Podcast · Tech & Science

Front-End Fire

by TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington · English · Tech & Science

A weekly show that helps you stay up to date on the latest and greatest in the front-end world.

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 55 min
Latest: 5 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026 · 53 minNew

164: Developers Are Tired of This Sh*t

The State of Devs 2026 survey results are in, and... they’re not great. We discuss. We also dig into a huge week of 1.0 releases (EmDash, Vinext, and Vite+), OpenAI's Dev Day, and more! Timestamps 0:00 - Intro1:12 - State of Devs 2026 survey28:26 - EmDash 1.030:37 - Vinext 1.032:46 - Vite+ 1.035:03 - OpenAI Dev Day40:55 - Agent safety42:38 - element46:15 - What's making us happyNews All: State of Devs 2026 survey results are inLightning News Vite+ 1.0EmDash 1.0Vinext 1.0<mode...

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E163 · 28 Sep 2026 · 51 min

163: Do Frameworks Still Matter Anymore?

DHH took the Rails World stage to announce that he and Basecamp are no longer writing code by hand, wouldn't necessarily recommend Rails for a new app, and are going all in on native. That kicks off this week's big question: in an era of agentic coding, do frameworks still matter? We also dig into Safari 27's WebKit release, which is packed with a Safari MCP for agents, customizable selects, the HTML model element, and a pile of CSS improvements. In Lightning News, GitHub Copilot's runtime mo...
E162 · 21 Sep 2026 · 56 min

162: Shopify Breaks Up with React Native

The React core team just shipped 19.3 with view transitions, fragment refs, and Context support in server components. A startup called TypeSafe AI is making waves with Jev, a fast, cheap "System One" model built for structured decisions instead of full LLM reasoning. And Shopify is walking away from React Native after six years, heading back to native Swift and Kotlin. We also cover Matt Mullenweg's whirlwind week at Automattic and how white hat hackers used Claude to ethically hack OpenAI. T...
E161 · 14 Sep 2026 · 44 min

161: Tailwind Has a New Home

There are finally some real-world consequences for the Shai-Hulud npm attacks: Australian Federal Police and the FBI arrested two men behind TeamPCP, a group that's been running supply chain attacks using npm since last year. Meanwhile, the open source acquihire train rolls on as Shopify buys Tailwind CSS. In Lightning News the WordPress/WP Engine saga returns as Matt Mullenweg is ousted as Automattic CEO, an Anthropic researcher quits with a warning that AI could kill us all inside a decade,...
E160 · 7 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

160: GPT-6 vs. Claude 5.1

Both big AI labs shipped their best models yet this week: OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra finally takes computer use seriously, and Anthropic's Fable & Mythos 5.1 land with gains in coding, knowledge work, and long-running tasks. Jack also went down a rabbit hole on how LLM watermarking actually works. Plus a Roomba with two floor-cleaning brains, a website tallying up AI agent felonies, and OpenAI cutting Cursor off from its models. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro1:16 - GPT-6 Astra11:58 - How LLM watermark...
E159 · 31 Aug 2026 · 54 min

159: Is AI Making Us Worse Devs?

This week we're asking the uncomfortable question: is AI coding making us worse developers, or just changing which skills matter? We dig into OpenAI's new WebMCP Challenge and what it means for the agentic web, plus Bun's massive 1.4 release packed with performance wins and new features. Then we wrap up with TanStack AI hitting release candidate and the internet's new favorite gimmick, Hugging Face's rollerblading Microduck. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro1:03 - Will AI coding prevent expertise?21:40...
E158 · 24 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

158: The Browser Wars are Getting Weird

This week we dig into Cloudflare's new agent-only browser, Kitesurf, built for speed over polish. Cursor made waves by ditching Solid.js for React, and Jack brings back a field report from RenderATL on the state of dev conferences in 2026. Plus, in Lightning News: pnpm's Rust rewrite, Microsoft trimming its AI feature list, Claude tackling the Riemann hypothesis with 60 subagents, and a Claude agent that accidentally hacked into a gym's registration system. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro1:00 - Cloud...
E157 · 10 Aug 2026 · 57 min

