
Ardan Labs Podcast
This podcast features intimate conversations with engineers who are in the forefront of building or teaching technology. Join us as we learn how our guests got started in tech, the type and level of education they've obtained, their work history, and personal stories about their journey. We publish the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and the Web biweekly on Wednesdays at 12pm US Eastern Time. Subscribe and STAY TUNED!
Latest episodes

Nov 9, 2022 • 1h 29min
Movies, Macs, and Microsoft with John Doak
John Doak is a Principal Engineer at Microsoft and also the author of the book “Go for DevOps”. In this episode he takes us through his journey from martial arts and cinematography in high school and college to becoming a published author and master at networking.00:00 Introduction 03:08 What is John Doing today 05:37 Writing “Go for DevOps”14:00 Graduating high school16:15 First memory of a computer 23:00 High school interests 28:40 Post high school thoughts32:50 Triple majoring in college 36:00 Battling migraines through university / odd jobs 46:13 Moving to San Francisco51:08 What happens after 5 years57:52 Looking into Google 1:04:10 How long were you at Google?1:06:40 Networking Skills 1:13:04 What do you think about Tailscale?1:14:21 Leaving Google1:20:10 Would you write another book? 1:23:29 Current interests in Tech? 1:28:40 Contact InfoConnect with John: Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnsiilver?lang=enEmail: jdoak@microsoft.comGithub: https://github.com/johnsiilverMentioned in today’s episode:Tailscale: https://github.com/tailscale/tailscaleFind Johns Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/Go-DevOps-language-Kubernetes-Terraform/dp/1801818894Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Oct 28, 2022 • 1h 40min
From Music to Coding with Tracy Holmes
Tracy Holmes is a Technical Community Advocate at Isovalent who takes us through her path to reaching her present position. In this episode we can watch her story develop from being involved in music and theater in high school to working for a prestigious technology company. 00:00 Introduction 05:40 What is Tracy doing today?08:55 First memory of a computer 14:00 Interests in high school22:22 Growing up / raising kids30:00 Struggles in college / anxiety36:25 Switching Majors in college42:25 Social responsibility with jobs46:39 After college jobs58:38 Working as a system admin1:02:00 Anxiety and fixing things1:16:00 Participating in meetups1:22:20 Finding Isovalent1:29:00 Future projects with technology1:33:20 Thing happen for a reason1:38:20 Contact infoConnect with Tracy: Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracypholmesLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracypholmes/Github: https://github.com/tracypholmesMentioned in today’s episode:Isovalent : https://isovalent.comHashiCorp: https://www.hashicorp.comWant more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Oct 12, 2022 • 1h 29min
Web Development and Cloud Computing with Colby Fayock
Colby Fayock is currently a Senior Developer Experience Engineer at Cloudinary who teaches the tools of the web and Cloudinary implementation. Colby takes us on a journey through creating websites in highschool to using cloud technologies and landing a job at Cloudinary.Connect with Colby:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/colbyfayockTwitter: https://twitter.com/colbyfayockGithub: https://github.com/colbyfayockInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/colbyfayock/Mentioned in today’s episode:Cloudinary : gr-sea-gg-brand-home-baseReact: https://reactjs.orgElement84: https://www.element84.comInktober : https://inktober.com00:00 Introduction01:20 What are you currently doing today?05:35 What were you focused on in high school? 10:01 Building websites and hobbies in high school14:52 Finding a major at Penn-State 19:31 Thoughts on graduate school 21:37 Finding jobs after university28:40 Technology for web development / Moving jobs37:17 Realizing you’re underpaid and moving forward40:30 Working at ThinkGeek47:24 Getting ”the boot” / Front-end and back-end relationships58:10 Exploring for new opportunities1:02:38 Working at Element841:07:45 Using serverless technology1:15:38 Landing at Cloudinary1:19:50 What is your current role at Cloudinary?1:21:36 How is your company measuring success?1:27:56 Contact infoWant more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Sep 28, 2022 • 1h 4min
The Journey to a PhD with Anna-Katharina Wickert
Anna-Katharina Wickert is currently pursuing her PhD in computer science with a focus on security and organizer for the Golang User meetup in Frankfurt, Germany. From programming at the age of 13 to deciding to pursue a PhD, she provides valuable insight into her journey through years of education. 00:00 Introduction04:53 First Memory Using a Computer09:53 Interests and College Decisions25:09 Takeaways from the degree27:06 Why Decide to Stay In School32:31 Mastering in Security37:33 After The Masters degree39:23 How Did You Discover Go?40:53 Deciding to do a PhD43:55 What's Involved with getting a PhD50:34 What's your Dream Job?54:41 Native Fuzzing in Go1:00:49 GopherCon EU 20221:02:57 Contact infoConnect with Anna: LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/anna-katharina-wickert-60597a142/enTwitter: https://twitter.com/akwickertMentioned in today’s episode:GopherCon EU: https://gophercon.euGopherCon Talk 2022: https://youtu.be/yTvK8lzhENoFrankfurt Rhein-Main Gophers Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/gophers-frm/Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Sep 14, 2022 • 1h 21min
From Motorsports to AWS Cloud Formation Team with Brian Terry
