We met Tim Corey at Microsoft Build, surrounded by people throwing around acronyms like MCP and pretending we all knew what it meant. Turns out, we weren’t alone.

In this episode, we talk about the gaps in learning that nobody tells you about, the power of teaching what you just figured out, and how showing your mistakes can be the best way to teach. Tim shares his journey from recording rough YouTube videos for his students to becoming one of the most trusted developer educators on the web.

We also dive into why acronyms can make people feel left out, what it’s really like to balance paid and free content, and how he accidentally built a thriving community by simply trying to help others not hit the same walls he did.

And yes, we talk about imposter syndrome, AI acting like an overconfident junior dev, and why debugging on camera might be the most honest kind of teaching there is. Links: https://www.iamtimcorey.com/ https://www.youtube.com/IAmTimCorey

The first version of Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here! We sat down with Mads Kristensen to explore what’s new:

• Monthly update cadence (faster features, fewer waits)

• Deeper Copilot integration, including the new Profiler Agent

• Major performance boosts across startup, large solutions, and RDP/DevBox

• A modern UI refresh with new themes and cleaner settings

• Near-seamless extension compatibility from 2022 to 2026

We also talk about bug reports as “gifts,” why developer happiness matters more than raw productivity, and Mads’ favorite hidden gems in the IDE.

This episode is packed with stories, insight, and more than a few unexpected turns – and our guest is no exception. We’re joined by the always-curious, always-creating John Galloway, who shares his remarkable journey from submarine officer to dev community builder at Microsoft.

Whether it’s live-streaming labs, shipping AI-powered productivity tools, or winning a car on The Price Is Right (yes, really), John brings heart, humor, and a whole lot of dev wisdom. We talk Blazor, .NET Aspire, the evolution of vibe coding, the reality of building meaningful content, and how AI is changing the way we build and communicate.

Plus, you'll hear about the VR boxing obsession, accessibility from a broader lens, and how subtle Superman shoulder moves might be the key to cinematic greatness. Buckle up for a vibrant episode full of laughs, insight, and genuine developer love.

🎤 Guest: Jon Galloway – Program Manager, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft focused on .NET and Web Development

🧭 Topics Covered:

• What the DevDiv Community Team actually does

• Organizing .NET Conf and supporting developer events

• Jon's Price Is Right story (spoiler: he won a car!)

• Submarine life and how it shaped his dev mindset

• Transitioning from Visual Basic to Microsoft

• What “vibe coding” means and how AI is changing dev productivity

• Blazor and the new .NET Aspire dashboard

• Writing technical books with the likes of Scott Hanselman, Scott Guthrie, and Phil Haack

• Accessibility beyond disability

• Repurposing content across formats using AI

• Thoughts on VR fitness, and writing fiction with AI

• Superman movie talk and the emotional power of theme music

📎 Resources Mentioned:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/blog https://github.com/dotnet-presentations

‪@jongalloway.bsky.social‬ Special thanks to Daniel Hindrikes for audio mixing

In this episode, recorded live at Microsoft Build, we sit down with Beth Massi! From community legend to product manager on the .NET MAUI team, Beth joins us for a deep dive into the world of hybrid app development.

We unpack the story behind the name “MAUI,” the evolution of Xamarin, and how web technologies can blend seamlessly into native apps. Along the way, we explore AI's growing role in developer tooling, the power of open source collaboration, and yes… even Star Trek captains.

Whether you're building mobile apps, curious about hybrid frameworks, or just here for the sci-fi and geek-outs, this episode has something for you.

Guest: 🎤 Beth Massi – Product Manager on the .NET MAUI team at Microsoft

Topics Discussed:

• What is .NET MAUI and how it evolved from Xamarin

• The clever (and rule-bending) origin story of the name “MAUI”

• Hybrid apps explained: Blazor, WebView, and using web tech in native apps

• The Blazor WebView vs. Hybrid WebView: use cases and benefits

• Real-world examples of .NET MAUI apps: from school buses to law audio books

• Syncfusion's partnership and contributions to MAUI

• Backward compatibility, rapid releases, and how the MAUI team handles it all

• AI tools like GitHub Copilot transforming UI design and developer productivity

• Designing cross-platform experiences without losing performance or personality

• Remote work and collaboration at Microsoft

• Beth's personal journey from MVP to marketing to PM

Links Mentioned:

• https://github.com/BethMassi

• https://github.com/dotnet-presentations/blazor-hybrid-workshop 

• Syncfusion Blazor Toolkit: syncfusion.com

Special thanks to Daniel Hindrikes for audio mixing

In this episode, recorded live at Microsoft Build, we sit down with the always insightful Anthony Chu, Principal PM at Microsoft, to explore the world of Azure Container Apps. Anthony brings a unique developer-first perspective on simplifying complex cloud infrastructure, weaving together topics like Dapr, serverless GPUs, dynamic sessions, and even a surprising amount of pasta talk.

Whether you're new to containers or neck-deep in Kubernetes YAML files, there's something for everyone here, especially if you're into Marvel vs. DC debates or want to know which Spider-Man reigns supreme.

