The Stack Overflow Podcast

Building brains for bulldozers

Ryan chats with Kevin Peterson, CTO of Bedrock Robotics, about the evolution of self-driving technology and why robotics is now advancing; how real data is still relevant but simulation becomes essential for scale; and the future of robotics in addressing labor shortages and enhancing productivity. Episode notes: Bedrock Robotics [https://bedrockrobotics.com/] creates technology that upgrades existing heavy equipment, enabling autonomous operation for construction machinery.  Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-peterson-a783612/] and Twitter [https://x.com/kevinmpeterson1].  Congrats to user charlie [https://stackoverflow.com/users/20734823/charlie] for winning a Necromancer badge [https://stackoverflow.com/help/badges/17/necromancer] on their answer to Linking Rust application with a dynamic library not in the runtime linker search path [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40602708/linking-rust-application-with-a-dynamic-library-not-in-the-runtime-linker-search]. TRANSCRIPT [https://stackoverflow.blog/2026/03/06/building-brains-for-bulldozers/] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

AI-assisted coding needs more than vibes; it needs containers and sandboxes

SPONSORED BY DOCKER In this sponsored episode, Ryan chats with Mark Cavage, President and COO of Docker, joins the show to dive into hardened containers and agent sandboxes. They discuss what it means for a container to be hardened, how agents are starting to look a lot like microservices, and where containers fit into agentic workflows now and in the future.  Episode notes Docker Hardened Images [https://www.docker.com/products/hardened-images/] are minimal and secure containers. They’re free and available for most applications in the Docker registry.  Docker for AI [https://www.docker.com/solutions/docker-ai/] provides an easy way to build, run, and secure AI agents.  Connect with Mark on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcavage/].  Congrats Populist badge winner humblebee [https://stackoverflow.com/users/4859404/humblebee] for answering How to open/run YML compose file? [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44364916/how-to-open-run-yml-compose-file/44365895#44365895]. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

No need for Ctrl+C when you have MCP

Ryan sits down with Member of the Technical Staff at Anthropic and Model Context Protocol co-creator David Soria Parra to talk the evolution of MCP from local-only to remote connectivity, how security and privacy fit into their work with OAuth2 for authentication and authorization, and how they’re keeping MCP completely open-source and widely available by moving it to the Linux Foundation.  Episode notes: The Model Context Protocol [https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro] (MCP) is an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems created by Anthropic [https://www.anthropic.com/]. You can keep up with—or join—the work the MCP community is doing at their Discord server [https://modelcontextprotocol.io/community/communication#discord].  Connect with David on Twitter [https://x.com/dsp_].  Today’s shoutout goes to Populist badge winner competent_tech [https://stackoverflow.com/users/1002323/competent-tech] for their answer to How do I review a PR assigned to me in VS 2022 [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70292639/how-do-i-review-a-pr-assigned-to-me-in-vs-2022]. TRANSCRIPT [https://stackoverflow.blog/2026/03/03/no-need-for-ctrl-c-when-you-have-mcp/] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

To live in an AI world, knowing is half the battle

Ryan welcomes Marcus Fontoura, technical fellow at Microsoft and author of Human Agency in the Digital World, to discuss the intersection of technology, society, and human dignity in a digital-first world. They chat about the non-determinism of social media algorithms, the need for balance between efficiency and human dignity in technology, and the role that trust plays in AI. Episode notes:  Human Agency in the Digital World [https://digitalagencybook.org/] is an “AI-era self-help book” about reclaiming our role as pilots—not passengers—in the technology revolution. It’s available now on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/Human-Agency-Digital-World-Understand/dp/B0FRSS9J5G] and everywhere books are sold.  Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusfontoura/] and learn more about his work at his website [https://fontoura.org/]. Congrats to user Romain [https://stackoverflow.com/users/1263888/romain] for winning a Populist badge on their answer to Django: show the count of related objects in admin list_display [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32443471/django-show-the-count-of-related-objects-in-admin-list-display].  TRANSCRIPT [https://stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/27/to-live-in-an-ai-world-knowing-is-half-the-battle/] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Dogfood so nutritious it’s building the future of SDLCs

Ryan welcomes Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI’s engineering lead on Codex, to discuss how the Codex team dogfoods Codex to build Codex, what distinguishes an agentic coding tool from a chat-based code assistant, and why they’re focusing on a safe and secure agentic SDLC rather than just code generation. Episode notes:  Codex CLI [https://chatgpt.com/codex] is a coding agent from OpenAI that runs locally on your computer. Try it now with your Free or Go ChatGPT plan. You can keep up with everything happening at OpenAI on their blog [https://openai.com/news/company-announcements/].  Connect with Thibault on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/thibault-sottiaux-27195366/] and Twitter [https://x.com/thsottiaux]. Congrats to user kevinyu [https://stackoverflow.com/users/3800474/kevinyu] for winning a Great Question badge for Does println! borrow or own the variable? [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30450399/does-println-borrow-or-own-the-variable]. TRANSCRIPT [https://stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/24/dogfood-so-nutritious-it-s-building-the-future-of-sdlcs/] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].