Derek Boshier, amongst the first artists to propel British pop art, his work supported by the likes of David Bowie and contemporary David Hockney. And the life of Helen Fisher, one of America’s most prominent anthropologists who's studied the science of romantic love, attachment, adultery, divorce, and the evolution and future of family life. Hoste…

Three extraordinary lives today: Rowena Jackson, New Zealand’s first prima ballerina; Willi Lemke, the German politician turned football manager; and Michel Siffre, the French geologist who lost track of time after living in a dark cave for 1,500 hours. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Sven-Göran Eriksson managed England's so-called "Golden Generation". And while his success was limited, he brought perspective, respect and a calmness that was before missing. And the life of Virginia Ogilvy, Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

A special profile of Mike Lynch, one of Britain's most celebrated tech entrepreneurs, who lived for years under investigation by U.S. prosecutors until his acquittal just months ago. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alain Delon was once dubbed the most beautiful man in the world and modelled himself on being a French James Dean, but his life was full of scandal. He cosied up to criminals in the underworld and the hard right of French politics. Plus, we explore the life of Lieutenant Brian Wilson, who narrowly survived Operation Market Garden - one of the Allie…

Italian, Benito Nonino played a key part in elevating what was once seen as an uncouth grappa into a premium beverage. And we look back at Sigmund Freud's life and work through the eyes of one of his greatest critics, Frederick Crews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Second Lieutenant William Calley was the sole person convicted for the 1968 My Lai massacre: US forces indiscriminately killed as many as 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers. And we hear about the career of Lord Robert Fellowes, Queen Elizabeth II's private secretary during a tumultuous period of divorces in the Royal Family and Princess Diana's death…

In 1960, Ireland’s minister for culture pronounced Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, “a smear on Irish womanhood”. Over time she would come to be hailed as one of the country’s most gifted writers. And we celebrate the life and work of Sir Kenneth Grange who, as a designer, created objects that changed the way we live. Hosted on Acast.…

Ray Reardon was one of Britain’s best-known sportsmen, but when he was honoured at Buckingham Palace in 1985 with an MBE for services to snooker, the Queen enquired: “And what do you do?” What he did, was win, triumphing in the World Snooker Championship six times. And we marvel at the life of aid worker Simon Boas, whose candid reflections on his …

Dr Ruth Westheimer's voice was once mocked as “a cross between Henry Kissinger and a canary”. But the sex therapist felt it was one of her biggest assets, because she sounded like “Grandma Freud”. Westheimer escaped Nazi Germany and later found fame by talking honestly in public about once-taboo, bedroom topics. And we celebrate the life of Eddie S…

Roland Dumas wielded such clout in the Élysée that he was called “le vice-president”. But despite being a closely trusted ally of François Mitterrand, his career in politics was blighted by allegations of corruption. While the 1953 Wimbledon champion, Vic Seixas, was perhaps under appreciated, and definitely underpaid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co…

Akira Endo discovered the ‘penicillin for cholesterol’. But when offered the drugs he made possible, for his own high cholesterol, he opted for diet and exercise instead. And we hear the remarkable story of the Cuban revolutionary, Olga Morgan Goodwin, who turned on Fidel Castro and was imprisoned for trying to overthrow him. Hosted on Acast. See a…

"Offbeat, relaxed, and never overly reverential about his craft". The actor Donald Sutherland was described as one of the finest actors never to win an Oscar. And we recall the life of Leah Levin, who in spite of holding no legal qualifications, dedicated her life to righting the wrongs of the British criminal justice system. Hosted on Acast. See a…

Bob Dylan wrote Françoise Hardy a poem before they even met. But the iconic french singer-songwriter was irritated by the public's fascination of her beauty rather than her music. And we explore the work of the psychologist, Sue Johnson, who devoted her life to unravelling the mystery of love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa…

'Trust me, I'm a doctor' was an instruction many were happy to follow. The BBC show's host, Michael Mosley, combined infectious enthusiasm and dedication to the scientific method. Today we hear his story, plus that of William Anders, astronaut, engineer and photographer of one of the most famous photos ever taken. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri…