Episode Description:Brian Terry is a senior solutions architect on the ISV Integrations team at AWS (formerly with the Cloud Formation team). We hear about his unique journey from being a star athlete, to racing motorcycles, and eventually completing 2 master’s degrees and landing his dream job. Connect with Brian:Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ineedhelpbrian LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-t-b3276250/ GitHub: https://github.com/brianterry Mentioned in today’s episode:AWS Cloudformation: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/ AWS On Air: https://aws.amazon.com/developer/community/live-video/aws-on-air/Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Aug 31, 2022 • 1h 13min
Advancing Your Career with Sonja Price
Sonja Price is a career strategist, salary advisor, leadership coach, and the founder of Dynamo Careers. We learn all about Sonja’s journey from being employee #2 at a startup in the early 2000’s to finding her passion for helping others to advance their career. You’ll hear tips on negotiating, how to ask for a raise, and how to get to where you want to go in your career.Connect with Sonja:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonjaprice/Dynamo Careers: https://dynamocareers.com/ Mentioned in today’s episode:Pivot Point System (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Pivot-Point-System-Unlock-Career/dp/1092945598The Infinite Leader (Book): https://dynamocareers.com/the-infinite-leader-book Why Should You Change Jobs Every 2-3 Years? (Blog): https://dynamocareers.com/change-jobs-every-2-3-years Free Assessment: https://dynamocareers.com/assessment Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Aug 17, 2022 • 1h 55min
Cluster Infrastructure, Coreboot, & Plan 9 with Ron Minnich
Ron Minnich is the President of the Plan 9 Foundation and a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Google. Ron has been on the forefront of many technologies, starting his journey with computers as a kid in the 1960’s. We hear stories of building relay computers, cluster infrastructure research, supercomputing, LinuxBIOS (coreboot), Plan 9, & his present day work at Google. Connect with Ron:Email: rminnich@gmail.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/corebootLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronminnich/ Plan 9 Foundation: https://plan9foundation.org/Coreboot (LinuxBIOS): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreboot Mentioned in today’s episode:Gemini 2 Launch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_2 Geniac: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geniac (Book) The Elements of Networking Style: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Networking-Style-Animadversions-Intercomputer/dp/0595088791 (Book) Software Tools: https://www.amazon.com/Software-Tools-Brian-W-Kernighan/dp/020103669X (Book) Computer Lib/Dream Machines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Lib/Dream_Machines OpenSUSE Talk (June 2022): https://events.opensuse.org/conferences/oSC22/program/proposals/3767 IBM Blue Gene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Blue_Gene Emulytics: https://www.sandia.gov/emulytics/ Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Aug 3, 2022 • 1h 33min
Trust Engineering with Florent Biville
Florent Biville maintains the official Go driver at graph database company, neo4j. We talk about the challenges and benefits of constantly learning new languages, interviewing at large companies, consulting life, and the importance of building trust through consistency. Connect with Florent:Twitter: https://twitter.com/fbivilleWebsite: https://florent.biville.net GitHub: https://github.com/fbiville Mentioned in today’s episode:neo4j: https://neo4j.comGo Driver Documentation: https://neo4j.com/developer/go/ Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Jul 20, 2022 • 1h 29min
Never Say No to Opportunities with Steve Wade
Steve Wade is a founding engineer at KSOC Labs, a cloud-native SaaS platform built to remediate Kubernetes security risks in real time. We talk about the struggles around playing professional soccer, the importance of saying yes to opportunities, finding fulfillment in your career, and LOTS of Kubernetes chat.Connect with Steve:Twitter: https://twitter.com/swade1987Website: https://www.stevenwade.co.uk/GitHub: https://github.com/swade1987Mentioned in today’s episode:KSOC Labs: https://www.ksoc.com/Cuelang: https://cuelang.org/Kelsey Hightower on healthz: https://vimeo.com/173610242Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blogGithub: https://github.com/ardanlabs

Jul 6, 2022 • 1h 32min
Ethical AI, Endangered Languages, & NLP with Daniel Whitenack
Daniel Whitenack is a co-host of the Practical AI podcast and a data scientist with SIL International. In one of our more technical episodes, we hear about Daniel’s journey from computational physics in college to using artificial intelligence for language processing. Tune in for a conversation on ethical AI, endangered languages, real-time translation, and more!Connect with Daniel:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwhitenaWebsite: https://datadan.io/ Email: dan_whitenack@sil.orgPractical AI podcast: https://changelog.com/practicalai Gopher Slack Channel: https://invite.slack.golangbridge.org/ Mentioned in today’s episode:SIL International: https://sil.orgMultilingual AI: https://ai.sil.org Federated Learning: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_learning Microsoft Flight Simulator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Flight_Simulator Babel Fish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_Fish_(website) Data Science with Go (GopherCon 2016): https://youtu.be/D5tDubyXLrQ Pachyderm: https://www.pachyderm.com/ Nvidia Grace Hopper: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/grace-cpu/ Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses: https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events: https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog: https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github: https://github.com/ardanlabs
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