Josh and Austin Figure It Out

About Josh and Austin Figure It Out

A couple fellas from Iowa are curious: how do you do things? Join Josh and Austin as they take a look at a different problem each episode and let curiosity drive the conversation. Mostly tech stuff, but also personal and career things, too.

Publisher

Josh Larson and Austin Crim

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Aug 2024

Latest episode

17 Jan 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Jan 2026

   Moving and Vibe Coding

   We're back after a break. Josh and Austin discuss seasonal illnesses, the challenges of selling a house with kids, and moving into a new home. They share their holiday experiences, including family gatherings and managing kids' excitement. Then they talk VIBE CODING: AI's practical applications in coding and the hype surrounding new AI models. Despite facing some failures and frustrations, they explore the potential of tools like Claude and Zo. 00:00 Welcome Back! 00:48 Life Updates and Challenges 03:13 Holiday Recap 08:22 AI and Work 17:43 Navigating AI in the Workplace 18:34 Microsoft Copilot? More like Microsoft No-pilot 20:53 Vibe Coding 23:23 Exploring Zo Computer 30:21 AI Agents in Side Projects 33:32 Wrapping Up and Future Plans

2. 

   4 Dec 2025

   Home Sales and Holiday Travels

   It's Turkey Time! Austin discusses the challenges of moving homes during the holiday season, dealing with family sickness, and navigating Daylight Savings Time with young kids. Josh shares his recent travels to Toronto and Chicago, and an upcoming trip to New York City. They also chat AI hype and recent innovations from Cloudflare like Cap'n Web and Worker Loaders. 00:00 Welcome and Introductions 00:03 Dealing with Seasonal Illnesses 01:26 Roller Skating Party and Daylight Savings 04:05 House Selling and Moving Plans 12:37 Toronto Work Trip and Chicago Adventure 17:14 Unexpected Family Reunion 18:21 Travel Plans and Holiday Prep 19:19 Babysitting and Pet Care Logistics 21:15 Current Trends in Technology 21:51 AI Hype and Practical Applications 26:43 Exploring Cloudflare Stuff 33:37 Tech Burnout and Future Projects 34:59 Closing Remarks and Holiday Wishes

3. 

   10 Oct 2025

   Life Updates and Phone Updates

   Holy cow: Austin has some updates! We're talking major life events, people. His first whittling project comes to a finale, a new job as a senior software engineer at Workiva, and a potential new house purchase in Ames. Not to be outdone, Josh talks about his recent upgrade to the iPhone 17 Pro and details the Alexa Plus experience. The episode is rounded out with a discussion on why autumn is the best season.00:00 Welcome to the Podcast00:51 Whittling Adventures04:05 New Job Announcement15:43 House Hunting Excitement18:05 Moving Close to Family19:06 New House Excitement20:10 Challenges of Selling a House22:05 Quick House Sale Success22:41 Tips for Selling a House with Kids25:37 New iPhone Experience27:53 Upgrading to Alexa Plus31:59 Balancing Work and Kids34:52 The Best Season Debate

4. 

   5 Sept 2025

   Whittling and MDX

   It sure feels like fall, folks! Football season and sending kids off to kindergarten. We recap Josh's trip to Okoboji, and Austin dives deep into his new hobby: whittling a spoon out of wood. Then we discuss how best to build a blogging stack with interactive widgets, and weigh the pros and cons of MDX, Markdoc, and more. Also: do you have a second brain?00:00 Welcome00:30 Summer's End and Football Season01:35 Kindergarten Adventures04:54 A Trip to Okoboji09:37 Whittling: A New Hobby15:26 Exploring a New Blog Stack16:32 Interactive Code Blocks and Blog Post Widgets16:52 Exploring MDX for Interactive Blog Content18:04 Challenges with MDX and Alternatives21:49 Introduction to Markdoc and Its Benefits26:19 Web Components as an Alternative32:03 The Concept of a Second Brain39:21 LLMs and the Future of Writing41:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

5. 

