In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris, Andrew, and David humorously discuss the rapid increase of 'wrapped' features in various apps, recount personal experiences with food apps, and then dive into their favorite conference moments of the year. They also explore the concept of UI affordances and its importance in web design and give a preview of up…

Chris, Andrew, and David are back together, and the conversation starts out with TV talk, Fallout hype, why some shows overstay their welcome (Prison Break), and the “season one magic” problem (Reacher). Then there’s a big shoutout to Marco’s Rails Luminary win, and a deep dive into AI rabbit holes: self-hosting LLMs, Mac minis, and the looming rea…

AI agents are no longer just tools we manually wire together—they’re starting to build themselves. In this episode of Ruby Rogues, I caught up with Valentino Stoll to explore a fascinating idea: autogenetic (self-generating) AI agents and what they mean for how we write software in Ruby. We dig into Valentino’s experimental Ruby gem, agentic, and t…

AI agents are no longer just tools we manually wire together—they’re starting to build themselves. In this episode of Ruby Rogues, I caught up with Valentino Stoll to explore a fascinating idea: autogenetic (self-generating) AI agents and what they mean for how we write software in Ruby. We dig into Valentino’s experimental Ruby gem, agentic, and t…

In this episode, Chris and David Hill catch up on wild winter temperature swings, then dive into what Chris has been refactoring in Jumpstart to reduce merge pain, cut dependencies, and make upgrades smoother. The conversation branches into AI-assisted coding pitfalls and where AI shines, new web security headers that could simplify CSRF handling, …

Chris and Andrew kick things off with some weather whiplash and snowblower talk before introducing a new guest on the show, long-time Rubyist David Hill. They chat about fast food and favorite shows, David’s accidental path into Ruby and Rails, and various projects he’s worked on, including an AED management application. The discussion also touches…

Andrew kicks off at 8 a.m. with six Docker containers running, and he and Chris dive into what modern Rails development looks like inside dev containers—covering Rails’ own images and features, using Mise and Playwright instead of Selenium, and why OrbStack has replaced Docker Desktop on their Macs. They talk through the trade-offs of running servi…

Andrew returns from SF Ruby with a lot more than conference swag! He brings a clear snapshot of where Ruby, Rails, and AI are headed right now. In this episode, he and Chris walk through the most impactful talks from SF Ruby, share highlights of engaging discussions with other developers and friends, reminisces about nostalgic tech items, and explo…

In this solo episode, I sit down to unpack my thoughts on DHH’s RailsWorld keynote and what it means for those of us building modern Rails apps. There’s a lot to love about Rails right now — from the push toward simplicity and reducing needless complexity to powerful new features landing in Rails 8.1 like Markdown rendering, offline mode, structure…

In this solo episode, I sit down to unpack my thoughts on DHH’s RailsWorld keynote and what it means for those of us building modern Rails apps. There’s a lot to love about Rails right now — from the push toward simplicity and reducing needless complexity to powerful new features landing in Rails 8.1 like Markdown rendering, offline mode, structure…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew have a lively conversation with Brendan Buckingham and Ryan Frisch from the Rails Business Podcast. They discuss their experiences and journeys with Ruby on Rails, starting from their early encounters with the technology to hosting a specialized Rails podcast. Critical technical topics are covered, i…

In this solo episode, I open up about what’s been going on behind the scenes with Ruby Rogues and why you’ve been hearing more solo shows from me lately. Between new full-time work, family life, and shifting schedules among the panelists, it’s been a wild stretch — but I’m committed to keeping the show coming to you every week. From there, I dive i…

In this solo episode, I open up about what’s been going on behind the scenes with Ruby Rogues and why you’ve been hearing more solo shows from me lately. Between new full-time work, family life, and shifting schedules among the panelists, it’s been a wild stretch — but I’m committed to keeping the show coming to you every week. From there, I dive i…

In this episode, guest Nate Berkopec joins Chris and Andrew to discuss the current state and cultural controversies surrounding Ruby Gems, Bundler, and open-source projects in general. The conversation dives into the split within the Ruby community, the complexities of maintaining key projects, and the challenges of funding and sustaining open-sour…

In this solo episode of Ruby Rogues, I’m unpacking one of the biggest stories in the Ruby world right now: the tension between Ruby Central and core RubyGems contributors. I share what I’ve learned from talking to people across the community and why this issue is more complex than it looks on social media. From the origins of Bundler and Ruby Toget…

