The Programming Podcast

The Programming Podcast

Leon Noel and Danny Thompson explain technical problems, industry information, career advice and more on The Programming Podcast! Danny Thompson, Director of Technology @ This Dot Labs Leon Noel, Managing Director @ Resilient Coders & 100Devs

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    This Apple Decision Proves Gemini is King! (ft Logan Kilpatrick from the Google DeepMind team)

    Apple’s latest decision to team with Google and use Gemini signals something bigger than a headline. It highlights how far Gemini has come, and why utility is becoming the real battleground for AI in 2026. In this episode, we sit down with Logan Kilpatrick from the Gemini team at Google DeepMind to talk about what this moment means for developers, builders, and teams choosing tools today. We get into the evolution of Gemini, why multimodality and long context mattered early, and how Gemini is increasingly showing up where people already work through products like Workspace, Gmail, and Docs. ✅ If you made it to the end, comment: “Documentation Traffic.” so we know who is a real one! SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/ Stay in Touch: 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Danny Thompson https://x.com/DThompsonDev / dthompsondev www.DThompsonDev.com Leon Noel https://x.com/leonnoel / leonnoel https://100devs.org/ 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Subscribe if you want honest, no-hype conversations about where software development is heading in 2026. We also dig into what’s next for image generation and editing, including the leap in text accuracy, practical features creators want (like layers and transparent backgrounds), and the role of technologies like SynthID in building trust as AI content becomes more common. Plus: vibe coding, reasoning models, prompt expansion, how developers can ask for more ambitious outcomes, and why proactivity and proof-of-work experiences are shaping the next wave of AI products. If you’re building with AI or trying to stay ahead as a developer, this episode will give you a clear view into where things are going. 0:00 Apple’s decision changes the AI narrative 1:11 Meet today’s guest: Logan Kilpatrick (Gemini team) 1:52 Apple quote and why this is big for Gemini 2:19 Are the model wars over, and are utility wars next? 4:20 Gemini in real workflows: Workspace, Gmail, and daily utility 5:26 AI hype vs reality: why products must meet users where they are 6:42 Balancing frontier progress with “do not break the product” responsibility 8:25 Nano Banana and the leap in text accurate images 9:28 Infographics, presentations, and where image generation is going 10:00 Why text rendering became a key metric for model quality 12:19 What users want next: transparent backgrounds, layers, better editing 13:52 Trust and safety: SynthID, watermarking, and standardization challenges 16:06 What developers ask for most: quota and scale 17:38 Logs and the idea of an agent that finds missing product features 19:31 How people should use AI differently: native form factors, proactivity 21:19 Proof of work and why Deep Research builds trust fast 24:53 Prompt expansion, reasoning models, and why “prompt wizardry” is fading 26:40 Ask for more: why ambition is now the best prompting strategy 29:36 Frameworks vs over optimizing prompts: when it matters, when it does not 32:52 What “vibe coding” means now and how it is evolving 34:08 Teaching vibe coding on day one of school 36:01 Ask Danny, Leon, and Logan: feeling behind in tech 39:02 The moving finish line, authenticity, and turning the gap into a roadmap 41:25 Closing

    41 min

  2. 20 JAN

    The death of Tailwind? What's happening to open source in 2026

    Is Tailwind actually “dying” or are we watching something bigger happen in real time? In this episode of The Programming Podcast, we dig into a brutal 2026 reality check for developers: the tools and communities we’ve relied on for years are getting shaken up by AI in ways most people didn’t see coming. We break down the Tailwind situation, including the GitHub discussion that surfaced a behind-the-curtain truth about modern open source: documentation traffic is the funnel, and AI is bypassing it. When LLMs stop sending humans to your docs, what happens to paid products, sponsorships, and ultimately the ability to maintain the framework at all? Then we shift to the other major signal: Stack Overflow’s decline. The charts are ugly, and the reasons are deeper than just “people use AI now.” We talk about the human cost of hostile community dynamics, why developer Q&A moved to Discord long before LLMs took off, and what it means when the internet’s most “verified” coding resource starts fading. Finally, we go big-picture: if open source loses funding and loses maintainers, what happens to the future of software? And where do new developers go when both the old learning paths and the new AI-heavy paths are unreliable? ✅ If you made it to the end, comment: “Documentation Traffic.” so we know who is a real one! SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/ Stay in Touch: 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Danny Thompson https://x.com/DThompsonDev / dthompsondev www.DThompsonDev.com Leon Noel https://x.com/leonnoel / leonnoel https://100devs.org/ 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Subscribe if you want honest, no-hype conversations about where software development is heading in 2026.

