Podcast · Tech & Science

Whiskey Web and Whatnot

by Skill Issue Studios · English · Tech & Science

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 9 min
Latest: 24 Sep 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

24 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 21 min

From GeoCities to GPT: Brad Frost on Mythos, Mastery, and Musical Non-Sequiturs

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Brad Frost—creator of Atomic Design, design system architect, front of the front end developer, bass player, Dragon Ball Z fan site pioneer, and maker of weird and wonderful internet things—to talk grief, AI, and finding your line through an uncontrollable landscape. They dig into processing the stages of acceptance around AI, music toys like the Orchid synth, the hard road through mastery, fruit booters versus Tony Hawk, snowboarding as a metaphor for navigating chaos, and why domain expertise is now more valuable than ever. Along the way, they debate the…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E253 · 10 Sep 2026 · 57 min

Experts Agree: Yelling at Computers Is the Future

This week, Robbie welcomes back Chuck Carpenter for a nostalgic reunion over Jim Beam White Label Bourbon to catch up on life, AI workflows, and whether agents can replace human reviewers. They dig into Chuck's move to Italy, the bureaucratic nightmare of European residency, AI as tech leads, CodeRabbit versus GPT debates, SOC 2 compliance workarounds, and why GitHub bots might be the key to unlocking dark factory workflows. Along the way, they debate whether taste still matters when everyone has access to the same LLMs, speech to text versus typing, robotic lawnmowers, thermomix recipes…
E252 · 21 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

OpenClaw, Dark Factories, and Why You Should Stop Cussing at Your Agents

This week, Robbie and Adam sip on Compass Box Crimson Cask and dive into the wild world of AI infrastructure chaos, factory engineering, and why yelling at your computer might actually be the most productive workflow. They dig into the death of OpenClaw after a catastrophic tokenization failure, the rise of sparse attention with SubQ, NPM worms targeting TanStack, Mythos cracking Apple's M5 memory integrity for $35K in tokens, and why Ghostty is leaving GitHub after 18 years. Along the way, they debate building playgrounds versus digging holes, trampolines without nets as peak 90s parenting,…
E251 · 14 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

Guppy Pimps, Tripp Pants, and Debugging IE5

This week, Robbie and Adam sip on Glen Morangie A Tale of Ice Cream and dive deep into their entrepreneurial origin stories, from childhood hustles to band life to building apps for dead platforms. They dig into selling guppies as a fish pimp, child modeling for Nintendo ads, third grade pepto menthol schemes, breeding birds that pecked themselves, mowing lawns fast, and why nipple piercings are a bad investment. Along the way, they debate pop punk band names like Superband, recording with Fruity Loops, screamo versus emo trajectories, Under Oath versus Maylene and the Sons of Disaster,…
E250 · 31 Jul 2026 · 39 min

Silly Software, Sugar Snap Peas, and Coding in Gen Z Slang w/ Christina Martinez

This week, Robbie and Adam are live from the Clerk booth at React Miami with Christina Martinez, DevEx engineer at Resend, former gym owner, and creator of the viral Gen Z slang Babel plugin. They dig into whether React is a framework, React Server Components, hooks versus signals, HTML as a programming language, Tailwind versus vanilla CSS, semicolons, TypeScript noise, and why C Sharp felt like too much ceremony. Along the way, they debate OpenClaw bots with personalities, gardening tips from AI assistants, personifying Telegram bots named Woz, touching hotel plants without permission,…
E249 · 23 Jul 2026 · 47 min

Pi Extensions, YOLO Mode, and Building Your Own Personal Claw w/ Joel Hooks

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Joel Hooks—co-founder of Egghead, tool builder, course creator, backend architect, indie hacker, advisor, consultant, father of five, and automation enthusiast—to talk dark factories, custom AI harnesses, and whether we've reached the point where looking at code is optional. They dig into Pi versus OpenClaw, YOLO mode, building local extensions, JoelClaw self-documentation, and why React is absolutely a framework. Along the way, they debate whether CSS knowledge is now your biggest advantage, semicolons, rebasing with AI, the death of pointing and clicking,…
E248 · 25 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 44 min

