We're talking treadmill and musical gear, software maintenance, dependency management, technical debt, testing web components, and CSS-Tricks hot drama.

We want your positive tech support stories! Topics this week include wrangling DNS/DKIM/DMARC for a friend's newsletter, comparing terminal tools like TMUX and Herdr, and juggling Rails, Node, and AI agent processes, and figuring out which tooling you like best.

The realities of A/B testing, the future of specialized hosting in the AI era, microphone and camera permissions on the web, tricks for working with HTML email, and hyping Midnight Vinyl Club and How Many Dudes?

Dave and Chris try to get their LUTS in a row, figure out which app to use to edit and publish video quickly, Dave's new syntax highlighter microlighter, could web MCP be a good thing to help agents use CodePen better, and saying no is as important as what you do ship.

Having type two fun, email branding with BIMI, accessibility details in icons and favicons, using AI as a coding and maintenance partner, CSS @layer property, design systems, and the economics of fast AI hardware.

We tackle a listener question about why junior front-end devs are expected to know so much beyond HTML and CSS, then get into Dave's real-world fix swapping old WebKit line-clamp hacks for the new CSS line-clamp property and the subtle bugs that kind of truncation work can cause. They also debate whether AI tools like Claude or Copilot deserve co-author credit on commits, gripe about agent-only coding workflows that skip linting and hide what's actually happening, and wrap up looking at new platform features like the navigation API and a proposed CSS-based routing approach using @route and @view-transition.

We're checking on quarter 3 KPIs, using AI for admin dashboards is kind of fun, being a weirdo is something we should aspire to, there's a reason things sometimes all look the same and that's ok, people see the effort you put in to your creativity on the web, and thoughts on generating a random post on a static site generator.

CodePen 2.0 is out now and we're talking about the launch, the idea of templating on the web, and how HTML could look very interesting in the future.

If you're like Chris and understand a bit of the tech behind AT Proto but want to understand it at a deeper level, this episode is for you. How does it differ from straight up RSS and Mastodon, where is my identity being stored, how do I create a schema, what can be updated or modified later, is there going to be a PDS revolution, how does Standard.site fit into it all, and what else could we build with AT Proto?

How do websites handle advertising embeds, thinking DND thoughts about team topologies, does knowing UX help get jobs in web dev, using Elena for building progressive web components, and dealing with buttons in web components.

Chris & Dave have been challenged to not talk about AI this episode - do they succeed? How do I optimize tracking pixels in my web app, what's the best book on CMS and authoring experiences, picking the best tooling in Rails that won't be obsolete, SPF, DNS, and D-Marc, adding dark mode to a website, and dealing with good old fashioned F.A.R.T.

What to do when you have more ideas than time, getting new musical gear, nerding out and getting excited about things, the state of conferences in 2026, Cursor being bought, and Dave's got a minimum viable design system idea.

In praise of a solid Shure microphone (sponsor??), AI being really helpful in certain situations, TypeScript complaints about complaining, TypeScript at CodePen, should we all slow down a bit, CI jail and work trees, AT Proto and related protocols, interestForElement in HTML, and how many spoons do you have left for Clues by Sam?

How do you estimate how long a task or project is going to take? Is it easier or more difficult with AI's help? Were web components a mistake? What do we think about Cloudflare's EmDash now? And are lifetime offers a good or bad thing in the dev community?

Dave's upgrading his office with a 3D printer, Chris is ordering 3D printed parts for his van, using mobile Starlink, Chris redesigned his website, playing puzzle games like Statedoku, Chess Peace, and Clues by Sam, how CodePen is going to support pointing domains at your app, and what Vite getting bought by Cloudflare signals.

Dave's changing up his camera angles, Chris has been upgrading his Sprinter van, how many hobbies is too many, what kinds of web tech was popular years ago that now seems normal, why isn't the DX around web components better, how can I structure my code to compose other custom elements, and what still can't be done on the web these days?

We're running down what's new from Google for the web and figuring out if it's web developer Xmas or AI Doomsday this year.

What happens to a website when it stops? Is there a space for an internet salvage yard for websites? How do you feel about LLMs being included with your browser? And are we ever going to find out where AI got all it's data from?

How responsible should you be for fixing your own website for others, Dave's got a blacklog of blog posts, Chris got a camper van, debating burnout even when you love your work, a weekly AI doomer check in, and Chris has a talk for Smashing Magazine happening by the time you hear this.

Brad and Ian Frost are back to chat about integrating AI into website and design system building, how to keep AI slop out of your design systems, building things humans need regardless of the tooling, and thinking of AI as a fancy linter.

Chris Coyier and Scott Jehl discuss the recent advancements in lazy loading on the web, the process of standardization, browser support, and the future of web performance optimization.

We've got Robby Russell, maintainer of Oh My Zsh, on the show to talk about why Chris has it installed, what makes a good Zsh plugin, Oh My Zsh plugins Robby recommends, what it's like working in Rails in 2026, dealing with project dependancies, and how Rails apps make use of frameworks?

What is Sanity and who is it for in the age of AI, managing content with AI, how Simen Svale uses AI agents alongside Sanity, designing a MCP, design with Pencil vs Figma, how Inngest works, and how Simen keeps AI agents busy all day.

Dave's plan for when AI finally takes his job, going to the movies in 2026, Chris & Dave chat with Apple about the state of browsers, Dave has a way of setting a theme with a custom space property, and Cloudflare slopforks a CMS.

