PHP Architect Podcasts

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In this episode, Scott talks with Kyrian Obikwelu about The Official PHP SDK for MCP and how we PHP developers can use it to create our own AI integrations.

Links:

Kyrian’s Social Media:

Scott’s Social Media:

The post Community Corner: The Official PHP SDK for MCP With Kyrian Obikwelu appeared first on PHP Architect.

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This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post PHP Alive and Kicking Episode 15: Below Deck with Frank Wallen appeared first on PHP Architect.

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Dan’s programming journey started in secondary school with Visual Basic—specifically building a cinema booking system. But it was university where things got real: HTML with tables (no CSS!), lots of style tags, and a very old version of PHP. If you’ve been around long enough to remember that era, you know exactly what he’s talking about. And if you haven’t? Be grateful.

Here’s a problem Dan noticed at previous agencies: sales teams would sell, sell, sell, and developers would end up working late nights trying to deliver something completely different from what the client expected. The disconnect was brutal. At Jump 24, they do something different—they’ve mastered the art of “client-speaking language.” Translating technical concepts without losing the client in jargon means fewer surprises, fewer miscommunications, and projects that actually match expectations. It’s not just about knowing Laravel; it’s about knowing how to explain Laravel to people who’ve never heard of it.

You know that feeling when you look at someone’s code and realize a simple change requires editing 15 different files? Dan does too, and he’s built Jump 24 around avoiding exactly that nightmare. The team has found the balance—code that’s elegant without being overcomplicated, maintainable without being overly abstracted. When your former colleague can debug your code without pulling an all-nighter, you’ve done something right.

When Laravel launched its partner program, Dan jumped on board immediately. Why? Because he’d seen too many clients pick development teams based solely on price, only to end up with missed deadlines and terrible code. The partner program creates that first level of trust—a signal that says “these teams know what they’re doing.” Beyond the badge, it means direct communication with the Laravel core team, event sponsorship opportunities, and a level of credibility that genuinely helps the business.

Dan’s been there—working weekends, pulling all-nighters to meet deadlines at previous jobs. When he started Jump 24, he made a promise: no more of that. Sure, they have some clients with SLAs requiring evening support (and team members are properly paid for that), but the general rule is simple: clock off at 4 or 5, and actually be done. No emergency debugging sessions. No weekend work to catch up on sold features that were never properly scoped. It turns out when you don’t overcomplicate your code and you communicate well with clients, you don’t need to live at your desk.

Scroll through Twitch looking for PHP streams and you’ll struggle. Hunt for Laravel content on TikTok and you’ll find… not much. Meanwhile, JavaScript, Python, and Java developers are everywhere—live streaming, posting short-form content, racking up tens of thousands of views. Dan points out the uncomfortable truth: where are the PHP people? Sure, Nuno Maduro is doing incredible work (though he may not sleep), and resources like Laracasts and Laravel Daily are fantastic, but it can’t all fall on a handful of people. The PHP community needs more voices, more content, more people willing to make mistakes on stream rather than hiding behind perfectly polished videos.

X: https://x.com/phparch

Subscribe to our magazine: https://www.phparch.com/subscribe/

This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post PHP Alive and Kicking Episode 14 – Dan Newns appeared first on PHP Architect.

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The PHP Podcast streams the recording of this podcast live, typically every Thursday at 3 PM PT. Come join us and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

X: https://x.com/phparch

Subscribe to our magazine: https://www.phparch.com/subscribe/

This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/er helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post The PHP Podcast 2025.11.13 appeared first on PHP Architect.

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X: https://x.com/phparch

Subscribe to our magazine: https://www.phparch.com/subscribe/

This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post PHP Alive And Kicking Episode 13 – Shane and Simon appeared first on PHP Architect.

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Rob’s journey into PHP started in 1995—way back in the last century, as he puts it—when he got headhunted from a C++ role testing mobile phones. The twist? He was in an online gaming guild that needed a website, discovered PHP 3, and thought “this is way easier than writing C++.” Three decades later, he’s still here.

After years at various companies—some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t—Rob found himself constantly getting made redundant through no fault of his own. Companies got bought, restructured, or just folded. Eventually, someone planted the seed: “Why don’t you just go independent?” Fifteen years later, he’s still doing it, and the variety keeps it interesting.

When people ask what Rob does, the answer is simple: APIs. REST APIs specifically, though he’s increasingly working with OpenAPI specifications. Need someone to build the backend that talks to your mobile app? That’s Rob’s specialty. Building the thing that other systems talk to? Also Rob. He’s carved out a niche and he’s sticking to it.

Here’s the challenge nobody talks about: how do you get clients when your clients aren’t developers? Rob’s clients are CTOs and CEOs who need developers, so traditional developer networking has to work backwards. He speaks at conferences, writes for PHP Architect, stays visible in the community—and hopes it eventually translates into someone saying “I know a guy.”

