Oxide and Friends

Hosted by Oxide Computer Company

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Episodes

184

Latest episode

Jul 2026

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About the show

Oxide hosts a weekly Discord show where we discuss a wide range of topics: computer history, startups, Oxide hardware bringup, and other topics du jour. These are the recordings in podcast form. Join us live (usually Mondays at 5pm PT) https://discord.gg/gcQxNHAKCB Subscribe to our calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/c_318925f4185aa71c4524d0d6127f31058c9e21f29f017d48a0fca6f564969cd0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Listen to episodes

60 recent

July 31, 2026Episode 171 hr 24 min

The Open Weight Revolution with Simon Willison

Simon Willison joined Bryan and Adam to discuss a wild couple of weeks in AI. First, we have a high-profile, AI-induced, AI-diagnosed security incident. Next we have the rise of frontier-class open-weights models. Who's for or against open weights? Do they make for a more or less secure future? Exciting times! In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , our special guest was Simon Willison . Previously, on Oxide and Friends: OxF: Shell Game with Evan Ratliff OxF: Discovering the XZ Backdoor with Andres Freund OxF: Predictions 2025 OxF: Predictions 2026!! OxF: Bookclub: How Life Works by Philip Ball OxF: OpenAI's Boardroom Brawl Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Gerald the turkey terrorizes Oakland's rose garden ABC7: Gerald the turkey and the Morcom Rose Garden APD cautions residents after aggressive wild turkey attacks elderly Alamedan Hawking radiation DHH's racist complaints Grok's "MechaHitler" antisemitic spree Simon on Grok aka "MechaHitler" Hugging Face security incident, July 2026 OpenAI on the Hugging Face model evaluation security incident Greg Brockman's political donations and the Leading the Future super PAC OpenAI co-founder and wife donate $5.5M to save the home of bald eagles Jackie and Shadow Firecracker microVM Meltdown (security vulnerability) Kernel page-table isolation Jensen Huang on X Electronic design automation Golden Gate Claude Tethics Halloween documents Zizians Biohazard (book) CRISPR Oliver Sacks: criticism and falsifications How Alice Hamilton waged a one-woman campaign to get the lead out of everything American Poison by Daniel Stone Lead–crime hypothesis Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas encyclical Rerum novarum If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

July 23, 2026Episode 161 hr 4 min

The Past, Present, and Future of Digital Storytelling with Ramy Katrib

Ramy Katrib has been at the forefront of digital storytelling for over 25 years, with his post-production company, DigitalFilm Tree, earning a reputation as one of Hollywood's most technically adventurous post-production houses. He joined Bryan and Adam to explore the past, present, and future of digital storytelling. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , our special guest was Ramy Katrib. If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

June 27, 2026Episode 151 hr 14 min

The Oxide 3D Explorer

Recently, Oxide rolled out an eye-popping 3D rack explorer at explorer.oxide.computer. Oxide's designer extraordinaire, Ben Leonard, joined Bryan and Adam to describe the process of turning CAD drawings into an interactive site. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , our special guest was Oxide colleague, Ben Leonard . Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: The Explorer its repo Pierre Lamond oral history PRs needed! If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

June 13, 2026Episode 141 hr 28 min

The Hardest Kind of Unsafe Rust

We love Rust for how much the compiler helps enforce safety. But sometimes it's up to us to uphold the complex--and often unclear--expectations of what constitutes safety on our own. Oxide colleague, Rain, joins Bryan and Adam to talk about the technical details of what it takes to impose safety on the hardest type of unsafe Rust. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , we were joined by special guest star, Rain Paharia , Previously on Oxide and Friends: OxF s06e02 - Engineering Rigor in the LLM Age OxF s03e01 - Predictions 2023! Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Oxide Blog: iddqd, or the hardest kind of unsafe Rust PRs needed! If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

