The Beer Driven Devs
Episodes
Is the .NET ecosystem in crisis?
Contributed by Lukas
We tackle the wave of open-source projects going commercial in .NET, community trust, and what it means for the future of the ecosystem.
What do you know about auth?
Contributed by Lukas
A practical, approachable guide to authentication and authorisation — demystifying OIDC, OAuth, PKCE, and helping you finally understand those token...
The CrowdStrikes Back
Contributed by Lukas
We unpack the largest IT outage in history, explore how tech debt and leadership contributed, and discuss what it means for trust and resilience in op...
Is AI Marketing Full of It?
Contributed by Lukas
We unpack the hype and snake oil behind AI marketing, questioning authenticity and what real, trustworthy engagement should look like.
The past, present, and future of designing and building apps with Nick Randolph
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Randolph shares how design, tooling, and AI are shaping modern app development — plus lessons from Uno Platform and bridging dev-design gaps.
AWS, Serverless, .NET MAUI and async/await with Brandon Minnick
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon Minnick joins to talk AWS, .NET MAUI, serverless architectures, and best practices for modern async code — plus a few fun side tangents.
Opening the lid on OpenAI
Contributed by Lukas
Special guest Uly Maclaren joins to unpack the OpenAI board drama, AGI speculation, AI safety, and what the future might hold for humanity.
As Good as a Holiday
Contributed by Lukas
The Beer Driven Devs attended ADAConf again, this time with Matt presenting. In this episode Liam and Matt reflect on what they learned about change a...
Victims of Our Own Hype
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Matt and Liam talk about hype cycles in modern tooling, using AI and Aspire as examples of what happens when tools are used outside t...
Going Full Penguin: GPUs, Laptops, and RAM, oh my!
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt finally snaps. After a faulty GPU, a laptop that keeps rebooting itself, and a pre-installed audio driver that hides in System32 and reinstalls i...
MAUIDay
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt finally gets to debrief on .NET MAUI Day London — meeting the team in person, the talks that blew the room away, and why .NET 10 has him genuin...
Is There a Future Career for Software Developers in the Age of AI?
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A Perfectly Normal Pull Request
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
An AI agent submits a pull request, gets rejected, and publishes a hit piece. We unpack what happened, what it means for open source, and whether soft...
It's time to let JavaScript go
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A deeper follow-up to our earlier JavaScript discussions, this episode digs into why the ecosystem keeps tripping over the same problems. We unpack su...
AI: Bad for Platforms, Good for People
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam debate whether AI is making software better or just faster, exploring how AI impacts developer workflows, platform quality, and the real...
What can we do?
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A reflective end-of-year conversation about decency, responsibility, and the small choices that quietly shape our workplaces and communities.
The Specialist Myth (The Podcast Edition)
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam unpack the stubborn stereotype of the socially inept specialist, how it still shapes expectations today, and why great leadership has no...
Cabinet: The Offline Store that Keeps Things Simple
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week Matt introduces Cabinet — a lightweight, encrypted offline data store for .NET apps — and shares the story, design decisions, and trade-...
How the Beer Driven Devs use AI
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam share how they actually use AI day-to-day—from code assistants to creative projects—and explore whether AI is really coming for our ...
Data Driven Domains: We're all wrong about SQL
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam pull apart the reflex to start with tables and let an ORM shape your code. We talk aggregates, normalisation vs denormalisation, many-to...
Inconceivable!
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We keep using these words—agile, governance, risk, contracts—but do they mean what we think they mean? This episode digs into the trouble with sha...
Green Checks, Red Flags: Surviving Supply-Chain Attacks
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The recent nx exploit grabbed a lot of attention for using a novel AI prompt injection attack. This episode unpacks what happened, the dangers of blin...
Jimmy Bogard: Sustainability and Community from an OSS Veteran
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam are joined by Jimmy Bogard for a deep dive into the ethics and commercials of maintaining sustainable open-source software in the .NET e...
Deep Focus, Blurred Values, and the Interruption Tax
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore the impact of interruptions on deep work and productivity, discussing the hidden costs of meetings and the importance of m...
Estimation lies we tell ourselves
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we keep getting estimates wrong? We explore the psychology behind estimation, planning fallacies, and the real reasons tasks feel harder than t...
Return of the Mac: Part 2
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Part 2 of our chat with Ulysses Maclaren, we dive deeper into AI, agency, and the big existential questions — with plenty of laughs along the way...
Return of the Mac: Part 1
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In part 1 of this 2-part series, we welcome back Ulysses Maclaren to discuss AI, agency, and the big existential questions — with plenty of laughs a...
Built by Mums, for Mums: The Villey Story
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lucy Quinlan shares the story of Villey — building a tech company without a tech background, bootstrapping, and the power of trust and community sup...
F U Money, Tank Sims, and Rethinking Merit
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fresh from /NEW conference, we explore financial independence, Aussie defense tech, merit narratives, and how to back founders who’ve overcome more.
When It’s Your Job to Stay Calm
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A vulnerable chat on leadership under pressure, balancing empathy and steadiness, and what it really means to be the calm center of a team storm.
Brand or Be Branded
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With guest Sarah Kenyon, we break down personal branding myths, navigating LinkedIn noise, and why 'just let the work speak' isn’t always enough.
Why Matt Believes a Man Can Fly
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt gets personal on Superman, hope, and why stories matter — plus reflections on practical effects, mythology, and backyard birthday laser tag.
Conventions? Give it a REST!
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A fiery debate on REST conventions, idempotence, and when breaking the 'rules' of API design is genius — or just lazy.
