North Meets South Web Podcast

Jacob Bennett and Michael Dyrynda

Jake Bennett and Michael Dyrynda conquer a 14.5 hour time difference to talk about life as web developers

  1. May 21

    Laracon AU CFP, developer storytelling, and audience engagement

    Michael shares a behind-the-scenes look at organising Laracon AU 2026, including the new committee-based CFP review process, the tooling built to manage the talk submissions, and how AI-assisted workflows helped shape the final conference schedule. The conversation dives into balancing technical depth with audience engagement, designing conference cadence to avoid cognitive overload, and why advanced technical talks are so difficult to execute well. Jake and Michael also discuss the realities of crafting technical presentations, from simplifying code examples and avoiding "proof of expertise" syndrome, to using AI tools as collaborative thought partners when preparing talks. Along the way, they explore how conference organisers think about audience fit, production experience, practical takeaways, and keeping attendees engaged during deeply technical sessions. Show links Laracon AUModel Context Protocol (MCP)Riff & Refine: Trust the Process

    47 min

  2. May 7

    Unused APIs, Passport testing traps, and local AI bottlenecks

    In this episode, Michael shares details from a major internal platform shift at work, including the decision to completely remove an underused public JSON API and rebuild integrations around real customer needs instead of hypothetical use cases. The conversation dives deep into Laravel Passport, Sanctum, OAuth flows, request authorisation, and some tricky edge cases around testing authenticated APIs. Jake then broadens the conversation into AI infrastructure, local model hosting, security implications of autonomous AI systems, NVIDIA hardware demand, and the future potential of photonic processors as a solution to the growing power and cooling bottlenecks facing AI workloads. Show links Laravel PassportLaravel SanctumLaravel Passport actingAs testing helpersPHP enumsPHPStanLarastanZapierClaudeNVIDIA DGX systemsPhotonic processors

    36 min

  3. Apr 23

    Gents on Gent with David Hemphill

    Michael and Jake are joined by David Hemphill to discuss David's macOS app Gent, a task runner built on the "Ralph loop" pattern for AI-powered coding workflows. The conversation covers how Gent takes a project requirements document (PRD), breaks it into small tasks that fit within a single context window, and runs them sequentially or in parallel using copy-on-write clones and Git worktrees. We discuss our own evolving workflows with Claude Code, including plan mode, the "Grill Me" skill for stress-testing plans, managing context windows, and the /rewind command. Show Links David HemphillGentRalph loopConductorPolyscopeChief"Grill Me" skillMatt Pocock / AI HeroSoloThe Eternal Promise: A History of Attempts to Eliminate ProgrammersLaracon

    1h 1m

  4. Apr 9

    Flight booking mistakes, Laracon AU, and dead letters

    In this episode, Michael and Jake catch up ahead of Laracon and share a wild travel story involving flight changes, third-party booking headaches, and expensive rebooking. Jake then shares a fun personal highlight: attending the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship and watching Michigan win. The conversation shifts into development work, where Jake dives into building a centralised system for managing failed Laravel jobs across multiple applications. He explains the challenges of aggregating failed jobs without Horizon, how they built a custom package to expose APIs for inspecting and retrying jobs, and the nuances of Laravel's queue system. They also explore ideas for turning this work into a Laracon talk, emphasising practical, experience-driven content over purely technical deep dives. Show Links Laracon AULaravel HorizonSentryDead Letter Queue (00:00) - Introduction and road to episode 200 (01:00) - Laracon plans and travel setup (02:00) - Flight booking disaster and schedule change (06:00) - Rebooking flights and unexpected costs (09:00) - Lessons learned with third-party bookings (10:00) - Michigan wins NCAA championship (12:30) - Midwest geography and personal background (12:45) - Building a centralized failed jobs system (15:30) - Challenges with retries and tracking failures (16:40) - The "Dead Letter" package and API approach (23:20) - Turning real-world problems into Laracon talks (48:20) - Wrapping up and outro

    49 min

  5. Mar 19

    OIDC, bastion hosts, and production safety

    In this episode, Jake and Michael dive into modern infrastructure security practices, sparked by an annual audit and the painful process of rotating AWS IAM tokens. That experience leads into a broader discussion on why long-lived credentials in GitHub Actions are risky, and how OIDC (OpenID Connect) enables a more secure, short-lived, role-based alternative. Show links Scout SuiteOpenID Connect (OIDC)Laravel ForgeLaravel HorizonScrambleClaudeLoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation)

    38 min

  6. Mar 5

    Worktree structures, workflow events, and enum metadata

    In this episode, we discuss using `claude --worktree` to spin up parallel feature work, and the unexpected friction that can arise when your editor doesn’t play nicely with nested worktrees. Jake shares his experience running multiple Claude agents in parallel and problems that surfaced in PhpStorm. Michael explains how he structures worktrees differently, avoiding those issues, and the two compare workflows between PhpStorm and Neovim. Show Links claude --worktreeGit worktreesPhpStormNeovimTmuxLazyGitUsing GitHub CLI in workflowsarchtechx/enumsArborLaracon USGit Worktree Hub plugin for PhpStorm

    45 min

  7. Feb 19

    Charging chaos, corona discharge, and vector embeddings

    Michael and Jake discuss Jake's device charging chaos, household optimisation, international power outlets, and vector embeddings. Show links GitryinMagnetic 3-in-1 wireless chargerDesktop charging station 12-in-1Corona dischargeLaracon US ElevenLabsDaily Dose of DS (Data Science)MstyRetrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)Laravel AI

    43 min

  8. Feb 5

    OpenClaw, Arbor, and horseless carriages

    Michael and Jake catch up on what’s been occupying their time lately, from AI tooling experiments to new developer workflows, before closing with a broader reflection on how new technologies are often misunderstood at first. Show links OpenClaw / Clawd Bot / MoltbotArborAI horseless carriages

    39 min
See All (195)

5
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

Jake Bennett and Michael Dyrynda conquer a 14.5 hour time difference to talk about life as web developers

Information

  • Creator
    Jacob Bennett and Michael Dyrynda
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    195
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2016 North Meets South Web Podcast
  • Show Website
    North Meets South Web Podcast

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