Episodes

This episode is stacked with information. You could even say “full stacked.” Sam has built and run some large scale systems as a SRE at Google, now building backend services at Budibase, and he spends his free time teaching others how systems work at understandable scale. We dive into what makes Google SRE different from other companies, what it’s like to be a parent, and how Sam got started with building animations for his blog. Don’t forget to visit and check out the easter eggs he’s hidden th...

Bluesky has been on a roller coaster of growth for over a year. From the early days of figuring out a new distributed social protocol—AT protocol—to actually building it and inviting 30 million of their closest friends. Not only has the site gone through tremendous growth, the team has been optimizing, re-architecting, and adding features the entire time. Jaz is a software engineer focused on the infrastructure at Bluesky, and they share how they achieved exponential growth without exponential ...

Today we find out how building a product at Big Tech can be very different than a startup. Lauren Long has done both. Building parts of Firebase and eventually taking the things she learned to build Ampersand. We discuss what Ampersand is and go into detail about what the back end looks like. We even drop some hot takes about serverless and Kubernetes. We think you’ll love it! Show Highlights (0:00) Intro (1:00) What is Ampersand? (3:00) What is the backend? (4:00) What is Lauren’s backgroun...

Fork it! We’ll do it live! Well, sort of... In case you missed it last week, we’re running back our FAFO Livestream with Crystal Preston-Watson from this past Friday. Instead of prying into specifics about Crystal’s career, we’re chatting about recent tech news, the dire state of American tech literacy, and WTF WTA stands for! You can expect shows like these on the last Friday of every month, and we hope to see you there! Show Highlights (0:00) Intro (0:36) Tremolo sponsor read (1:56) Welco...

If technology serves everybody, then everyone deserves access to a seat at the table. No one better embodies this sentiment than Crystal Preston-Watson. She’s a Senior Digital Accessibility Analyst with Salesforce, and she brings an unrivaled passion for making tech available for anyone to use. On this episode of FAFO, we’re unpacking why her mission is so vital, and the previous career that made Crystal realize the disabled community needs a voice to advocate for them. Crystal goes into why ...

Data and security breaches are a dime a dozen nowadays, and despite their frequency, they’re still just as dangerous. That’s where Yasmin Abdi, the CEO of noHack, comes in. Despite her relatively short career, she’s already worked for some of the giants of the tech industry like Google and Snapchat. Along with Justin and Autumn, Yasmin breaks down real-world security challenges and solutions, a firsthand view into managing role-based access, phishing simulations for employee training, and the de...

Kubernetes isn’t just a platform—it’s a revolution. On this episode of Fork Around and Find Out, Justin and Autumn sit down with Kubernetes co-creator Brian Grant to explore the origins of this game-changing technology. From Google’s internal tooling to the cloud-native juggernaut it is today, Brian takes us behind the scenes of Kubernetes’ evolution, including its roots in Borg and the creation of CNCF. Brian also opens up about his fascinating career, from debugging GPUs at PeakStream to im...

Retirement is about the journey, not the destination. For Kelsey Hightower, it’s been an epic journey. On our debut episode of the Fork Around and Find Out Podcast (and much to Autumn’s elation), Kelsey joins us to run down his illustrious career that spans a quarter of a century. Known for authenticity, Kelsey was on the frontlines of Kubernetes advocacy in the tool’s humble beginnings. Because of his time at Google, we get the inside scoop on why the company seems to enjoy killing off some...

Your downtime from uptime. A break from the pager, and a chance to learn from expert’s successes and failures. We cover state-of-the-art, legacy practices for building, running, and maintaining software and systems. Be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast player, and stay tuned for weekly episodes! Follow the podcast elsewhere online: Instagram: @fafo.fm Bluesky: @fafo.fm