
The Ruby on Rails Podcast
The Ruby on Rails Podcast, a weekly conversation about Ruby on Rails, open source software, and the programming profession. Co-hosted by Nick Schwaderer. Edited by Peachtree Sound.
Latest episodes

Sep 29, 2021 • 30min
Episode 385: Minimal Flame Wars (Prettier, Parsing and Regex) with Kevin Newton
Kevin Newton is a staff engineer at Shopify on the Ruby and Rails infrastructure team. He’s working on improving the speed and efficiency of CRuby. The trio (Kevin, Nick and Brittany) discuss RubyKaiji talks, Kevin's work on the Prettier plug-in for Ruby and RegularExpression, the Shopify HackDays project Kevin and Nick worked on.
Show Notes & Links:
RegularExpression
Prettier Plugin for Ruby
Parsing Ruby
yjit
Ruby Hacking Guide
Prettier Printer
Prettier Print Module in Ruby Core
An Introduction to Speculative Optimization in V8
Kevin Newton (@kddnewton) | Twitter
Kevin Newton on Github
Sponsored By:
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.

Sep 22, 2021 • 32min
Episode 384: The TextUs Junior Trio with Saundra Catalina, Jeff Golden and Luke Mason
Brittany has been talking about them for weeks and they are here: the newly minted junior developers of TextUs. Tune into to listen to Saundra Catalina, Jeff Golden and Luke Mason share why they learned to code, how they chose their programs, how they tackled finding their first role, their thoughts on mentorship and of course, any advice they have for the junior listeners out there.
Show Notes & Links:
Turing School
Flatiron School
Saundra on LinkedIn
Jeff on LinkedIn
Luke on LinkedIn
Sponsored By:
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.

Sep 8, 2021 • 41min
Episode 383: Aim for Good (GoodJob) with Ben Sheldon
Ben Sheldon is the Director of Engineering Operations at Code for America and the author of the GoodJob gem. He fields all of Brittany's questions about why GoodJob was created, how it leverages Active Job, why a dev team would select it and what the life of an open source maintainer currently looks like.
Show Notes & Links:
Code for America
bensheldon/good_job - GitHub
RailsConf 2015 Keynote (“Rails is my prepper backpack”)
Stephen Baker’s “History of RSpec”
Ben's Blog
Ben Sheldon (@bensheldon) · Twitter
Sponsored By:
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.

Sep 1, 2021 • 30min
Episode 382: Code::Anth with Gui Heurich
After participating in his study, Brittany interviewed Gui Heurich. Gui is a Brazilian anthropologist and programmer, currently researching the Ruby language and its community in an ambitious projected named Code::Anth. He lives in England, where he works as a Ruby backend developer at Farmdrop and also as an Associate Researcher at University College London.
Show Notes & Links:
Code::Anth
Gui Heurich (@anthrolanguage) | Twitter
Email Gui at g.heurich@ucl.ac.uk
Sponsored By:
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.

Aug 25, 2021 • 29min
Episode 381: Life Stories and Some Of Our Favorite Things (Brittany & Jemma)
Jemma is going to be joining Shopify as a member of the Core Foundations team! She and Brittany discuss the interview process from Jemma's perspective. They then talk through their favorite developer tools, what they would improve and what sponsorship means for this show and WNB.rb.
Show Notes & Links:
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Episode 365 - I Believe in the Rails Magic with Brittany & Nick
Tmux - GitHub
Oh My Zsh - a delightful & open source framework for Zsh
WNB.rb (@wnb_rb) | Twitter
Contact WNB.rb for Sponsoring at womennonbinary.rb@gmail.com
Sponsored By:
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.

Aug 18, 2021 • 29min
Episode 380: Equity for Developers with Aaron Kahn
Returning from Episode 343, Aaron Kahn is a Certified Financial Planner at Wealth Management Strategies, Inc. Brittany and Brian invited Aaron back on to the show to break down equity for developers: why they should care, equity terminology and guidance for when their employer is sold and they have vested stock.
Show Notes & Links:
Episode 343: Finance for Software Developers with Aaron Kahn
83(b) Election
An Introduction to Incentive Stock Options
Non-Qualified Stock Option (NSO)
The Importance of Diversification
Satisficing
Aaron Kahn on LinkedIn
Aaron's Website
Sponsored By:
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.

Aug 11, 2021 • 36min
Episode 379: MEGA Crossover Episode (The Bike Shed x Rails with Jason x Remote Ruby x The Ruby on Rails Podcast)
The episode you wanted and deserved! Brittany teams up with her favorite Ruby podcast hosts: Chris Oliver, Jason Charnes, Andrew Mason, Chris Toomey, Steph Viccari and Jason Swett in an epic crossover to discuss the origins of their shows, experiences as hosts, why podcasting is so important in keeping the Ruby community thriving and their shows' legacies.
Show Notes & Links:
Remote Ruby
The Bike Shed
Rails with Jason
Chris Oliver (@excid3) | Twitter
Jason Charnes (@jmcharnes) | Twitter
Andrew Mason (@andrewmcodes) | Twitter
Chris Toomey (@christoomey) | Twitter
Steph Viccari (@SViccari) | Twitter
Jason Swett (@JasonSwett) | Twitter
Sponsored By:
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.

Aug 4, 2021 • 25min
Episode 378: A Functional Mental Model for Integrations with Joël Quenneville
Joël Quenneville is a consulting developer with thoughtbot. Joël wrote a recent article on the thoughtbot blog which explored how OOP, TDD, and functional programming ideas can all be used as lenses to help us gain a better understanding of our problem and potential solutions. Brittany and Joël discussed how these concepts can directly apply to implementing third party integrations.
Show Notes & Links:
Testing Objects with a Functional Mindset
Simplifying Tests by Extracting Side-Effects
Building Reusable Object-Oriented Systems: Composition
Joël on Twitter (@joelquen)
Sponsored By:
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.

Jul 29, 2021 • 32min
Episode 377: The Ruby Super Team (Brittany and Nick)
Nick's debut as a co-host on The Ruby on Rails Podcast! Nick tells Brittany about the ambitious project he and his Hack Day team took on at Shopify. Brittany updates Nick on her trip to Denver to meet the team at TextUs and how her junior team members are doing a month in. They wrap up by reflecting on how much hiring has changed since they discussed it in depth last spring.
Show Notes & Links:
kddnewton/regular_expression
Viking Code School: Become a Web Developer
Sponsored By:
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.

Jul 21, 2021 • 29min
Episode 376: Technically Speaking (Brittany and Jemma)
Jemma's debut as a co-host on The Ruby on Rails Podcast! Brittany and Jemma discuss WNB.rb's upcoming Fireside Chats about Technical Speaking and how Jemma is approaching the event as a moderator. Brittany shares her experience onboarding three (!) new Junior developers at TextUs and they both discuss how the approach writing and submitting talks. Lastly, they talk about setting engineering cultures within teams.
Show Notes & Links:
Register for Fireside Chats about Technical Speaking
Sponsored By:
Scout APM
Try their error monitoring and APM free for 14-days, no credit card needed! And as an added bonus for Ruby on Rails listeners: Scout will donate $5 to the open-source project of your choice when you deploy. Learn more at http://scoutapm.com/rubyonrails.
Honeybadger
Honeybadger makes you a DevOps hero by combining error monitoring, uptime monitoring and check-in monitoring into a single, easy to use platform. Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
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