Why a 75 year old car will outlive your app
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing lessons from classic cars and modular design, we explore why software ages so quickly — and whether truly timeless apps are even possible.
What does open-source owe you?
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A candid discussion on entitlement, burnout, and the blurred lines between community and commerce in the open-source ecosystem.
Is the career ladder a lie?
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We challenge the traditional linear career path, exploring staff engineering roles, motivation, and how 'moving back' can actually be moving forward.
Has JavaScript outstayed its welcome?
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A passionate rant on the quirks and limitations of JavaScript, and whether emerging tech (like WASI and Rust) might finally set us free from it.
Championing the Road Less Travelled
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We celebrate those brave enough to change careers later in life, unpacking privilege, resilience, and the value of diverse perspectives in tech and be...
New Year, new tools, new goals
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A New Year’s chat on setting realistic goals, exploring new dev tools, and balancing growth with maintaining foundational skills.
Merry Christmas from the Beer Driven Devs
25 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A short, festive wrap-up to close the year — looking back with gratitude and raising a glass to all our listeners. Cheers!
Drowning in Tech Debt?
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We unpack the hidden dangers of tech debt, why it's like financial debt, and how to communicate its impact to non-technical stakeholders before it sin...
Why?
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A reflective episode on Simon Sinek’s 'Start with Why', personal motivations, and how thinking strategically can transform careers and team dynamics...
[BONUS] A Day of Decisions - Part 2
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wrapping up ADAConf highlights, hallway chats, and what we’re taking into next year’s events — plus bonus stories from the flight home.
A Day of Decisions - Part 1
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A recap of ADAConf Melbourne — standout talks, decision-making in architecture and teams, and why this conference left such an impression.
Open Source, Closed Wallet, Questionable Ethics?
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We unpack the ethics of open source, corporate freeloading, and how maintainers balance community goodwill with burnout and business realities.
Are we wrong about EVERYTHING?
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A no-holds-barred debate on best practices — DDD, TDD, Agile, layered architectures — and whether we’ve been getting it all hilariously wrong.
Unity, One Year On: BDD’s Full Circle
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A year after Unity’s big fee fiasco, we reflect on game dev, community backlash, and what we’ve learned after 12 months of podcasting.
The Art of Problem solving
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From technical puzzles to life’s big challenges — we explore mindsets, DDD, YAGNI, and whether every problem really needs a solution at all.
Burndown burnout
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matt shares the hard lessons of juggling multiple roles, avoiding burnout, and why sometimes your own wellbeing deserves a place on the backlog.
Is Grace Ace?
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Arbeit joins to discuss Grace, a potential Git alternative — merging philosophy, cleaner code, and whether the industry is really ready for ch...
Is Git shit?
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matt vents about Git — from its toxic roots to painful UX — and we debate whether it’s an industry standard or an outdated pain machine that nee...
Nobody cares about your privacy: Adobe, Apple, Microsoft trampling your rights?
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A spicy chat on privacy, monopolies, AI overload, and whether you can really trust big tech with your data (and your kids’ photos).
Can you afford a tech startup?
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We break down the real costs (and hidden costs) of starting a tech business, from MVPs to incubators to the reality of throwing away your first versio...
Is it time to end the remote work experiment?
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A candid look at return-to-office trends, the value of in-person collaboration, productivity myths, and whether remote work’s golden age is truly ov...
Diving into DDD
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We celebrate Matt’s birthday with a deep dive into Domain-Driven Design — what it is, why language matters, and whether it’s the key to long-ter...
The "Netflix problem"
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From streaming wars to piracy and licensing headaches — a business-focused yarn on how convenience and vertical integration shape the media landscap...
Golden hammers and doing nothing
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When is the best solution doing nothing at all? We talk golden hammers, consulting mindsets, and how to resist the urge to always 'just build'.
TDD & DDD from the ground up with Chris Simon
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Simon joins for a deep, practical discussion on Test-Driven Development, Domain-Driven Design, and building adaptive, modern teams.
BDD @ NDC
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A live catch-up from NDC Sydney — highlights, favourite talks, and the social side of one of Australia’s biggest dev conferences.
A Brief history of UI in .NET
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matt takes us on a fast-paced history lesson through .NET UI frameworks, from WinForms to MAUI — and what it all means for cross-platform devs today...
Leaning into the Lean Startup
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A practical chat about Lean Startup principles — MVPs, validated learning, pivots, and whether anyone should really worry about someone 'stealing' i...
2023 Retro
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam reflect on a huge year: favourite episodes, professional highlights, personal growth, and what they’re excited for next.
Nobody cares about your code
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We explore why perfect code doesn't matter as much as you think — covering tech debt, customer value, communication, and the real priorities in soft...
Unpacking the 2023 Australian Cybersecurity Strategy
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cybersecurity expert Nick Ellsmore joins to break down Australia’s national strategy, from professionalisation to data risks and future tech threats...
About your hosts
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Get to know Matt and Liam — their journeys into tech, life lessons, and why they believe in tackling big challenges (and drinking good beer).
VR - The past, present and future
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Matt shares his passion for VR, from its early days to the Quest 3 and beyond — plus some wild predictions about where immersive tech is heading.
Revisiting The Phoenix Project
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A deep dive into The Phoenix Project 13 years on — is DevOps still relevant, and what can we learn about leadership, culture, and delivery today?
Welcome to the BDD Podcast
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Liam kick off the podcast with a look at Unity's pricing controversy, leadership lessons, and what it all means for devs and the industry.