Fallthrough

Fallthrough Media

A deep and nuanced conversational podcast focused on technology, software, and computing.

  1. Systems Thinking for Humans

    2 DAYS AGO

    Systems Thinking for Humans

    Annie and Michael Hedgpeth, founders of People Work, join Kris and Matt to unpack the junior hiring crisis and what's really broken about how we grow engineers. Annie's viral blog post sparked debate about whether senior engineers have abandoned their responsibility to mentor and whether our obsession with career ladders created the problem. The conversation moves from systemic dysfunction to solutions: People Work, their local-first app that helps engineers manage professional relationships with a systems thinking approach. As always, we've got supporter content! This week that includes Kris's unconventional career path, a rant about why we have too many engineering titles, deep dives into relational intelligence and privacy concerns around workplace surveillance, and the technical architecture behind People Work: Swift frontend, Rust backend, and a custom DSL inspired by HCL. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of Break continues the conversation. Annie and Michael stick around as the panel digs into why early career engineers rush to prove themselves, the trap of becoming "the glue person" instead of building technical depth, and why your strength as a junior is that you don't know anything yet. The panel also discusses some spicy topics like why software engineers spew logical fallacies, and the future of computing as hardware gains slow down. They round out the episode with some Unpopular Opinions. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/25. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: Meet Annie & Michael Hedgpeth (00:00:49)Chapter 2: The Junior Hiring Crisis (00:01:15)Chapter 3: AI as an Amplifier (00:10:37)Chapter 4: The Broken Apprenticeship Model (00:12:05)Chapter 5: Scaling Yourself Through Others (00:20:00)Chapter 6: Kris Never Had a Mentor [Preview] (00:25:59)Chapter 7: Too Many Titles [Preview] (00:26:14)Chapter 10: Relational Intelligence [Preview] (00:26:33)Chapter 12: Why Engineers? [Preview] (00:27:04)Chapter 13: Privacy & Safe Spaces [Preview] (00:27:36)Chapter 14: AI Strategy & On-Device [Preview] (00:28:06)Chapter 15: Swift + Rust + Crux [Preview] (00:28:34)Chapter 8: Networking That Actually Works (00:29:17)Chapter 9: What is People Work? (00:33:56)Chapter 11: The Onboarding Use Case (00:43:18)Chapter 16: Data Ownership & The DSL (00:48:16)Epilogue (00:52:25) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Annie Hedgpeth - Guest Michael Hedgpeth - Guest Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (00:49) - Chapter 1: Meet Annie & Michael Hedgpeth (01:15) - Chapter 2: The Junior Hiring Crisis (10:37) - Chapter 3: AI as an Amplifier (12:05) - Chapter 4: The Broken Apprenticeship Model (20:00) - Chapter 5: Scaling Yourself Through Others (25:59) - Chapter 6: Kris Never Had a Mentor [Preview] (26:14) - Chapter 7: Too Many Titles [Preview] (26:33) - Chapter 10: Relational Intelligence [Preview] (27:04) - Chapter 12: Why Engineers? [Preview] (27:36) - Chapter 13: Privacy & Safe Spaces [Preview] (28:06) - Chapter 14: AI Strategy & On-Device [Preview] (28:34) - Chapter 15: Swift + Rust + Crux [Preview] (29:17) - Chapter 8: Networking That Actually Works (33:56) - Chapter 9: What is PeopleWork? (43:18) - Chapter 11: The Onboarding Use Case (48:16) - Chapter 16: Data Ownership & The DSL (52:25) - Epilogue