    52 min

  3. 8 JAN

    The 2026 Coding Roadmap That Gets Results (Forget Everything Else!)

    It’s 2026. If you want to learn how to code and actually get results, this episode is your roadmap. Danny and Leon break down the stuff that is not “cool advice,” but is the advice that gets people hired. We talk about why course-hoarding feels productive but is not, what the real bottleneck in tech actually is (hint: not syntax), and how to build a learning system that survives the trough of sorrow. You’ll walk away with: The 3-part foundation that decides if you stick with coding Why “problem solving” is the real job, not typing code When AI helps, and when it quietly ruins your learning The learning science that separates dabblers from finishers (active recall + spaced repetition) How to pick what to learn based on your local market (and stop wasting years) Why community is the cheat code that keeps you moving when motivation dies If your goal is to learn to code this year, do one action right now: join a community, pick a path, and start. ✅ If you made it to the end, comment: “In 2026 I’m gonna grow my skill set.” SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/ Stay in Touch: 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Danny Thompson https://x.com/DThompsonDev / dthompsondev www.DThompsonDev.com Leon Noel https://x.com/leonnoel / leonnoel https://100devs.org/ 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Chapters 00:00 - The 2026 promise: real results, not cool advice 01:56 - Why you should listen to us (and why this episode goes viral) 04:18 - Start with your “why” or you will quit 05:45 - The 3 foundations: manage frustration, consistency, take care of yourself 09:11 - What companies pay for: problem solving, not syntax 12:30 - The shiny becomes dull: how people quit when novelty fades 15:49 - Build to derisk yourself: projects that help vs projects that hurt 17:15 - The trough of sorrow and crash of ineptitude 18:51 - AI as the easy exit, and why you cannot take it 21:09 - Hot take: earn AI later, do not use it early 22:46 - Over-reliance makes you weaker (and why teams sometimes remove AI) 25:36 - Learn how to learn: Barbara Oakley and rebuilding your foundation 26:45 - Active recall: do less work, remember more 27:45 - Spaced repetition: stop forgetting what you learn 30:11 - Build projects early to create incentive and momentum 32:25 - Make concepts “sticky” with analogies and mental models 33:31 - Your first year on the job decides career vs job 35:37 - Stop asking for “the tech stack” and start reading your local market 38:40 - Dallas example: 400 MERN jobs vs 34,000 Java jobs 42:31 - No one is taking risks right now: prove you can hit the ground running 44:16 - Target companies strategically (emerging talent programs, hiring volume) 47:00 - Do not marry a stack, marry adaptability 48:49 - System rules: make every project your own, break goals into daily actions 51:38 - Pick one path and finish: FreeCodeCamp, Odin Project, 100Devs, Full Stack Open 52:42 - The real cheat code: community 56:31 - Motivation expires, community keeps you moving 59:44 - Talent is distributed, opportunity is not 1:03:28 - Take action right now: join a community 1:04:34 - Comment to prove you are a real one 1:04:56 - “I don’t have time” and the priority truth 1:06:10 - Your value in 2026: caring, context, judgment, and composing solutions

    1h 8m

  4. 30/12/2025

    Why Even Staff Engineers Feel Behind on AI Right Now! (You are not alone!)

