Episodes 227
Avg. Duration 45m
Activity Active
Apple Rating 5.0 (32)
Since Apr 2019
Latest Episode May 2026

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Features Guests

Publishing Details

Schedule
Every 2 Weeks
Format
Episodic
Consistency
50%
Hosting
feeds.simplecast.com

Contact & Outreach

About This Podcast

Do you feel like you're hitting a wall with your existing software projects? Are you curious to hear how other people are navigating this? You're not alone. On the Maintainable Software Podcast, Robby speaks with seasoned practitioners who have overcome the technical and cultural problems often associated with software development. Our guests will share stories in each episode and outline tangible, real-world approaches to software challenges. In turn, you'll uncover new ways of thinking about how to improve your software project's maintainability.

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Recent Episodes

Sally Lait: Confidence Is the Real Metric

May 05, 2026 55m

Sally Lait joins Robby Russell on Maintainable to explore software maintainability through a different lens… not just code quality, but how teams work together over time. Sally is a fractional…

Rein Henrichs: The Real Work of Maintenance Happens Before You Touch the Code

Apr 14, 2026 55m

Software maintenance is often framed as a technical problem. Refactoring code, fixing bugs, or upgrading dependencies. In this conversation, Robby Russell talks with Rein Henrichs about a different…

Russ Olsen: The Hidden Cost of Forgetting Why the Code Looks Like That

Mar 31, 2026 54m

Software doesn’t become hard to maintain only because the code is messy. It often becomes hard to maintain because the reasoning behind it disappears. In this episode of Maintainable, Robby Russell…

Joel Oliveira: Predictability Is a Maintainability Feature

Mar 17, 2026 1h 1m

Long-lived software systems rarely stay tidy. Over time they accumulate decisions, workarounds, and layers of history that can make even simple changes feel risky. For engineers responsible for…

Lucas Roesler: The Fast Feedback Loop Advantage

Feb 03, 2026 54m

Maintaining software over time rarely fails because of one bad decision. It fails because teams stop getting clear signals… and start guessing.In this episode, Robby talks with Lucas Roesler,…

Brittany Ellich: Using AI to Maintain Software, Not Rewrite It

Jan 21, 2026 1h

Rewrites are seductive. Clean slates promise clarity, speed, and “doing it right this time.” In practice, they’re often late, over budget, and quietly demoralizing.In this episode of Maintainable,…

Kent L Beck: You’re Ignoring Optionality… and Paying for It

Dec 09, 2025 49m

Kent Beck: You’re Ignoring Optionality… and Paying for ItIn this episode of Maintainable, Robby speaks with Kent Beck, a foundational voice in modern software development and author of Tidy First?.…

Don MacKinnon: Why Simplicity Beats Cleverness in Software Design

Dec 02, 2025 50m

Episode Highlights[00:00:48] What Makes Software MaintainableDon explains why unnecessary complexity is the biggest barrier to maintainability, drawing on themes from A Philosophy of Software…

Chris Zetter: Building a Database to Better Understand Maintainability

Nov 18, 2025 49m

Episode SummaryIn this conversation, Robby sits down with software engineer and author Chris Zetter to explore what building a relational database from scratch can teach us about maintainability,…

Denis Rechkunov: When Consistency Becomes a Culture

Oct 28, 2025 1h 6m

Maintaining consistency across a sprawling codebase is one of the hardest challenges in software engineering. Denis Rechkunov, a Principal Software Engineer at Elastic, joins Robby to share how his…

Nathan Ladd: Relentless Improvement and the Cost of Neglect

Oct 14, 2025 54m

Episode NotesThe discussion moves into how standards evolve beyond tools, the trade-offs of monocultures vs. consensus-driven teams, and why ownership matters when the original authors move on.…

Taylor Otwell: What 14 Years of Laravel Taught Me About Maintainability

Aug 26, 2025 55m

Taylor Otwell, creator of Laravel and CEO of Laravel LLC, joins Robby to reflect on his 14-year journey building and maintaining one of the most popular web frameworks in the world. From its PHP 5.3…

Sara Jackson: Why Resilience Is a Team Sport

Jul 22, 2025 53m

Robby is joined by Sara Jackson, Senior Developer at thoughtbot, to explore the practical ways teams can foster resilience—not just in their infrastructure, but in their everyday habits. They talk…

Joel Chippindale: Why High-Quality Software Isn’t About Developer Skill Alone

Jul 01, 2025 56m

CTO coach Joel Chippindale joins Robby to share what he's learned over two decades of building and leading software teams. Joel argues that maintainability has less to do with “clean code” and more…

Melanie Sumner: Why Continuous Accessibility Is a Strategic Advantage

Jun 10, 2025 49m

Melanie Sumner: Why Continuous Accessibility Is a Strategic AdvantageMelanie Sumner, Product Accessibility Lead for Design Systems at HashiCorp, joins Robby to talk about what it takes to scale…

Joe Masilotti: Simplify Your Stack, Ship Mobile Sooner

May 20, 2025 55m

In this episode of Maintainable, Robby speaks with Joe Masilotti, an independent consultant who helps Rails teams ship mobile apps using Hotwire Native.Joe shares his perspective on what makes…

Freedom Dumlao: What 70 Java Services Taught Me About Focus

Apr 22, 2025 1h 3m

Freedom Dumlao (CTO at Vestmark) joins Robby to explore what it means to maintain software at scale—and why teams sometimes need to unlearn the hype.With two decades of experience supporting…

Mercedes Bernard: Friendly Code Welcomes Everyone In

Apr 08, 2025 49m

Mercedes Bernard, Staff Software Engineer at Kit, joins Robby to talk about what it really means to write code that lasts—and who it should be written for.In this episode of Maintainable, Mercedes…

Evan Phoenix: The Why of the One Line

Apr 01, 2025 1h 9m

Evan Phoenix (@evanphx), CEO of Miren, joins Robby to explore the subtle but powerful difference between writing code that works and writing code that explains itself. They discuss the role of…

Chris Salvato: Building Developer Paradise by Sitting in the Problem Space

Mar 25, 2025 46m

Software isn’t always about rapid iteration. Sometimes, the real challenge lies in carefully assessing the existing environment. Chris Salvato, a Senior Staff Engineer at Shopify, believes that…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Maintainable have?

Maintainable has published 227 episodes since April 2019, covering topics in Business, Careers.

Is Maintainable still active?

Maintainable is currently active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 45m.

How do I contact Maintainable for sponsorship or guest appearances?

Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Maintainable, including email and social media links.

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