Software Defined Talk

Episode 590: Transparency will save us

September 18th, 2026  |  52 mins 40 secs

This week, we discuss AI doom odds, WordPress's boardroom coup, and Meta's Muse assistant. Plus, a robot vacuum fire scare.

Episode 589: He's the Heel

September 11th, 2026  |  58 mins 6 secs

This week, we discuss the VS Code documentary, Ed Zitron's rise to fame, and a 10% AI extinction forecast. Plus, the NFL's Australia travel gamble

Episode 588: Check Your Bank Accounts

September 4th, 2026  |  55 mins 34 secs

This week, we discuss rogue AI agent civilizations, why AI can't fix your tax forms, and Chainguard vs. IBM's Lightwell. Plus, refrigerator magnet marketing.

Episode 587: The Singularity Didn't Happen on the First

August 28th, 2026  |  1 hr 7 mins

This week, we discuss Stripe's singularity letter, its $8B Open Router buy, and AI job anxiety. Plus, Matt plays “Bot or Not” on another podcast.

Episode 586: Watermark Away, Baby

August 21st, 2026  |  1 hr 27 secs

This week, we discuss the unsung genius of Apple Pay, AI watermarking, and why digital transformation fails without a crisis. Plus, D&D Beyond's secret character API.

Episode 585: I'm not a total AI hater, I'm a finance hater

August 14th, 2026  |  1 hr 4 mins

This week, we discuss Zuckerberg's open source AI manifesto, GPUs as securitizable assets, and who actually gets AI ROI. Plus, Buc-ee's goes to war over beavers.

Episode 584: It’s All God Throwing Dice

August 7th, 2026  |  48 mins 41 secs

This week, we discuss the Situational Awareness meltdown, Airtable getting sold, and review the Java documentary. Plus, what you should actually buy at IKEA.

Episode 583: HuggingFace make me gazpacho

July 31st, 2026  |  1 hr 3 mins

This week, we discuss how normal people use AI, Alphabet's Anthropic-fueled earnings, and skills vs. agents. Plus, catching AI-cheating students with a hidden prompt.

Episode 582: Talking About Modernization

July 24th, 2026  |  1 hr 6 mins

This week, we discuss Bun's move to Rust, OpenAI hunting for revenue, and Stripe's bid for PayPal. Plus, Coté's Dad wisdom.

Episode 581: Arjun Iyer on Shipping Faster with Ephemeral Environments and AI Agents

July 17th, 2026  |  51 mins 19 secs

interview

Brandon interviews Arjun Iyer, CEO & Co-founder of Signadot. They discuss how Ephemeral Environments eliminate developer toil by shifting validation earlier in the dev cycle, how Signadot's MCP server lets AI coding agents run end-to-end tests autonomously, and real-world results including Brex saving $2M in cloud spend. Plus, how Cisco bought AppDynamics for ~$4 billion the day before their IPO.

Episode 580: Varlock: Bringing Order to the Chaos of Environment Variables

July 10th, 2026  |  54 mins 34 secs

interview

Every project has environment variables. Almost nobody manages them well. This week Brandon talks with Phil Miller and Theo Ephraim, who built varlock to fix that — bringing structure and security to the humble .env file.

Episode 579: The Headless Lifestyle

July 3rd, 2026  |  1 hr 11 mins

This week, we discuss Anthropic's 18-day Fable timeout, whether AI is actually killing jobs, and OpenAI's trillion-dollar IPO problem. Plus, SoftBank's golden goose slides.

Episode 578: War for Talent

June 26th, 2026  |  1 hr 4 mins

This week, we discuss Fable follow-up, Gartner's AI Governance MQ, and the war for AI talent. Plus, Matt and Brandon review "Disclosure Day."

Episode 577: Let’s go to Buc-ee’s

June 19th, 2026  |  1 hr 29 secs

This week, we discuss the Fable ban, SpaceX's $60B Cursor buy, and why Lovable wins when AI picks your stack. Plus, Europeans are at the World Cup and already drank Boston dry.

Episode 576: Observability's Next Phase

June 12th, 2026  |  48 mins 39 secs

interview

Brandon talks with OpenObserve's Prabhat Sharma and Shani Shoham: why observability is still broken, how they fixed it, and where AI takes it next.

Episode 575: UI blizzard

June 5th, 2026  |  1 hr 1 min

This week, we discuss NVIDIA going consumer, Microsoft Build, and the Anthropic/OpenAI IPO race. Plus, does credit card insurance work?