Podcast · Tech & Science

The Peterman Pod

by Ryan Peterman · English · Tech & Science

Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 8 min
Latest: 5 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026 · 35 min

Neetcode: Google vs Amazon, Programming Interviews, Quitting Big Tech

Neetcode is the most well-known coding interview prep creator with over 1M+ subs on YouTube. I interviewed him about the latest on coding interviews, his career at Amazon vs Google, and what it was like quitting big tech to do his own thing. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/K15dND_Kfvg • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 •…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

28 Sep 2026 · 3 hr 8 min

Amazon VP: Questions On Corporate Politics But They Get Increasingly Darker | Ethan Evans

In this episode, I asked Ethan Evans (ex-Amazon VP) questions about common situations in corporate politics but they get increasingly darker. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhjhRRz3VJw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/e068-ethan-evans Thank you to this…
21 Sep 2026 · 44 min

OpenAI & Meta Distinguished Eng (IC9): The Psychology Behind Tech Career Peaks | Philip Su

Philip Su grew quickly to a Distinguished Engineer at Facebook and OpenAI. We talked about the psychology behind peaking in a tech career and the pressure at the highest levels. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMo04pSSiao • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
14 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 58 min

Casey Muratori: Surprises In Computer History And Where Bad Code Comes From

Casey Muratori is a video game developer and programming creator also known for his talks about the history of software and computing. We talked about surprising parts he found while digging through computer history, where bad code comes from, and his career story. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/jHLbL1Eg4gM • Apple:…
7 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 11 min

How Anthropic Builds And How Engineering Will Change Soon | Thariq Shihipar

Thariq Shihipar is an engineer on Anthropic’s Claude Code team I asked him how Anthropic makes the most out of the models for engineering and how the industry will change soon. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/2Kch3tWMnw8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
31 Aug 2026 · 58 min

Creator of Scala: Comparing Languages And How AI Will Impact Them | Martin Odersky

Martin Odersky is the creator of Scala and I interviewed him to compare different languages designs (Rust vs Zig vs Python vs Scala) and how AI will impact programming languages. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/LdN4sPWM-WY • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
24 Aug 2026 · 58 min

Sergey Levine: Current State of Humanoid Robotics, China & Future Predictions

Sergey Levine is one of the world's top robotics researchers and co-founder of Physical Intelligence. We talked about where humanoid robotics is today, thoughts on the Chinese robotics ecosystem, and his predictions for future timelines. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/9OSbaPjv0Rc • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 •…
17 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 6 min

Creator of TypeScript: 10x Faster Typescript, Why AI Won't Replace SWEs | Anders Hejlsberg

Anders Hejlsberg is the creator of TypeScript and C#, and I asked him about how the TypeScript compiler got 10x faster through a rewrite in Go and his thoughts on how AI has impacted software engineering. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cywK3XYYJ2o • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
10 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 8 min

Creator of Lean: Handwritten Math Will Change Dramatically | Leonardo de Moura

Leonardo de Moura is the creator of Lean and the Z3 theorem prover. I talked with him about how Lean works and why LLMs plus Lean will fundamentally change how we write software and do math. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/KzdYKeAqWhY • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
3 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

Creator of Lua: Scripting, Programming Languages, Predictions | Roberto Ierusalimschy

Roberto Ierusalimschy is the creator of the Lua programming language. I interviewed him about Lua's unique strengths, programming language design and predictions for how AI will impact programming languages. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/jCZnFKk6M9A • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
27 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 28 min

Turing Award Winner: Early AI, LLM Predictions, Causality | Judea Pearl

Judea Pearl is a Turing Award winner and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and causal reasoning. We talked about how he got into science, his major breakthroughs and his predictions for AI today. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/FleTXB1fAcQ • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
20 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 24 min

Creator of OCaml: Functional Programming, Formal Verification, Programming Languages | Xavier Leroy

