freeCodeCamp Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Emma Bostian. She's a software engineer turned manager at Spotify and Prolific coding teacher.

We talk about:

- How at her first developer job at IBM, Emma's boss told her: "You need to get your stuff together or you won't make it in this industry." And the transformation that followed.

- Emma's thoughts on Computer Science degrees. "Going to college gives you credibility and a network. You can get opportunities that way."

- How Emma hires software engineers. (Hint: she tries to disregard degrees completely.)

- How Emma intentionally procrastinates some big tasks to give her mind time to figure out the puzzle pieces

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1979 punk song.

Also, I want to thank the 10,776 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

- Emma on Twitter: https://x.com/emmabostian

- The Ladybug Podcast about women in tech that Emma helped host for several years: https://www.ladybug.dev/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Hiroko Nishimura. She's a special ed teacher turned system administrator turned technical instructor. 

Hiroko grew up in Japan and moved to the US as a kid. In her early 20s, she was diagnosed with a vascular tumor in her brain. After life-saving surgery, she had to work to regain the ability to walk and talk. She still lives with disabilities to this day. 

Despite this, she's gone on to author technical books, become an AWS hero, and create the popular AWS Newbies community. More than 500,000 people have taken her LinkedIn Learning course.

We talk about:

- How Hiroko moved to the US as a kid and learned English and American culture

- Hiroko's vascular tumor diagnosis, and how she recovered from brain surgery and brain damage

- Her big move to NYC and her years working as a system administrator and ultimately cloud engineer there

- How she made the jump to teaching system administration full-time as a course creator

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1990 song by a Scottish rock band.

Also, I want to thank the 10,443 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

- Hiroko’s article about her brain surgery: https://hiroko.io/my-words/

- Hiroko's book AWS for non-engineers: https://www.manning.com/books/aws-for-non-engineers

- Hiroko's AWS course: https://introtoaws.com

- And her AWS linktree: https://aws.hiroko.io 

- My history of the 100DaysOfCode challenge: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-crazy-history-of-the-100daysofcode-challenge-and-why-you-should-try-it-for-2018-6c89a76e298d/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Adrian Twarog. He's a Software Engineer who started his career by working as the office IT guy at a school and other offices for 10 years. He's since published YouTube courses that millions of people have watched.

We talk about:
- How Adrian built his development skills by volunteering to taking on web design projects at work
- How he started making design tutorials on YouTube and published 300 in a single year
- How he was early to the AI engineering craze and published GPT tutorials with millions of views
– Adrian's many freeCodeCamp courses, and his gorgeous book on design fundamentals
- Being a dev in Perth, Australia – on the other side of the Earth from Silicon Valley – yet still staying at the forefront of the state of the art

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1995 industrial rock anthem.

Also, I want to thank the 9,771 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

- Adrian's popular video "Real life RPG to track your life": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMn9sxCWN0M

- Adrian's UX course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ui-ux-design-tutorial-from-zero-to-hero-with-wireframe-prototype-figma/

- Merge, Adrian's Discord community for devs: https://www.mergewebdev.com/

- Adrian's design book, Enhance UI: https://enhanceui.com/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Colby Fayock. He's a Software Engineer and prolific teacher who has created 68 tutorials for freeCodeCamp, and more than 100 videos on his YouTube – all freely available.

We talk about:
- Colby's early days doing design work for local bands
- How Colby went to art school, then pivoted that into a software development
- His early career at ThinkGeek where he not only did web dev but also worked as a male model for their products.
- Colby's day-to-day work as a developer experience engineer, building demo applications and SDKs
- How Colby uses AI tools in his day-to-day work, and what he thinks its current limits are.

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1995 punk song.

Also, I want to thank the 9,771 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

• Colby's freeCodeCamp course on building a clone of Google Photos using AI tools and Next.js: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/create-a-google-photos-clone-with-nextjs-and-cloudinary/
• Colby's Trailer and web design work: https://photowall-colbyfayock.vercel.app/wall/design
• Colby's ThinkGeek Modeling. He's legit a male model: https://photowall-colbyfayock.vercel.app/wall/thinkgeek
• Colby's music from his band years: https://soundcloud.com/colby-fayock/sets/day-late-hero
• The XKCD comic I mention about how the scope of developer work can be non-intuitive: https://xkcd.com/1425/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Dr. Chuck. He's a software engineer and Computer Science professor at University of Michigan, which has one of the top-ranked CS programs in the world. 

Dr. Charles "Chuck" Severance is also creator of many popular free learning resources like his Python for Everyone and C for Everyone, which millions of students have taken over the past decade.

We talk about:
- What seperates a Master Programmer from an average developer, and how to become one
- Dr. Chuck's mission to make programming knowledge freely available
- The fundamental shortcomings of how Computer Science is currently taught at universities – even elite universities like the one he's a professor at
- Dr. Chuck's theories on recent tech layoffs and what he thinks the near future holds
- Dr. Chuck's love of racing $2,500 "lemon" cars that he revives from the junk yard, and flying planes

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1973 song.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

- Dr. Chuck's latest freeCodeCamp course on C programming: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/complete-c-programming-course-from-dr-chuck/

- Dr. Chuck's Python for Everyone freeCodeCamp Course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/python-for-everybody/

- Kylie Ying's popular Machine Learning for Everyone course inspired by Dr. Chuck: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/machine-learning-for-everybody/

- Dr. Chuck's website with his free interactive coursework: https://online.dr-chuck.com/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Suz Hinton. She's a software engineer, security researcher, and one of the first ever people to live-stream her coding on Twitch.