    The “prompt-and-pray” era is over — and that’s a good thing. In this episode, we break down why AI “magic” collapses under real production traffic (edge cases, hallucinations, messy inputs, and even infrastructure-level failures)… and what replaces it: actual AI engineering. Danny frames the shift with four architectural pillars that make LLM features shippable and reliable: - State orchestration (stop treating models like employees — they’re stateless CPUs) - Constraint generation (JSON forcing, schema-driven outputs, type-safe sampling) - Infrastructure reliability (retries, backoff, fallbacks — because inference can and will fail) - Regression testing & evals (measure prompts like code, break builds when quality drops) SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/ Stay in Touch: 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Danny Thompson https://x.com/DThompsonDev / dthompsondev www.DThompsonDev.com Leon Noel https://x.com/leonnoel / leonnoel https://100devs.org/ 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! We also hit the reality of agent “throughput” vs human review bottlenecks (Phoenix Project vibes), why monolithic agents are a trap, and a listener question about networking + credibility after pitching an MVP that isn’t fully shipped yet. If you’re building AI features for real users — not demos — this is the blueprint. 00:00 — The “prompt-and-pray” era is over 02:49 — AI hype fades: guardrails + reality 06:34 — Deterministic software vs probabilistic models 07:29 — The 4 pillars of AI engineering (overview) 11:37 — Pillar 1: state orchestration (FSM, stateless models) 20:26 — Pillar 2: constraint generation (JSON, schemas, type safety) 28:28 — Pillar 3: infra reliability (retries, fallbacks, failures) 32:21 — Pillar 4: evals + regression testing (LLM-as-judge) 43:40 — Listener question: networking, MVP pressure, and credibility

    1 hr

  5. 19/12/2025

    Production Error EXPOSED: Internal Variables Leaked Public (Software Developers React)

    We caught a massive production error during the new Steam Machine launch that exposed internal database IDs and undefined variables to the public. In this episode, we break down exactly what went wrong, how a simple try/catch or React Error Boundary could have saved them, and why "testing in production" is terrifying when millions of dollars are on the line. Plus, we answer a listener's question about getting stuck on "perfecting" projects. Danny explains why building a "Discord Clone" might actually be hurting your resume and why you need to stop obsessing over your navbar and just SHIP. SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/ 💡 Sponsor: Level Up Financial Planning Changing careers or increasing your income? Get financial clarity with Level Up Financial Planning—helping early and mid-career tech professionals secure their financial future. Visit LevelUpFinancialPlanning.com for a free consultation! https://www.levelupfinancialplanning.com/ Stay in Touch: 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Danny Thompson https://x.com/DThompsonDev https://www.linkedin.com/in/DThompsonDev www.DThompsonDev.com Leon Noel https://x.com/leonnoel https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonnoel/ https://100devs.org/ 📧 Have questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! In this episode: The Steam Machine Incident: How a launch page leaked internal naming conventions. Frontend Defense: Using Zod, Optional Chaining, and Error Boundaries to fail gracefully. The "Clone" Trap: Why recruiters don't care about your Discord clone (and what to build instead). The 95% Rule: How to stop letting small features kill big projects. Chapters: 0:00 - The Steam Machine Production Error 03:15 - Leaking Database IDs & Console Logs 06:28 - The Fix: React Error Boundaries & Fallback UIs 10:50 - Frontend Defense: Optional Chaining, Zod & Defaults 13:06 - Sponsor: Level Up Financial Planning 15:32 - The Power of Try/Catch & Environment Variables 18:57 - Root Cause Analysis: How did this hit Prod? 26:19 - HackerOne & Getting Paid for Bugs 29:50 - Q&A: "I can't finish my projects" (The Navbar Trap) 37:36 - Why "Clone Projects" Are Hurting Your Resume 41:00 - Conclusion: Let it die on a small feature

    42 min

  6. 11/12/2025

    We Need To Talk About The React Hack... (I’ve Never Seen A Vulnerability This Bad.)

