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Happy Path Programming

by Bruce Eckel & James Ward

No-frills discussions between Bruce Eckel and James Ward about programming, what it is, and what it should be.Buy the Happy Path Programming t-shirt: https://happy-path.printify.me/products

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Episodes

  1. #121 Effect Oriented Python with Sune Debel

    In this episode we chat with Sune Debel about his Stateless library which brings Effect Oriented Programming to Python.https://github.com/suned/statelessPrior attempt at at Scala ZIO port to Python:https://github.com/suned/pfun

  2. #120 Aver AI-Native Programming Language with Szymon Teżewski

    We dive into the new Aver programming language with its creator, Szymon Teżewski: The AI-native language where code explains itself.Aver is a language where every function carries its intent, side effects are visible in the type system, and tests are executable specs next to the code. The...

  3. #119 FP Reaches the Masses with Paul Snively

    We chat with Paul Snively (https://x.com/JustDeezGuy) about how Functional Programming has gone mainstream.Resources- Winter Tech Forum - https://www.wintertechforum.com- Paul Snively's LambdaConf Talk on Verse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBT0j14rn5c- Paul Snively's Blog Post on the Verse...

  4. #118 Effects of 2025

    Bruce & James recap the technology shifts of 2025 and look ahead to what may be ahead in 2026. Resources: Register for the Winter Tech Forum (March 2-6 2026 in Crested Butte, Colorado) The Eternal Return of Abstraction: Why Programming Was Never About Code Thinking in Types javadocs.dev What's…

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  5. #117 Special Episode: Entering Computer Science as a New Graduate

    At Western State Colorado University in Gunnison on Sept 11, 2025, Bruce Eckel, Bill Venners and Dianne Marsh each give their own 10-minute perspectives on finding fulfillment in the field, especially considering the impact of AI and other recent changes in computing. The remainder of the session...

  6. #116 Infrastructure as Effects with Sam Goodwin

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is "code" but without most of the benefits of being code. Sam Goodwin is reinventing IaC with Alchemy and an upcoming Alchemy Effect project which aims to manage infrastructure dependencies & provisioning in the same way we manage requirements in Effect Oriented...

  7. #115 More Python Type Checking! Pyrefly with Aaron Pollack & Steven Troxler

    Excitement around Python type checking continues to grow and the tools continue to evolve. We chat with Aaron Pollack and Steven Troxler about ⁠Pyrefly - a Rust-based Python type checker and IDE extension. We also touch on the adoption and sentiment around types in Python's ecosystem.Resources:...

  8. #114 ty: Fast Python Type Checking with Carl Meyer

    Carl Meyer works on the ty Python type checker, built in Rust by Astral the creators of Ruff and uv. We chat about type systems, the evolution of static typing in Python, and the focus on performance. Resources: Richard Feldman: Roc compiler moving from Rust to Zig Discuss this episode:...

  9. #113 Graph & RAG with Jennifer Reif

    We chat with Jennifer Reif about integrating LLMs with data using RAG, vectorized data, and Graph databases. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF⁠⁠

  10. #112 AI Agents Get More 9's with Rod Johnson

    Rod Johnson, creator of the Spring Framework, has created a JVM-based AI Agent framework called Embabel. We dive in and learn how enterprises can build more reliable Agents using deterministic planning and domain-driven orchestration. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF⁠⁠

  11. #111 Wasm & MCP with Steve Manuel

    We chat with Steve Manuel (of dylibso.com and mcp.run) about LLM "plugins" with Wasm & MCP (Model Context Protocol). Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF⁠⁠

  12. #110 Unlocking Developer Productivity with Justin Reock

    Justin Reock has spent a lot of his career thinking about how to help developers be more productive. In this episode we learn about the methodologies that can help developers spend more time in "flow state" - happily coding the fun stuff. Further reading: Measuring developer productivity with the...

  13. #109 AI, LLMs, and MCP with Lize Raes

    Lize Raes teaches us about AI models, LLMs, Tools, Agents, and MCP. Article from Anthropic on Agent architectures: Building effective agents Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF⁠⁠

  14. #108 Winter Tech Forum and Current Projects

    Join us at the 2025 Winter Tech Forum! www.wintertechforum.com Projects Mentioned: uv for Python TypeScript Effect Pkl CloudFormation Extras Pkl GitHub Actions Other Episodes Mentioned: #81 TypeScript & Effects with Michael Arnaldi #97 The Pkl Configuration Language with Philip Hölzenspies

  15. #107 The Joy of Programming with Dave Thomas

    We chat with Dave Thomas, co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer, about the joy of programming and the tensions between our and others needs. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF⁠⁠

  16. #106 Agile Organizations with Jutta Eckstein

    Jutta Eckstein is expanding the concepts of Agile to be a company-wide model, instead of a niche process for software developers. We chat with her about the book "Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy" which she co-authored on this subject. For more details on the…

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  17. #105 Nathan Sobo's Pursuit of the Ultimate Code Editor

    Nathan Sobo is co-founder of Zed, a super-fast, collaborative, AI-powered, code editor. We chat about his journey to build the ultimate code editor: lessons learned from building Atom, Electron and its challenges, CRDTs, Rust native GPU GUIs, AI Code Assistants, and more CRDTs. See also: ⁠Nathan…

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  18. #104 Effect Oriented Programming: The Book

    After 4 years in development, our book is out! Along with our friend and lead-author, Bill Frasure, we we discuss the book, its motivation and the process we used to create it. Now available in digital and print forms at: effectorientedprogramming.com At the end of the episode we step into the...