We talk about:
- How Suz started her career building browser ads in Adobe Flash, working around bandwidth early 2000s limitations.
- How she moved to the US from Melbourne to work at Zappos, and then Microsoft and Stripe.
- Her love of hardware and embedded development
- How she went back to school to study infosec, and launched a second career as a security researcher
- How she nearly burned out after 20 years in tech, and what she's doing to recover.

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's a 2015 song from an Australian musician.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

- Suz's article on live coding on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/lessons-from-my-first-year-of-live-coding-on-twitch-41a32e2f41c1/

- NoClip video game development documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/@NoclipDocs

- The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Suz says it's "Dense and long, but the best narrative about how computing came to be." https://press.stripe.com/the-dream-machine

- Space Rogue: How the Hackers Known as L0pht Changed the World by Cris Thomas. "A book about the original cult of the dead cow hacking group." https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/space-rogue-cris-thomas/1142912008

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Jerod Santo, host of The Changelog, a podcast about open source software development that has been going strong for 15 years.

Jerod is plugged in to the world of Open Source, going to all the big conferences and interviewing all the big open source creators. 

We have a fun, wide-reaching conversation about some of the current issues facing open source, such as AI models and Relicensing – essentially, a big company closed-sourcing a previously open source project after they buy out its creator. (Fun fact: this can't happen to freeCodeCamp because charities cannot be bought or sold.)

I ask Jerod about:

- his life as a remote dev in Omaha, Nebraska, raising his 6 his kids
- the Changelog News podcast with its weekly 10 minutes of updates on the world of open source
- his process, and how he researches and surfaces interesting news for his show
- and how The Changelog commissioned 3 full albums worth of music over the years, which you can stream for free.

Can you guess what bass line I'm playing during the intro? It's from a 1984 pop classic.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during our conversation:

Jerod's weekly Changelog News podcast that you should totally subscribe to (it's free): https://changelog.com/news

Jerod and Adam interview the head of the Open Source Initiative on AI models and open source, which he and I discussed during this podcast: https://changelog.com/podcast/578

Changelog Beats: https://changelog.com/beats

And of course, my interview with Jerod and Adam about their developer journeys, and the history of The Changelog on its 10th anniversary: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/open-source-moves-fast-10-years-of-the-changelog/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews ThePrimeagean. He's a software engineer who streams himself programming. He recently left his job at Netflix to stream full-time.

We talk about:
- Prime's journey from his teacher telling him he'll never accomplish anything in life to working as an engineer at one of the most prestigious tech companies.
- Prime's love of "Nintendo Hard" video games, and how his love of challenge propelled him to "get good" at coding
- What it's like to live stream coding in front of more than 1,000 people for a dozen hours each week
- Leaving San Francisco to move his family of 6 to a horse ranch in South Dakota
- Prime's thoughts on AI and how he thinks it will actually create more developer jobs than it destroys

I had a blast talking with this guy. Though I don't agree with everything he says, I am right there with him on AI and how it's useful but over-hyped. We'll see what future versions hold and whether a "Moore's Law of AI" is really at work here, or whether it will plateau.

I also agree with Prime that devs need to slow down and improve their foundational skills. There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1996 rock song.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

- Prime's Twitch, from which his YouTube videos are derived: https://www.twitch.tv/theprimeagen

- Prime's Harpoon library on GitHub, which he talks about maintaining: https://github.com/ThePrimeagen/harpoon

- A speedrun of Battletoads by The Mexican Runner, to show you how "Nintendo Hard" this game really is. 36 minutes is an excellent time for a non-pro speedrunner like Prime to achieve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTPGpA0ha9Y

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Gary Simon, a developer and designer who started DesignCourse.com and has published several courses on freeCodeCamp.org over the years.

We talk about:
- Growing up in rural Ohio, marrying young, and staying out there despite his success as a developer and entrepreneur.
- Early client work, and how he designed thousands of logos for clients before becoming an all-out web developer.
- Using his skills to help his wife start her own lactation consultant business online
- Gary's guitar shredding chops.

I recorded this podcast live and I haven't edited it at all. I want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails.

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1995s Nintendo game.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

- Gary's Learn UI Fundamentals course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-ui-design-fundamentals-with-this-free-one-hour-course/

- Gary's freeCodeCamp live stream series: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/design-course/

- Gary's tool for memorizing the Guitar fretboard and it's 49 notes: https://fretastic.com/

- Gary's Retrowave Guitar music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDc2OvReYh0

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews prolific programming teacher John Smilga. John grew up in the Soviet Union. He worked construction for 5 years before becoming a developer. Today he has taught millions of fellow devs through his many courses on freeCodeCamp.

John spent his childhood in Latvia before the Soviet Union fell. He sought work in the UK as an expat hospitality worker on the tiny island of Guernsey.

But he had his sights set on moving to the US. There he worked construction and taught himself to code. He also attended online university courses to get a degree.

He met his wife, a nurse from Ukraine. Together they started a family and live together in Florida.

During this conversation, John talks about his journey into teaching the programming and computer science concepts he's learned. He talks about his free courses on freeCodeCamp and his paid courses that help him pay the bills.

John's voice is instantly recognizable by developers. He shares that this is because he has condition where is vocal cords are partially paralyzed, for which he has to receive frequent injections.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1982 song produced by Quincy Jones.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 9,003 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

Guernsey island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey

John's personal website: https://johnsmilga.com/

John Smilga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/john_smilga