Holy cow: Austin has some updates! We're talking major life events, people. His first whittling project comes to a finale, a new job as a senior software engineer at Workiva, and a potential new house purchase in Ames. Not to be outdone, Josh talks about his recent upgrade to the iPhone 17 Pro and details the Alexa Plus experience. The episode is rounded out with a discussion on why autumn is the best season.00:00 Welcome to the Podcast00:51 Whittling Adventures04:05 New Job Announcement15:43 House Hunting Excitement18:05 Moving Close to Family19:06 New House Excitement20:10 Challenges of Selling a House22:05 Quick House Sale Success22:41 Tips for Selling a House with Kids25:37 New iPhone Experience27:53 Upgrading to Alexa Plus31:59 Balancing Work and Kids34:52 The Best Season Debate
It sure feels like fall, folks! Football season and sending kids off to kindergarten. We recap Josh's trip to Okoboji, and Austin dives deep into his new hobby: whittling a spoon out of wood. Then we discuss how best to build a blogging stack with interactive widgets, and weigh the pros and cons of MDX, Markdoc, and more. Also: do you have a second brain?00:00 Welcome00:30 Summer's End and Football Season01:35 Kindergarten Adventures04:54 A Trip to Okoboji09:37 Whittling: A New Hobby15:26 Exploring a New Blog Stack16:32 Interactive Code Blocks and Blog Post Widgets16:52 Exploring MDX for Interactive Blog Content18:04 Challenges with MDX and Alternatives21:49 Introduction to Markdoc and Its Benefits26:19 Web Components as an Alternative32:03 The Concept of a Second Brain39:21 LLMs and the Future of Writing41:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
We're back, already?! Austin recounts an exhausting road trip to Northern Michigan, involving a harrowing 5.5-hour traffic standstill. They also discuss their plans to meet in person with their families, Josh's upcoming trip to Okoboji, and Barrett starting kindergarten soon. The episode finishes with a technology segment where they chat about Laracon 2025, Josh's project to replace Amazon Alexa, and what the heck is going on with Arc and Dia web browsers.00:00 Welcome to Josh and Austin00:59 Austin's Road Trip Adventure10:59 A Fun Day with the Kids14:04 Planning a Family Meetup15:55 Upcoming Trip to Okoboji18:12 Barrett's Kindergarten Journey22:26 Exciting Laravel Announcements23:15 Laravel Wayfinder and Type Safety27:19 Laravel Forge 2.0 and Cloud28:56 Laravel Vapor34:14 Browser Wars: Arc vs. Dia41:54 Building an Amazon Alexa Replacement47:55 Final Thoughts and Farewell
Austin and Josh reconnect after a two-month break from their podcast. Austin has a new baby! We talk all about experience with a newborn, and the ups and downs of parenthood. Then we dive into summer road trips and house hunting. Austin shares his new project idea for building a custom grocery list app using Convex, while Josh talks about his aspiration to create a DIY Amazon Alexa with Cloudflare and Raspberry Pi.
We're back! Austin's gonna have a second child soon so we talk about that. Working remotely is neat—or is it? Josh talks ear infections, OneWheel scooters, and his React Miami experience. Then we yammer on about "vibe coding" with tools like Cursor and talk about a couple personal projects created with AI assistance. Zed Editor comes up, too. Jam packed! Tune in!00:00 Welcome Back: Josh and Austin Reunite00:27 Baby Number Two: The Waiting Game02:47 Josh's Family Updates04:45 One-Wheel Adventures and Mishaps09:05 React Miami15:38 Remote Work21:51 Exploring AI and Vibe Coding26:30 Vibe-coding a 3D game26:52 Josh's Pod Catchup app28:46 Building Pod Catchup32:21 Considering the Business Case for Pod Catchup38:00 The Concept of Personal Software44:04 Exploring Agent-Based Coding Tools50:04 Balancing Tech Trends and Personal Life52:01 Cool thing: Blogging and Local Storage in Web Development56:12 Cool thing: TV shows
Aaron Francis is here! We chat about open source projects, Fusion and Solo, his company Try Hard Studios, and his educational courses. Is Aaron an LLM? Maybe! He also tweets viral things sometimes. Enjoy!
