Whiskey Web and Whatnot

This week, Robbie and Adam talk with Will Johnson—senior developer advocate at Auth0—about web dev, parenting, and internet culture. They debate whether CSS is a “real” programming language, riff on how modern frameworks can feel over-engineered, and dig into the security risks emerging around AI agents and MCP. Will shares what he’s been learning about MCP security, why he’s cautious with new tools, and how Auth0’s new AI agent offering helps manage identity, permissions, and token safety.

Presented by CodeRabbit: https://coderabbit.ai

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:49) - Meet Will Johnson

(02:19) - Whiskey rating & review: Jameson Triple Triple

(07:13) - Hot Take: Git rebase vs git merge

(09:42) - Parenting talk: kids, wrestling, and learning consequences

(11:57) - Hot Take: Is CSS a programming language?

(14:37) - What Will’s working on at Auth0 (AI + MCP security)

(16:57) - The most interesting MCP-related hacks and security risks

(18:27) - Can “skills” become an attack vector too?

(19:47) - Security vulnerabilities, Next.js updates, and patching fatigue

(20:48) - How Will’s family got into K-Pop Demon Hunters

(25:51) - The Moana live-action trailer “looks like useEffect” (and why)

(27:17) - Is React essentially processed American food?

(27:58) - Sugar-free Oreos: what are we even doing here?

(29:18) - Have we overcomplicated frontend development?

(31:32) - Why Rails is the best-engineered dev experience Will has used

(32:25) - How Auth0 teams are structured

(35:47) - Passkeys explained

(41:43) - Plugs and how to connect with Will

(43:12) - How AI agents fit into auth

Links

Auth0: https://auth0.com/

Jameson Triple Triple: https://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/en-us/our-whiskey/jameson-triple-triple/

Three Sheets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sheets

Jack Daniel's Reserve: https://www.jackdaniels.com/

Google Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/

Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/

CSS: https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

MCP: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/

Next.js: https://nextjs.org/

KPop Demon Hunters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPop_Demon_Hunters

Britney Spears: https://britneyspears.com/

NSYNC: https://nsync.com/

B2K: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2K

Chris Brown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Brown

Netflix: https://netflix.com

Stanford University: https://www.stanford.edu/

Moana: https://movies.disney.com/moana

Dak Prescott: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak_Prescott

React: https://react.dev/

Oreo: https://www.oreo.com/

jQuery: https://jquery.com/

Ken Wheeler: https://x.com/ken_wheeler/

ES6: https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_es6.asp

BlingBlingjs: https://github.com/argyleink/blingblingjs

Astro: https://astro.build/

Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/

Laravel: https://laravel.com/

Egghead: https://egghead.io/

Grok: https://grok.com/

1Password: https://1password.com/

Google Zanzibar: https://research.google/pubs/zanzibar-googles-consistent-global-authorization-system/

AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/

Netlify: https://www.netlify.com/

Pokemon Go: https://pokemongolive.com/

Connect with Will

Website: https://auth0.com/ai

X / Twitter: https://x.com/willjohnsonio

Connect with the hosts

Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner

Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd

Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

Subscribe and stay in touch

Website: https://whiskey.fm

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

Whiskey Web and Whatnot Merch
Enjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at https://whiskey.fund.

This week, Robbie and Adam talk about holiday travel chaos, parenting stress, and health scares before diving into AI-assisted coding, Linux quirks, IDE trends, burnout in open source, and more.

In this episode:

- (00:00) - Intro

- (02:07) - Whiskey rating & review: Flaviar & Jack Daniels

- (06:02) - Stress gummies, holiday chaos, and why Robbie is fried

- (13:05) - Adam on pulling back, burnout, and choosing quality over quantity

- (21:02) - Second pour: Flavia SirDavis American Whisky

- (21:23) - Building color tools for fun (and sanity)

- (21:51) - Is React actually holding us back?

- (25:16) - Food, culture, and building with the platform

- (27:19) - The worst IDE idea ever

- (31:00) - Vibe-coding an iOS app… on iOS

- (32:39) - Where AI still completely fails

- (34:02) - OpenAI vs. Gemini and the shifting AI landscape

- (34:56) - Editors, agents, and AI overload

- (38:34) - Space toggles in CSS and weirdly powerful tricks

- (42:14) - Are AI tools getting more scatterbrained?