Guest: 🎤 Anthony Chu – Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, working on Azure Container Apps

Blog: https://anthonychu.ca/ Bluesky: @anthonychu.ca Topics Discussed:

• What Azure Container Apps actually are, and how they simplify Kubernetes

• Comparing Container Apps, Azure Functions, and App Services

• When to choose Kubernetes over Container Apps—and when not to

• What Dapr is and how it fits into the microservices puzzle

• Dynamic Sessions: running untrusted code safely for AI and agent-based scenarios

• Serverless GPUs and running custom models

• Real-world use cases and architecture patterns combining apps and jobs

• How open telemetry is built-in, with zero SDKs needed

• The impact of MCP (Multi-channel Processing) and the evolution of cloud-native AI workloads

• Anthony’s journey from being a user of Azure Functions and Blazor to shaping them as a PM

• The importance of networking at conferences—and a great story from NDC London 2016

• Anthony’s culinary skills, first computer, favorite superhero, and... the great Spider-Man debate

Special thanks to Daniel Hindrikes for audio mixing

In this episode, we catch up with Damian Edwards at Microsoft Build! We talk about his journey from launching SignalR to shaping .NET Aspire, how performance became a core .NET culture shift, and what it's like being in the room for some of the biggest moments in .NET history. He shares behind-the-scenes stories from the early days of ASP.NET, how Aspire is simplifying cloud-native dev, and even gives us his thoughts on lightsabers, Blazor, and Blu-rays. It’s a deep dive into code, performance, and a galaxy not so far away.

Guest: 🎤 Damian Edwards – Principal Architect for .NET at Microsoft

Topics Discussed:

• How SignalR started as a moonlighting project

• The evolution of .NET performance culture

• What makes Aspire a game-changer for cloud-native apps

• Lessons learned from building Blazor and Razor

• Scaling real-time systems (and yes, Halo used SignalR)

• How Aspire smooths out local dev and onboarding

• Thoughts on AI, accessibility, and the future of developer tooling

• Star Wars hot takes (spoiler: no Kyber crystals required)

• Building custom PCs and chasing that perfect dev setup

Links: https://github.com/dotnet/aspire https://frame.work/  https://bsky.app/profile/damianedwards.com

Catch us at Build and beyond! 🎧 Don’t forget to subscribe to the Coding After Work podcast for more conversations like this one.

A huge thanks to Daniel Hindrikes, who helped with mixing the podcast.

In this episode, we catch up with Maddy Montaquila at Microsoft Build! We talk about her journey from Xamarin and .NET MAUI to becoming the product lead for .NET Aspire. She shares what makes Aspire such a game-changer, dives into the new Copilot integration, talks about her experience with developer tooling, and even gives us a glimpse into her band life outside of tech. This one’s packed with insight, laughs, and a few solid puns.

Guest: 🎤 Maddy Montaquilla – Product Lead for .NET Aspire at Microsoft

Topics Discussed:

• What is .NET Aspire and why it matters

• From .NET MAUI to Aspire: Maddy’s transition

• Making Aspire more approachable (hint: start with “File > New Aspire Project”)

• The Copilot integration and how it actually helps

• Open source, community efforts, and cloud provider collaboration

• Lessons from MAUI brought into Aspire

• Why developer tooling can still feel overwhelming — and how Aspire hopes to help

• What surprises people about being a PM for dev tools

• The Aspire CLI and making onboarding smoother

• Misconceptions about .NET and how to bust them

• Maddy's other passion: being in a band 🎸

Links:

https://github.com/dotnet/aspire

https://bigrav.band/

https://bsky.app/profile/maddymontaquila.net

Catch us at Build and beyond! 🎧 Don’t forget to subscribe to the Coding After Work podcast for more conversations like this one. A huge thanks to Daniel Hindrikes, who helped with mixing the podcast

In this episode we talk to Dejan Milicic about the new version of RavenDb that just dropped.  We also talk about how importants passion is as a developer.

Links from the episode:

https://ravendb.net/

Dejan's book https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-RavenDB-Database-Modern-Persistence/dp/1484289188/  Developer Hegemony https://www.amazon.com/Developer-Hegemony-Erik-Dietrich/dp/0692866809 

Dejan on the stream codingafterwork.com/YouTube/1e6dS9jSQWo Oren on the podcast codingafterwork.com/episodes/ac3985bd-abfc-42d0-9754-e1228ea1618e

Leslie gives Jimmy and Jessica a behind the scenes look at keynotes. We talk about teleprompters and backups. We dive into the C# Dev Kit and even more extensions with VisualStudio.Extensibility. Leslie is a product manager on the .NET / C# Developer Experience team and the host of the VS Toolbox show on YouTube, Twitch, and LearnTV. She is focused on improving productivity and the C# and Razor spaces across VS and VS Code, including helping develop and release the new C# Dev Kit productivity extension in VS Code. Leslie also worked on the Visual Studio team, developing and enhancing extensibility and debugging features. She helped improve the overall extensibility experience in Visual Studio while helping to create VisualStudio.Extensibility, a simpler, out-of-proc extensibility API. She also worked on the Visual Studio debugging team, where she debugged developers’ problems by designing new debugging tools, such as Pinnable Properties, and improving existing ones, such as the Parallel Stacks window.

Links

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-dotnettools.csdevkit

https://github.com/microsoft/VSExtensibility

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MadsKristensen.TheEssentials2022

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioPlatformTeam.ProductivityPowerTools

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=EngstromJimmy.StageCoder

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=EngstromJimmy.BlazmExtension

Contact: https://twitter.com/lyrichardson01

In this episode, Jimmy and Jessica talk to Nick Chapsas. Nick is a Content Creator focusing on C# & .NET and an Author and Founder of the educational platform Dometrain. His YouTube channel has reached over 200k subscribers quickly, so we naturally wanted to hear about his secret.

https://www.11ty.dev/  https://teachable.com/  https://dometrain.com/ 

https://www.youtube.com/@nickchapsas  https://kit.co/nickchapsas

We want to thank our sponsor Progress Telerik. They have amazing Blazor UI controls, so if you need something, chances are they have it. Check them out at https://bit.ly/blazorui

If you want to see, more content check out our YourTube channel or join us on Twitch. We are on many different social media, and you can find them all at http://codingafterwork.com