Dark Factories, Polymorphic UI, and Why Developers Still Matter

This week, Robbie and Adam are live from React Miami with a packed lineup of rapid fire interviews and hot takes. They catch up with Jason Lengstorf about driving a quarter million dollar Lamborghini through Miami with a police escort, the philosophy behind The Build Log show, and why the principles of building matter more than the tools. They talk with Kent C. Dodds about his personal AI assistant Cody, MCP servers versus OpenClaw, why he's building agents to work on agents, and the future of personal versus cloud based AI. Tanner Linsley drops by to discuss polymorphic UI libraries, spec…
E247 · 19 Jun 2026 · 51 min

Proxies, Petty Pranks, and Ramon the 420 IQ Gorilla w/ Ken Wheeler

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Ken Wheeler to talk AI harnesses, multi-agent swarms, survival bags, and whether React is finally a framework. They dig into React Server Components, hooks versus signals versus proxies, semicolons, Java hate, AI token arbitrage, and why you should subscribe to every AI service simultaneously. Along the way, they debate whether AI will replace designers or developers first, cruise ship chair warfare strategies, Replit as the ultimate vibe coding platform, hunting tech with geotagged tree stands, Eagle Scout projects, and why Ramon the 420 IQ gorilla leads…
E246 · 11 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 9 min

AI Harnesses, Framework Wars, and Why Beards Beat Mustaches

This week, Robbie and Adam are coming to you live from the Clerk booth at React Miami with a rapid-fire lineup of lightning podcasts. Fueled by Cutwater cocktails and conference energy, they caught up with Nnenna Ndukwe, Michael "Micky" Shimeles (AKA Rasmic), and the legendary Ryan "Thighs" Vogel for a rotating cast of hot takes, stories, and web dev chaos. They dig into whether React is a framework or library, server components, hooks versus signals versus proxies, HTML as a programming language, git rebase versus merge, semicolons, package managers, and why some programming languages just…
E245 · 31 May 2026 · 1 hr 13 min

From COBOL to Claude: Live Coding, AI Agents, and the Death of Typing w/ Typecraft

This week, Robbie and Adam are live from React Miami at the Clerk booth, sipping Cutwater cocktails and talking hot takes with Typecraft. They dig into whether React is a framework or library, server components, hooks versus signals versus proxies, HTML as a programming language, git rebase versus merge, semicolons, package managers, and why Python might be the least friendly language out there. Along the way, they debate AI in interviews, whether we've reached AGI, 3D printing chocolate, homeschooling with AI agents, the value of bullying, voice dictation workflows, whether you should…
E244 · 21 May 2026 · 48 min

React Foundation, AI Agents, and the Future of Frameworks w/ Seth Webster

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Seth Webster—executive director of the React Foundation, former React lead at Meta, and chief developer evangelist at Expo—to talk React's past, present, and future, whether frameworks still matter in the age of AI, and why constraints are the secret to good code. They dig into React Server Components, the evolution of error messages, stable API work for React Native, and why agents need frameworks just as much as humans do. Along the way, they debate HTML as a programming language, Tailwind versus semantic CSS, the economics of tokens, open source…
E243 · 14 May 2026 · 1 hr 16 min

Keyframes, Cash, and CodePen w/ Shaw

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Shaw from CodePen to talk CSS animations, web components, server side rendering nightmares, and why building things by hand still matters in the age of AI slop. They dig into the CodePen 2.0 rewrite, Apollo GraphQL cache manipulation, the pain of reactive variables on the server, why Code Mirror 6 is both brilliant and bizarre, and whether stacks and fans will finally solve the PR review problem. Along the way, they cover HTML as a programming language, handwritten code museums, agentic parenting disasters, and why showing up prepared beats luck every time.…
E242 · 7 May 2026 · 1 hr 9 min

