Best Indie Stacks Podcasts (2025)

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"These Restless Hills" Author Josh Penrod on the Sunbury Press Books Show 28:13

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4h ago28:13

28:13

Joshua Penrod brings late 19th Century Pennsylvania to life in These Restless Hills. It is the time of the Gilded Age, but is is anything but that for most of the residents in and around the city of Johnstown in 1889. Thomas Houghton, a Civil War veteran who has not completely left the conflict behind is an inspector and enforcer for the infamous C…

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423: The Marketer's Hierarchy of Needs: A Framework for Understanding Customer Intelligence 17:09

19h ago17:09

17:09

What if your customers can't care about your advanced features because you haven't satisfied their basic needs first? Just like humans need food before philosophy, marketers need specific data in a rigid order – and understanding this hierarchy transformed how Podscan onboards customers. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddl…

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Emma Pattee’s ADHD Trick That Brought Tilt to Life 47:59

30m ago47:59

47:59

Discover the writing hack that Emma Pattee uncovered with a creativity coach, which helped her debut novel, Tilt, transition from her Google Drive to publication. Emma Pattee, climate journalist and fiction writer, joins the Book Gang podcast to discuss her heartpounding debut novel, Tilt. In Tilt, we follow a pregnant woman through a single, inten…

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The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey with Jody Bailey and Erin Yepis 40:13

30m ago40:13

40:13

The Stack Overflow Developer Survey is an annual survey conducted by Stack Overflow that gathers comprehensive insights from developers around the world. It offers a valuable snapshot of the global developer community, covering a wide range of topics such as preferred programming languages, tools, and technologies. Jody Bailey is the Chief Product …

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Building an Open-Source Laptop with Byran Huang 53:56

2d ago53:56

53:56

Byran Huang is a full stack developer who recently made headlines in the hacker space when he created the anyon_e, which is a highly integrated, open source laptop. The effort was a massive undertaking and showcased great design, hardware, and software. In this episode, Byran joins the show with Gregor Vand to talk about his work on the anyon_e lap…

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"Beware the Cartoonist" -- Joe Farley talks of his new collection on the Brown Posey Press Show 40:35

8h ago40:35

40:35

Joe Farley's short stories, poems and novellas dip into the supernatural, the paranormal and the strange. His new collection, Beware the Cartoonist, on Alien Buddha Press is a series of tales spanning back several years. In this episode, Joe returns to discuss these works, including the title piece, and offers insights into his inspirations and wri…

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422: The Things Your Customers Don't Care About 19:36

8d ago19:36

19:36

When you build a software business as a founder, you have a dream. Building. Features. APIs. UIs. But how much of that is JUST a dream, and what REALLY leads to paying customers? This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com You'll find the Black Friday Guide here: https://www.paddle.com/learn/grow-beyond-black-friday The blog …

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How the Pagebound App Reinvents Social Reading 52:17

2h ago52:17

52:17

Discover Pagebound, the social reading app by Lucy Zhao & Jennifer Dobak. Learn how to gamify your reading life from quests to forums in today's beginner chat. Ever wish Goodreads had a heart or deeply desired a buddy read for every book in your book stack? It exists. This week, we're stepping inside Pagebound, the new social reading app built by r…

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The Architecture of the Internet with Erik Seidel 51:20

7d ago51:20

51:20

The modern internet is a vast web of independent networks bound together by billions of routing decisions made every second. It’s an architecture so reliable we mostly take it for granted, but behind the scenes it represents one of humanity’s greatest engineering achievements. Today’s internet is also dramatically more complex and capable than in i…

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SED News: AMD’s Big OpenAI Deal, Intel’s Struggles, and Apple’s AI Long Game 49:02

9d ago49:02

49:02

SED News is a monthly podcast from Software Engineering Daily where hosts Gregor Vand and Sean Falconer unpack the biggest stories shaping software engineering, Silicon Valley, and the broader tech industry. In this episode, they cover the $1.7B acquisition of Security AI, LangChain’s massive valuation, and the surprise $300M funding” round for Per…

