Lucasfilm00:31:31 Artificial In...
140: Developer Burnout and Infrastructure as Code with Ronak Rahman
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:57 Introductions00:01:51 How Ronak got started in programming00:06:03 The first encounter with burnout00:11:49 Double-edged benefits00:17:23 Spo...
139: Scientific Python with Guido Imperiale
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:45 Introductions00:02:22 The sluggish Python-based system that Guido revitalized00:06:03 Meeting the challenge of adding necessary complexity to...
138: Fixing the Internet with John Day
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:24 Introductions00:00:49 IP v600:04:50 OSI00:12:53 The IP v7 debate00:20:18 The definition of an address’s scope00:21:38 Why John feels DNS wa...
137: The Origins of the Internet with John Day
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:01:01 Introduction00:01:28 COVID and the challenge of teaching00:04:11 John’s academic and career path00:08:14 LSI technology00:12:13 Collaborati...
136: Metaverse with Daniel Liebeskind
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
136: Metaverse with Daniel LiebeskindDecentralizing the future can often lead to missing out on genuine human communication. Daniel Liebeskind, Cofoun...
135: Kubernetes with Aran Khanna
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:15 Introduction00:01:03 Aran Khanna and his background00:05:12 The Marauder’s Map that Facebook hated(Chrome Extension)00:20:11 Why Google mad...
134: Ephemeral Environments with Benjie De Groot
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
134: Ephemeral Environments with Benjie De GrootDownloadHow do you test changes to your web backend or database? Many people have a "production" and...
133: Solving for the Marketplace Problem with Andrew Yates
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As anyone who listens to the show regularly knows, I've always been fascinated by marketplaces. How do we figure out what to charge for something, a...
132: Funding Open-Source Projects
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:15 Introduction00:01:24 Gaming setups00:12:25 News00:12:27 I was wrong, CRDTs are the future00:17:18 How we lost 54k Github stars00:21:10 DALL-E...
131: Supporting your Favorite Creators with Brave with Jimmy Secretan
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I've been a big fan of Brave Browser ever since attending a presentation from Brandon Eich back in 2017. Brave was one of the first browsers to aggr...
130: Ethical Hacking with Ted Harrington
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"Hacking" is a word that evokes awe from the public, laughter from developers, and pure fear from technology leaders. But what really is hacking? ...
Episode 129 - Web3.0: Breaking free from the Client Server Model with Michelle Lee
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brief Summary: What is Web 3.0? Guest speaker Michelle Lee, Product Lead of Protocol Labs, shares how web 3.0 will revolutionize the Internet and bri...
128: WebAssembly with Kevin Hoffman
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Summary:What is WebAssembly? Guest speaker Kevin Hoffman, CTO of Cosmonic shares what WebAssembly is, why it exists, and what kind of things you can d...
127: AI for Code with Eran Yahav
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brief Summary:Programming is difficult as it is, but imagine how difficult it was without all the current tools, compilers, synthesizers, etc. that we...
126 - Serverless Computing with Erez Berkner
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brief Summary:Erez Berkner, CEO of Lumigo, talks about his company, going serverless, and why you should too. He shares his experience and tips regard...
125 - Object Caching Systems
21 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
DownloadWe are sponsored by audible! http://www.audibletrial.com/programmingthrowdownWe are on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdownT-...
124 - Holiday Episode 2021!
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this holiday episode, Jason and Patrick answer questions from listeners. They also look back at the past year’s challenges and victories.00:15:35...
123 - Project Planning
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How do you stay focused when working on large projects that span many months? In this duo episode, we talk about Project Planning techniques and tre...
122 - Building Conversational AI's with Joe Bradley
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When you ask Alexa or Google a question and it responds, how does that actually work? Could we have more in-depth conversations and what would tha...
121 - Edge Computing with Jaxon Repp
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is "The Edge"? The answer is that it means different things to different people, but it always involves lifting logic, data, and processing loa...
Machine Learning Embeddings with Edo Liberty
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
00:00:24 Introduction00:02:19 Edo's Background00:08:20 What are Embeddings?00:14:00 Self-Organizing Maps & how humans store data00:22:27 The lifec...
The Art of Vacations
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We are sponsored by audible! http://www.audibletrial.com/programmingthrowdownWe are on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdownT-Shirts! ...
Building a Robotics Software Platform with Abhay Venkatesh
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve seen the dancing Boston Dynamics dogs, Honda’s ASIMO greeting people at malls, and the half-court-shooting robot at the Olympics, among oth...
117 - Authentication with Aviad Mizrachi
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brief Summary:Authentication has become a necessity in a digital world that’s ever-increasing in complexity. What can you do to arm yourself against...
