Elm Town

Hosted by Jared M. Smith

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May 2026

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A podcast about the people making and using the Elm language, and the things that they do.

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May 19, 20261 hr 52 min

Elm Town 90 – Wonder: Contorting yourself with Ari Schlesinger

Ari Schlesinger illuminates a unique path of social responsibility carved through the tech world, using feminism as a guide while bearing attacks, criticism, and contortion. That trail led Ari to ask how programming languages shape society and, eventually, to research Elm—the compiler, error messages, and community. Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com. Music by Jesse Moore. Edited by Toni Cañete. Recording date: 2025.06.06 Guest Ari Schlesinger Show notes [00:00:25] Sponsored by Logistically [00:02:27] Introduction (for real) University of Georgia Socially Responsible Tech Lab "A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design", co-authored with Felienne Hermans Addressing Computing's Discrimination Problem: A Framework for Anti-Discriminatory Computing by Ari Schlesinger Elm Town 88 – Wonder: Unconscious bias with Felienne Hermans [00:04:57] Origin story FemTechNet Alex Juhasz Programmed Visions: Software and Memory by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun [00:14:33] Why Did School Suck? [00:20:41] A little thing called Y Combinator and 4chan happened HASTAC (Cathy Davidson) "A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna Haraway [00:30:43] Anti-discriminatory framework "Good intentions are not enough: how informatics interventions can worsen inequality" by Tiffany C. Veinot, Hannah Mitchell, and Jessica S. Ancker Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy [00:43:00] Language shapes reality Sapir-Whorf hypothesis [00:49:22] Glaciology "Glaciers, gender, and science: A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research" by Mark Carey, M. Jackson, Alessandro Antonello, and Jaclyn Rushing [00:58:11] Relation of Ari's research to Elm Strange Loop Papers We Love Conf "The Hard Parts of Open Source" by Evan Czaplicki at Strange Loop 2018 Propaganda by Edward Bernays The Last Whole Earth Catalog [01:04:32] Elm error messages [01:20:36] Slackbot / Feminism bell hooks - Feminism is for Everybody [01:29:22] Why study Elm? "The Economics of Programming Languages" by Evan Czaplicki at Strange Loop 2023 [01:32:14] Contorting yourself "When We Have Never Been Human, What Is to Be Done?: Interview with Donna Haraway" by Nicholas Gane in Theory, Culture & Society The Good Place Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [01:43:00] Picks Ari's picks Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict by William Ury Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (TV series) Programmed Visions: Software and Memory by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Feminism Confronts Technology by Judy Wajcman TechnoFeminism by Judy Wajcman ACM TechBrief: Advancing Accessibility in the Digital World PBS / Sesame Street Taskmaster The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing Jared's picks "Queer Theory for Lichens" (archive) by David Griffiths https://jayjinsing.github.io/files/QueerTheoryLichens.pdf (PDF) Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake The Rehearsal on Max by Nathan Fielder Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich

March 24, 20261 hr 0 min

Elm Town 89 – Elm Camp 2026

Elm Camp organizers Katja Mordaunt and Tomáš Látal share details about the June 15th-18th, 2026 event in Olomouc, Czech Republic, and extend an open invitation to Elm-curious folks in the broader community. Tickets on sale as of publishing! Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com. Music by Jesse Moore. Edited by Toni Cañete. Recording date: 2026.01.28 Guests Katja Mordaunt Tomáš Látal Show notes [00:00:33] Sponsored by Logistically [00:00:54] Introducing Katja Mordaunt & Tomáš Látal Elm Town 59 – Elm Camp with Katja Mordaunt Elm Town 78 – Elm Camp 2024 with Katja Mordaunt and Wolfgang Schuster Scrive [00:06:22] Elm Camp Info elm.camp [00:07:33] The town of Olomouc Elm Camp Discord [00:13:28] The venue: Park Hotel Prachárna Hotel Prachárna [00:19:50] Unconference format Elm Town 85 – Wander: Elm Camp 2025 [00:27:16] Intentionally Elm-curious Elm Town 81 – Inspired: Bubble Tea with Christian Rocha Lambda Days [00:34:16] The beauty of Elm Camp [00:39:41] Picks Katja's pick "Teaching Haskell to Kids" Tomáš' picks Coderetreat Darknet Diaries Kagi Small Web "The Small Web is Beautiful" by Ben Hoyt Jujutsu