  19. #103 AI Augmented Programming with ⁠⁠Stephan Janssen⁠⁠

    ⁠Stephan Janssen⁠ is always on the bleeding edge of both helping developers grow and with how he uses technology to accomplish amazing things. He led the creation of Devoxx but is a coder at heart. Stephan shares his journey with AI, both as a "library" in his applications and also as an...

  20. #102 Gathering Nerds and Java Gatherers with Venkat Subramaniam

    We chat with Venkat about his upcoming dev2next conference and the new Stream Gatherers API (preview in JDK 22). Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

  21. #101 Effects and Local-First with Johannes Schickling

    Johannes Schickling (@schickling | schickling.dev⁠) gets us up-to-speed on Effect, the ZIO-inspired Effect System for TypeScript, and the Local-First movement. Resources: Local-First Podcast: www.localfirst.fm Ink & Switch's Local-First Essay: www.inkandswitch.com/local-first Effect (TypeScript...

  22. #100 Thinking about Thinking with Diana Montalion

    Diana Montalion teaches us about Systems Thinking and why it matters for those of us building software. Diana is founder of ⁠Mentrix⁠, which teaches "systems architecture skills for an increasingly complex world." Pre-Order Diana's book: Learning Systems Thinking: Essential Nonlinear Skills and...

  23. #99 The Agile Illusion with Trond Hjorteland

    We chat with Trond Hjorteland about Agile and why it hasn't led to successful outcomes in many traditional organizations. Mentioned and related resources: Trond & João Rosa's training on Agile + DP2 Open Systems Theory LinkedIn Group for Open Systems Theory More material on Open Systems Theory...

  24. #98 Continuous Deployment with Valentina Servile

    We chat with Valentina Servile about her upcoming book on Continuous Deployment and reducing the risks to keeping HEAD not just always deployable, but automatically deployed to production. Book for preorder on Amazon: Continuous Deployment: Enable Faster Feedback, Safer Releases, and More…

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  25. #97 The Pkl Configuration Language with Philip Hölzenspies

    We chat with Philip Hölzenspies, one of the maintainers of the new Pkl configuration language (pkl-lang.org). Resources: James' Pkl for GitHub Actions: github.com/jamesward/pklgha Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

  26. #96 Compassionate Coding with April Wensel

    We chat with April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding, about helping programmers bring more compassion to themselves and others. Resources: Confessions of a Recovering Jerk Programmer Marshall Rosenberg - Nonviolent Communication Kristin Neff - Self-Compassion Karen Armstrong - Twelve Steps…

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  27. #95 21st Century Databases with Gwen Shapira

    We chat with Gwen Shapira, co-founder of Nile, about her journey to creating a virtualized, serverless Postgres database service. We also dive into the challenges with traditional data architectures and approaches like ORMs. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

  28. #94 Build Ops & Developer Productivity With Trisha Gee

    We chat with Trisha Gee about Test Driven Development (TDD), flaky tests, ops & observability for builds, and developer productivity. Mentioned TDD Article: The beautiful theory of TDD and the reality check of practice Discuss this episode: ⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

  29. #93 Nerd Sniping via the 1B Row Challenge with Gunnar Morling

    When Gunnar Morling announced the 1 Billion Row Challenge a few weeks ago, he had no idea it'd go crazy viral. Resources: Challenge details: www.morling.dev/blog/one-billion-row-challenge Rust 1BRC Blog: aminediro.com/posts/billion_row/ Cliff Click's implementation walkthrough:...

  30. #92 Virtual Threads Looming with Adam Warski

    We chat with Adam Warski about Loom, Virtual Threads, and his Loom-based Scala library, Ox, for structured concurrency & Go-Like Channels. Referenced articles & code: Ox EasyRacer Client Go statement considered harmful Go-like selects using jox channels in Java Limits of Loom's performance Fast…

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  31. #91 'Tis The Season For Reducing Gradle Friction

    Announcing Graboo, a collection of experiments to reduce friction with Gradle. Repo: https://github.com/jamesward/graboo Buy your Happy Path Programming Shirt: https://happy-path.printify.me/products Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  32. #90 The Best Manager with Sushila Sahay

    Most of us have managers but they aren't always great. We chat with James' best manager, Sushila Sahay, about what makes her such a great manager. We also dive a bit into open source business models since Sushila has deep experience in that realm. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  33. #89 Algebraic Effects with Kyo (Flavio Brasil)

    We learn about Algebraic Effects with the Scala library Kyo ( getkyo.io) from the creator, Flavio Brasil. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  34. #88 Developers Thriving In the Flow with Arty Starr

