Episodes

Joel Grus is the author of the Leanpub book Ten Essays on Fizz Buzz: Meditations on Python, mathematics, science, engineering, and design. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Joel about his background, his career, a little bit about his work at the the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, his book, what Fizz Buzz is and why it...

[This Frontmatter Podcast episode was originally published on 2020-04-15...]

Gabriel Volpe is the author of the Leanpub book Practical FP in Scala: A hands-on approach. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Gabriel about his background, growing up in Argentina and how he got into computers and technology, choosing ...

Chris Penner is the author of the Leanpub book Optics By Example: Functional Lenses in Haskell. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Chris about his background, how he got into programming, how he specifically got into programming in Haskell, moving to work for a time in Berlin, why a monad in Haskell is like a "program...

Nigel Poulton is the author of the Leanpub books Docker Deep Dive: Zero to Docker in a single book! and The Kubernetes Book. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Nigel about his background, the inspiration he drew from Star Trek when he was first learning to program computers, working on IT transformat...

Matt Vaughn is the author of the Leanpub book Angular Architecture Patterns: Apply Enterprise Principles and Patterns to Build Amazing Applications. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Matt about his background, self-teaching in tech as a continuous learning process, the importance of softw...

Special Guest: Micah Bowers Micah is the founder and CEO of Bluefire Productions. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Micah about his background, his early career work in television, his work with Adobe on various projects, founding Bluefire and eventually creating the Bluefire ereader, the Cloudshelf Reader app and the Cloudshelf SDK, and more.

This interview was recorded on June 16, 2020....

Special Guest: Jane Friedman is a book publishing industry expert and the editor of The Hot Sheet industry newsletter. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Jane about what she's been up to since she last appeared on the podcast, her book ...

Special Guest: Juergen Boos is CEO of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. In this special episode of the podcast, Juergen talks with Leanpub co-founder Len Epp about the history and purpose of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the importance and difficulty of translation, what it's like organizing a major set of awards with a committee of experts from all around the world, arts and literature in the Middle East generally...

Larry Garfield is the author of the Leanpub book Thinking Functionally in PHP. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Larry about his background, how he got into technology, the history of modern handheld computing devices, remote work and the future of in-person conferences given the impact of the pandemic, his book, and a...

Special Guest: Maram Taibah is an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Maram about her background, growing up in Saudi Arabia and falling in love with English-language fiction, her films, world-building in fantasy fiction, and her novels, ...

Alfredo Deza is co-author of the Leanpub book Minimal Python. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Alfredo about his background, his first experience with programming, his experience as an Olympic-level athlete in track and field, moving to the United States from Peru, how he learned Python himself, and at the end, they talk...

Noah Gift is co-author of the Leanpub book Minimal Python. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Noah about his background and career, how he got his start in television and film production, using his self-taught Python programming skills to work on movies like Avatar, online learning and universities, remote work and prod...

Special Guest: Derek Doepker is a bestselling author, speaker, and consultant, who specializes in content marketing for authors and entrepreneurs. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Derek about his background, how he got into the music scene in Los Angeles, how at a young age he got into healthy living, the "Can I just?" technique for forming good habits and getting motivated, ...

Gabriel Volpe is the author of the Leanpub book Practical FP in Scala: A hands-on approach. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Gabriel about his background, growing up in Argentina and how he got into computers and technology, choosing to live and work abroad, his book, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience...

Special Guest: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Project Lead for the Panorama Project. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Guy about his background, how got into writing, poetry slams, how got his first experience in marketing, Digital Book World, technology and book publishing, libraries, and his work on the ...

Kyle Simpson is the author of the Leanpub book You Don't Know JS Yet: Get Started. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Kyle about what he has been doing since he was last interviewed on the podcast in 2017, how his work and life have been affected by recent events, his latest books, and at the end, they talk a little bit about h...

Special Guest: Jeff Nickoloff is the author of the Manning Publications book Docker in Action, Second Edition. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Jeff about his background and career in software engineering, what it's like working for Amazon, the nature and importance of scalab...

Michael Rice is the author of the Leanpub book Professional Services: Day 1, Hour 1: An Introduction to Professional Services in Software Companies. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Michael about his background, his first experiences as a software engineer, taking a break to go to law school, working for a b...

[This Frontmatter Podcast episode was originally published on 2019-07-12...]

Judson L. Moore is the author of the Leanpub book Exponential Happiness: How to identify and pursue life goals starting at a young age. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Judson (https://twitter.com/judsonlmoore) about his background, his parents' activism in his yout...

Special Guest Alex Hillman is the founder of Indy Hall, a hugely successful coworking space in Philadelphia. Alex is a marketing communications and community-development consultant who works on product launching and community-building strategies through 30x500 and Stacking the Bricks, along with his business partner, Amy Hoy. In this interview, Leanpub co-...

Special Guest Chris Mattmann is the author of Machine Learning with TensorFlow, Second Edition. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Chris about his background, worki...

[This Frontmatter Podcast episode was originally published on 2019-02-15...]

From the Archives: Sarah K. Peck is the author of the Leanpub book Pregnancy Affirmations: Words of Wisdom for Pregnancy, Birth, New Motherhood and the Postpartum Period. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Sarah about her background, her diverse career, her love of wri...

Mark Coker is the founder of Smashwords, the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Mark about his background, how he got his start in PR, working with companies during periods of huge growth, what it takes to run a successful startup, his experience co-authoring a novel, the history of self-publishin...

Ken Buckler is the author of the Leanpub book Hacking of the Free: Understanding Digital Threats to Democracy in the 21st Century. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Ken about his background, his first experience with a computer and his early development of an interest in cybersecurity, the importance of privacy when it come...

Marshall Poe is the founder of the New Books Network and author of How to Read a History Book: The Hidden History Of History. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with ...

[This Frontmatter Podcast episode was originally published on 2019-05-01...]

Alberto Brandolini is the author of the Leanpub book Introducing EventStorming: An act of Deliberate Collective Learning. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Alberto about his background, how he got into programming and eventually consulting,...

Nicholas Russo is the author of the Leanpub book Fifty Pieces of Gold: An Engineer's Musings on Business and Life. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Nick about what he's been up to since he last appeared on the podcast, becoming a father, getting into the challenging work of making technical training videos for some of the...

Aaron Sumner is the author of the Leanpub book Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec: A practical approach to test-driven development. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Aaron about his background, how he got into programming, the nature and importance of software testing, the origin of his blog, his book, getting your boo...

Tom Hombergs is the author of the Leanpub book Get Your Hands Dirty on Clean Architecture: A Hands-on Guide to Creating Clean Web Applications with Code Examples in Java. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Tom about his background, how he got into programming, the value of doing a year abroad in ...

Larry Shushansky is the author of the book Independent Enough: A Book About Relationships. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Larry about his background, overcoming drug addictioin and serious illness, the US military draft process during the Vietnam war and his own service in Japan, the impact of US politics ...