John K. Sawers
Co-Host of Greater Than Code
Amongst John’s weaponry are public speaking, doing the rails thing, and talking about feelings in public. His technology talks aren’t about technology and sometimes he has time to meditate. He remembers the sound of dialup.
Soon, John will no longer write much code, having intentionally (yes, intentionally) moved into management. He seems to think that making people better is more satisfying than making computers better. With that in mind he’s also spent a lot of time mentoring bootcamp developers and supervising workshops focused on deep emotional work.
He spends days at Privia Health, nights as co-founder and CTO of Data Simply and all the rest of it at johnksawers.com and emotionalAPI.com.
John K. Sawers has hosted 95 Episodes.
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276: Caring Deeply About Humans – Diversify The Medical Community with Jenna Charlton
March 30th, 2022 | 55 mins 50 secs
Jenna Charlton is a super human. They are deeply rooted in what is human in tech and believes the user is everything. They chat with the panel about software testing and give an awesome metaphor of Developer Dogs and Testing Cats, and then dive into a super helpful conversation about ADHD and how to best work with a diagnosis.
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275: Making Change Happen – Why Not You? with Nyota Gordon
March 23rd, 2022 | 52 mins 55 secs
Nyota Gordon acknowledges the unspoken. This conversation examines the hold that news and social media have on humanity, the impact of AI, and her belief that the intersection of cybersecurity and employee wellness is resiliency.
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274: Managing People Versus Servers with Arpit Mohan
March 9th, 2022 | 42 mins 25 secs
Engineering principles apply to more than just code and technology. Arpit Mohan believes a company's team members act a lot like servers in a distributed system: individuals who must work together to form a single cohesive unit.
Find out how Arpit applies different engineering principles to the people he works with and how that helps them function better as a team.
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266: Words Carry Power – Approaching Inclusive Language with Kate Marshall
January 12th, 2022 | 58 mins 4 secs
Kate Marshall talks about setting healthy energetic boundaries with others, the fact that words hold immense power and gives advice on how to take responsibility for unintentionally causing harm without overthinking it because progress takes practice, and gives insight on what it’s been like to open a mutual aid-centered model yoga studio over the past few years where people feel included, safe, and loved.
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264: #BlackTechTwitter and Black Tech Pipeline with Pariss Athena
December 22nd, 2021 | 59 mins 46 secs
Pariss Athena talks about being the creator of the hashtag, movement, and global community #BlackTechTwitter, and founding the Black Tech Pipeline.
She and the panelists discuss being okay with losing opportunities, being vocal about wins, and being intentional about community because people who are not Black do not understand the Black experience. We, as a collective society, and as coconspirators, need to make sure the Black experience is changed for the better moving forward.
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263: Security Education, Awareness, Behavior, and Culture with Kat Sweet
December 15th, 2021 | 46 mins 51 secs
Kat Sweet talks about security education, awareness, behavior, and culture. She’s got terrible puns, so this is a super fun show!
We talk about unconscious bias training that works, attempting to make safe things easy, and even dietary accessibility.
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259: Continuous Iteration, Continuous Improvement – Always Evolving Over Time with Rin Oliver
November 17th, 2021 | 43 mins 14 secs
Rin Oliver talks about improving developer experience, neurodivergence and the distinction between technical and autistic burnout, mentoring, and how to successfully contribute to open source projects.
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258: Nerd Therapy with Michael Keady
November 10th, 2021 | 1 hr 16 mins
Michael Keady, The Nerd Therapist, runs nerdy programs like Roll for Growth, which uses role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons as a form of group therapy and Minecraft for individual therapy.
In this episode, he talks about gaming in engaging in talk therapy with both adults and children, and how to consume media by curating, engaging in, and explaining it responsibly.
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257: Putting Accessibility Into Action with Dr. Michele A. Williams
November 3rd, 2021 | 59 mins 48 secs
Dr. Michele A. Williams’ mission is to reach outside of the accessibility world and demystify it for able-bodied people. In this episode, she talks about the real work of accessibility needing to come from top down organizational changes, and rethinking our moral obligations and social norms as a culture.
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251: Diplomatic Accessibility Advocacy with Todd Libby
September 22nd, 2021 | 46 mins 41 secs
Todd Libby talks about getting people, companies, and stakeholders to care about accessibility via diplomatic advocacy. He tells us the “Domino’s Pizza Story,” and shares with us the biggest things that typically aren’t accessible and should be on websites.
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249: #TechIsHiring + eSports and Software Engineering with Chad Stewart
September 8th, 2021 | 54 mins 46 secs
Chad Stewart talks about starting the #TechIsHiring hashtag on Twitter to use networking for good and amplify others with not as big of reach.
We then pivot to nerding out about gaming! Drawing comparisons and connections between playing fighting games and software development and engineering. Bringing experience from one realm to another.
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244: Making Peace and Creating Trust with Brianna McGowen
August 4th, 2021 | 56 mins 22 secs
Brianna McGowen talks about making peace without giving up, practicing acceptance vs. resignation, the concepts of community-owned AI, and that trustless = antihuman.
She also chats about her involvement with Delicious Democracy and gives us her definition of “Equitism.”
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239: Accessibility and Sexuality with Eli Holderness
June 23rd, 2021 | 45 mins 38 secs
Eli Holderness talks about accessibility and expressing your sexuality in tech: having conversations with leadership and management, team culture and support, and that it’s okay and not disingenuous to discard facets of yourself you no longer are or that no longer serve you.
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235: RailsConf Scholars: 2021 Remote Edition
May 19th, 2021 | 42 mins 18 secs
Special guests, Stefanni Brasil, Leah Miller, and Tram Bui talk about the RailsConf Scholars Program. The Opportunity Scholarship is a chance to jump in to learn more about Ruby on Rails specifically and software development in general.
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231: Deserted Island Safety and Expectations with Austin Parker
April 21st, 2021 | 47 mins 38 secs
Austin Parker gives the full exclusive of what ended up being a smash-hit success in 2020 at the height of the pandemic called Deserted Island DevOps but tells us that it wasn’t without hesitation and fear of failure in both the technical and psychological senses. His main goal was to underpromise and overdeliver, and he talks about safety and setting expectations both for speakers and participants.
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226: Incarceration and Technology with Kurt Kemple
March 17th, 2021 | 1 hr 21 mins
Make no assumptions! Kurt Kemple talks about the intersection of incarceration and technology: we need to destigmatize formerly incarcerated folx, hire the formerly incarcerated, and provide stability to those coming out of incarceration.