Memories of Hawaii, people are not friction in the AI age, what do you pre-load for a flight, can you get rid of the CMS with AI involved, Dave's dream for a custom VS Code machine, CommonRSS follow up conversation, the hype for ATProto, and picking music apps for a family.

Listener John has a VSCode extension to share, Chris muses on why nobody has attempted to build the social side of RSS, a listener is experimenting with feature-based folder structures, how do you feel about AI traffic on your website, what can someone blog about in 2026, and Digg gets dugg by bots.

Are we all going to vibe code our own bespoke apps now, can a canvas app be vibe coded, more geolocation API thoughts, CodePen v2's public beta is now out, and private pens explained.

Chris talks through going public with CodePen v2's beta, the magic words and AI skills needed today, Chris has a beef with anchor positioning, thoughts on classless CSS libraries, Eleventy growing up into Build Awesome, and how would you pass an hour by quickly? (Hopefully by listening to this podcast.)

We talk with Frederik Braun from Mozilla about the Sanitizer API, how it works with HTML tags and web components, what it does with malformed HTML, and where CSP fits in alongside the Sanitizer API.

We're joined by Ujjwal Sharma to talk about what the TC39 is, who's in it, and how the TC39 group guides JavaScript.

Chris has opinions about being sick, implied target for popovers, should Apple provide cross platform virtual machine images for Safari testing, what tips are there for beginners to HTML and CSS, which website builder CMS's do we recommend, and a Chipotle hack for your lunch plans.

When Dave dies, who gets his domain name? How OpenClaw is a massive security concern, tips on handling a broad design surface area with a design system, changing database values with text-transform, should you declare CSS properties with @property, and was Chris wrong about CSS?

We're passing over another milestone episode and answering your Q's with our A's while we do it: Dave goes 3D printing, should CSS be inside a web component, Chris is trying to build web component for popovers, why isn't Vue used or talked about more, finding bugs in blocks in the new CodePen, and we're grateful for 700 episodes.

Web Day Out is coming up and Jeremy Keith from Clearleft (name pending the ShopTalk Show rebrand) is here to chat about it and while we've got him, Dave throws him on the hot seat to answer some hard hitting journalism questions about the state of the web in 2026.

Why are AI tools so bad at CSS layout, Robin Rendle inspired monospaced fonts, CodePen's slideVars library, why are Safari dev tools so hard to use, button follow up, and what player component does ShopTalk use for it's website?

We're talking new stuff (to us) that we haven't chatted about yet like display:grid-lanes, the web install API, resizing text on the web, scroll triggered animations, active view transition type, and a Quick Look at CodePen v2 features.

Catching up on holidays adventures, Dave's year in ADHD land, and our predictions for 2026.

After a bit of gaming talk, Chris and Dave are sharing a bunch of cool projects that our Discord community members have been sharing over the past year including things like a web component based admin bar, shape CSS generators, new website portfolios, HTML-first web framework, email markup databases, miniature paintings, AI tools and ducks, and a lot more. ShopTalk will be taking a break after this episode until the new year. Happy holidays for 2025 and we look forward to a great year in 2026 sharing our love of all things HTML, CSS, and building websites.

Chris and Jessica from Studioworks join us to talk about their new app, why they're uniquely qualified to run an invoicing app, what the long term vision is for Studioworks, pricing models of subscription apps, how invoicing isn't just for web nerds anymore, helping neurospicy people get paid for their work, and what it's like to transfer to a new invoicing app.

Why do we turkey when there's so many (better) options for meals, how many hobbies do we really need and why can't we do all of them, Clues by Sam difficulties and doing the puzzle game circuit, does Dave like D&D or does Dave like systems, the ongoing web monetization attempts, and Brecht on range group.

Dave has famous people blindness, a cologne life hack is dropped, what is the killer feature of web components, MCPs are so done—focus on skills instead, should custom events exist, and thoughts about streaming HMTL.

What do Balatro streamers do when the game is over, Random in CSS is so hot right now, Dave has a better idea for charts and graphs that would change the world, Quiet UI follow up, Dave tries vibe coding a tennis app and doesn't completely John McEnroe his laptop, Chris wonders about better cursor UI on the web, and debating affordances vs conventions.

Steve Ruiz talks about what tldraw is and who it's for, how they've dealt with data on all the computers, what's new in the tldraw SDK, ideas for building on top of tldraw, tldraw's business model, and what the future holds for tldraw the company.

In this episode we sit down with Tyler Sticka to discuss upgrading his project, Colorpeek. We explore the practical applications of web components and CSS, and how they are shaping the future of web development. Tyler shares his experiences with prototyping and the challenges of maintaining simplicity in design.

Dave and Chris discuss the transition of QuietUI's license to open source, the creative process behind blogging, modern CSS techniques, and the features of QuietUI, a new design system with unique components.

Ben's got an updated edition of his book, Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS, to chat about as well as how much AI is being inserted into writing, layers, scope, color contrast vs contrast color, shouldn't AI bots pay for data they slurp, iFrames permissions issues in Chrome, anchor positioning, and where have all the bloggers gone?

Todd Libby is on the show to talk with us about deceptive patterns on the web, what WCAG is and who it's for, and 5 deceptive patterns in use on the web today.

Who's the person to hire when your home network isn't working as reliably as it should? And while we're at it - can you also fix Dave's Find My notifications? What's the plan with Firefox in 2025? And Dave blogs (and mouth blogs) about his struggles with the MVP car.