PODCAST · technology
Software Defined Interviews
by Software Defined Talk
Deep discussions about technology, enterprise IT, and the like
Episodes
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Episode 128: Animated Bedtime Stories, Telling Dummies What to Do, and Why Docker Lost, with Viktor Farcic
Viktor Farcic is a developer advocate at Upbound, runs the DevOps & AI Toolkit YouTube channel, and was last on the show back in episode 89. Whitney and Coté start with the animated bedtime stories he has started making - tech history told as fairy tales with a nightmare at the end - which he…
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Episode 127: The KubeCon Drone Demo, CFP Reviewing at Scale, and the Agentic AI Foundation, with Lin Sun
Lin Sun is Head of Open Source at Solo.io, a recent KubeCon + CloudNativeCon program co-chair, and an emeritus member of the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee. Whitney and Coté start with the keynote she gave in Amsterdam, where she flew a drone over 13,000 people so an AI model on her laptop...
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Episode 126: DevOpsDays, Technical Storytelling, and Loading the Dishwasher, with Jason Yee
Jason Yee is a Staff Technical Advocate at Datadog and one of three global co-chairs of DevOpsDays, and both jobs turn out to be mostly about getting other people to talk. Whitney and Coté ask him how the DevOpsDays machine actually works - local teams run the events, a global core team advises,...
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Episode 125: Running D&D with AI, Determinism First, and Workflow ROI, with Michael Rishi Forrester
Michael Rishi Forrester does AI workforce transformation at Accenture LearnVantage, after three years at KodeKloud and about thirty years in IT before that. Whitney and Coté talk with him about running tabletop role-playing games with AI. He built his 19-year-old son a homebrew campaign on top of...
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Episode 124: The Chief Therapy Officer, Job Titles as Culture Change, and AI as Spreadsheets, with Bryan Ross
Bryan Ross is a Field CTO at GitLab, a role he describes as straddling sales, customer success, and solution architecture - or, as one of his customers renamed it, chief therapy officer, which he has since turned into a Substack. Whitney and Coté talk with him about what the job actually looks...
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Episode 123: Deming, DevOps History, AI Risk, and Critical Thinking, with John Willis
W. Edwards Deming was a physicist, statistician, and quality theorist who taught post-war Japanese manufacturers what eventually became the Toyota Production System - and, decades later, DevOps. John Willis, one of the founders of the DevOps movement and the author of a book on Deming, walks...
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Episode 122: Hardened Runtimes, the CEO Job, and Raising as an All-Woman Founding Team, with Emily Long
Whitney and Coté talk with Emily Long, CEO and co-founder of Edera, about building a hardened container runtime that secures infrastructure foundations instead of chasing detect-and-respond alerts. Emily describes how Edera lets teams swap in a new container runtime without re-platforming or...
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Episode 121: Art Degrees, Sun Microsystems, and How Kubernetes Scales Contributions, with Josh Berkus
Whitney and Coté discuss with Josh Berkus (Red Hat, Kubernetes contributor) how liberal and fine arts degrees (philosophy, photography, sculpture, pottery) apply to tech careers. Berkus details how early hardware experience influenced his database performance work, noting hardware's renewed...
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Episode 120: Progressive Delivery, with Heidi Waterhouse
Whitney and Coté talk with Heidi Waterhouse, co-author of the book Progressive Delivery. You can watch the video of the recording as well, if you're into that kind of thing. Heidi on the World Wide Web: LinkedIn. Her Website. The book, Progressive Delivery. Special Guest: Hedi Waterhouse.
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Episode 119: AI, open source, talent, and more, live at cfgmgmtcamp 2026, with Andrew Clay Shafer
Spotting talent, getting innovation adoption and driving use, open source, AI, and developing taste - those are the major topics Coté and Andrew discussed this week at the live reading. Also, a framework for creating the perfect burger. This was recorded at cfgmgmtcamp 2026, in Ghent, Belgium....
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Episode 118: AI Doesn’t Fix Bad DevOps: Lessons from 15 Years of DORA Data, with Nathen Harvey
Coté and Whitney talk with Nathen Harvey, who leads the DORA research program at Google Cloud. They talk about what 15 years of DevOps and delivery data actually says about AI. The answer feels something like "it makes you even better at what you're already good at." High-performing teams get...
