The Stack Overflow Podcast

The home team discusses Instagram’s evolving platform, why AI and machine learning are moving on-premises, and the privacy implications of robotic vacuums.

The home team sits down with Liam Zhao, founder and CEO of Immersive, a startup that gives creators tools to produce engaging virtual content and events. Liam explains how engineering teams in the US and China differ, what it’s like to launch a startup in both San Francisco and Shanghai, and the merit of focusing on incremental innovation rather than massive market disruption. Plus: The incomparable value of good lighting.

On this episode of the podcast, sponsored by Turing AI, we chat with Chief Revenue Officer Prakash Gupta about building a better hiring process with AI. Turing helps companies scale their engineering programs quickly with remote developers from around the world. We talk about how to vet a profession without standard markers, the benefits of soft skills, and how AI-assisted hiring helps everyone involved.

The home team is joined by Heather Meeker, a specialist with a deep history in the world of open-source software licensing. Heather tells the home team how the open-source landscape has changed since the 1990s, how access to air conditioning helped nudge her into a computing career, and how, when her dad worked in a computer lab in the 1960s, his work was considered so esoteric that she used to tell people he was a spy. (Can we bring that back?)

Spencer Kimball, cofounder and CEO of Cockroach Labs and co-creator of the GIMP image editor, tells Ryan and Ceora about how database technology has evolved to handle massive data volumes, how Cockroach labs came to focus on solving latency issues through serverless technology, and his “relatively gentle” transition from engineer to CEO.

There are three constants in life: death, taxes, and parking tickets. Joshua Browder, founder and CEO of DoNotPay, tells us how a heap of expensive parking tickets inspired him to build software that helps people avoid fines, secure refunds, claim free land, win back lost savings, and even combat systemic racism. Plus: Could you be monetizing those annoying spam calls?

The home team talks about the coding error that forced ten million Canadians offline, advice for coders trying to get out of a rut, and how low-earth orbit satellites are reshaping the internet. Plus: a Netflix documentary for getting out of a rut and reshaping your mind all in one.

Bigeye cofounders Kyle Kirwan (CEO) and Egor Gryaznov (CTO) join the home team to discuss their data observability platform, what it’s like to go from coworkers to cofounders, and the surprising value of boring technology.

Ben and Matt discuss how tech workers’ preference for remote work is driving a near-exodus from cities like San Francisco, where the office vacancy rate has jumped to 19%. Meanwhile, smaller cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma are literally paying remote workers to relocate. Also under discussion: a D&D-inspired AI image generator, the search engine designed to make developers more efficient, and 3D-printing projects to improve your oral hygiene.

Lauren Peate, founder and CEO of Multitudes, joins the home team for a conversation about how managers and executives can support their development teams through ethical data and analytics practices. Plus: What it’s like to launch a startup in a smaller country like New Zealand.