

Breaking Change
Justin Searls
A show in which Justin Searls talks with you from time to time. Programmer things. Apple stuff. Gaming news. Dispatches from Disney World. Each episode also entitles the listener to one (1) exclusive pun, care of of Aaron Patterson (aka @tenderlove). Submit questions and comments to podcast@searls.co
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 22, 2025 • 2h 37min
v47 - Turbinately Ill
Had a little pep in my step this time. Maybe it's because I decided to start recording after 7 AM for once. Maybe it's because I can finally fucking breathe out of my nose holes.
Tell me about what you do while you continue to draw breath at podcast@searls.co.
Things you can read if you're bored:
Beckygram.com
Aaron's puns, ranked
Steam Frame and Steam Machine
Xbox reportedly warning of yet another potential price increase
InKonbini retro convenience store simulator
Pipboy 3000 replica for $300
Apple introduces Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet
Google Antigravity kinda sucks
I think I might regret watching The Bear
Nano Banana Pro made this episode's social image
GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is the best coding model I've used yet
Adversarial Poetry is a great way to jailbreak LLMs (Comment thread)
Cryptographers Cancel Election Results After Losing Decryption Key
Outer Worlds 2
⚡️ Death by Lightning really slaps (claps?)
Wicked: For Good is Very, Very Bad (News+)
The guy from Pomplamoose is the CEO of Patreon??!
"Pixar: The Early Days" interview with Steve Jobs
NotebookLM

Nov 8, 2025 • 2h 24min
v46 - Adjusted Gross Intelligence
I'm back and I'm angry. My power went out, which caused my Internet to go down, which broke my favorite mug. And that's just the shit that happened before 7 AM. By 9 AM my doorbell was continuously chiming for no fucking reason.
Join me in the struggle. We shall persevere. Tell me how your morning went by writing in to: podcast@searls.co.
Here 4 U:
Kudos to Adam Mcrea and Judoscale for solving my Heroku issue
Kudos to me for separately solving my Heroku issue with Straight-to-Video
ALVR for streaming SteamVR games
Streaming flat games with Sunshine and Moonlight
Aaron's puns, ranked
AI's Dial-Up Era (and my take)
Sandwich made the world's first immersive ad spot
Coinbase CEO Stunt Exposes Prediction Market Vulnerability
OpenAI and Microsoft resolve their issue without resolving their issue
Amazon v. Perplexity
BioWare reassures fans Mass Effect 5 is still coming
The Outer Worlds 2
Eddy Burback - ChatGPT Made me Delusional

Oct 26, 2025 • 2h 59min
v45 - Developer Strap-on
This may be the version 45 release of Breaking Change, but when you factor in its Hotfixes and Feature Release entries, this is somehow the 50th episode of the show!
Why? Why are we still doing this to ourselves? Write in your answer and how you feel about yourself as a result to podcast@searls.co. Seriously, I need some new material.
The web runs on links, so have some:
KnightCite's Wikipedia page
Whisprflow wasn't for me
The POSSE Party is still on and will come to you, eventually
Aaron's puns, ranked
This Cheap, Tiny Device May Reverse Memory Loss—And Even Prevent Alzheimer's (News+)
Why Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified (News+)
Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars, report finds
Tele-conbini workers in Manilla
South Korea lost 858TB of government data without a backup
The AWS/Smart bed outage (News+)
Calendearing by Zach Holman
Detection firm finds 82% of herbal remedy books on Amazon 'likely written' by AI
Sora update #1
ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners
Perverts on Sora
Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults
Don't let AI invent your next holiday destination
Apple notification forwarding API is a potential game changer for Meta glasses
John Ternus as Next CEO?
Apple released the M5 Vision Pro
And a new Vision Pro Developer Strap
Apple Readies High-End MacBook Pro With Touch, Hole-Punch Screen
You Only Need $750 to Pilfer Unencrypted Data From Satellites
They're making a new Star Trek Voyager game
That Wolverine game sure looks M-rated
Halo on PlayStation? In this economy?
The next Xbox console is a 'premium' system
Adam Driver says Disney nixed a Kylo Ren film he pitched with Steven Soderbergh
Microsoft Teams can now track attendance
Foundation
Alien: Earth
The Last of Us
Invasion
The Bear
PSVR2
Tears of the Kingdom
John writes: Why programming languages aren't going anywhere

18 snips
Oct 17, 2025 • 1h 39min
v44.0.2 - Mike McQuaid: If you don't like it, Quit
In this conversation, Mike McQuaid, a long-time open source maintainer and Homebrew leader, dives into the recent RubyGems controversy. He discusses the importance of clear governance and funding in open source, emphasizing that treating it as a career comes with risks. The group also weighs the complex dynamics around monetization, the impact of AI on coding, and the necessity for personal joy in maintaining projects. Ultimately, Mike advocates for pursuing open source work on your own terms to avoid burnout and sustain enthusiasm.

5 snips
Sep 29, 2025 • 1h 31min
v44.0.1 - José Valim: It's a time for builders
José Valim, the creator of the Elixir programming language and founder of Dashbit, dives into the evolving landscape of AI coding agents. He raises concerns about their uncertain future and the challenges of integrating AI into coding workflows. Topics include the burden of code review, the effectiveness of small deliverables, and the risks of technical debt from unreviewed AI-generated code. Valim emphasizes the need for developers to adapt practices and engage with new tools like Tidewave, a full-stack coding agent designed to streamline feature development.