    53 min
  2. When Reality Drifts

    16 JAN

    When Reality Drifts

    Nick Gerace, Engineering Manager at System Initiative, joins Kris and Matt to explore what infrastructure management looks like beyond Terraform. Nick walks us through how System Initiative differs from traditional IaC, why git isn't really your source of truth, and how the company pivoted to AI-first tooling. The conversation turns to Claude Code and MCP tools before landing on a nuanced discussion about distributed systems, and how the messy, eventual consistency of real life mirrors the systems we build. As always, we've got supporter content! This week that includes deep dives into System Initiative's architecture evolution from Postgres to a custom graph database, Nick's passionate defense of domain-driven design in Rust monorepos ("if I see a util directory, I go a little nuts"), why AI won't replace musicians (or you), and a spicy take on AI, capitalism, and power structures. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of Break continues the conversation. Nick sticks around as the hosts compare audio engineering backgrounds, discuss the IC to manager journey, and take a hard turn into hardware—dual 3090 TIs with NVLink, the case for water cooling, Kris's absurd home lab, and everyone's temptation toward Framework Desktops and Mac Studios. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/24. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: Meet Nick Gerace (00:01:21)Chapter 2: The Power of Networking (00:05:38)Chapter 3: What is System Initiative? (00:14:54)Chapter 4: Terraform vs System Initiative (00:19:58)Chapter 5: Git Isn't Your Source of Truth (00:25:47)Chapter 6: SI Architecture: From Postgres to Graph [Extended] (00:34:47)Chapter 7: Rust Monorepos & Domain-Driven Design [Extended] (00:35:10)Chapter 10: AI Won't Replace Musicians (or You) [Extended] (00:35:34)Chapter 12: AI, Capitalism & Power Structures [Extended] (00:36:03)Chapter 8: The AI Pivot at System Initiative (00:37:14)Chapter 9: Claude Code & MCP Tools (00:47:30)Chapter 11: Distributed Systems Are Just Real Life (00:54:13)Chapter 13: Data Centers, Water & Nuance (01:00:20)Epilogue (01:08:11) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Nick Gerace - Guest Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (01:21) - Chapter 1: Meet Nick Gerace (05:38) - Chapter 2: The Power of Networking (14:54) - Chapter 3: What is System Initiative? (19:58) - Chapter 4: Terraform vs System Initiative (25:47) - Chapter 5: Git Isn't Your Source of Truth (34:47) - Chapter 6: SI Architecture: From Postgres to Graph [Extended] (35:10) - Chapter 7: Rust Monorepos & Domain-Driven Design [Extended] (35:34) - Chapter 10: AI Won't Replace Musicians (or You) [Extended] (36:03) - Chapter 12: AI, Capitalism & Power Structures [Extended] (37:14) - Chapter 8: The AI Pivot at System Initiative (47:30) - Chapter 9: Claude Code & MCP Tools (54:13) - Chapter 11: Distributed Systems Are Just Real Life (01:00:20) - Chapter 13: Data Centers, Water & Nuance (01:08:11) - Epilogue

    1h 10m
  3. New Year, New Nuance

    10 JAN

    New Year, New Nuance

    New Year, New Nuance! In this episode, Kris and Matt discuss what they're looking forward to in 2026—Matt shares the exciting news that he's becoming a dad, and the duo explore the value of growth, changing your opinions, and adding more nuance to how you see the world. They talk about what they're excited to build this year, from physical projects like woodworking and doors to the podcast platform they keep talking about. Kris shares how a conversation with Claude finally made electricity click, leading to a broader discussion about LLMs as "digital librarians" and what education should really be about: teaching you how to teach yourself. As always, we've got supporter content! This week that includes deep dives into local AI infrastructure, home networking with 10G and WireGuard, and a spicy rant about why centralized package management is fundamentally broken. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of break continues the conversation. Where the two reflect on AI doomerism's mental health toll, why things aren't worse than before, the logistics behind society's real problems, and turning waste into opportunity with BASF's Verbund principle. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/23. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: Matt's Becoming a Dad (00:03:06)Chapter 2: Growth & Changing Your Opinions (00:06:39)Chapter 3: Adding More Nuance in 2026 (00:15:44)Chapter 4: What We're Excited to Build (00:24:57)Chapter 5: Learning How Things Work: Electricity (00:30:21)Chapter 6: LLMs as Digital Librarians (00:39:05)Chapter 7: The Real Purpose of Education (00:51:44)Chapter 8: Local AI Infrastructure & Home Networking [Extended] (00:58:38)Chapter 9: The Centralization Problem in Package Management [Extended] (00:59:30)Epilogue (00:59:39) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (03:06) - Chapter 1: Matt's Becoming a Dad (06:39) - Chapter 2: Growth & Changing Your Opinions (15:44) - Chapter 3: Adding More Nuance in 2026 (24:57) - Chapter 4: What We're Excited to Build (30:21) - Chapter 5: Learning How Things Work: Electricity (39:05) - Chapter 6: LLMs as Digital Librarians (51:44) - Chapter 7: The Real Purpose of Education (58:38) - Chapter 8: Local AI Infrastructure & Home Networking [Extended] (59:30) - Chapter 9: The Centralization Problem in Package Management [Extended] (59:39) - Epilogue