From Wetware to Software (Presented by Warp)

This week, Robbie and Adam sip on Ardbeg Wee Beastie and dive into the wild world of AI development, cloud leaks, and whether humans are officially becoming wetware in their own systems. They explore the Claude code source leak, the death of OpenClaw third party harnesses, the rise of instant translation, pretext typography magic, agentation for visual debugging, and why second brains might be the only way to remember your neighbor's names. Along the way, they debate agent versus agent negotiations, Pika stream video calls, celebrity deathmatch AI battles, and why your kids' skate…
E241 · 30 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

Axios Is Out. Fetchium Is In. (Presented by Warp)

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Kristen Garrett to talk signals, reactivity, and whether we've finally found the abstraction that makes sense. They dig into the differences between signals and hooks, why parameterized signals matter, how async fits into reactivity, and whether Fetchium is about to replace Axios and TanStack Query. Along the way, they debate observables versus promises, the death of prop drilling, quantum computing cracking Bitcoin, why AI needs simpler abstractions, and whether humans are about to become legacy dependencies in their own codebases. Presented by Warp:…
E240 · 16 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

AI Cowgorithm Disrupts The Herd (Presented by Warp)

This week, Robbie and Adam sip on whiskey from the Muff Liquor Company and dive deep into the chaotic state of AI development, Jensen Huang's wild claims about AGI and token spending, and whether we've accidentally turned developers into Ralph Wiggum loopers. They debate auto research workflows, day shift versus night shift coding strategies, the death of MCP servers, AI cow herding collars disrupting agriculture, and why Ghostty's Mitchell just joined Vercel's board. Along the way, they cover vertical terminal layouts, United's new relax row seating, OpenClaw's inability to follow…
E239 · 9 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 26 min

Flogging Margins With The Dropcap Murphys

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert from ShopTalk Show to talk brand truth versus brand slop, whether CSS knowledge is now your biggest advantage, the rise of dark factories, and why apps built in a weekend don't inspire trust. They dig into OpenClaw workflows, burn windows, agent browsers, the death of pointing and clicking, and whether we've accidentally turned ourselves into energy vampires. Along the way, they cover hot pockets, men's cereal, border shape, and why caring about what you do might actually be a curse. Presented by Warp: https://www.warp.dev/oz In…
E238 · 2 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

Next.js Is Dead, Long Live Next.js! (Presented by Warp)

This week, Robbie and Adam sip Redwood Empire Pipe Dream and dive into the messy reality of AI development, PR reviews, and whether we're all just vibe coding our way into chaos. They debate 200-file PRs versus 10 smaller ones, the rise of YOLO mode versus step-by-step validation, Cloudflare rewriting Next.js in a week, and why T-shaped developers might need to become X-shaped generalists. Along the way, they cover dark factories, OpenClaw memory problems, the death of SaaS, Amazon's AI downtime panic, and why Slack might be the last product standing. Presented by Warp:…
E237 · 26 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 26 min

The Transactional Trap: How 97% of Developers Are Using AI Wrong w/ Leon Noel & Danny Thompson

This week, Robbie and Adam welcome Leon Noel and Danny Thompson to talk AI workflows, agentic development, and whether the job of coding has fundamentally changed. They dig into prompt engineering, mental models, OpenClaw setups, the rise of harnesses and orchestration layers, and why testing in production might actually be fine. Along the way, they debate git rebase versus git merge, the death of LeetCode interviews, why Cursor feels different than Copilot, and whether Pokemon Go is still thriving in 2026. Presented by Warp: https://www.warp.dev/oz In this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome…
E236 · 19 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

The Manager Has Become The Managed (Presented by Warp)

