WP Tavern

On the podcast today we have Jonathan Desrosier. Jonathan has been a contributor to WordPress Core for many years, and a WordPress Core committer since 2018. Jonathan currently works as a Senior Software Engineer at Bluehost, where he is sponsored full-time to contribute to WordPress Core through the Five for the Future program. We talk about the challenges that come with contributing to such a large and multi-faceted project, from the intricate process of decision-making, involving many stakeholders, to the occasional moments of feeling demoralised when contributions seem like a drop in the ocean. We discuss the importance of regular contributions, and about the sustainability of the open-source ecosystem, emphasising the critical role businesses need to play, and the potential risks when key contributors step back. If you’re curious about how you can contribute, what that looks likes, and where it can take you, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Jamie Marsland, and he's here to talk to me about his recent journey into YouTube content creation as well as the topic of how WordPress is positioned against the likes of Wix and Shopify. Jamie shares his strategies for effective video creation, from planning to execution, along with his thoughts on sponsored content and its place in the YouTube ecosystem. If you’re curious about the future of WordPress, content creation, or the dynamics of digital learning, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Tammie Lister. If you’ve been in the WordPress space for a while, Tammie's name is likely a familiar one. She's an 18-year veteran of the project, a talented designer, developer, and a key contributor to the project. Her journey has made her wear a variety of hats in both agency life and product development. Today, Tammie shares insights that span from the practical to the philosophical within the open-source landscape. We get to hear Tammie's perspective on this crucial experimentation phase in WordPress theme development, the balance she seeks between minimalist design and functional complexity, and her active roles, including the default theme task force. Tammie's excitement for what's next is palpable. So, whether you're a developer, a designer, or a WordPress aficionado, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Shawn Hooper. Shawn Hooper is a key figure in the Canadian WordPress community. He’s an advocate for national and local gatherings that bring WordPress enthusiasts together. Later this year, the first ever WordCamp Canada, or WCEH for short, will be held in Ottawa. The event is deep in the planning stages. The venue is secured, the speakers have been finalised, and it’s now up to the team of volunteers, of which Shawn is one, to make the event a success. We get into the challenges of creating an event of this scale. From conception until now, there’s a lot of moving parts. The venue, food, transport, volunteers, sponsors, speakers, the list could go on. It all needs to be planned, tasks assigned and executed. If attending WordPress events, and volunteering your time, is your thing, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Miriam Schwab. Miriam co-founded Strattic to enable WordPress websites to be more secure and performant. After Elementor acquired Strattic, Miriam continued leading the unit before becoming Head of WordPress Relations. With over 15 years of experience, she's a respected member of the WordPress community and a renowned speaker. In today's episode we discuss Miriam’s life. It’s a departure for this podcast which usually focuses upon the code, the plugins and the community. The idea came out of a talk which Miriam presented at WordCamp Asia this year. In this talk Miriam outlined how she carved out a successful career in the world of WordPress whilst also being the mother of seven children, and it’s fascinating. If you’re interested in hearing how one person has managed the stresses and strains of an incredibly busy life, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Josepha is the Executive Director of WordPress, a role she's held since 2019. She's been contributing since 2012 and has a special fondness for brand-new-to-WordPress learners. During the episode Josepha shares her insights on overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic. She talks about the positive strides made with the Gutenberg project and the need for improved change management during its implementation. We discuss market share of the CMS, community events, and community burnout, as well as how Josepha thinks about measuring WordPress' success, and future goals of the project. If you’re interested in the WordPress project as a whole, and how it’s run and directed, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Thomas J. Raef. Thomas is the founder of We Watch Your Website, a company that has been removing malware from websites since 2007. During that time he’s seen many changes in the methods hackers use to take over a website, and that’s the focus of the podcast today. With hackers becoming increasingly agile in their tactics, targeting everything from plugins to session cookies, Thomas brings to the table data he’s gathered from 2023 that puts the spotlight on the evolving digital threat landscape. We’re all used to hearing that plugins, themes, and sometimes WordPress Core, are the most likely culprits when something goes wrong. The story goes that out of date code, or a zero day is discovered and leveraged. Whilst Thomas does not doubt that this is true, he’s here to paint a somewhat different picture. A picture which puts the focus upon stolen session cookies as the most important factor in website attacks last year. If you've ever been concerned about the security of your WordPress site or intrigued by the intricacies of cybersecurity, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Ben Ritner. Ben is the founder of Kadence WP, a company that specialises in developing themes and plugins for WordPress, with a focus on enhancing the front end of websites. In this episode, Ben provides us with an insight into how the Kadence team managed the integration of AI into their products, shedding light on the impact it has had on their website building process. We discuss the challenges of migrating content between systems, as well as delving into the role of AI in content creation and design adaptation. Ben talks us through what guided their technical innovations to accommodate AI-generated content and images. Ben’s perspective is pretty unique, working for a company he started, right through to today where they have an install base of over 400,000 websites, all of which could potentially make use of AI, but not at the risk of breaking backwards compatibility with their own products. If you’re interested in the impact of AI in web development and are intrigued by its potential, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Mike Auteri, and we're here to talk about GatherPress, a WordPress plugin for event management within the WordPress ecosystem. Mike delves into the features and benefits of GatherPress, including its focus on replicating important event features for the WordPress community, and responses to the shift to online events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential for GatherPress to revolutionise event management within the WordPress community by tools leveraging WordPress certainly seems like something worth exploring. If you’re a WordPress event organiser, or have attended a meetup in the past and are curious about how this could be handled by a freely available plugin, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Michelle Frechette. She has a long history of community involvement, writing articles, hosting podcasts, managing events and much more. The topic under discussion today is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Michelle talks about her experiences at WordPress events, and how they were not always easy for her to attend and be a part of. It’s not all about events though. Michelle talks about the wider goals of making all aspects of the WordPress community more opening and inclusive. Being one of the voices promoting this message has not always been easy, and we hear about how Michelle copes with those who disagree with her quest to create change. If you're interested in thinking about inclusivity, and how embracing diverse perspectives can impact the WordPress community, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Anil Gupta who is the CEO and co-founder of Multidots, Multicollab, and DotStore. Of specific interest to this episode of the podcast is Multicollab, is a WordPress plugin that allows for Google Doc-style collaboration, including commenting, suggestions, and real-time editing. We discuss the prospects that during the current phase of Gutenberg development, multi collaboration should come to WordPress. As Anil explains, this is by no means an easy undertaking, given that each installation of WordPress is unique. Anil paints a picture of a bright future for WordPress, once this new feature set is completed, but it’s also interesting to see how many challenges the developers will need to overcome before it can be shipped in a future WordPress update. If you’re interested in finding out about the future of editing content in WordPress, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we explore the transformative capabilities of web browsers with guest Pascal Birchler. We discuss the power of WebAssembly, the future potential for moving desktop activities to the web, and Birchler's innovative work in image and video processing. The conversation highlights his queuing system for background image processing and a groundbreaking plugin enabling tasks such as converting animated GIFs to videos. He also shares insights into modern image formats and his project to improve WordPress performance through reduced file sizes and server resource usage. The episode concludes with a glimpse into potential future projects. Go listen...

