Elixir Wizards

In the final episode of Season 15, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by James Gray, co-author of Designing Elixir Systems with OTP, to talk about what has changed in software development and what still holds true. Years after the book’s release, many of its core ideas around architecture, boundaries, supervision, and system design remain deeply relevant, even as AI tools reshape how developers learn, build, and collaborate.

James brings a unique perspective to the conversation: he is an experienced Elixir and OTP educator who only recently began using LLMs in his own workflow. He shares what surprised him, where the tools have been useful, where they have created risk, and what happened when Claude accidentally wiped his local development database. The conversation explores how AI can speed up parts of the work while making foundational knowledge, code review, testing, and clear system boundaries even more important.

To close the season, James and the hosts reflect on what developers should hold onto as the stack continues to shift. They discuss responsible LLM usage, the changing role of pair programming, who owns the mental model when AI helps write code, and why Elixir’s long-standing strengths may matter even more in an AI-assisted development world.

James is scheduled to speak at ElixirConf 2026, September 10–11 in Chicago, and the Elixir Wizards will be there too! Join us and the broader Elixir community, and use promo code Elixirwizards for 10% off in-person or virtual tickets at https://elixirconf.com/

Java Programming Language https://www.java.com/en/

Special Guest: James Gray.

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Zach Daniel, creator of the Ash Framework and Igniter, VP of Engineering at Remedy Meds, and upcoming ElixirConf keynote speaker, to talk about what sits between an LLM and useful engineering work.

Zach reflects on how much has changed since his last appearance on the podcast in October 2024, moving from Igniter, code generation, and project patching into AI agents, context layers, and custom engineering workflows. The conversation explores how deterministic tools and probabilistic LLMs can work together, and why the most useful AI systems often depend on the structure built around the model.

We also discuss why teams should be careful about outsourcing the systems that hold their organizational knowledge and decision-making. He shares his perspective on owning the AI stack, building internal knowledge systems, training junior developers in an AI-augmented world, avoiding vendor lock-in, and why Elixir may be especially well-suited for safer agentic workflows.

Zach will be a keynote speaker at ElixirConf 2026, September 10–11 in Chicago, and the Elixir Wizards will be there too! Join us and the broader Elixir community, and use promo code Elixirwizards for 10% off in-person or virtual tickets at https://elixirconf.com/

Ash Framework https://ash-hq.org/

Special Guest: Zach Daniel.

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Flora Petterson, a self-taught Elixir developer, speaker, and maker, to talk about what happens when software systems forget and how developers can design for recovery.

Embedded Elixir Nerve https://nerves-project.org/

In this episode, Elixir Wizards Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Bruce Tate, founder of Groxio and longtime Elixir educator, to discuss career growth and mentorship in the age of AI.

Bruce reflects on Elixir’s evolution and explores how AI coding agents are changing the way developers learn, work, and advance. He explains his “anti-vibe coding” philosophy and recommends practices for maintaining code quality, arguing that many struggles attributed to junior developers are really failures of training and mentorship.

Rather than using AI productivity gains to eliminate entry-level roles, Bruce challenges teams to reinvest that time in educating juniors to support their long-term career path.

Bruce will expand on this conversation at ElixirConf 2026, September 10–11 in Chicago, and the Elixir Wizards will be there too! Join us and the broader Elixir community, and use promo code Elixirwizards for 10% off in-person or virtual tickets at https://elixirconf.com/

https://grox.io/

Special Guest: Bruce Tate.

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Mallory Knodel, executive director and founder of the Social Web Foundation, to talk about internet governance, open standards, and the future of the social web. Mallory shares how her work as an activist, systems administrator, and public interest technologist led her into the organizations and working groups that shape how the internet functions, including the IETF, W3C, ICANN, and ITU.

The conversation explores how the internet shifted from a collection of open protocols toward a small number of dominant platforms, and what that centralization means for users, developers, and independent service providers. Mallory explains how decisions made at the protocol level can affect everything from email deliverability to identity, data portability, trust and safety, and the ability to move between platforms. We also discuss the Social Web Foundation, ActivityPub, the Fediverse, and the idea of building a more multipolar social web.

Mallory also looks at what happens when AI agents, automated accounts, and algorithmic feeds enter open social ecosystems. She shares her perspective on privacy, usability, encrypted messaging, and designing technology around user needs rather than engagement alone.

Mallory’s Website https://malloryknodel.net/

Elixir projects:

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Mike Ratliff, co-founder and CTO of GridVar, to talk about the role software plays in the changing energy infrastructure. With over 30 years of experience in technology, Mike shares the path that took him from the early internet and cloud computing into energy and utility software, along with what he has learned about staying adaptable as the industry continues to shift.

Mike explains why building software for the power grid comes with a very different set of constraints than building a typical web application and breaks down some of the challenges utilities are facing, including grid interconnection delays, power quality, increasing energy demand, and the growth of distributed energy resources. We also discuss demand response, microgrids, virtual power plants, battery storage, and how software can help utilities better understand and manage a grid that is becoming more complex.

Mike also explains why Elixir and the BEAM are a strong fit for always-on energy systems, how an Erlang MQTT server first led him into the ecosystem, and what it takes to introduce Elixir inside an established organization. The episode closes with a broader look at AI-assisted development, the value of domain expertise, and why technical leaders still need communication, judgment, and a compelling story to move important ideas forward.

GridVAR https://www.gridvar.com/

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Ellyse Cedeno, founder of Heuristic Salvo and a software engineer and product leader with more than 25 years of experience across early internet platforms, gaming, health tech, and distributed systems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, hosts Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond sit down with Marek Šuppa, creator of the Missing GitHub Status page, a project that reconstructs GitHub's historical uptime data and reveals discrepancies between official status reporting and the platform's actual reliability.

The Missing GitHub Status Page https://mrshu.github.io/github-statuses/

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, hosts Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond sit down with Saša Jurić, Elixir mentor and author of Elixir in Action, to discuss software craftsmanship in the age of AI. As AI coding tools become increasingly capable, Saša argues that the real challenge isn't generating code, it's maintaining quality, clarity, and shared understanding within a codebase.

Code Complete by Steve McConnell https://khmerbamboo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/code-complete-2nd-edition-v413hav.pdf

Special Guest: Saša Jurić.

In Elixir Wizards S15E04, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Somtochi Onyekwere, a software engineer at Fly.io and contributor to the Corrosion distributed database project, to talk about distributed systems, infrastructure resilience, and the growing fragility of centralized cloud platforms.

https://fly.io