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Episode 117: From Platform Engineering to Stand-Up Comedian, with Lian Li
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Lian, a "cloud-native human" with a 15-year career in tech. Lian discusses her transition from tech to performance art, her experiences in amateur musical theater, stand-up comedy, and improv theater. She talks about platform engineering, the importance...
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Episode 116: The Octopus Organization, with Jana Werner
The Octopus Organization is a great collection of organization anti-patterns. This week, one of the co-authors, Jana Werner talks with Whitney and Coté about those patterns and her own experiences. They go over topics like reading habits, the role of business books, decision making, ownership,...
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Episode 115: The AI Tools Lab, conferences, devrel, with Jason Hand
Whitney and Coté chat with Jason Hand. They discuss the challenges and rewards of organizing conferences, the impact of the pandemic on in-person events, and the nuances of developer relations. Jason shares his experiences with AI Tools Lab, vibe coding, and personal projects such as developing…
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Episode 114: Whitney goes to KubeCon
This week, Whitney Lee joins us to discuss KubeCon news, Coding Assistants, and conference tips. Plus, vegan food and note-taking recommendations. Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 547 This is a cross-over episode with Software Defined Talk.
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Episode 113: Transformation, DevOps, Open Source, and Fast Food Operations, with Andrew Clay Shafer
Whitney and Coté talk with Andrew Clay Shafer, co-founder of Puppet and principal at an advisory firm, about the nuances of DevOps transformation, open source dynamics, and running his burger restaurant, All American Burger. They talk about the challenges of integrating social and technical...
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Episode 112: The World Wide Web, Content, Work, Blogging Adventures, Short Videos, etc., with Russell Davies
We talk with Russell Davies this episode. He has done many things, above all else made lots of interesting content and messed around with producing content. Advertising, blogging and the World Wide Web of the 2000's, interesting conferences (call exactly that: interesting), books, and of late…
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Episode 111: The uncontrollable urge to click "publish," with Manton Reece
Blogs! Whitney and Coté talk with Manton Reece, founder and owner of micro.blog. They talk about journaling, the urge to write and publish, and a whole lot about blogging, social media, and how AI fits into all of that. Check out micro blog at, well, micro.blog and also Manton's blog. Special...
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Episode 110: Cows, Tech Careers, Working at Microsoft, and Even More About Cows, with Saad Ansari
In this episode, Whitney and Coté speak with Saad Ansari, a product manager at Databricks, about his journey from working at Microsoft to co-founding a startup focused on creating sensors for monitoring cow behavior. They go over the challenges and rewards of transitioning from large corporations...
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Episode 109: Everyday AI and AI Everyday, with Hannah Foxwell
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk about the integration of AI into daily life with Hannah Foxwell, organizer of AI for the Rest of Us, among many other doings. They talk about stuff like practical applications of AI in daily tasks like finding recipes and tech support to the complexities of...
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Episode 108: Venture Capital, AI, and Horses, with Rachel Chalmers
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Rachel Chalmers. Rachel shares her experiences as an analyst, her approach to VC investing, and a little on life as a industry analyst. The conversation also touches on the evolving landscape of venture capital, the importance of psychological safety in...
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Episode 107: The business value of developer relations, devrel history, plus more stuff, with Mary Thengvall
In this episode, Whitney and Coté chat with Mary Thengvall, exploring the development and significance of Developer Relations (devrel) over the years. They discuss the transition from tech "evangelism" to the modern devrel roles, the challenges and successes in community building, the importance…
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Episode 106: Communications Skills, Ultrarunning, and Whacky YouTube Thumbnails, with James Eastham
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with James Eastham about developing social skills through reading, the importance of deep work in productivity, and the mental challenges of ultrarunning. They also discuss strategies for reducing screen time in an age of Internet addiction, how thumbnails…
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Episode 105: Cords, Cyborgs & Cold Cases: Grandpa Dancy’s Operating System for Life
Chris, of course, had his System generate a title and summary for this episode, so we're using that AI-driven fun this week. In this lively and open conversation, Chris Dancy — the self-proclaimed "Most Connected person in the World" — joins hosts Cote and Whitney to discuss digital minimalism,...
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Episode 104: Exam Creation, Open Source, and Hospice Care, with AmyJune Hineline
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with AmyJune Hineline. They delve into Amy's diverse career, transitioning from a hospice nurse to a mechanical engineer and eventually working in tech and open source. They discuss the meticulous process of creating certification exams at the Linux...