   13 Aug 2025

   Road Trip Woes and Web Browsers

   We're back, already?! Austin recounts an exhausting road trip to Northern Michigan, involving a harrowing 5.5-hour traffic standstill. They also discuss their plans to meet in person with their families, Josh's upcoming trip to Okoboji, and Barrett starting kindergarten soon. The episode finishes with a technology segment where they chat about Laracon 2025, Josh's project to replace Amazon Alexa, and what the heck is going on with Arc and Dia web browsers.00:00 Welcome to Josh and Austin00:59 Austin's Road Trip Adventure10:59 A Fun Day with the Kids14:04 Planning a Family Meetup15:55 Upcoming Trip to Okoboji18:12 Barrett's Kindergarten Journey22:26 Exciting Laravel Announcements23:15 Laravel Wayfinder and Type Safety27:19 Laravel Forge 2.0 and Cloud28:56 Laravel Vapor34:14 Browser Wars: Arc vs. Dia41:54 Building an Amazon Alexa Replacement47:55 Final Thoughts and Farewell

6. 

   30 Jul 2025

   New Baby and Summer Fun

   Austin and Josh reconnect after a two-month break from their podcast. Austin has a new baby! We talk all about experience with a newborn, and the ups and downs of parenthood. Then we dive into summer road trips and house hunting. Austin shares his new project idea for building a custom grocery list app using Convex, while Josh talks about his aspiration to create a DIY Amazon Alexa with Cloudflare and Raspberry Pi. 00:00 Reconnecting After a Break 01:11 The Challenges of Parenting a Newborn 05:36 Summer Adventures and Family Events 14:28 House Hunting Woes 21:33 Navigating Paternity Leave 22:27 AI Hype and Reality 24:47 AI in the Workplace 34:22 Building a Custom Grocery List App with Convex 40:32 DIY Amazon Echo with CloudFlare and Raspberry Pi

7. 

   14 May 2025

   Baby Prep and Vibe Coding

   We're back! Austin's gonna have a second child soon so we talk about that. Working remotely is neat—or is it? Josh talks ear infections, OneWheel scooters, and his React Miami experience. Then we yammer on about "vibe coding" with tools like Cursor and talk about a couple personal projects created with AI assistance. Zed Editor comes up, too. Jam packed! Tune in!00:00 Welcome Back: Josh and Austin Reunite00:27 Baby Number Two: The Waiting Game02:47 Josh's Family Updates04:45 One-Wheel Adventures and Mishaps09:05 React Miami15:38 Remote Work21:51 Exploring AI and Vibe Coding26:30 Vibe-coding a 3D game26:52 Josh's Pod Catchup app28:46 Building Pod Catchup32:21 Considering the Business Case for Pod Catchup38:00 The Concept of Personal Software44:04 Exploring Agent-Based Coding Tools50:04 Balancing Tech Trends and Personal Life52:01 Cool thing: Blogging and Local Storage in Web Development56:12 Cool thing: TV shows

8. 

   11 Mar 2025

   Aaron Francis: Building and Teaching Cool Things

   Aaron Francis is here! We chat about open source projects, Fusion and Solo, his company Try Hard Studios, and his educational courses. Is Aaron an LLM? Maybe! He also tweets viral things sometimes. Enjoy! 00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Aaron Francis 03:23 Introducing Aaron Francis: Developer and Educator 04:53 Deep Dive into Fusion 19:43 Exploring Solo: Simplifying Local Development 29:05 Business Side: Try Hard Studios and Screen Casting 29:50 The Challenges of Creating Technical Courses 30:48 The Exhausting Process of Learning Databases 32:59 The Art of Screencasting 35:27 Balancing Technical Rigor and Personal Opinion 39:38 Starting a Business After a Layoff 42:00 Navigating the First Year of Business 45:49 Cool things Links: - Aaron on X https://x.com/aarondfrancis and Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/aaronfrancis.com - Fusion https://github.com/fusion-php/fusion - Solo https://github.com/soloterm/solo - Try Hard Studios https://tryhardstudios.com/ - Mastering Postgres https://masteringpostgres.com/ - High Performance SQLite https://highperformancesqlite.com/ - Screencasting Course https://screencasting.com/Cool things: - superwhisper https://superwhisper.com/ - lex.page https://lex.page/ - Sesame AI https://www.sesame.com/research/crossing_the_uncanny_valley_of_voice - Rocket League https://www.rocketleague.com/en

9. 