Sep 22, 2025 • 2h 34min
v44 - Can't get it up
Hey, look! Breaking Change now has chapter support for each segment! More on how I did that while still upholding my commitment to laziness later.
I didn't get a good job connecting this version's release to what I was referencing, so to be clear I was referring to my heart rate as opposed to any other bodily functions. The other ones are getting up just fine, thank you. Get your head out of the gutter.
Thanks for all the great e-mails the last couple weeks! Throw yours on the pile at podcast@searls.co. Hopefully Fastmail won't lose it.
For the folks who pronounce URLs like Earls:
Fallout comes to HHN
Apple's bullshit Watch Series 11 battery claims
Echofeed is like POSSE Party, kind of
Only POSSE Party is POSSE Party. Working on it.
Aaron's puns, ranked
Scuba-wearing restaurant robber swims away with cash at Disney Springs
India is fucked
H1-B's cost $100k now making India super fucked
Why tradwives aren't trad
Why Marriage Is Increasingly for the Affluent (News+)
Virtual Boy is coming to the Switch
Samsung brings ads to US fridges
Meta's bad demos and explanations
Steve Jobs smoking the good shit
Expedition 33
Super Mario Odyssey
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Paradise Season 1
The Last of Us Season 2
The Invincible

Sep 9, 2025 • 60min
v43.1 - iPhone 17 Event Review
It's an emergency bonus edition of Breaking Change as I take the covers off yet another show-within-a-show. I call it Feature Release, and its job is to fill in that middle number in our semantically versioned series of conversations together. No pun, no news, just some timely content wrapped up in a name, logo, and jingle package that still has that new podcast smell.
It's a 1-hour review of the Airpods, Apple Watch, and iPhone updates Apple announced today. You can see the full event video on YouTube. The Verge has a 17 minute abridged version if you just want the synopsis.
Please enjoy this episode of Feature Release! It may be the only one. Write into podcast@searls.co with your feedback!

Sep 2, 2025 • 2h 35min
v43 - The Slop Economy
Remember it is your civic duty to e-mail me at podcast@searls.co. As of this episode, that address is monitored by Fastmail, so there's a higher probability I'll actually get your e-mail!
Some links you won't click:
Why I-4 is the most dangerous highway in America
The Beak and the Barrel
Sign up for Fastmail. It is good.
The Gilroy Order
Making ChatGPT doubt itself
Why I wasn't cut out for management
How to comment on my blog
Aaron's puns, ranked
New Xcode beta adds GPT-5, Claude account support
Apple Responds to Accusations of Jay Blahnik Creating 'Toxic Workplace'
4chan Refuses To Pay UK Online Safety Act Fines
Americans' junk-filled garages are hurting EV adoption, study says
New Book Argues Hybrid Schedules 'Don't Work', Return-to-Office Brings Motivation and Learning
Shenmue 3 is getting an Enhanced edition
Raguelike game may portend AI disruption in the gaming industry
Making cash off 'AI slop': The surreal video business taking over the web (News+)
Stellantis shelves Level 3 driver-assistance program that totally works and has no problems
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says AI enabled him to cut 4,000 jobs
Timeline Japan: 1980
Perfect Days
Rental Family
Black Mirror Season 7
Yumtein Gummy Bears
Listener Björn made this Equaliteam app

Aug 27, 2025 • 1h 47min
v42.0.1 - Scott Werner: Ignore all previous instructions
🔥Hotfix🔥 is back with a new guest! Scott Werner is the CEO of Sublayer, helps organize the Artificial Ruby meetup in NYC, and is the author of the extremely well-named (and well-written) Substack, Works on my Machine.
In this conversation, we jointly grapple with WTF is happening to programming as a career. Did the unprecedented peacetime the software industry experienced from 2005-2022 make us all soft? Is the era of code-writing agents fundamentally changing the nature of the job? Should we be less like DHH/Matz and more like why the lucky stiff?
We'd love to get your feedback to podcast@searls.co — I'll read it all and flag relevant questions and comments for the next Breaking Change.
You can follow Scott Werner online at:
Works on my Machine on Substack
@scottwernerd on Twitter/X
A handful of things we mentioned:
There's no AI in Team
The Goal book
Lean Thinking vs Fat Thinking (a newsletter that draws a different lesson from The Goal)
why the lucky stiff (aka "_why")
That fireside chat between Matz and DHH
Sublayer's product, APM (Actions Per Minute)

Aug 16, 2025 • 3h 14min
v42 - Free as in Remodel
Thanks for writing so many lovely emails to podcast@searls.co. Hell, thanks even for the unlovely ones.
Be sure to look out for me showing up on Dead Code at some point after it records next Tuesday. I'm realizing not all podcasts have a 1-hour-or-less turnaround time like this one does.
As promised, some URLs follow:
Want a Japanese girlfriend? Better be the right Myers-Briggs type
Aaron's puns, ranked
Men sucking at chores is turning women gay! (News+)
Nightmares kill you (Archive)
This shiner from /r/overemployed
Hour of Code is now Hour of AI
Gary Marcus taking a few victory laps around GPT-5
OpenAI caves to 4o-pilled users
Meta's AI rules have let bots hold 'sensual' chats with children
Apple returns blood oxygen monitoring to the latest Apple Watches (sort of)
The Trump Trophy
My man Steve Wozniak has a 6-digit /. account
Enough
Andor
Alien: Earth
Sims 2 Legacy Collection
Foundation Season 3
Mariusz schools us on running Claude Code in a Docker container (sources)
Marick's ZIRP reply and my follow-up post