June 9, 2026Episode 131 hr 18 min

This Old Repo: LLMs and the Restoration of BattleTris

Bryan and Adam discuss the process of restoring a software project--BattleTris--untouched and unbuilt in over 20 years! How did LLMs help restore code Bryan started in the mid-1990s and what does that teach us about developing and maintaining software in the future? Your hosts were Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal . Previously on Oxide and Friends OxF s03e24 - Fork in the road for Terraform? OxF s06e02 - Engineering Rigor in the LLM Age OxF s06e01 - Predictions 2026!! Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: BattleTris on github Surge 2011 ~ Closing Plenary ~ Theo Schlossnagle From the Governor of Delaware If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

May 27, 2026Episode 121 hr 2 min

Rooting for the Home Team with Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel

Two years ago we introduced listeners to the Oakland Ballers, the startup returning baseball to the city of Oakland. Bryan and Adam were joined again by Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel to discuss the Ballers first two--highly successful--seasons, and to announce some exciting new collaborations between the Ballers and Oxide! In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , speakers included Paul Freedman , Bryan Carmel , and Steve Tuck . Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: OxF S4 E11: A Baseball Startup with Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel OxF S4 E7: Data Visualization Bryan's blog: A parade in Oakland Ballers x Oxide hackathon If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

May 16, 2026Episode 111 hr 6 min

The Tale of Reverso

Oxide ships a rack scale system--how to test the manufacturing of the backplane and switches? Previously we've been using a collection of sacrificial servers, but this was unwieldy, expensive, and unscalable--all big problems as we ramp up manufacturing to 100s a month! Enter "Reverso", an extremely simple test fixture, that uncovered an extremely complex bug. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , speakers included Oxide colleagues, Robert "RFK" Keith , Adam "The Hammer" Suczewski, and Matt Keeter . Previously, on Oxide and Friends: OxF s01e26 - The Pragmatism of Hubris OxF s01e24 - The Sidecar Switch OxF s03e13 - The Network Behind the Network OxF s05e23 - Adventures in Data Corruption Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Adam Leventhal, Hardware Engineer dendrite Paddle-to-the-Sea PRs needed! If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

May 10, 2026Episode 101 hr 29 min

AI in Computer Science Education

AI is an existential topic for all aspects of education--for none more so than Computer Science. Bryan and Adam were joined by Kathi Fisler and Shriram Krishnamurthi, professors of Computer Science at Brown, to discuss their experimental introductory course that strongly incorporates agentic programming. What do students take away from their "smoke the whole pack" approach? In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , speakers included Shriram Krishnamurthi , Kathi Fisler , and Will. Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: OxF s5e29: AI in Higher Education with Michael Littman Greenspun's tenth rule Andy van Dam Brown CS15 Tetris Wesleyan Tetris Generating Programs Trivially: Student Use of Large Language Models Data-Centricity: A Challenge and Opportunity for Computing Education -- Shriram Krishnamurthi and Kathi Fisler LLMs ⭢ Regular Expressions, Responsibly! If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

May 7, 2026Episode 91 hr 24 min

Mechanical Engineering at Oxide [chapter images]

Bryan and Adam were joined by members of the Oxide mechanical engineering team to talk the mechanical challenges of building a rack-scale computer, and--in particular--of scaling manufacturing from just a few racks to hundreds. NOTE: Keep an eye on the chapter art for the pictures under discussion. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , we were joined by Oxide Colleagues Elliott Donlon, Brooks Willis, Doug Wibben, and Ben Williams. Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Topic [@M:SS](link into recording) Leventhal's Conundrum PRs needed! If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

May 3, 2026Episode 81 hr 31 min

Are LLMs Insufficently Lazy?

Brogrammer Garry Tan has been boasting about "writing" tens of thousands of lines of code each day as the paragon of productivity. Is this really the right way to think about building systems? Bryan and Adam were joined by Polish software engineer, Gregorein, who took a closer look into what Tan was generating to discuss what was found. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal , our guest (who we introduced a mere 4 minutes in) was gregorein . Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Gregorein's twitter thread Bryan's blog: The Peril of Laziness Lost PRs needed! If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar . We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!