Wes and Scott talk all things 3D printing—from fixing every day items to organizing tools, printing gadgets, and even teaching their kids entrepreneurship.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 03:34 Brought to you by Sentry.io
• 05:03 Practical uses of 3D printing
• 07:34 Creating tools for organization
  • Gridfinity
• 10:33 Improving and adapting everyday items
  • Underware
• 14:34 The benefits of printing something vs buying it
• 15:32 Choosing the right 3D printer
  • Bamboo Lab
  • Elegoo
  • Prusa
  • Flashorge
• 25:26 Projects and ideas
  • Multiboard
• 31:33 Filament types and their uses
• 40:05 Finding affordable filament
  • Deal Forager
• 46:07 Where to find 3D models
  • Maker World
  • yeggi
  • Printables
  • Thangs
  • Thingverse
• 48:08 Creating your own 3D models
  • Fusion
  • Shapr3D
  • Onshape
• 53:00 Modifying existing 3D models
• 54:30 Coding in 3D printing
  • Bento
  • shards
  • ManifoldCAD
  • Hunyuan3D-2mv-Turbo
  • Mecagent
• 01:01:25 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

• Scott: Alaska Bear Organic Silk Sleep Mask
• Wes: BLV - AMS Riser

• Syntax YouTube Channel

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Scott and Wes break down the tricks and techniques for making your app feel blazing fast—even when it’s not. From optimistic UI to preload-on-hover, it’s all about perception, not just performance.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 01:12 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
• 02:34 Mousedown or pointerdown events.
• 06:00 UI animations should be fast.
• 08:00 Animations should not block interaction.
• 08:20 Animations should be cancellable / reversible.
• 10:50 Optimistic UI.
• 12:37 Local Data.
• 13:36 Delay loading indicators.
• 14:40 Page loading indicators.
• 15:47 Preload on hover.
• 17:13 Calculate mouse trajectory.
• 18:51 Full page spinner on every change.
• 20:04 Pixelated spinners.
• 20:23 Skeleton loaders.
• 23:43 Photo frames.
• 25:52 Search on input instead of search on click.
• 26:46 Progress loaders than move in between steps.
• 27:31 Community submissions.

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Scott and Wes break down the current state of React Server Components — what they are, how they work, and why they’re so controversial. From framework support to bundling complexity, it’s everything you need to know about RSC in 2025.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 01:01 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
• 01:55 What exactly are React Server Components?
  • 02:18 Server components rendering.
  • 03:17 Server components are async.
  • 03:45 Server components can be suspended.
  • 05:05 Server components send RSC payloads to the browser.
    • 06:08 This feels like HTMX?
  • 06:54 Client components are still server rendered.
  • 07:58 Server Functions.
  • 08:52 useActionState.
• 09:12 Frameworks and React Platforms.
  • 09:16 NextJS.
  • 09:42 Waku.
    • 12:26 candycode.com
    • Daishi Kato
  • 14:23 React Router.
    • Michael Jackson Tweet.
  • 19:29 Vite.
    • vite-plugin-react-server
  • 20:54 Tanstack.
    • Syntax Ep 833.
  • 22:39 Bun.
  • 23:01 DIY.
• 23:39 Why so much hate?
• 25:28 I want it my way.
• 27:46 React Server Components lock-in.

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Wes and Scott talk with Chad Whitacre, the newest member of the Syntax team, about all things open source—licenses, controversies, economics, and ethics. Chad breaks down what most people misunderstand, and how companies can support sustainable software development the right way.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 00:39 Meet Chad Whitacre
• 03:39 Chad’s retro headphones
  • Retrospekt
• 05:00 Chad’s role at Syntax
  • https://syntax.fm/oss
  • Open Path
• 09:41 What do people get wrong about open source?
• 11:11 Why is open source so divisive?
• 13:01 The evolution of open source and free software
• 17:55 Single vendor vs. community open source
• 20:22 How do people build businesses off of a GPL license?
• 24:40 What’s the most pure version of open source?
• 26:55 Fair source licensing explained
• 30:30 Brought to you by Sentry.io
• 33:09 Should you be concerned about dependencies in your app in relation to licensing?
  • Fair Source
• 35:16 What’s the most interesting/unusual open source license?
  • Beerware License
• 40:00 What is Open Source Pledge?
  • Open Source Pledge
• 45:41 Choosing the right open source license
• 48:31 Wes’ most popular open source project
  • wait
• 49:39 Interesting open source projects
  • Mercedes-Benz embraces Open Source
  • Porsche Open Source Platform
• 51:33 Licensing for educational content
• 53:46 The beauty of open source
  • Plausible
• 56:12 Scott’s various open source projects
• 56:44 The importance of contributing to open source projects
• 59:16 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

• Chad: Save The Cat!