- (44:20) - Perspective when everything feels heavy

- (46:20) - Learning new skills without burning out

- (48:03) - Curiosity is a survival skill

- (48:40) - Working through hard seasons in life

- (54:14) - TV shows, distractions, and mental breaks

- (54:46) - Robbie vs. Lego ordering (again)

- (56:05) - Adam’s exhausting travel run

- (57:07) - Why kids are basically walking germs

- (58:26) - Adam’s Beyond Tellerrand talk

- (59:13) - Advent of Code

**Links**

- Flaviar Bhakta Golden Age Blend: https://flaviar.com/products/bhakta-1928-golden-age-blend-750

- Flavia SirDavis American Whisky: https://flaviar.com/products/sirdavis-american-whisky-750

- Jack Daniels Single Barrel Rye: https://www.jackdaniels.com/en-us/whiskey/single-barrel-rye

- Whiskey Web and Whatnot live episodes from All Things Open 2025: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7uiIY_6TPL-iREDcpUVndAZaz118OE-h

- Olly Stress Gummies: https://www.olly.com/

- Flaviar Whiskey Advent Calendar: https://flaviar.com/pages/advent-calendar

- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: https://www.harrypottertheplay.com/

- ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

- Adam's blog post - An Update On My Involvement In Standards: https://nerdy.dev/update-on-my-involvement-in-standards

- Primeagen: https://x.com/ThePrimeagen

- Swach: https://swach.io/

- Chrome EyeDropper API: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/capabilities/web-apis/eyedropper

- Linux: https://www.linux.org/

- Wayland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(protocol)

- GNOME: https://www.gnome.org/

- KDE: https://kde.org/

- C++: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp

- Rust: https://www.rust-lang.org/

- Electron: https://www.electronjs.org/

- Antigravity: https://antigravity.google/

- Adam's color component: https://github.com/argyleink/css-color-component

- theCHIVE: https://thechive.com/

- Preact: https://preactjs.com/

- React: https://react.dev/

- Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

- Seinfeld: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld

- VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/

- Ember: https://emberjs.com/

- OpenAI: https://openai.com

- Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/

- Nano Banana: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/

- Claude: https://claude.ai/

- Opencode: https://opencode.ai/

- Warp: https://www.warp.dev/

- Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

- Big Pickle: https://opencode.ai/docs/zen/

- Windsurf: https://windsurf.ai/

- CSS: https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

- Stranger Things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

- Chris Coyier: https://x.com/chriscoyier

- Wednesday: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday_(TV_series)

- LEGO: https://www.lego.com/

- WebGL: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebGL_API

- Advent of Code: https://adventofcode.com/

- Figma: https://www.figma.com/

- Adam's Beyond Tellerrand talk: https://beyondtellerrand.com/events/berlin-2025/speakers/adam-argyle

**Connect with the hosts**

- Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner

- Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd

- Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

**Subscribe and stay in touch**

- Website: https://whiskey.fm

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf

- Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

**Whiskey Web and Whatnot Merch**

Enjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at https://whiskey.fund.

This week, Robbie and Chuck sip Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye, and discuss why SOC 2 compliance is a painful but necessary sign of company maturity. They also dig into AI coding tools, React fatigue, and the growing frustration of modern developer workflows.
In this episode:

(00:00) – Intro
(01:43) – Whiskey rating & review: Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye
(09:15) – Why SOC 2 compliance is a painful rite of passage
(11:55) – AI-powered workflows and where they break down
(18:55) – Do we still need new frameworks?
(20:58) – Framework fatigue and the React hangover
(26:51) – The reality of building browser extensions
(29:02) – Is Firefox dead?
(29:19) – Who AI-powered browsers are actually for
(31:26) – Why shipping software on Windows is such a mess
(35:15) – Juggling operating systems and hardware setups
(37:22) – Are ultra-expensive PC components actually worth it?
(40:58) – Shipping Swatch across platforms and dealing with Snap
(42:48) – The “Tacolate,” Taco Bell experiments, and questionable food ideas
(46:45) – What is a Bimby cooker?
(52:57) – Robbie’s septic system saga