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Episode 103: AI & Critical Thinking, Enterprise Marketing, and the Workplace, with Betty Junod
In this episode, Whitney and Coté discuss with Betty Junod, CMO of Heroku, the evolution of growing up without the internet to the present day's AI advancements and its implications for future generations. They explore how AI is changing critical thinking and curiosity, and how it affects…
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Episode 102: The brilliant dummy in my pocket, with WhitneyGPT
In this episode, Whitney and Coté discuss Whitney's newfound enthusiasm for AI after a recent stint with the tool Cursor. The conversation covers how AI tools can aid in coding, building engineering journals, and even drafting compelling conference talk abstracts. They highlight the difference...
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Episode 101: A Passion for Politics, with Taegan Goddard
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Taegan Goddard, founder of Political Wire. They talk about what drives people to go above and beyond in their work, especially journalism like Taegan does. There's some fun conversation about how Taegan runs the business, keeping up his never ending...
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Episode 100: "I used to eat 7-Eleven pizza," startups, open source, and more, with Sarah Christoff
After an extensive discussion of 7-Eleven pizza cuisine, in this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Sarah Christoff. They discuss working at startups, the point of startups, working in open source and balancing commercial and community interests, moving to Europe, and more! Find Sarah in…
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Episode 99: Catering to Startups, with Robert Reeves
Whitney and Coté talk with Robert Reeves about startups, catering, the Austin's tech scene, and the business of open source over the past 20 years. A sampling: Robert share some stories of early startup adventures and strategic moves, behind the scenes catering rock festivals, and the importance…
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Episode 98: From OpenStack to Kubernetes, extreme transparency at GitLab, tech startup marketing, with Melissa Smolensky
Whitney and Coté tour through a couple decades of tech infrastructure history with Melissa Smolensky, whose marketing career spans Rackspace, GitLab, CoreOS, and the CNCF, among other places. They explore the OpenStack/Kubernetes evolution, how "radical transparency" actually functions in…
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Episode 97: The Business and Ethics of Open Source, with Emily Omier
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Emily Omier, a consultant specializing in open source strategy and product management for businesses. They discuss the initial reactions and learning curve of new tech entrants to open source, the advantages and potential disadvantages of building a...
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Episode 96: Learning, teaching, tech certifications, and napkin culture in Singapore, with Mumshad Mannambeth
In this video, Coté and Whitney talk about tech education and learning with Mumshad Mannambeth. There's talk about certifications, but also how teaching online works and what it's like when it scales up to millions of people. Plus, Coté tries to figure out how to get access to more napkins. You…
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Episode 95: Success in Tech, Content Creation, & Corporate Influence, with Hazel Weakly
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Hazel Weakly about the unexpected success of content, the influence of corporate interests in open source, and the importance of emotional vulnerability in the tech industry. Hazel shares her experiences transitioning as a trans woman in tech, how her...
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Episode 94: Adding more condiments to the 7 layer networking burrito, with Marino Wijay
In this episode, Whitney and Coté interview Marino Wijay, Coté finally gets to the bottom of why networking has so many layers. Why do we keep adding new layers and frameworks instead of just fixing the ones we have? They also talk about the challenges of platform engineering, the importance of...
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Episode 93: 10x People, AI Trends, and Career Management, with Richard Seroter
Join Whitney and Coté as they talk with Richard Seroter from Google about the myth of the 10X developer and his perspective on hiring and managing tech talent. They also talk about the significance of learning and AI in the tech industry, the importance of communication skills, valuable resources...
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Episode 92: What went wrong with PaaS, and many other topics with Brian Gracely
In this episode of Software Defined Interviews, Coté and Whitney host Brian Gracely, co-host of the Cloudcast podcast and head of portfolio strategy at Red Hat. They discuss the process of gathering and reporting cloud news, the evolution of PaaS, and the pros and cons of working at small…
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Episode 91: Learning to learn, with Sasha Czarkowski
What’s it really like to do all that DevOps-y transformation at companies? That’s what we talk about this week with Sasha Czarkowski…mostly. We also discuss learning how to learning, metrics, staying sane in chaotic systems and change, breaking presentation rules, Louisville, Kentucky, and Coté’s...