    🚨 Severity 10/10: The React Exploit That Shocked the Web Dev World Imagine waking up to find your server blocked for mining crypto for a stranger. That’s exactly what happened to developers this week, thanks to a critical vulnerability in React and Next.js that enabled full root-level server takeover. In this episode of The Programming Podcast, we break down the “Perfect Hack” step-by-step, how Vercel burned $750,000 in a single weekend to contain it, and the one line in your Dockerfile that might be leaving your environment exposed. Then we shift gears into a tough career conversation: Are you a “Tourist Developer”, constantly learning, never shipping? If you’ve got 50 tabs open and 0 deployed code… the second half of this episode is for you. SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/ 💡 Sponsor: Level Up Financial Planning Changing careers or increasing your income? Get financial clarity with Level Up Financial Planning—helping early and mid-career tech professionals secure their financial future. Visit LevelUpFinancialPlanning.com for a free consultation! https://www.levelupfinancialplanning.com/ Stay in Touch: 📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! Danny Thompson https://x.com/DThompsonDev https://www.linkedin.com/in/DThompsonDev www.DThompsonDev.com Leon Noel https://x.com/leonnoel https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonnoel/ https://100devs.org/ 📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business? Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com! What We Cover - The “React to Shell” exploit (Non-technical AND technical explanations) - Why running Docker as root is a catastrophic security mistake - How Cloudflare accidentally broke part of the internet trying to patch this - The Parking Lot Method to finally stop getting derailed by side quests - How to identify if you’re stuck in Tourist Developer Mode ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 – The Nightmare: Server hijacked for crypto mining 2:29 – CRITICAL WARNING: Update React Now 3:55 – Anatomy of the Attack (361% CPU Spikes) 6:50 – The Fatal Mistake: Docker as Root 12:43 – The “Restaurant” Analogy (Explaining the Hack) 17:08 – Sponsored Segment 18:20 – Technical Deep Dive: Flight Protocol & Serialization 20:59 – The One Line of Code That Fixes It 23:44 – Vercel’s $750,000 Weekend Response 40:17 – How Cloudflare Accidentally Broke the Internet 42:33 – Career Q&A: “I keep getting distracted by side quests” 48:36 – Are You a Tourist in Your Own Career? 51:08 – The Parking Lot Method for Focus 54:27 – The Index Card System for Goals 🔗 Resources Guillermo Rauch’s Full Breakdown – https://x.com/rauchg/status/1997362942929440937 Eduardo’s Original Report – https://x.com/duborges/status/1997293892090183772 🔔 45% of you aren’t subscribed. If you like content that makes our moms proud, hit that subscribe button.

    59 min

  7. 04/12/2025

    The Job Search Crisis: Why 3.3 Million People Are Failing (And How To Fix It)

    “I f*cking give up. May these companies rot.”That one Reddit post cracked open the real state of the 2025 tech job market. Why are Master’s degree grads and senior engineers going months without a single offer, while others are quietly doubling their income with one strategic question?SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/💡 Sponsor: Level Up Financial PlanningChanging careers or increasing your income? Get financial clarity with Level Up Financial Planning—helping early and mid-career tech professionals secure their financial future. Visit LevelUpFinancialPlanning.com for a free consultation!https://www.levelupfinancialplanning.com/Stay in Touch:📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business?Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com!Danny Thompsonhttps://x.com/DThompsonDevhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/DThompsonDevwww.DThompsonDev.comLeon Noelhttps://x.com/leonnoelhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/leonnoel/https://100devs.org/📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business?Email us at dannyandleonspodcast@gmail.com!In this episode, Leon and I break down why applying to big tech has turned into The Hunger Games, the hidden way internal hiring blocks you before you even start, and the psychological “Pattern Disrupt” technique that makes recruiters remember you instantly — even in a market that’s drowning in resumes.Your code gets you into the room.Your communication keeps you in the seat.If you want to survive this market, silence is no longer an option.TIMESTAMPS0:00 – The Crisis: “May These Companies Rot”1:26 – The Reddit Post That Broke The Internet6:50 – The “Trough of Sorrow” & The 1-in-60 Rule11:55 – The Google Trap (3.3M Applicants for 5k Jobs)16:42 – The Truth About Internal Hiring & “Soft No’s”22:00 – The “Pattern Disrupt”: How To Hack The Interview30:00 – The Pickleball Strategy (Networking Without Being Cringe)41:30 – Rejection Therapy: Training Your Brain at Starbucks49:00 – “Pre-Season” Prep: Why You Are Failing Technical Rounds55:00 – Case Study: How She Doubled Her Income Overnight58:34 – “You Are Not Saint Jude” (Stop Donating Your Skills)

    1h 1m

  8. 19/11/2025

    Did Google Just KILL Cursor with Gemini 3 Pro?!?

