The Stack Overflow Podcast

Treating your agents like microservices

Ryan is joined by Outshift by Cisco’s VP of Engineering Guillaume De Saint Marc to discuss the future of multi-agent architectures as microservices, the challenges and limitations of the infrastructure for these multi-agent systems, and the importance of communication protocols and interoperability in order to build decentralized and scalable architectures.  Episode notes: Outshift [https://outshift.cisco.com/] is Cisco’s tech incubator that pursues emerging technologies like agentic AI, quantum computing, and next-gen infrastructure. Learn more about multi-agent architecture at their open-source collective AGNTCY [https://agntcy.org/]. Connect with Guillaume on Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-de-saint-marc-54928a1/].  Today we’re shouting out a Socratic badge winner, Avraam Mavridis [https://stackoverflow.com/users/2277094/avraam-mavridis], who won the badge for asking well received questions on 100 separate days. 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].

Abstraction, but for robots

Ryan welcomes Simone Kalmakis, VP of Engineering at Viam, to dive into how her team is bridging the gap between software and robotics, the importance of abstraction layers in making robotics more accessible, and the real-world applications of robotics from lobster traps to industrial sanding robots. Episode notes: Viam [https://www.viam.com/] is a robotics platform that brings modern software development tools into hardware applications.  Connect with Simone on Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonekalmakis/].  This week’s shoutout goes to Lifejacket winner Sergey Kalinichenko [https://stackoverflow.com/users/335858/sergey-kalinichenko] for their answer to How does this K&R code for reading an int work? [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37553055/how-does-this-kr-code-for-reading-an-int-work]. 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].

Lightning-as-a-service for agriculture

Darryl Lyons, co-founder and Chief Rainmaker at Rainstick, joins the show to dive into advancements in AgTech and how Rainstick is using bioelectricity to enhance agricultural productivity. They discuss how Rainstick mimics natural thunderstorms to create electric fields and frequencies that promote plant growth, challenges and breakthroughs in their research, and their participation in the AWS Compute for Climate Fellowship. Episode notes: Rainstick [https://www.rainstick.com.au/] uses electricity to mimic the natural effects of lightning to grow crops bigger, faster, and more sustainably.  Want to learn more about the Compute for Climate program? Check our podcast [https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/03/14/can-climate-tech-startups-address-the-current-crisis/] with Lisbeth Kaufman, Head of Climate Tech at AWS. Ryan wrote about how software is being applied to agriculture [https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/06/21/part-man-part-machine-all-farmer/] a few years ago.  Connect with Darryl on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darryl-lyons-90424623/]. Congrats to Lifeboat badge winner WestCoastProjects [https://stackoverflow.com/users/1056563/westcoastprojects] for their answer to Test accuracy is greater than train accuracy what to do? [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51464591/test-accuracy-is-greater-than-train-accuracy-what-to-do]. 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].

You’re probably underutilizing your GPUs

Ryan is joined by Jared Quincy Davis, CEO and co-founder of Mithril, to explore the importance of efficient resource allocation and GPU utilization in AI, the myth and misconceptions of the GPU shortage, and how the economics of GPU will change with new scheduling and utilization strategies.  Episode notes: Mithril [https://mithril.ai/]’s omnicloud platform aggregates and orchestrates multi-cloud GPUs, CPUs, and storage so you can access your infrastructure through a single platform. Connect with Jared on Twitter [https://x.com/jaredq_] and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredquincydavis/]. Shoutout to user Razzi Abuissa [https://stackoverflow.com/users/1636613/razzi-abuissa] for winning a Populist badge on their answer to How to find last merge in git? [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4898837/how-to-find-last-merge-in-git]. TRANSCRIPT [https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/11/25/you-re-probably-underutilizing-your-gpus] 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].

Only you can stop AI database drops

Ryan is joined by David Hsu, CEO and founder of Retool, to explore how AI is transforming the role of a software developer into a software architect, the increasing accessibility of coding for non-engineers, and the importance of placing guardrails and higher-level programming primitives on AI coding assistants. Episode notes: Retool [https://retool.com/] is an enterprise AI AppGen platform for internal software development, allowing you to create apps, agents, and workflows with any LLM, datasource, or API. David Hsu previously joined the podcast [https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/02/17/retool-internal-tool-drag-drop-low-code/] to complain about maintaining internal tools.  Connect with David on Twitter [https://x.com/dvdhsu?lang=en]. Today’s shoutout is for user Waseem Wisa [https://stackoverflow.com/users/19624112/waseem-wisa], who won a Populist badge on their answer to Sass compiler throws 'undefined mixin' error when mixins are kept in seperate folder [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29591196/sass-compiler-throws-undefined-mixin-error-when-mixins-are-kept-in-seperate-fo]. 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].