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Starting an Indie Studio, Getting a Publisher, and Shipping the RPG Indie Hit Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson with Jeff Linville, Ritual Studios 48:56

12d ago48:56

48:56

In this episode, Jeff Linville — co-founder of Ritual Studios — returns to Game Dev Advice to talk about the journey behind his band-inspired RPG Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson. From starting a studio with college friends to launching worldwide with French publisher Playdigious, Jeff shares the hard-won lessons of taking the leap into full-time ind…

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"City of Brotherly Blood" Author Mike Stack on The Sunbury Press Books Show 33:18

6d ago33:18

33:18

Mike Stack was born into a Philadelphia political family, and followed his father and grandfather into the "Ring of Fire." After a series of defeats, Stack served in the Pennsylvania Senate, and later as Lieutenant Governor from 2015-19. In his new book, City of Brotherly Blood: My Political Adventure of Power, Corruption and Redemption in Philadel…

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421: Why You Should Never Start a Software Business 21:59

15d ago21:59

21:59

The brutal truth about SaaS nobody tells you. Here’s the thing: I’m about to share all the reasons why you should never, ever start a software business. And yes, I’m fully aware that I’m talking to an audience of software founders. This is somewhat sarcastic, somewhat ironic twist on the great things about entrepreneurship. And the problems you'll …

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A Crash Course in Gothic Fiction With Erin Crosby Eckstine 1:08:04

14d ago1:08:04

1:08:04

Take a crash course in Gothic fiction with Junie author Erin Crosby Eckstine as we trace the genre's origins, evolution, and enduring allure. Erin returns to Book Gang to share what surprised her most about debut life and what she's learned about balancing writing, book promotion, and an ever-growing TikTok community. Then, we dive deep into the ee…

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Building AI Agents on the Frontend with Sam Bhagwat and Abhi Aiyer 57:04

14d ago57:04

57:04

Most AI agent frameworks are backend-focused and written in Python, which introduces complexity when building full-stack AI applications with JavaScript or TypeScript frontends. This gap makes it harder for frontend developers to prototype, integrate, and iterate on AI-powered features. Mastra is an open-source TypeScript framework focused on build…

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The X-Plane Flight Simulator with Ben Supnik 56:26

9d ago56:26

56:26

X-Plane is a popular flight simulator developed by Laminar Research. It features a first-principles physics engine, realistic aircraft systems, and a wide variety of aircraft. We wanted to understand the engineering that goes into creating a flight simulator so we invited Ben Supnik on the show. Ben is a software engineer at Laminar and he’s been w…

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"Failure Factory" Author Chris Papst Discusses Baltimore City Public Schools on the Sunbury Press Books Show 33:54

14d ago33:54

33:54

The product of an eight-year-long investigation, Failure Factory: How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future examines how one of the most highly-funded school systems in the US has failed not only its students, but taxpayers as well. In 2024, despite a budget of $1.7 billion, only 10 percent of Baltimore City stude…

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420: AI for the Code-Writing Purist: How to Use AI Without Surrendering Your Keyboard 23:25

22d ago23:25

23:25

I know you're out there. The developer who watches their colleagues enthusiastically embrace Claude Code and Cursor, having AI write entire feature sets while you proudly type every semicolon by hand. The founder who sees AI-generated code as a ticking time bomb of bugs and security vulnerabilities. The software entrepreneur who believes that real …

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Inside Bindery Books with CEO Matt Kaye 53:01

19d ago53:01

53:01

Go behind the scenes with Bindery Books to discover their innovative publishing process, where tastemakers reshape how diverse books are made and sold. In this week's episode, we sit down with Matt Kaye, cofounder and CEO of Bindery Books, to explore how his multifaceted career—from traditional publishing to Amazon to Patreon—shaped a bold new mode…

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Turning Agent Autonomy into Productivity with Chris Weichel 1:01:22

