The Call Kent Podcast

Latest Episodes:

FSL-1.1-ALv2 Permitted Purpose for Kody Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

Bidhan Bhandari asks about using Kody as a private backend for a customer-facing voice/SMS application. Kent explains that self-hosting Kody for internal use is a permitted purpose under FSL-1.1-ALv2, but reselling Kody as a hosted service is not.

FSL-1.1-ALv2 Permitted Purpose for Kody

Exploring Interests at 15 Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

A 15-year-old caller asks Kent about his advice for the next 5 years if he were 15 again, knowing everything he knows today. Kent suggests exploring different technologies and AI coding tools to broaden horizons and avoid focusing on specific frameworks too early. He emphasizes the importance of understanding what AI is doing and using it as a tool to learn.

Exploring Interests at 15

Exposing internal styles from design system Mar 09, 2026

Show notes

A caller wants to expose internal styles from their component library to consumers. Kent suggests using a variable to export the class names and using a library like CVA to create multiple variants of a set of class names. He also recommends against using disabled buttons as a workaround and instead suggests creating individual components for each use case.

Exposing internal styles from design system

What to learn Mar 06, 2026

Show notes

Kent C. Dodds answers a question about what to focus on in the future of software development, including the role of agents, MCPs, and workflows. He shares his thoughts on how to bring clarity to problems and how software developers will continue to be needed in the future.

What to learn

Bridging the Gap to Community Influence as a Senior Engineer Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

Kent C. Dodds shares his insights on navigating the transition from a senior engineer to a recognized leader in the community. He emphasizes the importance of having a solid proof of work, creating a tight feedback loop, and using your SaaS products to guide your teaching. Kent also relates to the hesitation of losing hands-on engineering edge and provides a practical solution to maintain credibility as an educator. You can find the caller's YouTube channel and Medium below:

https://www.youtube.com/@sebastianquiroga1153
https://medium.com/@sebasqui1995

Bridging the Gap to Community Influence as a Senior Engineer

Call Kent Podcast Updates Feb 24, 2026

Show notes

Kent discusses the new features on the Call Kent Podcast, including the ability to type questions and have them answered with an AI voice, and the option to remain anonymous. He also explains how these changes will improve the relevance of answers and titles.

Call Kent Podcast Updates

From AI Automation to Full-Stack Engineering Jan 06, 2026

Show notes

How to build toward full-stack software engineering while already working in AI automation, without starting over or losing career stability.

https://www.EpicWeb.dev/faq

From AI Automation to Full-Stack Engineering

Conference Workshop Advice Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

Asking for advice on workshops at tech conferences. I'm one of the planners for a conference we host in Chattanooga, https://sceniccitysummit.com/. Last year we hosted our first day of workshops. It wasn't as successful as we had planned. We want to try this again for our next event that will be on June 5th, 2025. I know that you have held workshops at conferences. So I was wondering if you could give me any advice on this subject.

what are some ways to attract workshop teachers
what is the typical financial commitment with the teacher and the event
what is a target class size for a workshop
is there typically a written agreement with the teacher and the event
any other guidance or words of wisdom I would really appreciate any help that you could give us!

Conference Workshop Advice

Getting a Developer Job in the AI chaos Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

I ask Kent -- how to get a full-stack role at a great product-focused team given the AI scenario around.

I added a mini-question as well that -- I want to build my own small things on the side, may be they can turn out to be a SaaS business, so will a full-time role be viable to let me do my own small things on the side...?

Looking forward to your thoughts Kent!

-- Vivek

Getting a Developer Job in the AI chaos

Significance of '===' in typescript applications Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

As '===' compares both type and value, what is the significance of '===' in Typescript app when variables are already typed. When the same functionality can be achieved with '==', why do we need to use '===' esp in Typescript applications

Significance of '===' in typescript applications