Hash Maps
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this duo episode, Jason and Patrick introduce us to the world of hash maps, from buckets and hash functions, to differences between open and closed...
Route Planning with Parker Woodward
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered how route planning apps, well, plan routes? In this episode, we navigate through this fascinating topic, a field as data-driven and syst...
Code Documentation with Omer Rosenbaum and Tim Post
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What makes for good documentation? In this episode, we dive into one of the most important yet overlooked facets of coding. With us are Omer Rosenbaum...
Episode 113 - Full Stack Web Apps Using Only Python with Meredydd Luff
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re excited to have Meredydd Luff, the founder of Anvil. Anvil is a powerful tool that allows you to build full stack web apps wi...
Trees
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In another duo episode, Jason and Patrick give an in-depth introduction to trees, their many types, approaches and functions, and their importance in ...
Episode 111: Real-time Data Streaming with Frank McSherry
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we talk with Frank McSherry, Gödel Prize-winning data scientist, and Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Materialize, Inc. Frank share...
Episode 110: Security with Dotan Nahum
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Programming Throwdown talks cybersecurity with Dotan Nahum, CEO and Co-founder of Spectral. Dotan provides us with a high-level overview of the role o...
Digital Marketing with Kevin Urrutia
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We chat with Kevin Urrutia about why marketing is so important to any project, how digital marketing is different than traditional marketing, and what...
Kotlin
03 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re having a duo episode for this month! Patrick and I discuss the relevance of Kotlin, a JVM language used for web backends and android developme...
Holiday 2020!
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Holidays! In this show we make predictions about 2021 and take questions from YOU, our loyal fans! Show notes: https://www.programmingthrowdown....
Augmented Reality
21 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month we are speaking with Connel Gauld from Zappar about Augmented Reality. Connel is an AR genius and blows our mind with details on how AR wor...
A Chatbot with a Brain
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The September episode did arrive.... somewhat delayed, but it's worth the wait!! We have NEW INTRO MUSIC by amazing recording artist Eric Barndollar. ...
DevOps and Site Reliability
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How do the most popular websites stay online? How do mobile app developers release new versions safely and monitor them? Today we have Matt Watson fro...
Working From Home
29 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many of us have found ourselves working from home due to current events. In this show, we chat with Adam Bell who has been working from home for the p...
Bayesian Thinking
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many people have asked us for more content on machine learning and artificial intelligence. This episode covers probability and Bayesian math. Underst...
ReactJS
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hey all! In this episode we chat with Guillermo Rauch, co-founder of Next.js, about ReactJS. ReactJS is an amazing framework for web development that ...
One Hundredth Episode
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I hope everyone out there is safe and healthy during these crazy times. The silver lining on all of this is that many of us have more time. Time is on...
Squashing bugs using AI and Machine Learning
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The best part of hosting Programming Throwdown is reading emails from people who listened to this show before they had any coding experience and went ...
Agile Thinking With ZenHub
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most exciting but also overwhelming feelings in software engineering is starting a new project. Staring at an empty main.py file is intimid...
Christmas Episode
30 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hey all! Patrick and I are so lucky to be spending another year with you all. In this episode, we answer a bunch of listener questions and give away s...
Continuous Integration
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Most developers that I know use CircleCI every single day. It's both an honor and an amazing experience to learn about continuous integration and cont...
WebRTC
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone has used programs that talk to a server: Uber, podcast apps, etc.. Most people also know about peer-to-peer applications such as bittorrent, ...
Search at Etsy
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What actually happens when you type something in the search bar at the top of etsy.com and hit enter? This awesome interview with Liangjie Hong, Direc...
A Journey to Programming Mastery
14 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Every interview we do is such an exciting and unique experience. Patrick and I had great pleasure in hosting Andy and Dave, authors of "The Pragmatic ...
Basics of UI Design for Engineers
13 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Surprise! Weekend episode :-D Every piece of code you write is either going to be for computer-to-computer interaction, or for human-machine interacti...
Functional Programming
19 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hey all! Since episode 82, we received a ton of email asking for more info on functional programming (FP). To cover FP in great detail we are thrilled...
Terminal and Shells
21 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hey all!! Ask and ye shall receive! Someone in the Programming Throwdown discord suggested that we cover terminals and shells, so here we are! Despite...
From Combat to Code
30 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hey all!! Today we are sitting down with Jerome Hardaway. Jerome is an Air Force Veteran and the founder of Vets Who Code: a non-profit dedicated to t...
Image Processing
01 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you use ASCII encoding, the entire Oxford dictionary is about 5 million bytes. A single 4K image contains 25 million bytes. If you watch a 4K video...