On the podcast today we have Thomas Fanchin. Thomas is a WordPress enthusiast and is the partnership manager for Weglot, which is a solution for translating websites, not limited to WordPress. His role means that he’s immersed in the WordPress community. He’s passionate about connecting with, and learning from, others in the community. Thomas talks on the podcast about Weglot's involvement in WordPress initiatives and events. We get into how they decide what to sponsor and what they hope to get in return. If you're interested in learning about the intricacies of sponsorships, the impact of sponsor engagement at events, and the future landscape of sponsor initiatives within the WordPress community, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Emma Young. Emma is the Head of Content for Hostinger and is on the podcast today to chat through her new found love of WordPress and the community which surrounds it. Emma's journey is quite inspirational. From having almost no experience with WordPress just a few years ago, she’s now immersed deeply in all that WordPress has to offer. Just over a year ago she'd been using WordPress a little, but that was it. Then she found employment in the space and has been to all three 2023 flagship WordCamps, as well as the Community Summit. So the whole conversation is coloured with this newness and energy, which is quite infectious. If you’re looking for a way to find your place in the WordPress community, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today, we have Artemy Kaydash. Artemy is a WordPress and WooCommerce freelance developer who focuses on backend development. Most of this episode centres around the impact of AI on the landscape of web development. We explore the implications of AI tools for web developers, firstly talking about the way that AI systems have rapidly become somewhat essential and the developer's toolkit. We discussed the pivotal role AI may have in the future and how it could become an indispensable time-saver, relegating many uninteresting tasks from needing to be carried out manually. We get into the intersection of AI and web development, highlighting the need for developers to adapt and harness the potential of AI tools to remain at the forefront of innovation. If AI has piqued your curiosity in the past, especially in the WordPress space, this episode is for you.