00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Aaron Francis
03:23 Introducing Aaron Francis: Developer and Educator
04:53 Deep Dive into Fusion
19:43 Exploring Solo: Simplifying Local Development
29:05 Business Side: Try Hard Studios and Screen Casting
29:50 The Challenges of Creating Technical Courses
30:48 The Exhausting Process of Learning Databases
32:59 The Art of Screencasting
35:27 Balancing Technical Rigor and Personal Opinion
39:38 Starting a Business After a Layoff
42:00 Navigating the First Year of Business
45:49 Cool things
Links:
- Aaron on X https://x.com/aarondfrancis and Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/aaronfrancis.com
- Fusion https://github.com/fusion-php/fusion
- Solo https://github.com/soloterm/solo
- Try Hard Studios https://tryhardstudios.com/
- Mastering Postgres https://masteringpostgres.com/
- High Performance SQLite https://highperformancesqlite.com/
- Screencasting Course https://screencasting.com/Cool things:
- superwhisper https://superwhisper.com/
- lex.page https://lex.page/
- Sesame AI https://www.sesame.com/research/crossing_the_uncanny_valley_of_voice
- Rocket League https://www.rocketleague.com/en
Our very first guest! Eric Bailey, a talented developer at Bluesky. Eric shares his journey from Iowa to New York to Chicago, detailing his transition from design to development while highlighting his experiences with various tech companies. We talk a bunch about React Native and what it's been like working at Bluesky during its explosive growth in the past few months.00:00 Welcome and Introductions01:37 Eric Bailey's Background and Iowa Connections04:22 Career Journey: From Design to Development11:29 Joining Bluesky, working with React Native16:44 Getting Started with React Native19:16 Open Source Dynamics20:05 Public Launch and Growth21:00 Challenges of Rapid Change22:16 Collaborative Development24:00 Community Contributions27:42 Scaling Infrastructure31:28 Presta: Framework Development Journey35:24 Cool Things
Links:
- Eric on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/esb.lol
- Night Agent on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81450827
- Severance S2 on Apple TV+ https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx
- Toe (band) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_(band)
- Character Limit (book) https://www.amazon.com/Character-Limit-Elon-Destroyed-Twitter/dp/059365613X
Austin shares details about his recent ankle injury over Thanksgiving, and Josh announces the birth of his third son, Levi. Then they dive into the sale of Josh's side business, Barkpass.
Topics include due diligence, legal processes, accounting, technical security audits, and more. You won't want to miss this one!
Links:
- React 19
00:00 Welcome and Thanksgiving Recap
01:57 Ankle Injury Woes
03:44 Josh's Family Update
07:27 Selling Barkpass: The Journey Begins
12:15 The Acquisition Process
17:48 Technical Due Diligence
24:49 Finalizing the Sale
25:27 Legal and Logistical Challenges
29:02 Buyer's Intentions and Future Plans
30:40 Reflecting on the Journey
36:26 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
42:13 New Beginnings and Future Projects
43:06 Cool Things of the Week
Josh and Austin hop on the pod to chat about cold weather and late night DNS cutovers. Josh shares his trip down memory lane on the Iowa State campus over the weekend, and they discuss some of the architectural design decisions of campus buildings from the 80s. Then, Josh and Austin dive into the challenges and pitfalls of transitioning a site to server-side rendering. Josh shares his discovery that: SSR is not a silver bullet. They also discuss ways to optimize rendering, the potential of server components, and reflect on legacy code. 00:00 Introduction and Greetings 01:14 Late Night DNS cutovers 05:51 ISU Campus Visit and College Memories 13:50 Shoutouts 14:56 Server-Side Rendering (SSR) in Web Development 22:38 SSR Challenges 23:53 Lessons Learned from SSR Implementation 27:41 Exploring Server Components 30:53 Hydration Workarounds and Challenges 32:50 Astro and Island Architecture 36:02 Legacy Code and Engineering Trade-offs 38:59 Cool Things: TV Shows and Docs Sites
- Silo on Apple TV+
It's Halloween! Josh and Austin dish on the "Beggars Night" tradition from Central Iowa and talk about their Halloween costumes. They also touch on Christmas shopping (is it too early?). Then they dive into Svelte: a high-level intro, what's new in Svelte version 5, and a hot topic: Runes. One of the podcasters also happens to make a cameo on the Svelte homepage.