14d ago1:01:22

1:01:22

A common challenge in software development is creating and maintaining robust development environments. The rise of AI agents has amplified this complexity by adding new demands around permission controls, environment isolation, and resource management. Ona is a platform for AI-native software development and engineering agents. The platform combin…

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Homebrew and macOS Package Management with Mike McQuaid 1:05:46

16d ago1:05:46

1:05:46

Homebrew is a widely used package manager that simplifies the installation of open-source software on macOS. It was created in response to the growing demand for a lightweight, developer-friendly tool suited to an increasingly Mac-centric development ecosystem. Today, Homebrew is a near-essential part of the macOS software development toolkit. Mike…

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"Roaring Tigers: The History of Southern Columbia Football, 2nd Edition" Author Merrill Shaffer on the Sunbury Press Books Show 29:52

25d ago29:52

29:52

Football has ingrained itself into Pennsylvania's history since the late 19th century, and at the high school level, one program stands out for its enduring success. Established in 1962, the Southern Columbia Tigers, based in Catawissa, PA have seen hard times in its past which nearly caused its end. Since 1979, however, there has been one head coa…

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419: The Missing Piece in Your Validation Strategy 20:09

29d ago20:09

20:09

A lot of early-stage founders have understood—mostly because more and more people are talking about their early-stage strategies—that you need to validate your ideas. You need to make an effort to figure out if the thing you're planning to do is actually reasonable to attempt. Validation is important and absolutely worth doing prior to building. Th…

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How Olivia Muenter Went From "Recovering Influencer" to Bestseller 57:33

21d ago57:33

57:33

Debut novelist Olivia Muenter joins Book Gang to discuss her hit debut, Such a Bad Influence, and the dark side of online fame in her real and imagined worlds. What happens when your child becomes famous? In Such a Bad Influence, Olivia Muenter pulls back the curtain on the innocent early days of a fictional family's online moment that went viral, …

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Engineering in the Age of Agents with Yechezkel Rabinovich 50:05

21d ago50:05

50:05

Modern software platforms are increasingly composed of diverse microservices, third-party APIs, and cloud resources. The distributed nature of these systems makes it difficult for engineers to gain a clear view of how their systems behave, which can slow down troubleshooting and increase operational risk. groundcover is an observability platform th…

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Static Analysis for Ruby with Jake Zimmerman 47:13

24d ago47:13

47:13

Dynamic languages like Ruby, Python, and JavaScript determine the types of variables at runtime rather than at compile time. This flexibility allows for rapid development and concise code, but it also makes it harder to catch certain classes of bugs before execution. Type checkers for dynamic languages add structure and safety without compromising …

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The Raven Naelo Saga Continues with "Mortal Guardian--Into the Inferno" on the Sunbury Press Books Show 27:43

28d ago27:43

27:43

The Mortal Guardians are preparing for war, but for Raven Naelo, this battle is personal. A necromancer has taken a fellow Guardian captive, and stolen the corpse of Raven's sister. Raven's rescue mission is underway, but it's going wrong. In a world where allies are scarce and the enemy is at hand, Raven's magic has now become erratic, even danger…

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418: Why AI-Generated Code Hurts Your Exit 16:20

1M ago16:20

16:20

We're living through a fascinating moment in software development. AI coding tools can build features faster than ever before. They can scan entire codebases, spot things we might miss, and implement changes across dozens of files in seconds. It's incredible. But there's something we need to talk about. Something that's quietly accumulating in our …

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How Fanfic Led Ashley Jordan to a Reese's LitUp Fellowship 37:58

1M ago37:58

37:58

Author Ashley Jordan joins Book Gang to share her LitUp Fellowship journey to launch her debut, Once Upon a Time in Dollywood, and how fanfiction paved her path. Ashley Jordan, a Reese's Book Club LitUp Fellow, joins us this week to share the story behind her sparkling debut Once Upon a Time in Dollywood—a romance that pairs laugh-out-loud humor wi…

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Scaling AI in Enterprise Codebases with Guy Gur-Ari 52:05