157: Shai-Hulud Is Back From the Dead

Next.js is back after a quiet stretch with 16.3, promising "instant" navigations, leaner dev servers, better agent tooling, and faster builds. The TanStack crew keeps shipping too — TanStack Table hit v9.0 and TanStack AI is closing in on v1.0 with tool calling, reasoning, code sandboxes, and memory. Then there's the bad news: a new Shai-Hulud variant compromised a major maintainer and infected a pile of key-value storage and caching packages with over a billion combined monthly downloads. Ti...
E156 · 3 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

156: The State of CSS Is In

The State of CSS 2026 results are in — Tailwind still rules, AI still can't write decent CSS, and (thanks, listeners!) we made the resources list. CodePen ships its biggest update in years with CodePen 2.0, and a new library called Octane pitches "React's programming model, compiled" — hooks and Suspense with no VDOM and no dependency arrays. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro3:05 - State of CSS 2026 survey20:01 - CodePen 2.032:55 - Octane JS framework38:37 - State of Devs survey 202639:30 - LinkedIn ad...
E155 · 27 Jul 2026 · 57 min

155: OpenAI Breaks Out of its Sandbox

We dig into how Bun went from Zig to Rust in just 11 days with an army of Claude sessions, check in on Kimi K3 — another open-weight Chinese model closing in on the frontier — and unpack the week's wildest story: an OpenAI model that escaped its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face. Just another normal week in AI. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro3:05 - Kimi K310:58 - Rewriting Bun in Rust20:42 - OpenAI hacks Hugging Face39:48 - App Store number updates42:11 - Meta's new app is set to a song about human ext...
E154 · 21 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

154: How Not to Drown in AI Code Reviews

AI agents can churn out code faster than anyone can review it — so how do you keep from drowning? We don't claim to have all the answers, but we dig into practical ways to make AI-generated code less sloppy and reviews less painful — review tools, code-review skills, and the still-irreplaceable habit of smoke testing a PR yourself. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro0:26 - How to not drown in code reviews49:55 - What's Making Us HappyLinks Anthropic: Recursive Self ImprovementSpotify Engineering: C...
E153 · 13 Jul 2026 · 48 min

153: Vercel Wants Your Entire Stack

Vercel goes all-in on your stack — a Zig-powered Native SDK for building desktop apps, plus Vercel Services to run multiple frameworks as one shared project for monorepo and microservice teams — while VoidZero ships Vite+ in beta to unify the entire frontend toolchain. Plus Safari joins the MCP party and Claude gets a little too chatty in Slack. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro0:59 - Vercel native8:22 - Vite+ beta10:15 - Vercel Services16:50 - Safari MCP server19:20 - Claude Tag27:07 - Museum covers i...
E152 · 6 Jul 2026 · 55 min

152: The Fable Redemption Arc

Vercel partners with Shopify to rebuild Hydrogen, Anthropic re-releases Fable 5 (plus Sonnet 5) with a beefed-up safety classifier after its government timeout, and Meta open-sources Astryx, its React/StyleX design system Timestamps 0:00 - Intro3:50 - Vercel and Shopify collab on Hydrogen13:11 - A Fable 5 update22:38 - Astryx33:51 - Cloudflare to change its crawler policy43:42 - What's Making Us HappyNews Paige: Fable 5's ban has been lifted & Sonnet 5 is out tooJack: Vercel and Shopify c...
E151 · 29 Jun 2026 · 40 min

151: Fixing AI’s Microservices Problem

Nx debuts Polygraph, a "synthetic monorepo" that gives AI agents a unified view across microservice boundaries, Deno Desktop takes aim at Electron by compiling web projects into single-binary native apps, and fresh SignalFire hiring data shows engineers holding steady while designers and marketers take the cuts. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro1:41 - Polygraph meta-harness from the Nx folks7:49 - Deno Desktop12:39 - An update on the tech hiring landscape24:42 - Dan Abramov joins Vercel27:01 - Claude C...
E150 · 22 Jun 2026 · 1 hr

150: The Government Said “No Fable For You”

Anthropic's new Fable model gets pulled days after launch when the US government restricts foreign access, a fully open-source Chinese model claims Claude Opus-level benchmarks for a fraction of the price, and MDN ships an MCP server to keep AI agents current on the web platform. Plus npm 12's supply-chain crackdown and SpaceX's eye-popping $60B Cursor buy. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro1:27 - Anthropic released Fable and the US government shut it down13:51 - GLM-5.220:16 - MDN MCP Server25:42 - npm...
E149 · 15 Jun 2026 · 52 min