Pooja was on the podcast a few weeks ago talking about diversity, but this time the focus is on creating learning materials for WordPress. We talk about how Pooja got involved and what opportunities are out there for people wishing to assist in the enterprise of making content for those wishing to learn more about WordPress.

On the podcast today we have Nick Diego. Nick is a sponsored full-time contributor at Automattic. His official position is a developer relations advocate, which allows him to focus on creating developer orientated content. Apart from his regular responsibilities, Nick is also involved in a separate project called the WordPress Showcase, and this is the focus of the podcast today. The WordPress showcase is a curated collection of websites built with WordPress. Its purpose is to inspire, and show the breadth of what WordPress can achieve. Currently the showcase features around a hundred sites, including large enterprises like the New York times and NASA. It aims to challenge misconceptions about WordPress, and highlight the platforms scale and reach. If you're curious about block development, or how you might convince clients that WordPress is a credible CMS, this podcast is for you.

So on the podcast today, we have Matthias Pfefferle. Matthias started using WordPress in its early stages when it was still known as b2. He became passionate about blogging and the web 2.0 era. Over time he dedicated himself to making blogging relevant and developed various tools to compete with social networks, building communities professionally and working for a European hoster. Matthias ultimately joined Automattic to focus on WordPress and the ActivityPub plugin full-time. If you want to learn more about the Fediverse, Mastodon, ActivityPub, or just want to know how to make WordPress a first-class citizen in social networks, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Marieke van de Rakt. Marieke was one of the co-founders of Yoast, but left that roll in May 2023. She's here to talk about the growing divide between those who prioritise community-oriented contributions and those driven purely by commercial interests. She expresses her concerns about the potential consequences if this division continues to widen, including the potential growth of other content management systems. We discuss the potential negative outcomes if WordPress becomes more commercialised, leading to a divide in the community, a divide which might be difficult to undo.

In this episode of Jukebox podcast, I'm joined by Javier Casares, Estela Rueda, and Courtney Robertson to discuss the challenges of translating WordPress documentation into multiple languages. They share their plans to start translating documentation, create dedicated teams, and establish a writing style guide for language translation. They stress the significance of the journey towards inclusivity and the involvement of dedicated teams for successful translation efforts. Technical aspects, such as updating content and creating tools for managing translation tasks, are also discussed. Despite the challenges, the team aims to make WordPress accessible for everyone and expand the WordPress community through translation efforts.

On the podcast today we have Jake Goldman. Jake is the President & Founder of 10up, a digital agency that builds websites and tools for content creators, leveraging open platforms like WordPress. He's on the podcast today to talk about the recent merger with Fueled and Insignia. We talk about why the merger was needed and what it brings to the table in the future. Will WordPress still be a part of this, larger, company? We also talk about Jake's view on the roll of AI on the future of WordPress, and the tools that they have been building for the last few years.

On the podcast today we have Pooja Derashri. Pooja is a co-founder of WPVibes, a plugin development company based in India. Pooja shares her insights on the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the WordPress community, and explores how you don’t need to be a coder to be a part of the community and all that it is.