    Arty Starr is a PhD student and entrepreneur focused on helping developers thrive. We chat about her research on developer momentum and ways that developers can find joy through more time in the flow state. Referenced resources: SpringOne Talk Arty's Idea Flow Book FlowInsight Discuss this…

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  35. #87 Diving Deeper into Wasm with Zalim Bashorov

    Zalim Bashorov (@bashorov) works on Kotlin/Wasm at JetBrains and answers our many questions about Wasm, GC, the Component Model, and other future proposals. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  36. #86 The Journey to OCaml with Sabine

    Sabine went from acedemia and a PhD in formal methods, to Python, Elm, Haskell, and now OCaml. We chat about this journey and some of the reasons why OCaml is an awesome modern language. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  37. #85 Scala, Rust, and Durable Computing with John De Goes

    Our chat with John De Goes starts with his Scala & Rust journeys, then goes into Golem Cloud, a serverless durable computing platform underpinned by Wasm, and ends with a discussion about whether business applications really need parallelism. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  38. #84 Inevitable Failure with Dormain Drewitz

    We chat with Dormain Drewitz about failure and reliability. Ironically our recording software crashed near the end of the episode but we recovered and wrapped things up. Referenced Article: 10 Years of Failure Friday at PagerDuty: Fostering Resilience, Learning and Reliability Discuss this…

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  39. #83 Rust Developer Retreat & Structured Concurrency

    At the Rust Developer Retreat we explored Structured Concurrency with Tokio. With the attendees we chat about our projects and things learned, liked, and disliked about Rust. Then dive into Structured Concurrency generally and specific implementations. Discuss this episode:...

  40. #82 The Future of Programming

    Bruce and James chat about the future of programming. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  41. #81 TypeScript & Effects with Michael Arnaldi

    Michael created Effect, a functional effect system inspired by Scala ZIO, for TypeScript. We chat about Functional Programming, the TypeScript language, and Effects. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  42. #80 Investing in Developer Tools with Renee Shah

    Renee Shah is a partner at Amplify Partners, an early stage venture capital firm. We discuss some broad industry trends: Edge, Wasm, Distributed Systems, Functional Programming, and much more! Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  43. #79 Domain-Driven Design and Moduliths with Oliver Drotbohm

    We chat with Oliver Drotbohm about what Domain-Driven Design is and how it might intersect with Microservices, Monoliths, or Moduliths. Mentioned resources: Parnas on modularity Chris Richardson – Introducing Assemblage - a microservice architecture definition process Spring Modulith Project...

  44. #78 Immutability & IDLs for Declarative Services with Jakub Kozłowski

    First a short rant about mutability followed by learning about Smithy, an Interface Description Language (IDL), with Jakub Kozłowski. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  45. #77 Quarkus and Microservices with Holly Cummins

    Holly Cummins, a Senior Principal Software Engineer on Quarkus at Redhat, joins us to chat about Microservices and Quarkus. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  46. #76 WebAssembly (Wasm) "The Web Finds a Way" with Vivek Sekhar

    WebAssembly (Wasm) finds a way for the web to move forward to near-native performance while avoiding the limitations of JavaScript. In this episode we chat with Vivek Sekhar, a product manager on the Chrome team, about all the Wasm things and how they relate to a better foundation for...

  47. #75 Haskell "Not as Scary as You Think" with Kris Jenkins

    We learn the motivations behind Haskell and why it is the pinnacle of Functional Programming from Kris Jenkins, a Developer Advocate at Confluent. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  48. #74 Developer Joy = Developer Productivity with Justin Reock

    Developer Productivity Engineering (DPE) is a set of tools & practices that help engineers be more productive. We chat with Justin Reock, field CTO at Gradle, about why more organizations need DPE and what that really means. Learn more at: https://gradle.com/developer-productivity-engineering/...

  49. #73 Nix - Functional Programming for Software Packaging with Domen Kožar

    After being told many times that Nix is all we dream for when it comes to software packaging, we finally chat with Domen Kožar and learn all about Nix. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

  50. #72 Pants Makes Developers Happier & More Productive with Benjy Weinberger

    The Pants build tool is polyglot (Python, Java, Kotlin, Scala, Go, etc) and focused on helping developers be more productive and happier. We chat with a co-creator of Pants, Benjy Weinberger, about the history, motivations, and future of the build tool. Discuss this episode:...

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

No-frills discussions between Bruce Eckel and James Ward about programming, what it is, and what it should be.Buy the Happy Path Programming t-shirt: https://happy-path.printify.me/products

HOSTED BY

Bruce Eckel & James Ward

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technology

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How many episodes does Happy Path Programming have?

Happy Path Programming currently has 120 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Happy Path Programming about?

No-frills discussions between Bruce Eckel and James Ward about programming, what it is, and what it should be.Buy the Happy Path Programming t-shirt: https://happy-path.printify.me/products

How often does Happy Path Programming release new episodes?

Happy Path Programming publishes regularly with 120 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.

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Happy Path Programming is created and hosted by Bruce Eckel & James Ward.
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