Inspired by listeners who tell us that this show makes them too hungry, we take you over the far deep end and tell some of our favorite stories of our most enlightening meals. From cheese in Marsilles to Lengua Tacos in California, these are some of the best things we’ve ever had.

What does pottery have to do with programming? What do you learn on your journey to be coming a master at both? We get to talk to one of AQ’s oldest friends, Avi Arenfeld, a MFA in Ceramic Arts, a rapper, and someone who’s just starting their journey into the world of programming. We talk a little about Hip-Hop, pots, and the most intimate user interfaces.

We catch up with our old friend Jacqui Maher, formerly of New York City and currently of London (yes, in England!). Jacui joins us to discuss leaving The City, the operator/creator divide, and the cutting edge of digital journalism. We ask how computers can help us deepen connections to complex news, learn about Structured Journalism, and hear Jacqui’s philosophy of technology and storytelling.

After a little hiatus we catch up with good friend and other Aaron, Aaron Patterson. We talk about Aaron’s full time work on in Open Source (Ruby and Rails), making salami, how his cats are great ice-breakers, and how he applies the punk ethos to every day life.

Editors Note: Even with his fancy new mic, unfortunately, there were some problems with Aaron’s recording. I did my best to salvage and clean but we had to cut a pretty significant section out around 21:00. I also had to leave in a little piece of damaged audio just to have the conversation make any sense.

A listener suggested we do a show about Chinese food, and we very happily obliged. We both have learned a lot about eating and cooking through the massive and rich cultural tapestry of Chinese culinary culture, so we share a bit about our history with American Chinese food, the idea of authenticity, how much we love spare ribs, and more.

After 26 weeks (a full half year) of week after week podcastin’ we look back at the common themes we’ve touched on and the awesome guests we’ve been able to talk to. We also talk about the origins of Beats, Rye & Types and the upcoming Pizza Book.

“Hmmmmm…could control with REPL…” Robot music dance parties, raising chickens, artificial intelligence, and chemical computing are just some of Carin Meier’s interests. She’s cut from the same obsessive cloth as we are, and we have a great time on this episode exploring learning, connecting with others on the internet, and more. Having guests on the show always brings us in interesting directions - join us!

What’s your personal pizza aesthetic? What does it take to turn a passion into a career? We get to sit down and talk to another one of our current Pizza Heroes, creator and chef of Margot’s Pizza, Adam Kuban. Adam also was one of the first of the New York food bloggers and we get to talk to him about the early days of Slice, Bar Pies, and get to hear his best Paulie Gee accent.

As we celebrate the FREEDOM of AMERICA, we discuss the ideas how our culture values free things including Art, Music, and Software. We know that we need codes of conduct, but what does that mean for our communities? What are we willing to sell and what has no right to be sold?

We’ve said before that we define ourselves by our tastes, but how can that be when our tastes are constantly changing? What does it mean to be a polyglot and what inspires us to make the effort to step outside our respective comfort zones? We talk about the good ol’ days of JavaScript, MRB’s School of Jazz, and playing the Electric Jug.