149: Rise of the React Foundation

React officially leaves the Meta building to live under the new React Foundation (and the React Compiler gets rewritten in Rust), Apple's WWDC unveils a stacked Safari 27 beta, and Chrome DevTools 149 levels up its AI features. A jam-packed week in front-end news. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:27 - React is now officially owned by the React Foundation 3:07 - React Compiler is now in Rust 5:56 - Safari 27 beta 12:12 - DevTools 149 updates 23:46 - State of CSS su...
E148 · 8 Jun 2026 · 59 min

148: The Bots Have Officially Taken Over

In this episode: people are still writing new programming language, Microsoft is going all "developers, developers, developers" again, and bots are apparently outnumbering humans on the web now. Timestamps: 1:55 - Bot traffic has passed human traffic5:28 - The Jam programming language12:04 - Jack at Microsoft Build29:26 - Cloudflare bought VoidZero34:46 - Red Hat is the latest victim of Shai Hulud38:39 - Anthropic wants AI dev to slow down41:35 - Someone used a Waymo in a robbery46:47 - What’...
E147 · 1 Jun 2026 · 53 min

147: Vercel Made a Programming Language for Robots

In this episode npm implements staged publishing, Deno is patrolling your claws, and Vercel has a new agent-first language. Timestamps: 0:58 - npm staged publishing4:52 - Claw Patrol11:00 - zerolang20:18 - Wordpress 7.023:46 - Dr. Axel takes down his blog and books33:31 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - zerolang, an agent first programming languageJack - Claw PatrolTJ - npm staged publishingLightning News: Wordpress 7.0 and AIDr. Axel takes down his blog and booksWhat Makes Us Happy...
E146 · 25 May 2026 · 52 min

146: Humans vs AI—Fight!

On this episode: Rust has another convert, npm takes another stab at stopping the hackers, and Jack had a coding battle against robots. Timestamps: 1:00 - Bun switches to Rust6:45 - Jack’s battle against AI on Greenfield Games16:01 - npm RFC to block install scripts22:10 - State of Web Dev AI survey results37:10 - Mark Erikson joins the AI revolution41:45 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Bun, but in RustJack - Jason Lengstorf’s Greenfield Games TV showTJ - npm RFC to block install script...
E145 · 18 May 2026 · 53 min

145: AI Layoffs Will Continue Until Morale Improves

In this episode: An IDE written in Rust hits 1.0; more vulnerabilities, this time in TanStack and Next.js; and the AI layoffs continue—we’ll discuss whether you should be worried. Timestamps: 0:46 - Alternative editor Zed hits 1.010:48 - AI layoffs24:12 - TanStack’s CI pipeline was compromised30:01 - Another Next.js vulnerability31:46 - Tailwind 4.3 adds new scrollbar utilities35:03 - Fire Starter: The new install element41:22 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Alternative editor Zed hits ...
E144 · 11 May 2026 · 58 min

144: Did Tanner Just Replace React?

In this episode, we look at whether “founding sponsor” is becoming the new AI acqui-hire, Tanner building a possible React replacement, and how Claude could get faster thanks to a new deal with SpaceX. Timestamps: 0:58 - Tanner builds Redact8:14 - Anthropic makes a deal with SpaceX19:03 - Warp is now open source29:58 - Node 26 is out32:07 - ChatGPT is obsessed with goblins42:21 - What’s making us happy News: Paige - Warp is open source and OpenAI is its founding sponsorJack - Projecting Re...
E143 · 4 May 2026 · 55 min

143: The AI Bill Is Due

In this episode: pnpm tightens its security stanceWe talk about whether the AI bill is coming dueAnd Remix v3 is back in the newsTimestamps: 1:35 - The AI price hike16:31 - Remix v3 beta preview27:33 - pnpm 11’s security changes35:28 - Firefox adds tab notes41:10 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - AI price hikes are coming for us all, Anthropic’s changed its plan offerings, GitHub Copilot is rolling out usage based billingJack - Remix v3 beta previewTJ - pnpm 11Lightning News: Firefo...
E142 · 27 Apr 2026 · 56 min

