Seriously, BUD?

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An unexpected conversation with a trustworthy hombre who prefers no drama when it comes to romance.

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In Episode 123 of Seriously, BUD?, Bud talks with Jos Velasco, a fellow WP Credits mentor from Guadalajara. Jos explains the university-based program, which guides students into the WordPress community. He talks about Mexican food and travel, recommending Oaxaca, and says he learned English from online video games. He met his wife, a visual artist who exhibits in museums, at a launch party for a WordPress multisite blog network, and their calm relationship centers on their senior dogs and long trips, including six visits to Japan. He also covers his family, his partying high school days, and how he went from disliking coding as an engineering student to building everything in WordPress. He now handles escalated page-builder support cases at DreamHost. Jos names reading people as his superpower, recommends WP Credits' Rita Robles as a future guest, and explains that dropping the "e" from José was his own choice.

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An unexpected conversation with an 8th-generation Texan who hangs around the WordPress Community because she loves it. 

Bud finally lands Charleen Mullenweg after two years of asking, and it's her first podcast ever. A professional genealogist and lifelong database enthusiast, Charleen explains how feeling like the odd one out in her mother's family led her to research her late father's side. She describes her work today, which includes tracing Texas mineral-rights owners for law firms, researching historic houses, occasional forensic genealogy, and most often helping clients qualify for lineage societies. She also offers beginners tips like starting with FamilySearch and Ancestry. Along the way, she talks about 43 years of embroidery, her love of spicy cooking, her career in healthcare and oil and gas informatics, and her role as the big sister who first went to WordCamps to support her brother Matt and stayed for the community. Her travels range from an opera-filled solo trip to Vienna, where she dined at the hotel where her great-great-grandmother once worked as a maid, to a long-delayed trip to Portugal. The conversation includes the show's signature "Seriously, Bud?" moment and wraps up with her guest recommendations, including Carolyn Shelby, the queen of a micronation.

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An unexpected conversation about resilience - across countries, careers, cultures, and whatever comes next. 

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Robert Abela traces his journey from growing up on the small island of Malta to eventually settling in the Netherlands, with stops in Cyprus (where he reconnected with his now-wife Charlene) and Scotland (where Brexit ultimately pushed the family to relocate) along the way. A self-described college dropout, he built an accidental career in WordPress security, growing his company Melapress and its plugins WP Activity Log and WP2FA into a stable business despite industry-wide headwinds from AI disruption. An avid outdoorsman and self-taught polyglot (fluent in Maltese, English, Italian, and Dutch), Robert credits his adaptability across countries and cultures as his defining strength, and closes the episode previewing his upcoming talk at WordCamp US in Phoenix while recommending Milana Cap, Matt Cromwell, and Francisco Torres as future guests.

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Vancouver-based Jill Binder shares highlights from her pre-COVID life as a digital nomad who traveled to 10 countries in 11 months, tracing her parallel passions for coding and poetry back to a 1990 teacher strike in 10th grade. She talks candidly about choosing to stay single, her deep ties to the WordPress community despite stepping back from WordPress-specific work, and her current venture, Tech Differently — an accessible speaker accelerator and conference (techdifferently.com, October 27, 2026) built around a five-module curriculum and sponsor-subsidized pricing. The episode wraps with lighter talk about her hobbies, including digital art and competitive Rubik's Cube solving, and her recommendation of WordCamp Asia organizer O'Neil Rosero as a future guest.

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An unexpected conversation with a rock climber who was pulled to the Philippines for a very good reason. 

Casey Burridge joined Seriously, BUD? to share his globetrotting background, winding career trajectory, and "go with the flow" philosophy on life. Driven to indoor rock climbing in Manila to relieve screen-induced migraines, Casey approaches the sport as a strategic route-reading puzzle that appeals to his love of strategy games. Born in South Africa with family roots in England and Zambia, he spent his childhood split between rural England and South Africa before moving to Beijing after high school to teach English, where he became conversationally fluent in Mandarin. His academic and professional path took an equally non-linear route: after his dream of becoming a doctor was derailed and he left a biochemistry program, he went on to earn a master's degree in information systems management without ever finishing an undergraduate degree. Introduced to WordPress by his father to blog about his years in China, Casey built a career spanning London ad-tech, data analysis, and marketing, leading to his current role as strategic growth and operations manager at GravityKit alongside founder Zach Katz. Now living in Manila with his girlfriend, Casey embraces how abandoning rigid plans led to a rich life of remote collaboration and international living, while recommending Sam Wains from Bantu as a future guest.

