Better Stack Podcast

15: Why Claude Recommends Resend, YouTube for Devs & Building in Public - Chris Pennington

In this episode of the Better Stack Podcast, we sit down with Chris Pennington, DX Engineer at Resend and creator of the Coding in Public YouTube channel. Chris shares his unlikely journey from a documentation role with no professional coding experience to becoming the 10th hire at Resend, all sparked by a YouTube video about React Email. We dig into how Resend gets Claude to recommend them ~70% of the time (JSON-LD, Q&A sections, recency bias, and being early to LLM tooling), how his team runs scoped OpenClaude agents for competitor analysis and marketing reports, and why he still codes by hand despite AI. We also cover email deliverability myths, React Server Components' ongoing struggles, why Astro should be the default for most websites, and Chris's mental hack of planning only until 1pm to stay ahead. Plus: his video setup, Raycast obsession, and why coding with his kids is his favorite way to learn.

14: Warp Oz, AI Agents & Why Benchmarks Don't Matter Anymore - Ben Holmes

In this episode, Ben from Warp joins us to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-powered development tools. We explore his journey from creating whiteboard programming shorts to working on Astro, his honest take on React Server Components, and how the rise of coding agents is reshaping what matters in API design. Ben also dives deep into Warp's vision for the future of terminals, transforming them into agent-ready workspaces with built-in diff views, file explorers, and code review features that work with any CLI agent like Claude Code or Codex. Whether you're curious about the future of frameworks, how to work effectively with AI agents, or why terminals are becoming IDE-like, this conversation covers the cutting edge of developer tooling.

13: From Adobe Flash to CEO of Pencil - an AI Agent Driven Design Tool

In this episode, we dive deep with Tom Krcha, former Adobe Flash evangelist and creator of Pencil.dev, about the evolution of design tools and the future of AI-powered design. From his early days building Flash games and Adobe XD to creating a visual design interface that bridges the gap between human creativity and LLMs, Tom shares insights on multi-agent orchestration, model benchmarking with Opus 4.6, and why parallel agents are unlocking new workflows. We explore the human touch in AI design, future frontiers like animation and 3D, and how new interfaces beyond chat, from eye tracking to visual cursors are making AI feel more creative and alive.

12: How AI Will Transform DevOps and SRE Practices

In this episode, Amin Astaneh shares his journey from open source enthusiast to SRE expert, discusses the impact of AI on DevOps, and offers insights on building reliable, fast-moving teams. He also talks about his nomadic lifestyle and adventures on the road, providing a holistic view of technology and life. Show notes: Certomodo.io: https://certomodo.io/The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error: https://sidneydekker.com/the-field-guide-to-understanding-human-errorThe Phoenix Project: https://itrevolution.com/product/the-phoenix-project/The DevOps Handbook, Second Edition: https://itrevolution.com/product/the-devops-handbook-second-edition/Practice of Cloud System Administration, The: DevOps and SRE Practices for Web Services, Volume 2: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Cloud-System-Administration-Practices/dp/032194318XToyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results: https://www.amazon.com/Toyota-Kata-Managing-Improvement-Adaptiveness/dp/0071635238Leading Change: https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Change-New-Preface-Author/dp/1422186431

11: Vite, Rust & The Future of JavaScript Tooling - Evan You

In this episode, Evan You, creator of Vue.js and Vite, shares his journey from building Vite to founding VoidZero and developing a complete Rust-based JavaScript toolchain. He discusses the evolution from Vite's ESBuild+Rollup hybrid to Rolldown, the 50-100x performance gains with OXC (linter, formatter, parser), and how Vite Plus aims to simplify the entire JavaScript onboarding experience. Evan also shares his thoughts on the future of bundling vs no-build approaches, why his team chose Rust over Go, how they're using AI to ship features faster while maintaining code quality, and offers a candid take on React Server Components as a long-time skeptic who believes the trade-offs often outweigh the benefits.Link:Do we need bundlers - https://rolldown.rs/in-depth/why-bundlers