On the podcast today we have Jill Binder and Birgit Olzem, and they're here to discuss the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the WordPress community. They highlight the creation of a new Slack channel and GitHub project board to address these issues. They also share their experiences in creating inclusive events, gathering diverse speakers, and making WordPress spaces more accessible. We talk about the need to lay the groundwork for DEIB and ensure everyone feels welcomed and included. We get into the challenges of written communication, especially for non-native English speakers, and the importance of understanding different perspectives. We conclude by chatting about resources and upcoming workshops aimed at promoting diversity and supporting underrepresented voices in the WordPress community.

On the podcast today we have Piermario Orecchioni, and he’s here to explore the world of website translations. He questions whether it is morally or legally necessary to provide translations on websites. Piermario discusses the challenges of translating and reviewing strings in WordPress, stressing the importance of maintaining consistency with a glossary in each language. He shares his journey as a contributor to the Polyglots team and highlights improvements in the translation process, thanks to the GlotPress platform. Piermario encourages listeners to join the Polyglots team, emphasising that coding expertise is not necessary. He also talks about the ongoing translation efforts for projects like Openverse and Learn WordPress, making WordPress education accessible in different languages. Listen in for a fascinating discussion on the importance and complexity of translations in the WordPress community.

On the podcast today we have Juliette Reinders Folmer. Juliette is a highly experienced professional in the field of coding standards. With a deep understanding of industry best practices, she has dedicated herself for many years to ensuring code quality, and consistency within WordPress. Juliette acknowledges that coding standards encompass more than just formatting and white space, they also play a crucial role in maintaining compatibility and preventing conflicts between plugins. We chat about her commitment to WordPress coding standards, and how the work that she’s done in this field have made her a trusted authority. Through her contributions and guidance, she has helped countless developers enhance their code quality, ultimately improving the overall WordPress ecosystem. Maintaining open source projects like WordPress CS comes with its challenges. Juliette tells us about the importance of financial support and adequate resources to mitigate business risk, as projects that go unmaintained can create dependency issues and pose problems during corporate audits. She speaks openly about her recent decision to step away from contributing. The project is so crucial, but underfunded, and Juliette thinks it’s time to draw a line in the sand. It’s time for contributions in return for payment.

On the podcast today we have Vagelis Papaioannou. Vagelis is a software engineer from Greece. His journey with coding began during his elementary school years, in an experimental coding class. This sparked a lifelong passion within him. His love for WordPress dates back to the early versions. He's on the podcast today to talk about two things. First we chat about his experiences contributing to WordPress events, both local meetups and WordCamps. We then get into a discussion about his work with the Learn Team; how they work and what resources they're creating. If you're a seasoned WordPress enthusiast or just starting your journey in contributions, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Olga Gleckler. Olga is a self-taught developer with many years experience. After initially pursuing a career in marketing, she turned back to her passion for programming and became a full-time developer. Olga has tried her hand in various teams within the community, ranging from Polyglots to Training, Support, and more. She challenges the commonly held misconception that only coders can contribute to the WordPress project, highlighting the many different ways individuals can contribute without coding skills. During our conversation, Olga shares some examples of non-coding contributions that can be made to the WordPress project. We talk about the process of submitting patches and contributions to WordPress, discussing the schedule for releases, and the importance of understanding the processes and deadlines. If you’ve thought about contributing to WordPress, but are not sure where to begin, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Scott Kingsley Clark. Scott is a WordPress developer who has been working with WordPress since 2007. He is well-known for his work on the Pods Framework, a popular content and custom fields plugin. He is currently involved in the WordPress Fields API project, which aims to provide a better solution for developers looking to wrangle their data, and that is the focus of the podcast today. As you’ll hear Scott is determined to contribute to the continual growth and improvement of WordPress and try to make the Fields API a reality. We talk about what the Fields API might become. The aim is to simplify the process of working with custom fields and content types in WordPress. With the Fields API, Scott hopes to unify the different methods and APIs for managing custom fields, making it easier for developers and non-developers alike to add fields to different screens within WordPress. It’s a complicated undertaking and we get into some of the areas of WordPress which might benefit from this work.