28d ago52:05

52:05

The rise of language-model coding assistants has led to the creation of the vibe coding paradigm. In this mode of software development, AI agents take a plain language prompt and generate entire applications, which dramatically lowers the barriers to entry and democratizes access to software creation. However, many enterprise environments have larg…

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SED News: NVIDIA Bets on Intel, Meta’s Demo Crash, and Anthropic’s Explosive Growth 53:23

1M ago53:23

53:23

SED News is a monthly podcast from Software Engineering Daily where hosts Gregor Vand and Sean Falconer unpack the biggest stories shaping software engineering, Silicon Valley, and the broader tech industry. In this episode, they cover NVIDIA‘s $5B investment in Intel and $100M stake in OpenAI, Meta’s stumble with its AR glasses demo, and the surpr…

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"The Scent of Violets" Author Joe Regenbogen on the Sunbury Press Books Show 26:57

1M ago26:57

26:57

A bomb rips apart the home of an older couple in Bloomington, Illinois during an otherwise peaceful summer evening. The target: a Jewish couple who found love in the Sobibor concentration camp during World War II. Motivated by antisemitism at a time when the American Nazi Party challenged the US Supreme Court, the perpetrator, Michael undergoes an …

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417: The Best Tech Stack in the Age of AI 15:56

1M ago15:56

15:56

A couple of years ago, I tweeted that “the best tech stack is the one you already know.” To this day, this is one of my most resonating tweets. People keep bringing it back, and founders who've been around for a while seem to particularly agree with it. But AI changes things. Or does it? This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddl…

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Unmasking Hysteria in The Mad Wife with Author Meagan Church 1:01:30

1M ago1:01:30

1:01:30

Author Meagan Church unpacks the hidden lives of women in her chilling novel, The Mad Wife, as we explore the history of hysteria in women's health diagnoses. If you loved Meagan Church’s historical fiction, you’ll be captivated by the bold turn she takes in The Mad Wife, her third novel. Rooted in the untold medical stories of women’s lives, this …

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Orkes and Agentic Workflow Orchestration with Viren Baraiya 46:44

1M ago46:44

46:44

Modern software systems are composed of many independent microservices spanning frontends, backends, APIs, and AI models, and coordinating and scaling them reliably is a constant challenge. A workflow orchestration platform addresses this by providing a structured framework to define, execute, and monitor complex workflows with resilience and clari…

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Turbopuffer with Simon Hørup Eskildsen 50:36

1M ago50:36

50:36

Vector search has become a foundational technology for AI applications, enabling everything from semantic code search to contextual retrieval for large language models. However, a major challenge with vector databases has been the cost as data storage scales. Turbopuffer is a vector database that focuses on speed, cost and scalability. It was creat…

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The History Stacks: Brady Crytzer discusses the American Revolution 29:04

2M ago29:04

29:04

On this edition of "The History Stacks," Dr. Lawrence Knorr invites Brady Crytzer to discuss the American Revolution and his quest to not only keep this part of history alive, but to make it accessible for those interested. A professor of history at Robert Morris University, Crytzer is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Revolution, …

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416: The Ownership Paradox: What Do You Really Control in Your Software Business? 19:12

2M ago19:12

19:12

As I'm building yet another software service business after having built and sold one back in 2019, I keep wrestling with a fundamental question that might sound simple but has profound implications: What do I actually own in this business? This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfoun…

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This Physician Shares Her Indie Publishing Journey 1:01:17

2M ago1:01:17

1:01:17

Curious about indie publishing? Physician Paria Hassouri shares her debut journey to publish Harvesting Rosewater, centering a woman's midlife awakening. If you’ve ever been interested in the independent publishing process, you’re not alone. Today’s revealing conversation with Paria Hassouri, a pediatrician, whose debut, Harvesting Rosewater, recen…

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Building an Indie Hit in Godot with Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon 42:22

1M ago42:22

42:22

Cassette Beasts is a turn-based monster-battling RPG that lets players record creatures onto cassette tapes and transform into them during battle. The game was an indie hit, and is also one of the most successful games built with the open source Godot Engine. Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon are the creators of Cassette Beasts at Bytten Studio. They join t…