Xavier Leroy (creator of OCaml) is an expert in compilers, formal verification of software and functional programming. This interview should be an approachable resource if you're curious about formal verification of software since I was learning that on the fly during it. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/9Cswiqrq6So • Apple:…
13 Jul 2026 · 59 min

Turing Award Winner: TPU vs GPU vs CPU, Computer Architecture, RISC vs CISC | David Patterson

David Patterson is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to computer architecture. I interviewed him about his past work, thoughts on GPU/TPUs and career advice from half a century of experience. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/Pn4ZwlEh5nw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
6 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

Turing Award Winner: NSA, Public Key Cryptography, Crypto Wars | Martin Hellman

Martin Hellman is a Turing Award winner who helped to invent public-key cryptography against the NSA's wishes. I interviewed him all about his work and why it broke the law at the time. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/AZLOETBCQM4 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
29 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 13 min

MIT Complexity Theorist: Why You Can Do Better Than “Optimal” On Leetcode & SAT | Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams is a professor at MIT and the winner of the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science. I interviewed him all about his work starting by asking him a popular Leetcode question (3 SUM). Correction: In this podcast I say "lower bound" when I mean "upper bound" and vice versa. Was speaking using the intuition that lower is better for running time. In reality, the accurate usage is: "Lower bound" = A proven floor for a problem e.g. "no algorithm can possibly be faster" "Upper bound" = A proven ceiling for a specific solution e.g. "there exists an algorithm this fast" Professor…
22 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 23 min

OpenAI Eng & Dev Tools Founder: How Software Engineering Is Changing | Charlie Marsh

Charlie Marsh is the founder of Astral, the Python devtool startup that was acquired by OpenAI. I inteviewed him about how software engineering is changing and learnings from starting his own company as an engineer. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/Iw65FD4MGgs • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
15 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

Google DeepMind Pre-Training Lead: How To Land a Job at a Frontier Lab | Vlad Feinberg

Vlad Feinberg is Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead and I asked him all about how to land a job at a frontier lab like Google DeepMind, Anthropic or OpenAI. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/cDyi91onoJ8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/google-deepmind-pre-training-lead…
8 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 28 min

Co-Creator of Haskell: Functional Programming, Thinking in Types, Useless Languages | Simon Jones

Simon Peyton Jones is the co-creator of Haskell (pure functional programming language) and I interviewed him about functional programming, why it matters, and his thoughts on other programming languages. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/xcB_LF3cdqw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/co-creator-of-haskell-functional Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app…
1 Jun 2026 · 2 hr 16 min

Turing Award Winner: P vs NP, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Quantum Computation | Avi Wigderson

Avi Wigderson is the only person in history to have won both a Turing Award (computer science) and Abel Prize (math). I interviewed him all about his field. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/5GUcvSAJcJw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-p-vs-np-zero Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO,…
25 May 2026 · 2 hr 2 min

Dropbox’s Former Most Senior Eng: Building Great Systems and Advice for the AI Era | James Cowling

James Cowling is the CTO at Convex and was previously the most senior engineer at Dropbox. We discussed technical details of his past projects, simplicity vs complexity, and career advice given where AI is today. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/3XkmNSuHFmY • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/dropboxs-former-most-senior-eng-building Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS:…
18 May 2026 · 1 hr 59 min

Creator of C++: Bell Labs, Negative Overhead Abstraction, Mistakes | Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup is the creator of the C++ programming language and a former researcher at Bell Labs. We talked about what Bell Labs was like, programming language design, and interesting anecdotes from his experience. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/U46fJ2bJ-co • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-c-bell-labs-negative-overhead 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲'𝘀…
11 May 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

Harvard Professor: CS50, What Matters More Than CS, Lecturing Well | David J Malan

David Malan is a Harvard professor known for turning CS50 into a popular online computer science course. We discussed the story behind CS50, how to lecture well, and how AI is changing CS education including in cheating/academic dishonesty. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/bB2o81DnKHk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/harvard-professor-cs50-what-matters 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀…
4 May 2026 · 44 min