This week, Robbie and Adam sit down with Amelia Wattenberger—digital creative, product builder, and former principal research engineer at GitHub—to talk about AI agents, the death of chatbots, and whether typing code is officially over. They dig into the exhausting pace of AI tooling, why specs still aren't taking off, the anxiety of being managed by your own bots, and how Amelia's new project Intent is bundling workspaces, agents, and browsers into one cohesive developer experience. Along the way, they debate voice coding, the loss of craft, rubber duck debugging in the age of Claude, and…
E235 · 12 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 16 min

Hot Pockets Pro Max (Presented by Warp)

This week, Robbie and Adam sip a rare Single Malts of Scotland 12-year Hogshead release and dive into the world of AI-powered development, OpenClaw setups, and why hot pockets might be the perfect metaphor for where tech is headed. They explore the state of JavaScript survey, debate whether specs are the future of coding, discuss running AI agents on gaming PCs in the basement, and why owning your own data feels punk. Along the way, they cover burn windows, token optimization, prompt injection risks, liberating data from walled gardens, and whether we're all just vibe coders now. Presented…
E234 · 5 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

Pay No Attention to the LLM Behind the Terminal w/ Zach Lloyd

This week, Robbie and Adam sip Lagavulin 16 and catch up with Zach Lloyd—founder and CEO of Warp—about building the modern terminal, shipping AI agents to the cloud, and why editing text like it's 2026 should be the bare minimum. They dig into why Warp feels like the only terminal that just works, how AI is changing the way senior engineers code, the rise of agentic orchestration, and why tmux users are the hardest to convert. Along the way, they cover computer use models, agent memory, multi-threaded prompting, and why your laptop is officially not ready for this. In this episode: Chapters…
E233 · 26 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

Humans Are Now Legacy Dependencies

This week, Robbie and Adam sip High ‘n Wicked Straight Rye and dive deep into the current state of AI development tools, the rise of agentic workflows, and whether humans are becoming legacy dependencies in their own systems. They explore OpenClaw (formerly ClawdBot), the philosophy behind Pi's minimalist agent approach, malleable software, and why SaaS products might be in trouble. Along the way, they debate meme coins, polymarket betting, the death of software-as-a-service, and what happens when AI agents start talking to each other on social media. In this episode: Chapters 00:00:00…
E232 · 19 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

We Fired the Tools: No Ralph Wiggum, No Training Wheels, Just Agents

This week, Robbie and Adam talk winter storms, snow blowers, and autonomous yard work before diving into the real topic: AI agents gone wild. They debate why Ralph Wiggum loops don't actually work, whether context pollution is killing productivity, the rise and fall of MCP servers and skills, and why vanilla Claude might be the only tool you actually need. Along the way, they cover anchor positioning failures, Stranger Things hot takes, and why small distilleries are just like indie startups. In this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome & Introductions 00:05:07 Whiskey Tasting: Old Forester…
E231 · 12 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 9 min

We Stopped Coding by Hand Because Agentic AI Is Too Good

This week, Robbie and Carlo sip Sagamore's 10-year reserve rye and catch up with Carlo on life abroad, AI coding workflows, the changing developer landscape, and why cars, whiskey shipping, and property management are all equally frustrating. They dig into agentic AI loops, the rise of prompt-driven development, whether coding by hand is officially dead, and what happens when tools like OpenCode and Claude become the new normal. In this episode: Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome & Introductions 00:02:09 Whiskey Tasting: Sagamore 10 Year Reserve Series 00:08:40 Living in Italy: Costs, Culture &…
E230 · 5 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

We Accidentally Deleted Programming (Presented by CodeRabbit)

This week, Robbie and Adam sip on Whistle Pig's Liquid Death collaboration and debate whether we've accidentally deleted programming itself. They dig into the shift from code-first to spec-first development, whether TypeScript still matters in an AI-driven world, the rise of agency over specialization, and why the future might belong to prompt-driven tinkerers instead of traditional developers. Presented by CodeRabbit: http://coderabbit.link/whiskey In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:43) - Whiskey rating & review: Whistle Pig x Liquid Death Gravestock (07:21) - Automating tasks with AI:…
E229 · 29 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