00:05 Halloween Traditions and Beggar's Night
07:03 Holiday Season and Christmas Shopping
09:28 Shout Outs
11:57 Introduction to Svelte
25:11 Initial Thoughts on Svelte 5
29:14 Svelte's New Website and Controversial Font
34:04 Technical Discussion on Svelte 5 Runes
45:58 Cool Things: Podcast and TV Show Recommendations
Links:
Josh and Austin reconnect after a month-long hiatus to discuss how to make our houses not cold during the winter, updates on Josh's new car, Your Iowa State Cyclones, and a new segment they're calling: "Shout-outs!" Then they discuss announcements coming out of this year's Laracon US, including a $57 million investment in Laravel, the introduction of Laravel Cloud, a new VS Code plugin and Inertia 2.0, and more. 00:00 Reintroductions and Catching Up 00:37 Podcast Stats and Listener Engagement 01:23 Winter Preparations and Home Updates 03:03 New Car and Football Adventures 06:19 Shoutouts to Early Listeners 08:52 Discussing Laracon US 2024 09:49 Laravel's Growth and Investment 22:45 Laravel Cloud 25:51 Laravel's $57 Million Raise 33:51 VS Code Plugin for Laravel 38:00 Inertia 2.0 44:21 Cool Things
Links:
- Nobody Wants This on Netflix
It's local-first day on the pod!
Josh and Austin start by talking about children's clothing, Josh's car shopping adventures, and the big Iowa vs Iowa State football game.
Then we dive in to "local-first" software: what it is, what problem it solves, and how it's hard to get it right.
They compare it to traditional client-server models and offline-first approaches, highlighting examples like Linear, Superhuman, and potential uses in apps like GitHub. They cover the challenges, especially with caching and sync engines, and touch on security concerns.
"Cool Stuff": Laracon (including a spicy take).
02:54 Parenting and baby clothes
06:04 Car Shopping
10:32 Iowa vs. Iowa State
13:21 Exploring Local First Software
15:32 Challenges and Benefits of Local First
21:37 Sync Engines and Security Concerns
25:31 Developer Experience with Local First
42:43 Cool Stuff: Laracon and hot takes
Links:
Josh and Austin dive into full-stack JavaScript, discussing the longevity of podcasts, intense potty training sessions, and the Iowa State Fair. They explore frameworks, serverless, and the benefits of a batteries-included approach in web development.
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Longevity 01:11 Potty Training 06:14 Iowa State Fair 11:53 Full Stack JavaScript21:36 JavaScript Frameworks in the Serverless Era 22:40 Isomorphic JavaScript 25:15 Laravel for JavaScript 28:36 Superflare: A Full-Stack JavaScript Framework 32:48 The Appeal of Batteries-Included Frameworks 38:57 Radix and Headless Component Libraries 42:21 Cursor: AI-Powered Coding Assistant
Josh and Austin Figure Out How to Start A Podcast In the inaugural episode of 'Josh and Austin Figure It Out', hosts Josh Larson and Austin Crim introduce themselves, discuss their backgrounds, and share how they met. They talk about the challenges of starting a podcast, dive into problems they're currently facing in their tech careers, and explore strategies for debugging and promoting their work. They also highlight interesting tech projects and tools they've recently discovered, including NuxtHub and PartyServer. 00:00 Introduction to Josh and Austin 01:21 How Josh and Austin Met 04:16 Austin's Career Journey 08:32 Josh's Career Journey 11:05 Podcast Theme and First Problem 12:06 Debugging Docker Issues 22:58 Josh's Technical Challenge 27:48 Marketing Open Source Projects 33:33 Fun Facts and Wrap-Up