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Louise Towler’s lifelong curiosity began with childhood books about scientists such as Marie Curie and Charles Darwin, leading her to excel in mathematics and science, study mathematics at Durham University, and build an unconventional career in software development. While living in Washington, D.C., as a stay-at-home mother, she taught herself HTML and later discovered WordPress when a client asked her to use it for a website. That project eventually grew into a successful agency with a team of engineers, approximately 220 hosted WordPress clients, and a strong recurring-retainer business. Along the way, her experiences in Britain and the United States shaped thoughtful views on education, Brexit, the royal family, and the importance of presenting people with a positive vision. Underlying her journey is a belief in curiosity, continuous learning, strong processes, and the principle of “slowing down to speed up,” which she also applies to her work promoting digital sustainability and environmentally responsible websites.

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An unexpected conversation about a guy leaving the agency life behind and running toward something new.

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Adam Silver is at a turning point, stepping away from actively pursuing WordPress client work after years of running an agency and redirecting his energy toward running, health, entrepreneurship, and content creation. A serious runner for only the past four years, he has already completed nine ultramarathons, is training for his tenth, is pursuing certification as an ultrarunning coach, and is experimenting with running-related ventures such as RunAdam.run and NeedAPacer.com. His unconventional path has taken him from studying theater and pursuing acting to photography, technology, WordPress, and eventually becoming deeply involved in the WordPress community through meetups and WordCamps. Those relationships became especially meaningful after his son Parker lost a leg in a 2024 motorcycle accident and members of the WordPress community rallied to support the family. Through it all, Silver remains an energetic entrepreneur who loves generating ideas, teaching with humor, helping people feel comfortable asking questions, and embracing a definition of retirement that means doing what he wants, when he wants — rather than stopping altogether.  

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An unexpected conversation with a woman who was born as a social worker, giving people the best opportunities to live their best possible lives. 

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Laura Sacco reflects on a life centered around helping people, first through roughly 30 years in Italy’s social-services sector and later through communications, technology, and the WordPress community. Her early career included living and working with children facing difficult family and economic circumstances before she moved into nonprofit management, training, social innovation, and eventually digital communications. WordPress opened an entirely new chapter, including seven years working for Yoast and extensive involvement organizing WordCamp Europe, where international collaboration turned professional relationships into lasting friendships. She credits the WordPress community with helping her overcome her shyness about speaking English by giving her opportunities to communicate with people from around the world. Along the way, Laura shares her love of Italian cooking, her food blog, her life near Susa in northern Italy, travel experiences connected to WordCamp Europe, and the profound impact of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau. From social work to WordPress, the common thread throughout Laura’s story is her ability to connect with people, build communities, and help others.

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An unexpected conversation with a guy whose joie de vivre sings through his voice.

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Jimmy Tavares is a former competitive figure skater and performer who transitioned into choreography after injuries and the physical demands of touring, and he now finds fulfillment helping young skaters turn their determination into success. His life extends far beyond the ice: he is an active member of the WordPress community, a YouTube creator, musician, traveler, and multilingual communicator who speaks five languages and has strong connections to France, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States. Across his friendships, long-term relationship, creative work, and community involvement, Jimmy places a high value on sincere communication and meaningful personal connections, preferring thoughtful gestures over superficial interactions. Whether he is choreographing skating programs, creating videos, participating in WordCamp, or maintaining friendships across borders, the common threads in Jimmy’s life are creativity, curiosity, communication, and a genuine desire to bring people together.

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An unexpected conversation with an ambassador of tourniquets and lover of combat medicine. 

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The podcast features Yulia “Jules” Kovtun, a Ukrainian marketing professional at Crocoblock, who shares her experiences living and working in Mykolaiv during the war while reflecting on her career, relationships, and involvement in the WordPress community. The conversation explores the realities of life under constant missile threats, alongside her struggles with anxiety and depression, the pressures of family expectations, and the challenges of navigating multiple career and personal transitions. Jules describes how she has adapted by developing a broad range of skills, embracing AI and marketing work, maintaining emergency preparedness, and continuing to learn and connect with others despite the conflict. Ultimately, the discussion emphasizes resilience, adaptability, community, and hope for a future beyond the war, while offering a deeply personal perspective on balancing professional growth with extraordinary circumstan

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