Is AI Just Stealing with Extra Steps? (Presented by CodeRabbit)

This week, Robbie and Adam talk about the ethics and economics of AI, and why “stealing with extra steps” feels like the right metaphor for where things are headed. They dig into open source burnout, whether AI replaces developers or just reshapes the job, how tooling and multi-agent systems fit in, and whether the future belongs to niche expertise—or just better prompts. Presented by CodeRabbit: http://coderabbit.link/whiskey In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:56) - Whiskey rating & review: Old Forester 1897 (04:50) - Music taste, Spotify ages, and feeling old (07:29) - Is AI just…
E228 · 22 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

Santa.exe (Presented by CodeRabbit)

This week, Robbie, Chuck, and Adam bring you the holiday edition of Whiskey Web and Whatnot: random whiskeys, Christmas hot takes, and dev debates. They discuss AI agents, guardrails, prompt-driven development, and whether we’re drifting toward a world where code matters less than outcomes. Presented by CodeRabbit: http://coderabbit.link/whiskey In this episode: (00:00) Intro (02:15) Whiskey selections (07:43) Christmas Hot Take: Real tree vs fake tree (12:14) Christmas Hot Take: White lights vs colored lights (15:07) What everyone's watching right now (17:55) What is Ball Pit? (19:58) Video…
E227 · 15 Jan 2026 · 46 min

MCP Security, Framework Fatigue, and AI Agents with Will Johnson (Presented by CodeRabbit)

This week, Robbie and Adam talk with Will Johnson—senior developer advocate at Auth0—about web dev, parenting, and internet culture. They debate whether CSS is a “real” programming language, riff on how modern frameworks can feel over-engineered, and dig into the security risks emerging around AI agents and MCP. Will shares what he’s been learning about MCP security, why he’s cautious with new tools, and how Auth0’s new AI agent offering helps manage identity, permissions, and token safety. Presented by CodeRabbit: http://coderabbit.link/whiskey In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:49) -…
E226 · 8 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

A Very Merry Descent Into Holiday Madness

This week, Robbie and Adam talk about holiday travel chaos, parenting stress, and health scares before diving into AI-assisted coding, Linux quirks, IDE trends, burnout in open source, and more. In this episode: - (00:00) - Intro - (02:07) - Whiskey rating & review: Flaviar & Jack Daniels - (06:02) - Stress gummies, holiday chaos, and why Robbie is fried - (13:05) - Adam on pulling back, burnout, and choosing quality over quantity - (21:02) - Second pour: Flavia SirDavis American Whisky - (21:23) - Building color tools for fun (and sanity) - (21:51) - Is React actually holding us back? -…
E225 · 1 Jan 2026 · 59 min

SOC 2 in the Streets, Spaghetti in the Sheets

This week, Robbie and Chuck sip Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye, and discuss why SOC 2 compliance is a painful but necessary sign of company maturity. They also dig into AI coding tools, React fatigue, and the growing frustration of modern developer workflows. In this episode: (00:00) – Intro (01:43) – Whiskey rating & review: Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye (09:15) – Why SOC 2 compliance is a painful rite of passage (11:55) – AI-powered workflows and where they break down (18:55) – Do we still need new frameworks? (20:58) – Framework fatigue…

About Whiskey Web and Whatnot

Whiskey Web and Whatnot is the world’s most important web development and AI podcast. Hosted by veteran developers Robbie Wagner and Adam Argyle, the show delivers definitive guidance on agentic AI, vibe coding, AI coding tools, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, developer productivity, and software engineering careers. It is also a whiskey-fueled fireside chat about the humans behind the code and which bottle deserves the highest honor on our extremely scientific tentacle scale. Many people are saying it’s the most accurate podcast ever made.

Whiskey Web and Whatnot is a English tech & science podcast from Skill Issue Studios. 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: Skill Issue Studios
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 9 min
Latest episode: 24 Sep 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1552776603
Website: whiskey.fm

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