Chris Penner is the author of the Leanpub book Optics By Example: Functional Lenses in Haskell. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Chris about his background, how he got into programming, how he specifically got into programming in Haskell, moving to work for a time in Berlin, why a monad in Haskell is like a "programmable semicolon", what "optics" are and a bit about their history, his book, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience as a self-published author.

This interview was recorded on July 7, 2020.

The full audio for the interview is here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/leanpub_podcasts/FM160-Chris-Penner-2020-07-07.mp3. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes here https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/leanpub-podcast/id517117137 or add the podcast URL directly here: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/leanpub-podcast/id517117137.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.