In a delightful tangent, Mike shares the story of how he injured his finger setting up speakers at PHP[tek] and got to experience American urgent care. For the record, it was a lighting speaker that fell on his finger, not a human speaker. This injury happened right before meeting Chris for the first time—who Mike thought was American until Chris spoke with a very British accent. Brain: officially confused.

“Community” sounds so much less intimidating than “networking,” doesn’t it? Rob, Mike, and Chris all agree: being part of the community—whether online or in person—has been the single biggest factor in their career success. You don’t have to be an extrovert. You don’t have to speak at conferences (though Mike just submitted talks to Tech 26—someone’s growing!). Just show up. Say hi. Join the Discord. Play chess. Answer questions when you can.

Mike admits most of his interaction in the PHP Architect Discord wasn’t even technical—he set up a chess club and gave Eric and John tips on the game. That level of “just being around” eventually turned into a job. The lesson? You don’t need to know everything about PHP to be part of the community. Just be present.

Rob drops wisdom for anyone terrified of public speaking: the audience wants you to succeed. They’re not hoping you fail. You could talk about your dogs for 15 minutes and people would still cheer you on. It’s only a slight comfort when you’re “absolutely bricking it,” but it’s true.

Listen to hear why Rob thinks remote work hasn’t killed in-person community building, and how being on a C++ mailing list 30 years ago set the foundation for everything that came after.

X: https://x.com/phparch

Subscribe to our magazine: https://www.phparch.com/subscribe/

This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post PHP Alive And Kicking – Episode 12 – Rob Allen appeared first on PHP Architect.

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This week on the PHP Podcast, Eric and John talk about PHPTek 2026, JSTek 2026, the new PHP 8.5 Release Page, the PHP Foundation Blog is getting good, the Year 2038 problem, Craft moves to Laravel, getting interviewed by an AI, and more…

Links from the show:

The PHP Podcast streams the recording of this podcast live, typically every Thursday at 3 PM PT. Come join us and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

X: https://x.com/phparch

Subscribe to our magazine: https://www.phparch.com/subscribe/

This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/er helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post The PHP Podcast 2025.11.06 appeared first on PHP Architect.

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timestamp: 00:19

PHP’s ongoing relevance in the development world is affirmed by its adaptability. Bert De Swaef emphasizes:

“PHP remains a key player in both small-scale and enterprise-level projects thanks to its flexibility and robust ecosystem.”

Structured development in PHP leverages key concepts and tools, critical for maintaining productivity and code quality:

timestamp: 06:21

Asynchronous programming is pivotal in PHP for managing I/O-bound tasks efficiently. It allows developers to write non-blocking code, making applications responsive and scalable.

With asynchronous programming, PHP can manage concurrent tasks without waiting for each to complete, making it perfect for high-load applications.

timestamp: 11:53

PHP’s strength in enterprise solutions lies within its expansive library of tools and frameworks. Bert details how PHP encourages efficient development in complex environments:

Enterprise-grade applications benefit from PHP’s resilience and its vast collection of frameworks, such as Laravel and Symfony, which provide the absolute flexibility needed for scaling.

Advantages noted:

Scalability: Capabilities to handle extensive scaling requirements with optimized performance.

timestamp: 21:22

Testing is a cornerstone of high-quality PHP development, underlying the importance of consistent and structured testing processes:

Testing is the backbone that supports reliable application functionality, guaranteeing each change maintains system integrity.

Emphasized tools such as PHPUnit streamline integration into workflows.

timestamp: 26:50

Modern PHP development encompasses advanced techniques for enhanced efficiency and code management:

Employing robust design patterns and architecture not only fosters enhanced, maintainable code but also aligns with industry standards for effective PHP programming.

X: https://x.com/phparch

Subscribe to our magazine: https://www.phparch.com/subscribe/

This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners

Infrastructure Management, Simplified

Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore

Honeybadger helps you deploy with confidence and be your team’s DevOps hero by combining error, uptime, and performance monitoring in one simple platform. Check it out at honeybadger.io

https://www.epidemicsound.com/

The post PHP Alive and Kicking – Episode 11 – Bert De Swaef appeared first on PHP Architect.

PHPARCH25 – 25% off any certification – valid til April Jasper hasn’t written a line of code since his Commodore 64 days—and he’s perfectly fine with that. While most guests talk about their first “Hello World,” Jasper’s entry into PHP came from the business side. Twelve years of organizing Laracon EU taught him something crucial: […]

The post PHP Alive And Kicking – Episode 10 – Jasper Willems appeared first on PHP Architect.

 This week on the PHP Podcast, Eric and John discuss Longhorn, JSTek, PHP 8.5 Website Design, the User Group Meetup, and more. Links from the show: Why are you so obsessed with me? 🙄 #vonage #meangirls – YouTube Longhorn PHP JS Tek 2026: Call for Speakers @ Sessionize.com Call for Designs: Refresh the PHP […]

The post The PHP Podcast 2025.10.30 appeared first on PHP Architect.