On the podcast today we have Jo Minney. Jo is the founder of a small business that specialises in building websites for organisations, mainly nonprofits and the tech industry. In this episode, Jo shares her insights on the challenges of organising WordCamps and meetups in Australia, where the large size of the country and small population present some unique obstacles. If you’re used to a European or North American setting, it’s really interesting how the geography of the country presents challenges not seen elsewhere. We discuss the importance of paying speakers and covering their travel expenses to create equal opportunities for freelancers and small businesses, as well as to give the Australian community a stronger voice. We chat about the challenges faced by the Australian WordPress community, from limited resources and burnout, to the struggle of attracting new organisers and attendees. Jo shares some exciting success stories, such as organising WordPress events and hosting a successful do_action event. If you’re interested in hearing about how the WordPress community is doing in Australia, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Jonathan Wold. Jonathan has been deeply involved in the WordPress community for almost two decades. He began writing tutorials and freelancing, which eventually led him to the agency world where he worked on large enterprise projects. In the past five to six years, Jonathan has shifted his focus to the broader WordPress ecosystem. Jonathan is one of the co-founders of Guildenberg, and in the podcast today we discuss what this project is, and how it aims to revolutionise the WordPress product ecosystem. We talk about how Guildenberg is trying to solve the problem which developers often face in the WordPress space, discoverability. The idea is to create a WordPress 'app store' as a building block to bootstrap the project to other, more community based, initiatives. If you’re a WordPress developer who is keen to find a way to create visibility for your product, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Dan Walmsley. Dan is a long-time user of WordPress, having started using it even before version one was released. With a passion for experimenting with different publishing platforms, Dan eventually discovered WordPress and has been using it ever since. Currently working at Automattic as a Code Wrangler, Dan is part of the Applied AI team. Although the team is relatively new, with only a few members, their mission is to coordinate and guide the various AI initiatives within the company. Dan talks about how Large Language Models work, and how ChatGPT has driven awareness, and demand, for AI technologies in a way that was almost impossible to predict just a year ago. This has caused many companies to become deeply interested in AI and what it can do for their business workflows. We get into whether the reality of AI can live up to the hype. We move on to explore the differences between site generators and site builders, and Dan introduces the concept of the ‘copilot era’ in which website creation can be somewhat automated. Whether you’re new to AI or have been paying attention for a while, this podcast offers a fascinating insight into its impact on society, and how it can accelerate progress in fields like scientific research.

On the podcast today we have Giulia Laco. Giulia is a web designer and developer who has been working on the web since the mid 1990s. Her primary interests are web typography & font design. This is the last of our podcasts from WordCamp Europe 2023. I spoke to Giulia in Athens because she had just finished her presentation entitled “Typographic readability in theme design & development”. In this session she explored how designers can assist with the readability of websites through careful consideration of the fonts they choose, and why they choose them. It turns out there’s quite a lot to consider, and if you’ve not given this topic much thought in the past, you’ll perhaps learn something new. We begin the podcast talking through how, at the start of the web, we were making do with a limited range of tools to help us make typographic choices. Giulia talks about the fact that the manner in which we read has changed since the dawn of the internet. Many people now mostly consume small passages of text, which need to be considered in a different way to longer writing. We round off the conversation with Giulia telling us where we can find out more, as well as some of the thought leaders in this space. It’s a fascinating conversation about a subject that often gets overlooked. Website designers, this episode is for you.

On the Jukebox Podcast today we have Aaron Reimann, and he's here to look back over the last 20 years of WordPress and tease out which aspects of WordPress' evolution were pivotal in making it the CMS that it is today. We talk about the major milestones such as the addition of plugins and themes, as well as custom post types. We get into the fact that it was by no means certain that WordPress would come to dominate the CMS space at the beginning, as other offerings such as Joomla and Drupal were also creating their own solutions. We discuss the importance of Gutenberg as well as the community which binds the whole project together. Will WordPress still be the popular choice for website building? Who knows, but it’ll be fun to see what the future holds.