   20 Feb 2025

   Eric Bailey: React Native and Working at Bluesky

   Our very first guest! Eric Bailey, a talented developer at Bluesky. Eric shares his journey from Iowa to New York to Chicago, detailing his transition from design to development while highlighting his experiences with various tech companies. We talk a bunch about React Native and what it's been like working at Bluesky during its explosive growth in the past few months.00:00 Welcome and Introductions01:37 Eric Bailey's Background and Iowa Connections04:22 Career Journey: From Design to Development11:29 Joining Bluesky, working with React Native16:44 Getting Started with React Native19:16 Open Source Dynamics20:05 Public Launch and Growth21:00 Challenges of Rapid Change22:16 Collaborative Development24:00 Community Contributions27:42 Scaling Infrastructure31:28 Presta: Framework Development Journey35:24 Cool Things Links: - Eric on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/esb.lol - Night Agent on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81450827 - Severance S2 on Apple TV+ https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx - Toe (band) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_(band) - Character Limit (book) https://www.amazon.com/Character-Limit-Elon-Destroyed-Twitter/dp/059365613X

10. 

    6 Jan 2025

    Having Babies and Selling Businesses

    Austin shares details about his recent ankle injury over Thanksgiving, and Josh announces the birth of his third son, Levi. Then they dive into the sale of Josh's side business, Barkpass. Topics include due diligence, legal processes, accounting, technical security audits, and more. You won't want to miss this one! Links: - Open Auth (https://openauth.js.org/) - React 19 (https://react.dev/blog/2024/12/05/react-19) 00:00 Welcome and Thanksgiving Recap 01:57 Ankle Injury Woes 03:44 Josh's Family Update 07:27 Selling Barkpass: The Journey Begins 12:15 The Acquisition Process 17:48 Technical Due Diligence 24:49 Finalizing the Sale 25:27 Legal and Logistical Challenges 29:02 Buyer's Intentions and Future Plans 30:40 Reflecting on the Journey 36:26 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 42:13 New Beginnings and Future Projects 43:06 Cool Things of the Week

11. 

    26 Nov 2024

    Campus Visits and Server Side Rendering

    Josh and Austin explore the challenges of transitioning to server-side rendering, discovering it's not a silver bullet, and share insights on optimizing rendering and legacy code trade-offs.

12. 

    12 Nov 2024

    Beggars Night and Svelte

    It's Halloween! Josh and Austin dish on the "Beggars Night" tradition from Central Iowa and talk about their Halloween costumes. They also touch on Christmas shopping (is it too early?). Then they dive into Svelte: a high-level intro, what's new in Svelte version 5, and a hot topic: Runes. One of the podcasters also happens to make a cameo on the Svelte homepage. 00:05 Halloween Traditions and Beggar's Night 07:03 Holiday Season and Christmas Shopping 09:28 Shout Outs 11:57 Introduction to Svelte 25:11 Initial Thoughts on Svelte 5 29:14 Svelte's New Website and Controversial Font 34:04 Technical Discussion on Svelte 5 Runes 45:58 Cool Things: Podcast and TV Show Recommendations Links: Beggar’s Night (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_Night) Svelte’s website (https://svelte.dev/) Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lonely-island-and-seth-meyers-podcast/id1738121304) Severance on Apple TV+ (https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx)

13. 

    28 Oct 2024

    Cold Houses, Josh's New Car, and a Laracon Recap

    Josh and Austin reconnect after a month-long hiatus to discuss how to make our houses not cold during the winter, updates on Josh's new car, Your Iowa State Cyclones, and a new segment they're calling: "Shout-outs!" Then they discuss announcements coming out of this year's Laracon US, including a $57 million investment in Laravel, the introduction of Laravel Cloud, a new VS Code plugin and Inertia 2.0, and more. 00:00 Reintroductions and Catching Up 00:37 Podcast Stats and Listener Engagement 01:23 Winter Preparations and Home Updates 03:03 New Car and Football Adventures 06:19 Shoutouts to Early Listeners 08:52 Discussing Laracon US 2024 09:49 Laravel's Growth and Investment 22:45 Laravel Cloud 25:51 Laravel's $57 Million Raise 33:51 VS Code Plugin for Laravel 38:00 Inertia 2.0 44:21 Cool Things Links: - ⁠Laravel⁠ (https://laravel.com/) - Nobody Wants This (https://www.netflix.com/title/81591296) on Netflix

14. 