    1h 1m
  4. Stack Trace 2025

    31/12/2025

    Stack Trace 2025

    We decided to do our own wrap up for the year. We've called it Stack Trace, and we pulled a bunch of stats from the first year of Fallthrough. In this episode, Kris, Matt, and Dylan talk through these stats and how they feel about Fallthrough's first year. If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of break continues the conversation. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/22. In this week's bonus content, we've got some extra stats! Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: A Year of Fallthrough In Stats (00:03:37)Chapter 2: Better and Smaller Platforms (00:36:28)Chapter 3: Who Had The Longest Monologues? (00:41:33)Chapter 4: It's Different In The Moment (00:49:13)Chapter 5: The Spicy Content That Wasn't (00:54:16)Chapter 6: More Stats! [Extended] (01:00:48)Chapter 7: Thinking About The Future (01:01:05)Epilogue (01:12:35) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Dylan Bourque - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (03:37) - Chapter 1: A Year of Fallthrough In Stats (36:28) - Chapter 2: Better and Smaller Platforms (41:33) - Chapter 3: Who Had The Longest Monologues? (49:13) - Chapter 4: It's Different In The Moment (54:16) - Chapter 5: The Spicy Content That Wasn't (01:00:48) - Chapter 6: More Stats! [Extended] (01:01:05) - Chapter 7: Thinking About The Future (01:12:35) - Epilogue

    1h 16m
  5. Worse Is Better

    25/12/2025

    Worse Is Better

    There's a famous joke essay called Worse Is Better, which compares the New Jersey and the MIT ideologies. In this episode, Kris and Matt discuss these two different ideologies and how they show up in technology, from Go, to dependency management, to electric vehicles. If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of break continues the conversation. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/21. In this week's bonus content, the duo discusses how idealistic thinking has slowed down the adoption of electric vehicles and what a better path forward might have looked like. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Show Notes: Worse Is BetterSimple Made EasyLess Is Exponentially MoreGo += Package VersioninggovulncheckThe Bizarre Logic of the F-150 Lightning Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: Worse Is Better? (00:02:58)Chapter 2: Go Got Stranded In The Middle (00:10:39)Chapter 3: SemVer Is Fundamentally Broken (00:33:32)Chapter 4: We Don't Live In The Ideal World (00:47:19)Chapter 5: BEVs vs EREVs [Extended] (00:56:26)Chapter 6: Holistic vs Deep (00:56:58)Epilogue (01:01:39) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (02:58) - Chapter 1: Worse Is Better? (10:39) - Chapter 2: Go Got Stranded In The Middle (33:32) - Chapter 3: SemVer Is Fundamentally Broken (47:19) - Chapter 4: We Don't Live In The Ideal World (56:26) - Chapter 5: BEVs vs EREVs [Extended] (56:58) - Chapter 6: Holistic vs Deep (01:01:39) - Epilogue

    1h 3m
  6. Why Is Tech So Mid?

    20/12/2025

    Why Is Tech So Mid?

