Rails talk from real product trenches.
The Ruby on Rails Podcast follows Rails developers and builders through the decisions behind their products. It keeps the talk concrete, moving from career turns and product stories into architecture, scaling, Hotwire Native, Postgres, and Ruby performance.
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The Ruby on Rails Podcast is a long-running interview show about Rails as it is used in actual software work. Recent episodes put a clear emphasis on builders and startups making products with Rails. That gives the show a grounded shape. A conversation might begin with the origin of UserList, then move into query languages, Arel, ActiveRecord, Postgres, and JSON parsing. Another might start with JudoScale’s side-project history before turning toward autoscaling, Heroku, and the idea of Rails as a framework a single developer can hold in their head. The show has range, but it stays close to practice. Better With Becky brings in the parallels between learning, fitness, product building, and gradual improvement. Goodenough opens up a different kind of product conversation, with Jelly framed around shared conversations rather than turning every message into a ticket. Hotwire Native brings the mobile angle, especially the maintenance benefits of progressive enhancement and web-powered iOS and Android apps. Older technical episodes, such as the YJIT conversation, show the same patience with fundamentals. Compilers, machine code, and just-in-time performance work are explained from the ground up rather than treated as insider vocabulary. The tone is friendly and direct. Elise Schaefer tends to restate ideas in accessible terms, then asks the next practical question. Guests get space to describe both product motivation and implementation detail. The show is not trying to make Rails sound glamorous. It is better at showing why the framework remains useful to people building things under ordinary constraints. For developers, that is the appeal. It captures the texture of real software decisions: what was built, why Rails fit, what broke, what scaled, and what stayed simple enough to keep going.
Made for: Rails developers, Rubyists, software builders, and technical founders who want practical conversations about building and maintaining products. It also suits curious developers who like architecture explained without losing the human story.
What sets it apart: The show connects Rails implementation details to the business and product situations that produced them. It is less about abstract framework debate and more about how builders actually use Rails when maintenance, learning, and growth are in play.
The Ruby on Rails Podcast, a weekly conversation about Ruby on Rails, open source software, and the programming profession. Co-hosted by Nick Schwaderer. Edited by Peachtree Sound.
Rails leaves the tutorial and reports back from real products, Postgres guts, and karaoke.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Rails startup story that turns a Postgres commitment into a focused look at query design.
UserList's story gives the Ruby on Rails Podcast a practical way into a familiar startup question: what changes when a Rails side project becomes a full-time product, and database choices start shaping the product itself.
A grounded founder story that links fitness, learning, and a Rails-built product.
Becky Searles comes across as a grounded founder with a clear arc: teacher, trainer, and builder behind Better With Becky and Build With Becky, the strength training app she made with Justin using Ruby on Rails.
A calm look at how a side project became a Rails scaling product.
The Ruby on Rails Podcast follows Adam McCrea's JudoScale story as it traces the pressure that growth puts on scaling. Elise Schaefer keeps the discussion on Rails, first introduced in 2007, and on a tool meant to make autoscaling easier, which gives the episode a practical,…
Jelly, shared responsibility, and Rails teams trying to keep support conversational.
James Adam and Cade Truitt make this Rails Podcast stop feel grounded in the ordinary frictions of support, email, and team coordination. Goodenough's view of products like Jelly comes through clearly: the appeal is plain for small companies and bootstrapped startups that need…
A brisk Ruby conversation that turns karaoke confidence into a small lesson about shipping software.
This episode moves at a brisk pace through conference culture, karaoke nerves, and the familiar strain of pushing code live. Elise and Nick keep the focus on how Ruby spaces can make intimidating moments feel manageable, and the Hotwire Native follow-up gives the discussion a…
Hotwire Native is framed as a practical bridge from Rails work into mobile apps.
Mazzolotti presents Hotwire Native as a practical way to bring a Rails app into native Chrome while still relying on existing web work to support iOS and Android.
A practical Rails 7.1 discussion that makes thread pools and query timing feel usable for working developers.
The Ruby on Rails Podcast's conversation with Emanuel Hayford stays grounded in a developer's path: learning BASIC on a shared Pentium 2 in Ghana, moving through Google Summer of Code, and landing in independent Ruby on Rails consulting while co-editing This Week in Rails.
A grounded look at UserList's Rails origins and the database choices shaping the product.
UserList gives the Ruby on Rails Podcast a practical look at how a side project grew into full-time work while staying rooted in Rails. The conversation moves from that origin story into the product's expression language, where calls are transformed through a visitor pattern,…
Power Platform news with practical static.
Elise Schaefer interviews Benedikt Deicke, co-founder of UserList, an email marketing automation tool built on Ruby on Rails.
An interview with Robbie Russell, CEO of Planet Argon, discussing his background, the Maintainable Software podcast, and personal updates.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with Nick Maloney, co-founder of The NAR Company, discussing his developer origin story and career in software engineering.
Host Elise Schaefer discusses expanding the Rails community and mentoring early career developers with guest Adam Cuppie.
Emmanuel Hayford, a Ruby on Rails consultant and co-editor of This Week in Rails, discusses his journey from Ghana to Rails development.
Obie Fernandez, CTO at fintech startup Czar, tells the Ruby on Rails Podcast that AI-driven development has created "approaching infinite configuration" through hidden English prompts.
The Ruby on Rails Podcast episode with Benedikt Deicke centers on UserList, an email marketing automation tool built in Rails and Ember.js for SaaS apps.
Becky Searles talks with Elise Schaefer about the path from teacher to trainer.
Elise Schaefer welcomes Adam McRae to talk about JudoScale and the scaling pressure that comes with growing apps.
Elise Schaefer opens the show with James Adam and Cade Truitt from Goodenough.
Elise and Nick start fast.
Elise Schaefer opens the show by framing Hotwire as one of the most exciting parts of Rails.