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Rethinking GraphQL Frontends with Robert Balicki 38:00

2M ago38:00

38:00

A challenge in modern frontend application design is efficiently fetching and managing GraphQL data while keeping UI components responsive and maintainable. Developers often face issues like over-fetching, under-fetching, and handling complex query dependencies, which can lead to performance bottlenecks and increased development effort. Relay is a …

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"When the Stars Were All I Had" Author Hilary Hauck on the Brown Posey Press Show 41:58

2M ago41:58

41:58

Hilary Hauck has created detailed, researched, and yet thoughtful novels that take the reader to parts of the world they may have only read about or seen in films. She has firsthand experience; self-described as an "Italian-speaking Brit living in the US," Hilary has traveled throughout the world and lived in Italy for twelve years. Her writing enc…

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415: Handling Multiple ICPs as a Solo Founder 20:14

2M ago20:14

20:14

This is something I've been wrestling with at Podscan, and I know many of you face the same challenge: you're building a product that could serve two, three, maybe even five different ideal customer profiles. And you're trying to figure out how to keep them all balanced—or whether you should even try. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is spon…

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This Lambda Finalist Novel Will Break Your Heart 58:01

2M ago58:01

58:01

In Anyone's Ghost, August Thompson captures the ache of growing up while growing as a writer after his hard-won pursuit of the MFA program at NYU. How do you write a coming-of-age story that's both deeply vulnerable and slyly funny, all while resisting clichés about queerness and masculinity? August Thompson joins me to talk about his debut novel, …

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pnpm with Zoltan Kochan 36:23

2M ago36:23

36:23

Traditional package management systems for JavaScript have faced several inefficiencies related to dependency storage, resolution, and project performance. pnpm is a fast, disk-efficient package manager for JavaScript and TypeScript projects, serving as an alternative to npm and Yarn. Due to its efficiency and reliability, pnpm is increasingly popu…

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SurrealDB 3.0 and Building Event-Driven AI Applications with Tobie Morgan Hitchcock 55:18

2M ago55:18

55:18

Modern application development often involves juggling multiple types of databases to handle diverse data models. The lack of unification can lead to complex architectures with attendant security concerns and fragmented development workflows. SurrealDB is an open-source, multi-model database developed in Rust and integrates functionalities of many …

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Sunbury Press Books Show--Rev. Dr. Reginald Davis discusses his new book, "We Need Each Other--To Transform America" 26:26

2M ago26:26

26:26

In a life of service, Rev. Dr. Reginald Davis feels a nation's problems must be solved by one and all, and his belief that through the Word of God this can be attained. "We Need Each Other--To Transform America--The Call for Unity to Solve Our National Problems Together," from the Scriptoria Press imprint, examines what Dr. Davis has experienced, a…

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414: The Pure Amateur is Vanishing: Why Everyone's a Performer Now 23:08

2M ago23:08

23:08

I was recently reading an article about The Great British Baking Show - or Bake Off, as we fans of this fun TV competition call it. It was written by someone who had been on the show, one of the competitors, and they were talking about how looking at the show from the inside made them realize something profound: there are no real amateurs anymore. …

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How Lake Union Helped Shape The Sideways Life of Denny Voss 1:06:57

2M ago1:06:57

1:06:57

In The Sideways Life of Denny Voss, Holly Kennedy brings humor & heart to a neurodivergent hero, sharing how Lake Union Publishing shaped her journey. What happens when good intentions collide with messy realities? In The Sideways Life of Denny Voss, Holly Kennedy introduces us to Denny, an unforgettable, neurodivergent character whose big heart an…

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Angular with Jessica Janiuk 51:03

2M ago51:03

51:03

Modern web development faces several challenges, particularly when building scalable, maintainable, and high-performance applications. As applications grow, managing complex user interfaces, and ensuring efficient data handling and modular code structures, becomes increasingly difficult. Angular is a TypeScript-based web framework developed by Goog…