PyTorch Eng Director: Promo Hacking, Industry Shifts, Regrets | John Myles White

John Myles White recently left his role as a director of engineering at Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) so we spoke freely about promo culture, how big tech has changed, and how his career grew. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/aPfnP4iAIH8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/msl-eng-director-promo-hacking-industry 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝘆: • Cursor 3: a unified workspace for building software with agents, check it out at https://cursor.com/ • My ergonomic keyboard project, you…
27 Apr 2026 · 35 min

Turing Award Winner: Data Abstraction, Dijkstra, Distributed Systems | Barbara Liskov

Barbara Liskov is a Turing Award winner known for her work in programming languages and distributed systems. We discussed the major problems she solved in her career, stories about Dijkstra, getting rejected from Princeton because she was a woman and misc topics around her work. 🔸 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/T9CGjbPZeaM • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
20 Apr 2026 · 57 min

Turing Award Winner: Postgres, Disagreeing with Google, Future Problems | Mike Stonebraker

Mike Stonebraker is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to fundamental database technologies. We discussed the story behind building Postgres, where he disagrees with Google/Amazon on databases, and what he's working on now. 🔸 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/YPObBOwIrHk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-postgres-disagreeing…
13 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

AWS Distinguished Eng: Learning From 3000 Incidents And How Engineering Is Changing | Marc Brooker

In this episode, I talked to Marc Brooker, a distinguished engineer at AWS who started there as a new grad and rose through the ranks. We discussed technical learnings from 3,000+ cloud system postmortems, how software engineering is changing with AI, how to find impactful problems and much more. 🔶 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/u3GjIXP9N0s • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1qX2GfpbzxzGpGvDZVINdO?si=wsDGZo9PTbCNalKVybFVnA • Apple:…
6 Apr 2026 · 59 min

Ex-Head of Eng at Instagram: Career Regrets and Learnings | James Everingham

This is James Everingham, former head of engineering at Instagram and a veteran of the tech world with experience at Netscape. We talked about his unconventional start in the industry, learnings from every leg of his career, and regrets he has looking back. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/VIF5Fm8NdE8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/ex-head-of-eng-at-instagram-career 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - Kicked out of college 5:35 - FBI showed up at his house 7:43 - Pre-IPO…
30 Mar 2026 · 2 hr 51 min

Retired Amazon VP: How Corporate Politics Work And How To Win | Ethan Evans

Ethan Evans is a former VP at Amazon has seen pretty much every possible type of corporate politics. Now that he's retired, he could share everything he'd seen including stories about empire building, hidden politics, reorgs, senior promos and dealing with bad managers. 🔸 The keyboard I'm building: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/6WaeGfLnRvc • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript:…
23 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

The Co-Creator of Kubernetes On Convincing Google, Building It, and Scaling for LLMs

This is a conversation with Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes and current technical fellow at Microsoft working on Azure. We discussed what it was like building it at Google, how he got buy-in, and what he learned along the way. 🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/FKijpCEH9D8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/the-creator-of-kubernetes-on-building 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:37 - How he…
16 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 43 min

Meta Hiring Lead On Behind The Scenes of Senior+ Eng Hiring

Austen McDonald is a former hiring committee member at Meta, where he led mobile hiring and conducted hundreds of interviews. In this episode, we talked about what happens behind the scenes in a hiring committee, unethical candidates, and the role referrals play. 🔸 (Sponsor) Hello Interview's Website - https://www.hellointerview.com/ 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/nOapM8i5jr0 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-hiring-lead-on-behind-the-scenes 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 -…

About The Peterman Pod

Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

The Peterman Pod is a English tech & science podcast from Ryan Peterman. 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: Ryan Peterman
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 8 min
Latest episode: 5 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1777363835
Website: creators.spotify.com/pod/show/peterman-pod
Rights: Ryan Peterman

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