Today marks the launch of On Rails, a new podcast produced by the Rails Foundation and hosted by yours truly.
We’ve recorded the first batch of episodes, and Episode 1 is out now: Rosa Gutiérrez on Solid Queue.
The show dives into technical decision-making in the Ruby on Rails world. Not the shiny trend of the week… but the real conversations teams are having about how to scale, what trade-offs to make, and what long-term maintainability actually looks like.
You’ll hear from developers running real apps. Some are building internal tools. Others work on products you’ve probably used. A few are out there blogging and tweeting… but many are too deep in the day-to-day to stop and write about it. They’re just doing the work — shipping, fixing, refactoring, and figuring it out as they go.
The idea for On Rails started with those hallway conversations at conferences. The ones that don’t make it into keynotes or blog posts. It grew out of the calls I have with clients at Planet Argon. And, of course, out of years of hosting Maintainable.fm.
You’d think that after recording over 200 episodes of Maintainable, I wouldn’t be so nervous to hit record on something new… but here we are. New show jitters are real.
We’re approaching this podcast with depth and focus. Fewer episodes. Longer interviews. Conversations that aim to surface lessons learned…and the thinking behind the decisions that shape real systems.
If you’re a Rails fan, I hope you’ll give it a listen. If subscribing is your thing, you know what to do. And if you’ve got a story worth sharing — I’d love to hear from you.
🎧 Listen to Episode 1: Rosa Gutiérrez: Solid Queue
🌐 Browse all episodes: onrails.buzzsprout.com
📢 Official announcement: Ruby on Rails blog
Backstory
Earlier this year, I dusted off this blog — which I started back in 2005 — and found myself reflecting on Maintainable, the podcast I’ve hosted for the past few years about long-term software health.
At the same time, I was toying with the idea of spinning off something more Rails-focused. A show that could spotlight the kinds of conversations I was already having…with clients, with other devs, and in those casual, between-session moments at conferences.
Right around then, Amanda from the Rails Foundation reached out with a prompt:
“A podcast of Rails devs talking about the nitty gritty technical decisions they’ve made along the way.”
…which aligned nicely with what I had been ruminating on. The timing was perfect and we decided to make it happen.
One of the early shifts for me was adapting to a more collaborative production process. I’ve been running Planet Argon for more than two decades — and I’m used to moving quickly, often without needing to pitch or workshop ideas with others. But with On Rails, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Amanda, the Foundation, and DHH. They’ve all taken an active interest in shaping the vision, the guests, and the format.
Another early challenge? The first round of guests were pitched to me — which meant jumping into the deep end with folks I hadn’t already spoken with. That raised the bar for prep. On Maintainable, I’ve occasionally relied on some degree of improvisation. Here, I knew I’d need to come in more prepared…and that’s been a good thing.
So On Rails was born.
I’ll still be hosting Maintainable (though likely on a slower cadence). And I’m excited to run both of these shows side by side — each with their own tone and focus.
Hope you get a chance to give it a listen.