December 16, 20251 hr 44 min

Elm Town 88 – Wonder: Unconscious bias with Felienne Hermans

Felienne Hermans relates her journey in programming—writing The Programmer's Brain, uncovering biases within computing culture & herself, and building the multilingual, gradual-syntax programming language Hedy. We even dip into AI (trigger warning) and dumb phones.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Edited by Toni Cañete.Recording date: 2025.04.08GuestFelienne HermansShow notes[00:00:26] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:48] Introducing Felienne HermansHedy - Textual programming made easyThe Programmer's Brain by Felienne Hermans"How to teach programming (and other things)?" at Strange Loop 2019"A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design", co-authored with Ari SchlesingerElm Town 59 – Elm Camp with Katja MordauntCode Reading ClubThe Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman[00:04:09] The costs of misconceptionsScience Mike[00:09:51] Journey to computer science[00:14:33] Programming culture: challenges and creativityElm Town 48 – Making Little Games Like Presents with Martin StewartElm Town 64 – The network effect with Martin StewartAdvent of Code[00:21:36] Bias and building a multi-lingual programming languageMark Guzdial's blog: Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take[00:28:35] Hedy's gradual syntaxAddressing Computing’s Discrimination Problem: A Framework for Anti-Discriminatory Computing by Ari SchlesingerThe Will to Change by bell hooks[00:38:12] Programming language community, learning, and valuing hard things[00:47:19] How language design choices affect cognitive load"The Hard Parts of Open Source" by Evan Czaplicki at Strange Loop 2019Elm Town 58 – Unblocking users with quality software with Tessa KellyEpisode 68: Elm and ADD with Dillon Kearns and Jeroen Engels[00:56:22] History of women in computing"Female Inventors and Narratives of Innovation in Late Twentieth-Century Computing" by Myra ChengNathan Ensmenger[01:03:40] Kotodama (言霊): What's in a name?Feeling of Computing 75 • A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design by Felienne Hermans[01:08:49] Switching to a dumb phone[01:16:48] AI"An Age of Hyperabundance" by Laura PrestonIn Praise of Messy Lives by Katie Roiphe[01:30:10] PicksFelienne's picks"An Age of Hyperabundance" by Laura PrestonDeath Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond by Tamara KneeseCrisis of Narration by Byung-Chul HanJared's pickThe End of This Day's Business by Katharine Burdekin

September 23, 202548 min

Elm Town 87 – Wonder: From machine to mob learning with Sophie Collard

Sophie Collard describes her transition from environmental engineering to software, mob programming to teach functional concepts, and building a startup app with Elm.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Recording date: 2025.02.24GuestSophie CollardShow notes[00:00:29] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:50] Introducing SophieLondon Air UI using Elm & Leafletjs"Lessons learnt from writing 10k LOC in Elm" at Lambda Days 2024sophiecollard/jsonpath[00:01:33] Journey to programming[00:10:35] Learning Elm[00:14:30] Questions from Monica McGuigan on learning[00:17:41] Mob programmingMobster by Dillon KearnsZed channels for collaboration[00:23:47] London Air UICustom elements (Elm Guide chapter)[00:27:48] RailpackersRailpackersxkcd: Standards[00:33:51] The Jackson guitar project (Chushin Gakki)Chushin Gakki Jacksons Directory (GitHub)elm-pagesElm Town[00:41:41] sophiecollard/jsonpath[00:44:51] PicksSophie's picksElm in Action by Richard FeldmanProgramming Elm by Jeremy FairbankJared's pickFuture of Coding (a.k.a. Feeling of Comput(er)ing)