• Chad: Coming soon

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Scott and Wes break down the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new open standard that gives AI agents secure, tool-like access to your dev environment. They cover how it works, why it’s a big deal for AI coding workflows, and real-world use cases like GitHub, Sentry, and YouTube.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 00:49 The lore of ICP.
  • Wes MCP Shirt.
• 03:09 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
• 03:33 What is MCP?
• 05:06 The steps of AI coding.
  • 07:11 MCP hosts.
  • 07:28 MCP clients.
  • 07:35 MCP servers.
• 08:24 Why you might want to do this.
  • 10:39 How this works in VS Code.
  • 14:10 Wes built an MCP server.
    • SVGL.
  • 14:57 Playwright.
  • 17:24 Sentry’s implementation.
    • Building Sentry’s MCP with David Cramer.
  • 18:54 YouTube implementation.
  • 21:19 DaVinci Resolve implementation.
    • Smithery.
• 23:02 Postgres.
• 24:40 Transport protocols.
• 24:49 STDIO.
• 25:19 SSE.
• 25:32 Streaming.
• 26:24 Writing you own MCP server.
• 26:28 FastMCP.
• 27:00 Cloudflare.
• 28:01 Data validation.
• 28:47 Standard schema.
  • Episode 873.
• 29:27 Other parts of MCP.
  • 29:35 MCP resources.
  • 30:37 MCP prompts.
  • 30:48 MCP roots.

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Wes and Scott talk about the origins of Syntax, sharing how a friendly course name conflict led to a mastermind group, then a podcast, and eventually a full-blown media brand. They also reflect on key milestones, from early episodes and sponsorships to joining Sentry, expanding the team, and what’s next.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 00:51 How Wes and Scott met
  • Scott Tolinski & The Origins of LevelUpTuts
  • LevelUpTutorials
  • WesBos.com
• 09:31 How Syntax got its name
  • Episode 001: React Tools
• 15:30 Getting sponsors
  • Delicious Brains
  • FreshBooks
• 18:53 Hasty Treats and expanding the show
• 22:36 Adding interviews to Syntax
  • SVGs with Sara Soueidan
• 23:38 Syntax’s first live show
  • Live at JAMstack_conf
• 27:58 Brought to you by Sentry.io
• 28:34 Acquisition by Sentry
  • 600th Episode! Major Announcement and Swag Giveaway!
• 33:56 Hiring a producer
  • Randy Rektor
• 36:39 Transitioning to video and growing the team
  • Rating and ROASTING Coding Desk Setups
  • CJ Reynolds
  • Kaitlin Bloom
• 41:47 Launching the merch store
  • Sentry.shop
• 46:01 The future of Syntax
• 47:23 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

• Scott: Crucial X10 Pro 4TB Portable SSD
• Wes: MONVICT Cordless Glue Gun

• Syntax YouTube Channel

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Light mode? Dark mode? Scott and Wes break down the best ways to implement theme switching in CSS, from prefers-color-scheme to manual overrides. Plus, tips on handling shadows, icons, and the dreaded flash of dark mode!

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 01:05 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
• 02:06 Light and dark mode, things to consider.
• 02:31 Light and dark mode from scratch.
  • drop-in.css.
  • 04:41 Calculations vs assigned color.
  • 05:32 color-mix and relative color.
  • 08:15 Foreground and background variables.
    • –tint-or-shade: color-mix(in oklab, var(–fg), transparent 95%);
    • –tint-or-shade-harder: color-mix(in oklab, var(–fg), transparent 90%);
  • 09:13 Setting color scheme.
  • 12:38 light-dark function in CSS.
• 15:48 Manually setting dark mode.
  • 18:43 The challenges with shared caching.
  • 19:33 Tailwind CSS implementation.
    • Tailwind dark-mode.
• 19:52 Shoehorning in dark mode.
• 22:25 Other things to consider.
  • 22:28 Color contrast.
    • Lea Verou contrast-color.
  • 24:39 Logos.
  • 25:22 Icons and images.
  • 26:20 Accessibility.
    • Polypane.

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Wes and Scott talk about the ins and outs of accepting payments online—from choosing processors like Stripe and PayPal to handling fraud, taxes, custom checkouts, and more.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 02:34 Payment processors
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Square
  • Authorize.net
• 09:29 Checkouts
• 18:22 The checkout flow
• 23:10 Methods of accepting money
• 25:30 Brought to you by Sentry.io
• 28:34 Merchant of Record
  • Lemon Squeezy
  • Gumroad
  • Paddle
  • Beacons
• 32:51 Handling fraud, disputes, and refunds
• 41:25 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

• Scott: Parcel
• Wes: Parcels App

• Syntax YouTube Channel

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Scott and Wes talk about the planning process for a major redesign of the Syntax.fm website. They share their thoughts on organizing tasks, choosing tech, handling styling, and the debates that come with deciding what to keep and what to change.

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 01:36 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
• 02:48 Why we need version 3.0 of Syntax.fm.
  • Level Up Tutorials, Travis Neilson.
• 04:41 Project planning and organization.
• 05:53 The codebase.
• 09:50 The CSS changes.
  • Episode 770: Design Systems With Brad Frost.
• 12:27 Tooling.
• 15:54 Development process.
• 16:38 Mobile and responsiveness.
• 18:37 Saving VS Code extension into the repo.
• 19:56 Using a dev container.
• 20:53 AI agent rules.
• 21:35 Code styles.
• 23:42 Canadian podcast.
• 24:33 Content storage.

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