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Episode 90: Community management, event nightmares, and domestic Tupperware diplomacy, with Katie Greenley
Katie Greenley shares her experiences managing events and community programs like the CNCF Ambassadors. Coté, Whitney, and Katie also discuss career development, managing a community team, and the delicate art of introducing cereal decanting into the home. Checdk out Katie in LinkedIn, and the…
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Episode 89: How platform engineering is different than DevOps, plus, narwhal teeth and spider digestion, with Viktor Farcic
In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Viktor Farcic, Developer Advocate at Upbound, about platform engineering, the evolution of DevOps, project managing a content creation engine of one, and the virtues of imperfection. Also, the strategic avoidance of asking for directions, or, really,...
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Episode 88: Platform Engineering and UK Digital People, with Abby Bangser
As if platform engineering and expat'ing in the UK weren't enough, Whintney and Coté discuss the forgotten technology of business cards wih Abby Bangser. Check out Abby in LinkedIn, and Kratix the platform engineering project from Syntasso. Also, check out the CNCF Platforms White paper and Cloud...
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Episode 87: Platform Engineering, AI, and Community - Whitney's KubeCon NA 2024 Adventures
Whitney is back from KubeCon and shares what she saw. We talk about platform engineering, Salt Lake City's vibe, AI, and observability, among other things. We wrap the episode with tips for maximizing attending conferences. Also, memories of Arby's ads. Whitney's KubeCon talks: Choose Your Own...
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Episode 86: Open Source Money Ethics, How Analysts use AI, What Even is an Industry Analyst, and Advanced Chicken Nugget Diplomacy, with Rachel Stephens
In this episode, Whitney Lee and Coté dive into the insights of Rachel Stephens from RedMonk about the world of being an industry analyst. They discuss experiences from working as an analyst, the balance between qualitative and quantitative analysis, the challenges and misconceptions surrounding...
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Episode 85: Kubernetes Cost Controls and Washing Horse Blankets, with Phil Andrews
Whitney and Coté talk with Phil Andrews, field CTO at Cast AI, about cost management and optimization, the nuances of Kubernetes, coin-operated laundromats, and farm life. The conversation touches on the differences between automation and FinOps, how sales and engineering intersect in cloud...
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Episode 84: Tech recruiting from both sides of the table, with Sidney Miller
Whitney and Coté talk with Sidney Miller about tech recruitment. They talk a lot about the process from both sides: people hiring and people looking for jobs. Plus, some thoughts on working at Neiman Marcus. Find Sidney in LinkedIn. You can the video of this interview as well if you're into that...
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Episode 83: Whitney Lee
Whitney Lee's career path has been all over the place, from artist, wedding photographer, waiter, and now world-renowned devrel in the cloud native world. This episode kicks off the reboot of this podcast, Software Defined Interviews. Whitney and I (Coté) have been planning to start a podcast for…
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Misaligned Incentives Episode 4: You get what you pay for - compensating tech staff is often done poorly
We discuss compensation, particularly how people in the IT department ("developers," etc.) are so disconnected from the actual business that compensating them based on business performance is near impossible. Not good if you're an IT person and like money. There's other types...
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Episode 3: Improvement requires fear, or, digital transformation by crisis and fear
People in large organizations avoid improving for improving's sake. They're very rarely proactive in transforming. Instead, it seems that management in most large organizations only act, and change, when they fear competition and failure. "Everyone" knows this is a bad...
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Episode 2: Outsourcing, SIs, and other "others"
We discuss outsourcing IT.
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Misaligned Incentives Episode 1: Who forget to invite "The Business," to this kubernetes PoC?
Journey Through the Business Bottleneck, part 1. Join Rick and I as we try to find this elusive thing called "The Business." We lay out a theory we've been talking about: while IT has been improving or, at least, can improve, the business side of the house isn't showing up to do anything...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Deep discussions about technology, enterprise IT, and the like
HOSTED BY
Software Defined Talk
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Software Defined Interviews have?
Software Defined Interviews currently has 133 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Software Defined Interviews about?
Deep discussions about technology, enterprise IT, and the like
How often does Software Defined Interviews release new episodes?
Software Defined Interviews publishes regularly with 133 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Software Defined Interviews?
You can listen to Software Defined Interviews on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Software Defined Interviews?
Software Defined Interviews is created and hosted by Software Defined Talk.
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