On the podcast today we have Carrie Dils. Carrie is a WordPress-loving freelance developer with more than twenty years experience in web development, and full-scope WordPress projects. She teaches WordPress and front-end development courses for LinkedIn Learning, and blogs regularly about WordPress and the business of freelancing. This is another of the podcast interviews which were recorded at WordCamp Europe in Athens. It took place soon after Carrie had completed her workshop at the event. This workshop was entitled ‘International Appeal: Making Your Themes and Plugins Translatable’. In the podcast we talk about how developers can make their plugins and themes available in multiple languages. Carrie explain why this is a good idea as well as how you might achieve this. She also discusses some of the resources which have been most helpful to her when learning about this important topic. If you're a developer who is curious about making your code available to a wider audience through internationalisation, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Louise Towler. She joined me at the recent WordCamp Europe in Athens to talk about websites and making them more sustainable. Louise is the founder of Indigo Tree, a UK based agency with deep expertise in WordPress websites. She gave a presentation at WordCamp Europe entitled, Digital sustainability: The benefits for business and the environment in which she emphasised the impact websites can have on our planet. Her aim was to deliver practical tips for users and developers to help them make informed decisions. This presentation is the focus of today's podcast, and we cover quite a lot of ground. If you’re interested in how your sites can become more sustainable, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have James Dominy. James is a computer scientist with a masters degree in bioinformatics. He lives in Ireland, working at the WPEngine Limerick office. This is the second podcast recorded at WordCamp Europe 2023 in Athens. James gave a talk at the event about the influence of AI on the WordPress community, and how it’s going to disrupt so many of the roles which WordPressers currently occupy. We talk about the recent rise of ChatGPT and the fact that it’s made AI available to almost anyone. In less than twelve months many of us have gone from never touching AI technologies to using them on a daily basis to speed up some aspect of our work. The discussion moves on to the rate at which AI systems might evolve, and whether or not they’re truly intelligent, or just a suite of technologies which masquerade as intelligent. This gets into the subject of whether or not AI is in any meaningful way innately intelligent, or just good at making us think that it is, and whether or not the famous Turing test is a worthwhile measure of the abilities of an AI. We then move on from the conceptual understanding of AI to more concrete ways it can be implemented. What ways can WordPress users implement AI right now, and what innovations might we reasonably expect to be available in the future? It’s a fascinating conversation whether or not you’ve used AI tools in the past.

On the podcast today we have Angela Jin. She's the Head of Programs and Contributor Experience at Automattic, where she oversees the work of multiple teams dedicated to the WordPress open source project. Several weeks ago, Angela wrote a blog post entitled The Next Generation of WordCamps. It laid out how WordCamps have been run for many years, as well as trying to begin a conversation about how they might look in the future. After much consultation Angela thinks that it's time to see if varying the format of WordCamps and other WordPress events might be beneficial for the community. But what are these changes and how might they be rolled out? Angela talks though this and more on the podcast today. If you’re curious about how WordPress events might change in the future, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Robert Abela. Robert is the CEO and founder of MelaPress, formerly known as WP White Security. They make niche WordPress security and admin plugins. He has over 18 years experience in the IT and software industries, and has written numerous web security articles and white papers. We all know that your website is potentially under attack 24 hours a day, 365 days of this year, but why is that, and what can we do to mitigate that risk? Robert talks today about the threats posed to your website in terms of WordPress Core, plugins and themes. We also talk about how website security is an ongoing process, what worked yesterday might now work tomorrow and so your organisation needs to be mindful of this as an ongoing concern. The discussion moves on to the layers of tech upon which your website is built as well and the need to prune your legitimate users from time to time. If you’re curious about how you can secure your WordPress website as it grows, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Mike McAlister, and he’s here today to talk about his experiences creating a block-based theme. Mike is a veteran product developer and designer in the WordPress space. He’s focused on the future of WordPress with his new product brand, Ollie. We talk about what a block theme is and why Mike is confident that it's a good time to jump on board as a developer. We also chat about how the Ollie uses patterns and the design tools built into WordPress to showcase just how good block themes can be. If you’re wanting to develop block-based themes, or are just curious about how other developers are building them, this podcast is for you.