In this solo episode of Ruby Rogues, I’m unpacking one of the biggest stories in the Ruby world right now: the tension between Ruby Central and core RubyGems contributors. I share what I’ve learned from talking to people across the community and why this issue is more complex than it looks on social media. From the origins of Bundler and Ruby Toget…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew catch up with Chris discussing the arrival of a new baby and the challenges of balancing work and parenting. Then, they dive into the complexities of dealing with OpenSSL 3.6 issues on their development environments, exploring various debugging attempts and ultimately finding a workaround. The conver…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris is on paternity leave celebrating the birth of his son, so Andrew brings in Drew Bragg and Rachael Wright-Munn (aka ChaelCodes), to discuss recent controversies surrounding Ruby Central and its alleged takeover of Ruby Gems and Bundler. They dive into the timeline of events, conflicting narratives, communicatio…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew chat with Travis Dockter, the founder of a brand-new Ruby conference, Blastoff Rails. They dive deep into Travis’s journey from business school to bootcamp, his love for conferences, and why he decided to organize one of his own in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From planning venues and sponsors to shaping…

In this episode, Chris and Andrew reflect on their recent trip to Rails World 2025 in Amsterdam, sharing travel adventures, highlights from the conference, and insights into major Rails announcements. From slide-heavy talks to new features like ReActionView, Action Push, Kamal Geo Proxy, Hotwire Native, and Action Text Lexxy, they explore how the R…

Live from Rails World 2025 in Amsterdam, Chris and Andrew hang with Andy Croll and Jason Charnes to trade conference vibes, hair envy for DHH, and real talk on the keynote roadmap: Turbo offline, Hotwire Native 1.3, Kamal, “CI on your machine,” SQLite, and Beamer. The conversation also touches on the quirky and entertaining embassy experience at Ra…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew chat with returning guests Irina Nazarova and Vladimir Dementyev to discuss the upcoming SF Ruby Conference, a vibrant event taking place in San Francisco on November 19-20, 2025. They delve into the significance of the conference for startups and the Ruby community, highlighting the venue, keynote s…

In this episode of Ruby Rogues, I sit down with Mike McQuaid, lead maintainer of Homebrew, to talk all about building and distributing CLIs. We dig into the practical steps for turning small scripts into reliable command-line tools, why Ruby is a great starting point, and when you might want to reach for Go or Rust instead. We also explore the chal…

In this episode of Ruby Rogues, I sit down with Mike McQuaid, lead maintainer of Homebrew, to talk all about building and distributing CLIs. We dig into the practical steps for turning small scripts into reliable command-line tools, why Ruby is a great starting point, and when you might want to reach for Go or Rust instead. We also explore the chal…

In this episode, Chris chats with guest Jim Remsik, Founder of Flagrant, on the significance of Ruby and Rails conferences. They discuss the nuances of organizing and attending such events, including the challenges and rewards of emceeing, the importance of community guidelines, and the value of having diverse participation. Jim shares insights int…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew welcome guest José Valim back on the show to talk about Tidewave, a new web development tool integrated with Phoenix and Rails frameworks. The conversation covers the tool's functionality, its ability to inspect and manipulate web elements directly from the browser, and its feature of automatically t…

In this episode, Andrew and Chris discuss their recent week, including Andrew's upcoming sabbatical beginning on Monday and wrapping up his tasks at Podia. They talk about the Battlefield 6 Beta and its large download size and touch on internet services, including their experiences with Google Fiber and Cox. The conversation shifts to the future of…

In this episode, Chris and Andrew discuss the recent release of Rails 8 and the improvements in upgrading processes compared to previous versions. They dive into specific technical challenges, such as handling open redirects and integrating configuration options, and chat about Chris's recent experience with Tailwind’s new Elements library, Bundler…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Andrew and Chris chat with guest, Marco Roth, to discuss the challenges of working with ERB templates in Ruby on Rails, and Marco's ongoing project, Herb. They dive into Marco's inspiration from tools like Stimulus Reflex and Hotwire, and the broader vision for 'Herb' which includes syntax linting, formatting, enhanc…

Chris and Andrew catch up on their week, discussing Andrew’s recent successful feature launch, their love for South Park, and the recent news about a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount. They go back-and-forth on upgrades to Bundler 2.7 and the intricacies of emoji reactions in their app. Debugging, code refactoring, and the importance of testing are …

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew reflect on their experiences at the final RailsConf in Philly. They discuss their interactions, keynotes, the vibe of community, and favorite talks that stood out. Highlights include reminiscing about Aaron Patterson and Aji Slater's keynotes and their entertaining reflections on 20 years of RailsCon…

In this special episode of Remote Ruby, ‘AI Andrew’ introduces a panel discussion recorded at RailsConf in Philadelphia. Hosted by David Hill (Ode to Rails Conf, Ruby Gems Podcast), the panel features Drew Bragg (Code and the Coding Coders who Code it), Stephanie Minn (The Bike Shed), and Chris Oliver (Remote Ruby), who take the stage to share thei…

Hey everyone, Charles Max Wood here! It’s great to be back behind the mic with Ayush Nawatia for another episode of Ruby Rogues. This time, we’re diving into the fascinating world of Ruby community resources with two amazing guests: Adrien Poly and Marco Roth. They’re the creators behind RubyEvents.org, an ambitious project that’s aiming to central…