    18 Sept 2024

    Baby Clothes, Cars, and Local-First Software

    It's local-first day on the pod! Josh and Austin start by talking about children's clothing, Josh's car shopping adventures, and the big Iowa vs Iowa State football game. Then we dive in to "local-first" software: what it is, what problem it solves, and how it's hard to get it right. They compare it to traditional client-server models and offline-first approaches, highlighting examples like Linear, Superhuman, and potential uses in apps like GitHub. They cover the challenges, especially with caching and sync engines, and touch on security concerns. "Cool Stuff": Laracon (including a spicy take). 02:54 Parenting and baby clothes 06:04 Car Shopping 10:32 Iowa vs. Iowa State 13:21 Exploring Local First Software 15:32 Challenges and Benefits of Local First 21:37 Sync Engines and Security Concerns 25:31 Developer Experience with Local First 42:43 Cool Stuff: Laracon and hot takes Links: Ink & Switch paper: 7 Ideals (https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/) Linear (https://linear.app/) Superhuman (https://superhuman.com/) Figma (https://www.figma.com/) Tinybase (https://tinybase.org/) ElectricSQL (https://electric-sql.com/) Replicache (https://replicache.dev/) / ZeroSync Laracon (https://laracon.us/) Laravel fundraise (https://laravel-news.com/laravel-raises-57-million-series-a) Livewire Flux (https://fluxui.dev/)

15. 

    3 Sept 2024

    Potty training and full-stack JavaScript

    Josh and Austin dive into full-stack JavaScript, discussing the longevity of podcasts, intense potty training sessions, and the Iowa State Fair. They explore frameworks, serverless, and the benefits of a batteries-included approach in web development. "Potty Training in 3 Days": Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Potty-Training-Days-Step-Step/dp/1623157900/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.XRcZeQKqZG0MkWPXIrSyEUEgGQlmCvZtBR432YlpAwRzXdA1xSnHpOf9ppug9Wsmc_5LKgQ-wiw86vAiz4-8zI4RuYOyrPv70Sza0gqfHfHAZJHm-HcvFcbXt6fY943pumbdx6TNFTARTvxjH5bxs56BHugvKd8cW0_1pTtGBJe-SOojz6z_P3Ocon5N8IgrtUzga7YGgUwGPX-8u0fFxvm8Cn2nFMabEwqJVsRMM6Y.NlxWVh8UQv7uV1ZcEyFLF69GfIuxOvgQGhLYYhA8Crs&dib_tag=se&hvadid=598727790644&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9017969&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9326220895688694389&hvtargid=kwd-324170591165&hydadcr=8929_13572530&keywords=potty+training+in+3+days+book&qid=1725133277&sr=8-1) Radix UI: https://www.radix-ui.com/ (https://www.radix-ui.com/) Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/ (https://www.cursor.com/) Video of girl using Cursor IDE: https://x.com/rickyrobinett/status/1825581674870055189 (https://x.com/rickyrobinett/status/1825581674870055189) 00:00 Introduction and Podcast Longevity 01:11 Potty Training 06:14 Iowa State Fair 11:53 Full Stack JavaScript21:36 JavaScript Frameworks in the Serverless Era 22:40 Isomorphic JavaScript 25:15 Laravel for JavaScript 28:36 Superflare: A Full-Stack JavaScript Framework 32:48 The Appeal of Batteries-Included Frameworks 38:57 Radix and Headless Component Libraries 42:21 Cursor: AI-Powered Coding Assistant

16. 

    20 Aug 2024

    How to start a podcast

    Josh and Austin Figure Out How to Start A Podcast In the inaugural episode of 'Josh and Austin Figure It Out', hosts Josh Larson and Austin Crim introduce themselves, discuss their backgrounds, and share how they met. They talk about the challenges of starting a podcast, dive into problems they're currently facing in their tech careers, and explore strategies for debugging and promoting their work. They also highlight interesting tech projects and tools they've recently discovered, including NuxtHub (https://hub.nuxt.com/) and PartyServer (https://github.com/threepointone/partyserver). 00:00 Introduction to Josh and Austin 01:21 How Josh and Austin Met 04:16 Austin's Career Journey 08:32 Josh's Career Journey 11:05 Podcast Theme and First Problem 12:06 Debugging Docker Issues 22:58 Josh's Technical Challenge 27:48 Marketing Open Source Projects 33:33 Fun Facts and Wrap-Up

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

420

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 50 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

62

Social presence

0

YouTube

66

Engagement

32

Contact Josh and Austin Figure It Out

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.