Today is a little bit of a departure for the podcast. It's an episode all about the last 20 years of WordPress. You're going to hear a round table discussion with four WordPressers talking about their thoughts on the last 20 years. It features Meher Bala, Robert Windisch, Simon Kraft and Tammie Lister, with David Bisset as the discussion moderator. They cover many topics including a memorable design or refresh in WordPress' history, the most notable enhancement to WordPress core (that wasn’t Gutenberg related), and a memorable community moment or cause. There's also lots of 'forgotten' history and features also come up in the discussion. So, regardless of how long you’ve been involved with WordPress, you’ll learn and maybe have your memories jogged!

On the podcast today we have Mario Santos and Luis Herranz. They both work for Automattic, but are sponsored to work full-time in WordPress. The Interactivity API is the main focus of the podcast today, and if you're working with blocks and dynamically displaying data, this is sure to be of interest to you. The conversation is framed around a blog post written by Mario entitled The Interactivity API, a Better Developer Experience in Building Interactive Blocks. In this, Mario shows examples of what website interactivity is. In short, it’s the ability for content to be amended on-the-fly without a page refresh. We get into the weeds a little and talk about the approach the team took when building the API. The project is still experimental, and they’re looking for people to test and report back on what they find to move the Interactivity API forwards.

Today is a little bit of a departure for the podcast. It's an episode all about the last 20 years of WordPress. You're going to hear a round table discussion with four WordPressers talking about their thoughts on the last 20 years. It features Sarah Gooding, Aurooba Ahmed, Masestro Stevens and Jess Frick, with David Bisset as the discussion moderator. They cover many topics including memorial WordPress release, a WordCamp or WordCamp experience, the most notable State of the Word announcement. It's great to hear so many varied opinions about what's been of importance in the evolution of WordPress.

On the podcast today we have Alex Standiford. He’s a web developer originally from Dover, Ohio, and has been tinkering with web technologies for years, but started his career as a web developer in 2015. Alex has built WordPress plugins, websites, and web applications, and is an active contributor to the WordPress community, making updates to documentation errors, and participating in the organisation of WordCamps. He's here today to talk about how he’s noticed a shift over time in his own content creation. He’s put less effort into his WordPress site and has posted most of his ideas on social platforms. This however is something that Alex has decided to stop doing. For a variety of reasons he wants to take back control of his own content and make his website the centrepiece of his endeavours. We talk about how platforms open platforms like Mastodon are making this possible; how he’s using plugins and his own coding skills to make it possible for cross posting of posts and comments between Mastodon and his WordPress site. It’s a really interesting conversation about the recent surge in popularity of these distributed social networks and how WordPress can become a first class citizen in your digital life.

On the podcast today we have Mark Westguard. Mark is an agency owner and the developer behind the WS Form plugin, and he’s on the podcast to chart his journey in the WordPress space and the different ways he’s explored to grow the reach of the plugin. First up, we talk about why Mark started to use WordPress, then we move onto the subject of turning a well-developed plugin into a viable business. We then explore the subject of turning a well-developed plugin into a viable business. It’s one thing to build a product, but if you’re going to make it commercial, much of the work will revolve around ensuring that the world knows about it. Marketing is a relentless enterprise and one that you should not ignore or underestimate. We also get into the subject of pricing, and what Mark felt was the right place to pitch his plugin. Is the WordPress ecosystem guilty of expecting a lot from plugins at prices which are realistic?

On the podcast today we have Ahmed Kabir Chaion. Ahmed has a genuine love of the WordPress community. He’s been an organiser at multiple WordPress events, including WordCamp Asia, the WordPress Accessibility Day, WordFest Live, WordCamp Santa Clarita, and the WordPress Translation Day. As if that were not enough, he’s also served as co-organiser of the Dhaka WordPress Meetup Chapter, is a former Design Team Rep and a current Polyglots Team Rep. So, Ahmed’s really engaged in the WordPress community, but how did this all happen? The podcast today focuses on Ahmed’s journey into WordPress. The podcast is all about how you can find a place in the WordPress community no matter what your strengths are. Maybe you’re into writing code, or SEO. Perhaps marketing or translations are more your thing. He tells us how he got started just by showing up repeatedly, slowly working out areas where he thought his contributions would be most valuable. It’s a lovely tale of a community member who is truly inspired to make the project better.