Hey everyone, Charles Max Wood here! It’s great to be back behind the mic with Ayush Nawatia for another episode of Ruby Rogues. This time, we’re diving into the fascinating world of Ruby community resources with two amazing guests: Adrien Poly and Marco Roth. They’re the creators behind RubyEvents.org, an ambitious project that’s aiming to central…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew discuss a range of topics including an exciting announcement on Jason’s Job Boardly project that got acquired, a technical deep dive into implementing real-time emoji reactions using Turbo and Rails, an explanation on using Rules CLI, and a viral story about a developer. They also touch on intricate …

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Andrew and Chris dive into a range of Rails-related updates, development workflows, and tech frustrations, all while preparing for RailsConf and Rails World. Chris dives into the evolution of Ruby Gems toward Python-style wheels and secure precompiled binaries, while Andrew breaks down the value of namespacing and mo…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew chat through everything from extreme summer heat, tornadoes, and driving habits, to browser quirks, Unicode bugs, Punycode, and the intricacies of building and maintaining rich text editors. Their conversation drifts into developer tools like Tiptap and Lexical, accessibility issues, browser renderin…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew discuss the recent Google Cloud Platform and Heroku outages, sharing personal experiences of system impacts and recovery strategies. The conversation shifts to technical insights, including a deep dive into Rails ‘direct’ routes and their routing helper capabilities. They also touch on the latest per…

In this fun episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew dive into a wide-ranging chat that kicks off with Nintendo’s new Switch 2, dentist nightmares, and the chaos of Mario Party. From there, it transitions into some highly practical Rails development discussions, including a slick new implementation for MetaTags in Jumpstart, the headaches and benef…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew catch up on recent travels and food experiences, including the best Philly cheesesteaks they’ve ever had. The conversation shifts towards development topics, particularly testing challenges and solutions in Ruby on Rails, featuring discussions about emoji pickers, asset pipelines, and the prawn libra…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Andrew and Chris discuss the frustrations of working with React and the advantages of using Hotwire. They also talk about upcoming plans, including Andrew's retreat to Philadelphia and Lancaster, and the new features they've been working on, like an inbox for notifications. The conversation touches on the complexity …

In this episode, we had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Carmine Paolino — an AI innovator, Ruby enthusiast, and all-around tech wizard. From his early days automating PC games at age five to building cutting-edge AI tools in Berlin, Carmine’s journey is as inspiring as it is impressive. We dove deep into his latest creation: RubyLLM, a R…

In this episode, we had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Carmine Paolino — an AI innovator, Ruby enthusiast, and all-around tech wizard. From his early days automating PC games at age five to building cutting-edge AI tools in Berlin, Carmine’s journey is as inspiring as it is impressive. We dove deep into his latest creation: RubyLLM, a R…

Benedikt used to be a freelance software engineer and co-founded Userlist in 2017 as a side project with his co-founder Jane Portman. They went full-time on it in 2020. Benedikt enjoys database query optimization just as much as pushing around pixels on the front-end Show Notes https://userlist.com/ https://slowandsteadypodcast.com/ https://bsky.ap…

Andrew and Chris dive into issues with SMTP configuration on new Digital Ocean droplets, their experiences with various email delivery gems like Postmark and Mailtrap and go over some best practices for handling account creation and user associations in Rails applications. The conversation also touches on deployment automation, developing new featu…

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew discuss various technical challenges and developments. Chris provides insights into recent updates and debugging issues with Stripe integration, including transitioning from usage records to billing meters. Andrew shares a complicated debugging session involving a mysterious test suite freezing probl…

Hey folks, in this week’s episode, I sat down with the incredible Ridhwana Khan — a South African technical writer for the Rails Foundation and lead engineer at Circle. We had a fantastic chat about all things Ruby on Rails, but especially the underappreciated art (and science!) of writing documentation. Ridhwana took us behind the scenes of the of…

Hey folks, in this week’s episode, I sat down with the incredible Ridhwana Khan — a South African technical writer for the Rails Foundation and lead engineer at Circle. We had a fantastic chat about all things Ruby on Rails, but especially the underappreciated art (and science!) of writing documentation. Ridhwana took us behind the scenes of the of…

Becky Searls is a teacher-turned-trainer, but her true passion is learning and continuous growth. She shares everything she learns through her business, Better with Becky, which recently launched its first product: a strength-training app called Build with Becky (which she built in collaboration with her husband Justin using Ruby on Rails) Show Not…

In this episode of Ruby Rogues, Charles Max Wood and Ayush Nwatia welcome back guest Stephen Margheim to dive deeper into the evolving world of SQLite. Stephen explains that with Rails 8, SQLite has reached a major milestone: it now supports a fully production-ready, server-driven web application experience with no compromises. He walks us through …