Ryan Peterman
Hosted by Ryan Peterman
An ex-Instagram Staff Engineer interviews technical leaders from frontier AI labs and top tech companies about their careers and the craft.
This is a long-form interview show focused on the career trajectories and technical philosophies of elite software engineers, founders, and researchers. Leveraging his own background, the host facilitates deep, peer-level conversations on topics like landing jobs at frontier AI labs, the changing nature of software engineering due to AI, and the trade-offs in building complex systems. The video format often includes on-screen context like code snippets, paper citations, and company logos to illustrate technical points.
“Unlike general tech podcasts, this show is by a recently practicing senior engineer, for engineers. The conversations are grounded in the specific challenges of the craft, from low-level performance optimization to the politics of open-source contributions and the realities of working at a frontier AI lab.”
Who hosts this show
Ryan Peterman hosts a podcast sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Formerly a Staff Engineer at Instagram and Meta, he quit his job to focus on the podcast full-time. His experience includes a rapid promotion from new grad to Staff Engineer in three years at Instagram, which he attributes to strong mentorship.
Credentials & credits
- ex-Staff Engineer, Instagram
- ex-Software Engineer, Meta
- ex-Software Engineer, Amazon
Other ventures
- Compose Keyboard (Founder)
- The Peterman Post (Substack newsletter)
What kind of podcast
When new episodes drop
- 01Tokenmaxxing and correlationsJun 27, 2026 · 47s
- 02Pure technical merit isn't enoughJun 26, 2026 · 38s
- 03Rust build tooling vs C and C++Jun 25, 2026 · 45s
- 04How AI generated code impacts open sourceJun 24, 2026 · 37s
- 05Creator of uv, ty, Ruff: How Software Engineering Is Changing | Charlie MarshJun 22, 2026 · 1h 23m
- 06
Notable episodes
- 01Creator of uv, ty, Ruff: How Software Engineering Is Changing | Charlie Marsh
Features the founder of Astral, a Python dev tool startup acquired by OpenAI, discussing the impact of AI on coding and the story of his company.
- 02Google DeepMind Distinguished Eng (L9): How To Land a Job at a Frontier Lab | Vlad Feinberg
Provides specific, in-demand skills (like kernel development) needed for roles at top AI labs and includes a 'war story' from the development of Google's Gemini.
- 03Creator of C++: Bell Labs, Negative Overhead Abstraction, Mistakes | Bjarne Stroustrup
A deep-dive with the creator of one of the world's most influential programming languages, covering the history of Bell Labs and the design philosophy of C++.
What you'll be asked on this show
The podcast is a one-on-one remote interview, presented in a video format that uses text overlays, screenshots of papers or code, and company logos to add context to the conversation. The host is an active listener who guides guests through their career stories and technical war stories. Each episode typically begins with the guest's origin story before diving into deeper technical topics.
Questions Ryan Peterman keeps coming back to
- “What advice would you give yourself at the beginning of your career?”
- “What is your favorite war story from working on [project]?”
- “What skills are in demand at frontier labs?”
- “What is your top book recommendation, technical or otherwise?”
- “How do you think of the spectrum between software engineering and pure AI research roles?”
- “What was the space like when you were first getting into building these dev tools and why did you think it could be better?”
Signature segments
- · Host promotion for his 'Compose' ergonomic keyboard project
- · On-screen visuals (screenshots, logos, text) to add context
- · Asking guests for their top book or technical talk recommendation
- · Asking guests for advice they'd give their younger selves
Topics covered repeatedly
Who gets booked here
Guests are highly accomplished technical leaders, including founders of major developer tool startups (like Astral, acquired by OpenAI), distinguished engineers and researchers from frontier labs (Google DeepMind), and creators of foundational programming languages (C++, Haskell).
- Charlie Marshon Creator of uv, ty, Ruff: How Software Engineering Is Changing
- Vlad Feinbergon Google DeepMind Distinguished Eng (L9): How To Land a Job at a Frontier Lab
- Simon Peyton Joneson Co-Creator of Haskell: Functional Programming, Thinking in Types, Useless Languages
Where to find this show
Audience & reach
The podcast is sponsored by developer-focused companies like WorkOS. The host also consistently promotes his own venture, an ergonomic keyboard company called Compose, which was funded via Kickstarter.
Subscriber and view counts are pulled live from YouTube and re-verified on a 30-day cycle. Listener estimates for the RSS feed aren't published here unless they're host-verified.
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People also ask
- Who is the host of the podcast?
- The host is Ryan Peterman, an ex-Staff Software Engineer from Instagram and Meta.
- What is the podcast about?
- It features interviews with high-level technical people, focusing on their career stories, technical insights, and the changing landscape of software engineering.
- What is the format of the show?
- It's a long-form, one-on-one video interview series. Episodes often use on-screen graphics and text to explain complex topics.
- Is the podcast still running?
- Yes, the podcast releases new episodes on a weekly basis.
- Where can I listen to the podcast?
- The podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
- What is Compose Keyboard?
- Compose is an ergonomic keyboard company founded by the host, Ryan Peterman, which he frequently mentions on the show.
Built from the show's public RSS feed, YouTube, the host's own websites, and the cited sources below. Computed and AI-extracted fields are labelled. Facts only — no private info, no fabrication, no transcripts republished.
Sources & how this page was built
This page is AI-assisted, grounded in the public sources cited below, and host-verifiable. We publish facts only; we do not republish transcripts. If anything here is wrong, the host can claim and correct the page above.Model: gemini-2.5-pro · high confidence
- [01]Ryan Peterman's Personal Websiteryanpeterman.com
- [02]The Peterman Pod on Substackdeveloping.dev
- [03]Ryan Peterman's YouTube Channelyoutube.com
- [04]Ryan Peterman's LinkedIn Profilelinkedin.com
- [05]Compose Keyboard Project Pageread.compose.llc
- [06]OpenAI Eng & Dev Tools Founder: How Software Engineering Is Changing | Charlie Marshyoutube.com
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