142: Vercel Had a Week

In this episode: Anthropic sets its sights on designersVercel has a “security incident”And Elon eyes an IDETimestamps: 0:50 - Anthropic introduces Claude Design10:07 - Vercel’s security incident18:27 - SpaceX is buying Cursor26:15 - Google is cracking down on “back button hijacking”28:35 - Anthropic bans a 60-person company overnight32:45 - Fire Starter36:40 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Anthropic introduces Claude DesignJack - SpaceX is buying CursorTJ - Vercel has a “security incide...
E141 · 21 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

141: When AI Belongs in Products with Dan Wilson & Kyler Krenek

This week special guests Dan Wilson of DataCurl and Kyler Krenek of Vowel join us to discuss when AI belongs in products and what kinds of AI tools are best suited to different needs. Special Guests: Dan Wilson, Principal Partner of DataCurlKyler Krenek, cofounder of Vowel Relevant Links: Dan’s personal websiteDan’s company websiteDan on LinkedInKyler’s GitHubKyler’s blogKyler on LinkedInVowel.toWhat Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Shrinking season 3TJ - Claude CoworkJack - Giving stuf...
E140 · 13 Apr 2026 · 58 min

140: Cloudflare is Coming for WordPress

One of the former React Core team members caused quite the stir last week when he released Pretext, a TypeScript library that uses math to make text measurement and layout super fast. Handy for niche use cases? Definitely. Controversial online? Extremely. Also this week, Anthropic announced Project Glasswing, a new initiative bringing together all the biggest players in tech to reshape cybersecurity because Anthropic's latest frontier model Mythos has identified thousands of high-severity vul...
E139 · 6 Apr 2026 · 36 min

139: Claude Code’s Secrets Are Out

This week, Anthropic accidentally leaked Claude Code’s source code to the world when it published a source map inside an npm release. While the offending file was quickly removed, the code was out there and folks got to work speculating about what’s next for Claude Code. Always running background daemons, something known as “undercover mode”, and a cute little ASCII animal next to inputs are some of the things we might see in Claude’s future. The npm hacks keep on coming as well, as popular d...
E138 · 30 Mar 2026 · 51 min

138: Next.js Leans into AI Agents

Microsoft dropped the last version of JavaScript-powered TypeScript this week with TS 6.0. TypeScript 6 bridges the gap between the TS of yesteryear and the soon to come Go-powered TS compiler of TypeScript 7 that users can fix now so they can smoothly upgrade later. Next.js 16.2 debuted this week with the usual performance improvements expected in a minor version upgrade, plus AI improvements to make AI-assisted development smoother and easier. In response to Cloudflare’s Vinext fork a few w...
E137 · 23 Mar 2026 · 53 min

137: Netlify Enters the AI App Builder Race

This week the VoidZero team shipped Vite 8. It’s using Rolldown under the hood and boasting 30x faster builds, full plugin compatibility, integrated devtools, and a searchable registry for all plugins. Co-host Jack has officially joined Netlify as a Principal Developer Experience Engineer and announces the launch of Netlify Start. Start a new Netlify project with a prompt on the site, and see it built and deployed in minutes, and keep iterating on it from there. The Node.js team is changing t...
E136 · 16 Mar 2026 · 49 min

136: VoidZero Wants to be the Laravel of JavaScript

JavaScript framework Eleventy has been renamed Build Awesome, 1.5 years after joining the Font Awesome stable. The name change precedes Build Awesome Pro, which will offer premium features alongside the features Eleventy users know and love. Today the Awesomeverse got a little awesomer. The VoidZero team also open-sourced Vite+, which is a unified toolchain and entry point to web app development that manages runtime, package manager, and frontend toolchain all in one. Since being acquired by ...
E135 · 9 Mar 2026 · 45 min

135: Bun is Back in the Oven

This week's a non-AI episode! It’s been a minute since we last discussed Bun, but the team is back with a new release. In v1.3.10, the REPL’s completely rewritten in Zig, barrel imports are optimized, and the JavaScriptCore engine got upgraded for big perf gains. Npmx, a fast, modern browser for the npm registry has reached alpha version in less than 2 months of existence. Its goal is to make it easy for devs to find, evaluate, and manage npm packages, and boasts cool features like the abilit...

About Front-End Fire

A weekly show that helps you stay up to date on the latest and greatest in the front-end world.

Front-End Fire is a English tech & science podcast from TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 55 min
Latest episode: 5 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1700169000
Website: buzzsprout.com/2226499

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