September 2, 202556 min

Elm Town 86 – Wonder: Linking notes for active growth with Joël Quenneville

Joël Quenneville conveys his growth process—taking notes, creating connections between ideas, and sharing those artifacts.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Recording date: 2025.01.30GuestJoël QuennevilleShow notes[00:00:19] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:39] Introducing JoëlSome blog posts by Joël"Structuring Conditionals in a Wizard""The Mechanics of Maybe""Problem Solving with Maybe"Sample Joël podcast appearancesElm Radio 32 - "Elm's Universal Pattern"Elm Radio 52 - "Category Theory in Elm with Joël Quenneville"SW Unscripted - "Conditional Cardinality with Joël Quenneville"Some of Joël's conference talks"Rolling Random Romans" at elm-conf 2016"A Number by Any Other Name" at Elm in the Spring 2019"Inverting a binary tree with 1 line of Elm" from an Elm Online meetup in 2021[00:01:51] Getting started crafting software[00:09:37] Discovering Elm[00:11:50] JSON Decoders, and then...Reasoning by Analogy by Joël QuennevilleGetting Unstuck with Elm JSON Decoders by Joël QuennevilleElm’s Universal Pattern by Joël Quenneville[00:23:57] Inspiration, artifacts, and note-takingLearning by helping out in the Elm Slack by Joël QuennevilleMy Note Taking System Gives Me Constant Ideas by Joël QuennevilleObsidianThe Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read by Ryan HolidayGingko Writer [00:39:11] Active versus passive growthTurning experience into growth by Joël Quenneville[00:49:47] Collect mental models and heuristicsTriangle of Separation by Joël QuennevilleElm Town 76 – Between the paving stones with Andrew LenardsAndrew's Arboriculture zine No. 001 – Joël's Triangle[00:54:18] PicksJoël's pickHow To Take Smart Notes by Sönke AhrensJared's pickJesse Welles

July 22, 20251 hr 0 min

Elm Town 85 – Wander: Elm Camp 2025

In a short break from the Wonder series, John Pavlick, Wolfgang Schuster, and Tristan Pendergrass join Jared to report on the Elm Camp 2025 unconference experience in Michigan, USA.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Recording date: 2025.07.07GuestsJohn PavlickWolfgang SchusterTristan PendergrassShow notes[00:00:14] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:35] Elm Camp sponsorsNoRedInkConcentric[00:01:09] IntroductionsTony Bradley @abradley2 (GitHub)Tony Bradley's elm-i18next-gen[00:06:27] Setting the sceneelm.campRonora Lodge & Retreat Center[00:13:15] Unconference formatFeedback.one[00:26:48] SessionsElm Town 81 – Inspired: Bubble Tea with Christian RochaWolfgang's blog series on Elm virtual DOMsBring Your Own DOM – Part 1 – PortalsBring Your Own DOM – Part 2 – TUIsWolfgang's elm-ink (GitHub) repoelm-tooling/elm-language-server initially by Kolja (@razze)Elm - CommunityElmcraft - CommunityElm LandLamderaSimon Lydell's elm-safe-virtual-domReact DOM issue - Dan Abramov's link to Chromium issue & hack[00:52:27] PicksJohn's picksJohn's jmpavlick/qZokkaMichiganWolfgang's picksSummer Games Done QuickThe Last Phi HunterRichard Feldman's course on Frontend Masters Write a Compiler That Understands TypesTristan's pickVantageJared's picksParks (1st edition)Elmcraft.org

June 3, 202555 min

Elm Town 84 – Wonder: Elm all the way down with Justin Lubin

Justin Lubin sketches his journey from undergrad research at UChicago with Ravi Chugh on output-directed and bidirectional programming environments (Sketch-n-Sketch) to graduate work at UC Berkeley with Sarah E. Chasins, focusing on programming language theory, researching how statically-typed functional programmers write code, and beyond, to helping domain experts.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Recording date: 2024.12.09GuestJustin LubinShow notes[00:00:44] Introducing JustinSketch-n-Sketch"How statically-typed functional programmers write code" by Justin Lubin and Sarah E. Chasins[00:07:07] Elm all the way down[00:08:36] What is Sketch-n-Sketch?Hazel[00:11:03] From Parker Ziegler: Getting started in a large Elm codebase[00:13:01] The Sketch-n-Sketch cinematic universeManiposynth[00:22:21] Research on how statically-typed functional programmers write codeElm Town 83 – Wonder: Meeting people where they are with Ryan Haskell[00:35:11] From Parker Ziegler: Ergonomics vs. hindrances[00:40:25] Fork of the Elm compilerravichugh/sketch-n-sketch (GitHub)[00:45:04] Cobbler"Equivalence by Canonicalization for Synthesis-Backed Refactoring" by Justin Lubin, Jeremy Ferguson, Kevin Ye, Jacob Yim, and Sarah E. ChasinsCobbler (GitHub)[00:47:36] Justin's current work[00:51:45] PicksJustin's pickDesign at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems by Joan Greenbaum and Morten KyngJared's pickEntangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

