Elm Town cover art

Elm Town

Elm Town

By: Jared M. Smith
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A podcast about the people making and using the Elm language, and the things that they do.© This year, Elm Town Podcast
Episodes
  • Elm Town 90 – Wonder: Contorting yourself with Ari Schlesinger

    Elm Town 90 – Wonder: Contorting yourself with Ari Schlesinger
    May 19 2026
    Ari Schlesinger illuminates a unique path of social responsibility carved through the tech world, using feminism as a guide while bearing attacks, criticism, and contortion. That trail led Ari to ask how programming languages shape society and, eventually, to research Elm—the compiler, error messages, and community. Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com. Music by Jesse Moore. Edited by Toni Cañete. Recording date: 2025.06.06 Guest Ari Schlesinger Show notes [00:00:25] Sponsored by Logistically [00:02:27] Introduction (for real) University of GeorgiaSocially Responsible Tech Lab"A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design", co-authored with Felienne HermansAddressing Computing's Discrimination Problem: A Framework for Anti-Discriminatory Computing by Ari SchlesingerElm Town 88 – Wonder: Unconscious bias with Felienne Hermans [00:04:57] Origin story FemTechNetAlex JuhaszProgrammed Visions: Software and Memory by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun [00:14:33] Why Did School Suck? [00:20:41] A little thing called Y Combinator and 4chan happened HASTAC (Cathy Davidson)"A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna Haraway [00:30:43] Anti-discriminatory framework "Good intentions are not enough: how informatics interventions can worsen inequality" by Tiffany C. Veinot, Hannah Mitchell, and Jessica S. AnckerGood Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy [00:43:00] Language shapes reality Sapir-Whorf hypothesis [00:49:22] Glaciology "Glaciers, gender, and science: A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research" by Mark Carey, M. Jackson, Alessandro Antonello, and Jaclyn Rushing [00:58:11] Relation of Ari's research to Elm Strange LoopPapers We Love Conf"The Hard Parts of Open Source" by Evan Czaplicki at Strange Loop 2018Propaganda by Edward BernaysThe Last Whole Earth Catalog [01:04:32] Elm error messages [01:20:36] Slackbot / Feminism bell hooks - Feminism is for Everybody [01:29:22] Why study Elm? "The Economics of Programming Languages" by Evan Czaplicki at Strange Loop 2023 [01:32:14] Contorting yourself "When We Have Never Been Human, What Is to Be Done?: Interview with Donna Haraway" by Nicholas Gane in Theory, Culture & SocietyThe Good PlaceWeb Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [01:43:00] Picks Ari's picks Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict by William UryFrieren: Beyond Journey's End (TV series)Programmed Visions: Software and Memory by Wendy Hui Kyong ChunFeminism Confronts Technology by Judy WajcmanTechnoFeminism by Judy WajcmanACM TechBrief: Advancing Accessibility in the Digital WorldPBS / Sesame StreetTaskmasterThe Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing Jared's picks "Queer Theory for Lichens" (archive) by David Griffiths https://jayjinsing.github.io/files/QueerTheoryLichens.pdf (PDF)Entangled Life by Merlin SheldrakeThe Rehearsal on Max by Nathan FielderDeschooling Society by Ivan Illich
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    1 hr and 53 mins
  • Elm Town 89 – Elm Camp 2026

    Elm Town 89 – Elm Camp 2026
    Mar 24 2026

    Elm Camp organizers Katja Mordaunt and Tomáš Látal share details about the June 15th-18th, 2026 event in Olomouc, Czech Republic, and extend an open invitation to Elm-curious folks in the broader community. Tickets on sale as of publishing!

    Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.

    Music by Jesse Moore.
    Edited by Toni Cañete.

    Recording date: 2026.01.28

    Guests
    • Katja Mordaunt
    • Tomáš Látal
    Show notes [00:00:33] Sponsored by Logistically [00:00:54] Introducing Katja Mordaunt & Tomáš Látal
    • Elm Town 59 – Elm Camp with Katja Mordaunt
    • Elm Town 78 – Elm Camp 2024 with Katja Mordaunt and Wolfgang Schuster
    • Scrive
    [00:06:22] Elm Camp Info
    • elm.camp
    [00:07:33] The town of Olomouc
    • Elm Camp Discord
    [00:13:28] The venue: Park Hotel Prachárna
    • Hotel Prachárna
    [00:19:50] Unconference format
    • Elm Town 85 – Wander: Elm Camp 2025
    [00:27:16] Intentionally Elm-curious
    • Elm Town 81 – Inspired: Bubble Tea with Christian Rocha
    • Lambda Days
    [00:34:16] The beauty of Elm Camp [00:39:41] Picks Katja's pick
    • "Teaching Haskell to Kids"
    Tomáš' picks
    • Coderetreat
    • Darknet Diaries
    • Kagi Small Web
    • "The Small Web is Beautiful" by Ben Hoyt
    • Jujutsu
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Elm Town 88 – Wonder: Unconscious bias with Felienne Hermans

    Elm Town 88 – Wonder: Unconscious bias with Felienne Hermans
    Dec 16 2025
    Felienne Hermans relates her journey in programming—writing The Programmer's Brain, uncovering biases within computing culture & herself, and building the multilingual, gradual-syntax programming language Hedy. We even dip into AI (trigger warning) and dumb phones.Thanks to our sponsor, Logistically. Email: elmtown@logisticallyinc.com.Music by Jesse Moore.Edited by Toni Cañete.Recording date: 2025.04.08GuestFelienne HermansShow notes[00:00:26] Sponsored by Logistically[00:00:48] Introducing Felienne HermansHedy - Textual programming made easyThe Programmer's Brain by Felienne Hermans"How to teach programming (and other things)?" at Strange Loop 2019"A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design", co-authored with Ari SchlesingerElm Town 59 – Elm Camp with Katja MordauntCode Reading ClubThe Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman[00:04:09] The costs of misconceptionsScience Mike[00:09:51] Journey to computer science[00:14:33] Programming culture: challenges and creativityElm Town 48 – Making Little Games Like Presents with Martin StewartElm Town 64 – The network effect with Martin StewartAdvent of Code[00:21:36] Bias and building a multi-lingual programming languageMark Guzdial's blog: Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take[00:28:35] Hedy's gradual syntaxAddressing Computing’s Discrimination Problem: A Framework for Anti-Discriminatory Computing by Ari SchlesingerThe Will to Change by bell hooks[00:38:12] Programming language community, learning, and valuing hard things[00:47:19] How language design choices affect cognitive load"The Hard Parts of Open Source" by Evan Czaplicki at Strange Loop 2019Elm Town 58 – Unblocking users with quality software with Tessa KellyEpisode 68: Elm and ADD with Dillon Kearns and Jeroen Engels[00:56:22] History of women in computing"Female Inventors and Narratives of Innovation in Late Twentieth-Century Computing" by Myra ChengNathan Ensmenger[01:03:40] Kotodama (言霊): What's in a name?Feeling of Computing 75 • A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design by Felienne Hermans[01:08:49] Switching to a dumb phone[01:16:48] AI"An Age of Hyperabundance" by Laura PrestonIn Praise of Messy Lives by Katie Roiphe[01:30:10] PicksFelienne's picks"An Age of Hyperabundance" by Laura PrestonDeath Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond by Tamara KneeseCrisis of Narration by Byung-Chul HanJared's pickThe End of This Day's Business by Katharine Burdekin
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    1 hr and 45 mins
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