    Google just dropped a bombshell with Gemini 3 Pro and their new AI editor, Antigravity. Is this the "reset moment" the AI industry desperately needed, or is it another fleeting hype cycle? In this high-energy episode, join Danny and Leon as they dive deep into the mind-blowing benchmarks of Gemini 3 Pro, including the "Humanity's Last Exam" and the insane "Vending Bench."But the real game-changer might be Antigravity, Google's audacious new AI editor. We explore how Antigravity isn't just another VS Code fork – it's a paradigm shift, transforming developers into "agent managers" and introducing parallel AI workflows with automatic testing and UI generation. Could this be the end of traditional coding as we know it, or is Google moving too fast?We also discuss the brewing "AI War," the strategic plays of tech giants like Apple and Google, and how OpenAI's significant burn rate might put them in a precarious position. Is the future of AI about who has the smartest model, or who owns the default settings on your phone? Plus, don't miss our hot takes on whether developers need to embrace AI for efficiency, or risk being left behind. This episode is packed with strategic insights, technical breakdowns, and a glimpse into the future of software development.Chapters:0:00:00 - The Gemini 3 & Antigravity Drop: A New Era?0:00:51 - Why OpenAI's Monopoly is Under Threat0:01:39 - The Impact of Antigravity on Developers0:02:54 - Setting the Stage: The AI "Reset Moment"0:03:55 - Mind-Blowing Benchmarks: Gemini 3 Pro's Dominance0:06:23 - The Vending Bench: Long-Term Business Value for AI Agents0:08:05 - The Pelican on a Bike: Proving AI Progress0:09:15 - Gemini 3 vs. ChatGPT & Claude: Understanding the Nuances0:11:00 - Gemini 3 Pro's UI Design & Intuition0:12:21 - The Multimodal & Reasoning Power of Gemini0:14:57 - The AI War: Five Paths for Dominance0:16:31 - The "Genius Ceiling" & Distribution Advantage0:17:30 - The Default Setting Path: Apple, Google & Siri's Future0:21:09 - Google's Ecosystem Advantage & Deep Integration0:22:20 - The War Chest: OpenAI's Burn Rate vs. Google/Apple0:24:36 - The Antitrust Pickle & Browser Wars 2.00:26:29 - The Intermingling & Fear of Being Left Behind0:28:35 - Diving into Antigravity: The "Agent Manager" Paradigm Shift0:29:53 - Manager Mode: From Coding to Orchestrating AI Agents0:31:15 - Antigravity's Auto-Testing & UI Generation Capabilities0:32:18 - The Human-in-the-Loop & Parallel Workflows0:33:43 - Why Cursor Isn't "Killed" (Yet) & Antigravity's Potential0:35:06 - The Headless Browser & Customizable UI's for the Future0:37:09 - Antigravity's Jank, Missing Features & Release Theory0:38:28 - Sundar Pichai's Playful Release & Public Hype0:41:06 - Antigravity's Automatic In-Depth Testing Blown Minds0:42:37 - Gemini's Incremental Improvements & Real Use Cases0:44:27 - The IDE Integration: Bringing All Tools into One0:45:30 - Addressing Glitches: Google's Strategy for a "Big Bang" Release0:46:58 - Our Unsponsored Take: Don't Get Gapped Out0:47:57 - Adapting to Change: Why Opinions Evolve in AI0:49:10 - The Consultant's Edge: Rapid Prototyping with Antigravity0:50:54 - Ask Danny & Leon: Can You Get By Without AI?0:51:09 - AI in Hiring: The Growing Expectation for Engineers0:52:51 - The "Pickleball Paradox" & The Art of Prompting0:55:55 - Why Bad Prompts Lead to Mediocre Results0:56:35 - AI Streamlining: Tiny Teams vs. Giants0:58:01 - Embracing the Process: From System Languages to JavaScript0:58:59 - Work vs. Passion: Finding Joy in the AI Era01:00:10 - Conclusion

    1 hr
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About

Leon Noel and Danny Thompson explain technical problems, industry information, career advice and more on The Programming Podcast! Danny Thompson, Director of Technology @ This Dot Labs Leon Noel, Managing Director @ Resilient Coders & 100Devs

Information

  • Creator
    The Programming Podcast
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    61
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Programming Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Programming Podcast

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