April 15, 202544 min

Elm Town 83 – Wonder: Meeting people where they are with Ryan Haskell

Kicking off the Wonder series, Ryan Haskell shares his approach to teaching Elm, his gap year adventures, and his current work at Brilliant. He gives insights into creating accessible learning materials, building games, and finding inspiration outside the Elm ecosystem.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Edited by Toni Cañete.Recording date: 2024.11.27GuestRyan HaskellShow notes[00:00:21] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:43] Introductionryan.townWelcome to Elm! YouTube seriesElm Town 62 – The Map to Elm LandElm Landryan-haskell/date-format[00:01:34] Gap Year[00:03:31] Building a game in GodotTurbo Champ[00:11:01] Welcome to Elm YouTube SeriesRichard Feldman's "Teaching Elm to Beginners" (elm-conf 2017)[00:17:06] Teaching style"Parentheses are like hugs" - from Section 1.5 Advanced Functions[00:24:52] From Wolfgang: Finding inspirationInspiration for Vendr's elm-gql from watching Ben Awad's videos[00:29:07] Remaking Ryan's website[00:32:41] Working at BrilliantBrilliantElm Town 57 – Brilliant ways to use Elm with Aaron StrickRed Blob Games[00:39:15] PicksRyan's picksDracula by Bram StokerThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeVite 6.0The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)Horizon Zero DawnSatisfactoryJared's picksSatisfactory Night Fever by Dan BullRichard Feldman's "Teaching Elm to Beginners" (elm-conf 2017)Frontend Masters Elm courses by Richard FeldmanIntroduction to Elm, v2Advanced ElmElm in Action by Richard Feldman (Manning)Welcome to Elm! YouTube series

December 17, 20241 hr 20 min

Elm Town 82 – Inspired: Tools with Dillon and Jeroen

In the final episode of the Inspired series, Dillon Kearns and Jeroen Engels wax philosophically with Jared about what it means to be inspired by Elm within the context of tools. We chat about feedback, guarantees, and contracts as lenses for building tools.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Edited by Toni Cañete.Recording date: 2024.08.29GuestsJeroen EngelsDillon KearnsShow notes[00:00:50] Sponsored by Logistically[00:01:14] IntroductionElm RadioElm Town 61 – Turning the pagesElm Town 65 – Let's roll with itElm Town 79 – Inspired: Gleam with HayleighElm Town 80 – Inspired: Roc with Richard FeldmanElm Town 81 – Inspired: Bubble Tea with Christian Rocha[00:02:20] What does it mean to be inspired by Elm?[00:05:53] Elm philosophyEvan's "Elm philosophy" threadelm-reviewelm-pages[00:25:44] Simplicity is not just for beginners[00:32:38] What are tools?[00:33:56] Feedback & guarantees[00:39:26] Tool as contract (not slicing hot dogs nor fingers)[00:45:18] Lobbying for tool as contractHayleigh's elm-web-audio[00:48:09] Tool as an expression of a point of viewDillon's elm-graphql[00:50:37] RocRoc[00:53:04] Contracts & purityLamderaMatthew Griffith's elm-ui[01:08:09] What's next for Elm?[01:13:38] PicksJeroen's picksElm CampSave the Earth 🌍Elm RadioDillon's picksBe kind ❤elm-pages scriptsJared's pickselm-pages scripts spinners Pages.Script.SpinnerAlex Korban's Elm Catalog

October 31, 202441 min

Elm Town 81 – Inspired: Bubble Tea with Christian Rocha

Christian Rocha shares his experience building the TUI framework Bubble Tea based on The Elm Architecture. We talk about Impostor Syndrome, mentors, and how he incorporates his background in design at Charm.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Edited by Toni Cañete.Recording date: 2024.10.10GuestChristian RochaShow notes[00:00:23] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:41] Introducing ChristianCharmBubble TeaElm Town 79 – Inspired: Gleam with HayleighElm Town 80 – Inspired: Roc with Richard Feldmanlearning elm, so I don't need to use javascript by bashbunni[00:02:12] Origin story[00:08:17] Mentor John Weir[00:10:58] Taking The Elm Architecture to the command line[00:13:51] John Weir's question[00:15:48] Bubble Tea related toolsGlowBubblesLip GlossGumSoft ServeGlamour[00:20:23] Background in design/branding[00:23:35] What is VHS?VHSasciinema[00:26:08] How has the architecture of Bubble Tea held up?[00:27:35] What are you excited about these days?Mitchell Hashimoto's GhosttyRoc[00:32:44] PicksChristian's picksGo Mecha Ball"The Great"TampopoBromptonJared's picksTeardownDan BullGlass AnimalsBicycle Diaries by David Byrne