The official Laravel Podcast started back in 2013, and so far it’s been through two “seasons.” The first ran from 2013 through February 2015, with a mixture of guests and topics. Then came season two, which started in March of 2015 with Matt Stauffer as the host and it introduced Taylor Otwell and Jeffrey Way as regular guests/co-hosts.
Today Matt has announced that the podcast is transitioning into its third season of life. I had the opportunity to sit down with Matt to find out what we can expect with this new season.
Matt, welcome back to Laravel News and thanks for giving us the scoop on the next season. What can we expect this year?
The biggest change is that the format is moving from a cast of regulars (the vast majority of season two was Taylor, Jeffrey, and me) to an interview show. I’ll be bringing on a mixture of people who you’ve heard speak all the time–Taylor, Jeffrey, Adam, and I’m going to get other folks like you and Fideloper and folks on the conference circuit–and people you never get to hear from who are doing great work in the Laravel community.
The other thing is, though, I don’t want to ask the same questions. Especially since I’ll be interviewing some folks who’ve never been on a podcast before, I want to focus more on the people and less on the code.
Are you moving to the interview show because everyone is so busy? It must be hard to get everyone available to record at the same time.
You know, since season two was just Taylor, Jeffrey, and me, we all run our own businesses, so it really wasn’t that difficult. It’s more a natural thing that happened over time. We just got to a point where we didn’t have an incredible amount to talk about, and at times it could feel like a burden to put out another episode.
It’s like a good TV show, right? Do they keep the show going once the magic is gone? Or do they let it stop, or at least pause, when it’s time? That’s not saying the gang isn’t going to do a reunion tour in season four, but for now it’s a really helpful and healthy bit of breathing room for us.
I’m personally most excited to see you bring those people that are maybe not big names but have interesting stories. Are you planning on bringing on people from all over the world?
Exactly! We so commonly focus on folks from the US and Western Europe, and occasionally Canada and Australia. But what about the incredible thriving communities in Nigeria? Argentina? Brazil? Eastern Europe? What about the Spanish speaking communities? Or what about the amazing local meetups that we never hear about?
I’m also excited to put a story behind some of the names we’re familiar with because they’re so active in creating packages, writing blog posts, or answering StackOverflow questions. There’s one guy who’s the Laravel king on StackOverflow. There are a few names we’re all so familiar with from our composer.json files. But who are those people? What are their stories? That’s part of what I hope to tell this season.
With season three how often are you planning on publishing new episodes?
I’m thinking monthly to start off. I’d love to do it more frequently, but the amount of research, scheduling, and editing that goes into an interview show is a lot higher than a friends-hanging-out-around-a-topic was.
Also, I’m now finding the interviewees, prepping the interview questions, scheduling the interview, running it, and editing it, so there’s a lot more on my plate than there was with season two. I hope to be able to offload a bit of that over time, but for now, I want to set expectations realistically.
Are you thinking of running it for a certain number of months? Like a TV series season?
Oh. Man. That question has made me realize that I’m eventually going to have to make it more frequently than once a month: I have over 60 people in a Trello list who I’m ready to interview today, and that list is only growing.
When’s the new season start? And how do we listen to it?
I’ve scheduled a “preview” episode to go out on the podcast feed the same day this article goes out, so current subscribers should just get it in their podcatcher of choice. Not subscribed? Check it out now: http://laravelpodcast.com/
I think the first episode–the interview with Taylor–will go live in one week. That’s my goal. It’s recorded, so “all” I have left is to edit. Yes. One week. I’m gonna say that.
Eric is the creator of Laravel News and has been covering Laravel since 2012.