    In the tech industry, we talk about how exceptional and innovative we are. But are we really? In this episode, Kris and Matt explore why they see the industry as pretty mid and how things should be better. If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of break continues the conversation. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/20. In this week's bonus content, the duo discusses the problems with hype and how it's not just about the tech industry. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: Why Is Tech So Mid? (00:02:27)Chapter 2: The Innovation Hype [Extended] (00:35:42)Chapter 3: Everyone Is Always Wrong (00:36:14)Epilogue (00:53:51) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (02:27) - Chapter 1: Why Is Tech So Mid? (35:42) - Chapter 2: The Innovation Hype [Extended] (36:14) - Chapter 3: Everyone Is Always Wrong (53:51) - Epilogue

    58 min
  7. Project Management 2 Shell

    12/12/2025

    Project Management 2 Shell

    Another Cloudflare outage. A CVSS 10.0 React RCE vulnerability. We've been dealing with quite a lot these last few weeks. In this week's episode, Kris and Matt discuss the outage and vulnerability and have a deeper discussion about project management and how all of these things relate to each other. If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube. This week's episode of break continues the conversation. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/19. We've got a new format for the bonus content snippets in this episode. This week we've got an extended discussion about how process should follow people, not the other way around. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: Outages & Vulnerabilities (00:03:42)Chapter 2: Project Management (00:22:10)Chapter 3: Waltzing With Bears (00:29:55)Chapter 4: Process & Culture (00:43:21)Chapter 5: Process Follows People [Extended] (00:52:18)Chapter 6: We Need Better Estimates  (00:52:49)Epilogue (01:04:33) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (03:42) - Chapter 1: Outages & Vulnerabilities (22:10) - Chapter 2: Project Management (29:55) - Chapter 3: Waltzing With Bears (43:21) - Chapter 4: Process & Culture (52:18) - Chapter 5: Process Follows People [Extended] (52:49) - Chapter 6: We Need Better Estimates (01:04:33) - Epilogue

    1h 7m
  8. Ghostting Is Better Than Shelling

    05/12/2025

    Ghostting Is Better Than Shelling

    We've had Mitchell Hashimoto on a couple episodes, and each time we've discussed his vision for libghostty. In this episode, Kris and Matt talk about what the vision for libghostty actually means for the industry as a whole and the power of platforms. The duo also covers the new models that have dropped and how they see using the various models that have become available. If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XbjmqlSWlKI. This week's episode of break continues the conversation, where they continue this conversation and talk about how we're all becoming writers. Watch it on YouTube or listen with your favorite podcasting app! Learn more by going to https://break.show/18. We've got a new format for the bonus content snippets in this episode. All of them are together in the middle of the episode, with a small intro and outro around them. In this week's bonus content the duo discusses how AI might help save Stack Overflow, how it's making us write more specifications for software, and how it might lead to a much more viable funding model for the web. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00)Chapter 1: New Models & How We Use Them (00:02:28)Chapter 2: AI Will Help StackOverflow [Extended] (00:35:27)Chapter 3: Software Engineering Is About Writing Specifications [Extended] (00:35:59)Chapter 4: A Better Funding Model For The Web [Extended] (00:36:38)Chapter 5: SSH Out, libghostty In (00:37:37)Chapter 6: New Segment Type? (01:01:04)Epilogue (01:04:56) Hosts Kris Brandow - Host Matthew Sanabria - Host Socials:WebsiteBlueskyThreadsX/TwitterLinkedInInstagram (00:00) - Prologue (02:28) - Chapter 1: New Models & How We Use Them (35:27) - Chapter 2: AI Will Help StackOverflow [Extended] (35:59) - Chapter 3: Software Engineering Is About Writing Specifications [Extended] (36:38) - Chapter 4: A Better Funding Model For The Web [Extended] (37:37) - Chapter 5: SSH Out, libghostty In (01:01:04) - Chapter 6: New Segment Type? (01:04:56) - Epilogue

    1h 10m
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About

A deep and nuanced conversational podcast focused on technology, software, and computing.

Information

  • Channel
    Fallthrough Media
  • Creator
    Fallthrough Media
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    64
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©2025 Skriptble Publishing, Inc.
  • Show Website
    Fallthrough

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