On the podcast today we have Ryan Welcher. He's a developer advocate sponsored by Automattic. He has been developing with WordPress since 2009 and before becoming a developer advocate, worked for agencies large and small and as a freelancer. If you’ve been using WordPress for any length of time, you’ll have come across the new paradigm for content creation, blocks. Every part of your website can now be created and amended as a block. Pages, posts, text, images, headers, footers, navigation and more. This has widened what’s possible for people who don’t want to mess around with the code of their website. You can add in blocks for almost anything, and change how it looks and behaves from within the block editor interface. Ryan is on the podcast today to tell you about the create-block tool, and how it can make your pathway towards block creation a little easier. It’s not a tool which is going to build the blocks for you, but it will help you set up the environment and build process, which you need to get started. Really, it’s all about saving you time and effort on things which don’t really get you building your blocks, but which you need to do that work. If you’ve thought about creating your own blocks, but have been put off by the technical barrier, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Steve Bruner and Timothy Jacobs. They've both been very busy in the WordPress space, and what brings them together is that they’re both founders of a SaaS app called Engine Awesome, where Steve is the CEO and Timothy is the CTO. What has this got to do with WordPress, you might ask. Well, they’re here today to talk about Gutenberg, but not how you might expect. It’s Gutenberg outside of WordPress, but Gutenberg nonetheless. Gutenberg is open source. You are free to download it, modify it, and use it in whatever way you like. When Steve and Timothy began working on their new project, and needed a way for their clients to interact with it, they found Gutenberg was the perfect tool for the job. We talk about what benefits they’ve gained by using Gutenberg. How it’s saved them time, and how it’s fast becoming a stable and mature product, which is easy for non-technical users to understand. If you’re looking to build your own SaaS app, or you’re just curious about how Gutenberg is being deployed outside of WordPress, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today, we have Nathan Ingram. Nathan is the host at iThemes Training where he teaches WordPress and business development topics via live webinar. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, he has been working with clients to build websites since 1995. He’s also the creator of MonsterContracts, which helps WordPress professionals create contracts for their client work, and it's contracts which are the focus of the podcast today. If you’ve worked directly with clients, then you’ll know that things don’t always go according to plan. Assets might not be delivered on time. The client does not respond to your emails. The expectations of the client begins to creep away from the original proposal. We talk about how contracts can protect you, but also provide clarity to your clients about the process you follow. It’s an interesting conversation which makes contracts seem less adversarial and more about ensuring that your WordPress website projects run as smoothly as possible.

On the podcast today we have Steve Persch and Brian Perry. They’re both employed at Pantheon, an enterprise website operations platform, and they’re here to talk about the evolution of website hosting. Back when the internet started, hosting was a fairly straightforward enterprise. You created HTML files and uploaded them to a server. That was it. An HTML file was a page. Things have changed a lot. We’ve got CDNs, headless, React, Gatsby, Node.js and much more. Is it even possible for the non-technical to have any understanding of where their website is? What’s certain is that there’s no end in sight in terms of the rate of innovation in the website hosting space. What’s popular today might not be several years from now, and so it’s a timely discussion of what Steve and Brain see as the best bets for the future.

On the podcast today we have Joost De Valk. If you’ve been in the WordPress space for any length of time, it’s likely that you’ve come across the Yoast SEO plugin. This was the brainchild of the guest today, Joost, same pronunciation, different spelling. We talk about how Joost found WordPress and quickly started working on his SEO plugin. How it rapidly grew and became his career. We discuss the WordPress landscape during this time and whether it’s more difficult now to have the type of success that his plugin received, given that there are more players vying for our attention. The conversation then moves into why the plugin was recently sold to Newfold Digital. What were the guardrails that were put in place to ensure that the plugin continued and the employees felt safe? We end up talking about whether it's time for the WordPress Admin area to receive a UI refresh.