Today, we hear two remarkable stories of dogged determination. First, the inspirational life of Rob Burrow, the Rugby League star who campaigned so bravely in the face of his motor neurone disease diagnosis. And second, the Oscar winning producer of The Godfather, Albert Ruddy, and the story of the extraordinary steps it took to bring the iconic mo…

Each week we explore two fascinating lives. Often they’ll be remarkable people whose achievements are universally celebrated. But sometimes, they’ll be people whose lives have other significance. Today we hear two life stories: one about the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi who died, along with the Iranian foreign minister, in a helicopter crash. A…

Introducing Your History, where each week we detail absorbing, life-affirming accounts of remarkable lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've reached the end of Season 1! In this final episode, Alex and Brian take some time to reflect on what we've learned so far, what themes tend to keep coming up across episodes, areas we're targeting for personal growth, and finally, what you can expect from Season 2. Thanks for being a part of our first season! We'll be back in 2024 with all ne…

Is your platform secure? How do you know? How do you even know all of the machines, networks, software, and data that make up your platform in the first place? We're joined by Amirali Shahinpour, Head of Security Data Platform at Twitch to discuss driving security priorities across your organization. Amir's Framework for addressing vulns: Prepare (…

Part 2 of our discussion with Lee McKeeman, Staff Engineer at Google, on empathy and inclusion. Why do companies struggle to prioritize efforts around inclusion and accessibility? And what can we, as technical leaders, do about it? Picks & Plugs Lee: LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmckeeman Substack, https://leemckeeman.substack.com Alex: Sw…

Lee McKeeman is currently a staff engineer at Google, who’s also spent time at Amazon and Meta. Lee is passionate about how we as technical leaders can influence our work environments to be more empathetic and inclusive so that people of varying races, genders, creeds, ages, and neruodiversities, all feel empowered to contribute their best ideas to…

Think about the roles you play in your community. Social planner, Little League coach, Dungeon Master. Did anyone explicitly give you that authority? Or did you just gravitate towards your interests and put yourself out there? Can we do that at work, too? Are we defined by the title given to us by our companies, or can we put ourselves out there to…

How do you decide whether that shiny new frontend framework or that highly performant, memory-safe backend language is really going to solve your problems? Join our guest Eric Justusson, as we talk about how to leverage quick experiments, tracer bullets, greenfield projects, and hackathons to responsibly evaluate the benefits and costs of onboardin…

Will AI fundamentally change the way we as engineers interact with our work and our world? Or is it mostly hype? We’re joined today by David Ashe-- Senior Software Engineer with American Express--to explore the benefits, risks, practical uses, and downright bizarre results of AI. Misc Show notes AI has even made some contributions to this Podcast. …

How do you establish a vision of the future that addresses a specific business need for your company? And how do you turn that vision into a concrete strategy to execute? Our guest Brian Jones is an engineering manager in Central Security at Meta, and he'll share his techniques for building vision and strategy at scale. Acronym Glossary CISSP: Cert…

This episode is a tasty one. Today’s guest introduced me to an analogy that illustrates beautifully the progressively growing scope and responsibilities of an engineer from Junior to Senior to Staff and beyond. I love this analogy so much that I invited him onto the show to share it with you. So get out your aprons, prep your mixers, and welcome ou…

So... what is a Staff Engineer anyway? What even is the job description? In this episode, we’re joined by Abhishek Mistry–Staff Engineering Leader at Hudson River Trading–to discuss exactly that. What is this job ICs aspire to? How is it different from management? How do you influence and lead people when you actually have no real authority? Is it …

On this first episode, Brian Ogilvie and Alex Gaiser discuss where we are in our careers as senior software engineers, what we're looking to learn as we look to grow into Staff+ engineers, and more about the format of the show. Links: The Pragmatic Programmer, by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt Mode Cloud SQL editor Refactoring, by Martin Fowler Staff…