Links

Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye: https://www.jackdaniels.com/whiskey/single-barrel-rye
Winter Olympics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Olympic_Games
World Cup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup
Vercel: https://vercel.com/
AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/
IBM: https://www.ibm.com/
Claude: https://claude.ai
Opencode: https://opencode.ai/
Grok: https://grok.com/
GitHub: https://github.com/
Open Router: https://openrouter.ai/
Elon Musk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
v0: https://v0.dev/
Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/
Lovable: https://lovable.dev/
Replit: https://replit.com/
ShadCN: https://ui.shadcn.com/
Vue: https://vuejs.org/
React: https://react.dev/
JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
Next.js: https://nextjs.org/
Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/
HTMX: https://htmx.org/
TanStack: https://tanstack.com/
SolidJS: https://www.solidjs.com/
Express: https://expressjs.com/
Omarchy: https://omarchy.org/
Swatch: https://swatch.dev/
Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows
Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/
TypeScript: https://www.typescriptlang.org/
Safari: https://www.apple.com/safari/
Apple: https://apple.com
Electron: https://www.electronjs.org/
Firefox: https://www.firefox.com/
Dia: https://www.diabrowser.com/
OpenAI Atlas: https://chatgpt.com/atlas/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/
NVidia: https://www.nvidia.com/
Linux: https://www.linux.org/
Mac Mini: https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/
Ubuntu: https://ubuntu.com/
LG 5k Display: https://www.lg.com/us/collections/5k-monitors
Apple XDR Display: https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/
Snap: https://snapcraft.io/
Arch Linux: https://archlinux.org/
Taco Bell: https://www.tacobell.com/
Bimby Cooker: https://www.thermomix.com/
Vitamix: https://www.vitamix.com/
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/
All Things Open: https://allthingsopen.org/
Ep 218: How to Build a Career When the Rules Keep Changing w/ Taylor Desseyn & Jason Torres: https://whiskey.fm/how-to-build-a-career-when-the-rules-keep-changing-w-taylor-desseyn-jason-torres

Connect with the hosts

Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner
Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd
Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

Subscribe and stay in touch

Website: https://whiskey.fm
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

Whiskey Web and Whatnot MerchEnjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at https://whiskey.fund.

This week, Robbie and Adam talk about Halloween vibes, excellent scotch, and the strange state of modern web development. After rating an Orphan Barrel single malt, they dig into AI coding workflows, agent tools, why one-shot prompts so often fail, and more.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:24) - Whiskey rating & review: Orphan Barrel Woven Honor

(07:21) - How AI is (and isn’t) fitting into real dev workflows

(12:01) - The Louvre heist and why bold ideas sometimes work

(17:02) - Anthropic Skills and the future of AI tooling

(19:21) - Why Warp feels like a killer terminal

(20:43) - OpenCode vs. Warp for everyday development

(21:29) - Connecting Cursor and Claude

(22:17) - Navigating AI tools at work

(24:45) - Why AI struggles to follow instructions

(29:51) - Using web components with Preact signals

(30:39) - Are modern web tools over-engineered?

(31:48) - Cucumber, specs, and English as code

(33:43) - Naming the CSS masonry layout problem

(43:32) - Squash vs. merge and automating away the noise

(48:50) - SEO, AIO, and visibility in the age of AI

(53:07) - Does AI understand podcasts at all?

(53:21) - A fun CSS @important alternative

(54:22) - Don't ignore ESLint in PRs

(55:37) - Why gatekeeping helps no one

(57:12) - Don't be afraid to ask for help

(58:04) - Halloween plans

(01:00:10) - Plugs

Links

Orphan Barrel Woven Honor: https://www.orphanbarrel.com/

Ep 223: The Piano Man of State Machines w/ David K. Piano: https://whiskey.fm/the-piano-man-of-state-machines-w-david-k-piano

Nikka Whisky: https://www.nikka.com/

GitHub: https://github.com/

Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Claude: https://claude.ai/

Python: https://www.python.org/

Beyond Tellerrand: https://beyondtellerrand.com/

CSS: https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

Astro: https://astro.build/

Gamma: https://gamma.app/

Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

Warp: https://www.warp.dev/

Svelte: https://svelte.dev/

Opencode: https://opencode.ai/

Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/

ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

IBM: https://www.ibm.com/

TypeScript: https://www.typescriptlang.org/

Preact: https://preactjs.com/

Starpod.dev: https://starpod.dev/

Android: https://www.android.com/

Cucumber: https://cucumber.io/

Ember: https://emberjs.com/

Docker: https://www.docker.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/

CSS Grid: https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_grid.asp

JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

Sass: https://sass-lang.com/

Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/

Prettier: https://prettier.io/

ESLint: https://eslint.org/

Ep 212: TalkShop Show w/ Macho Man Randy Standards: https://whiskey.fm/talkshop-show-w-macho-man-randy-standards

Front End Happy Hour Podcast: https://www.frontendhappyhour.com/

ShopTalk Show: https://shoptalkshow.com/

Syntax: https://syntax.fm/

We Might Be Drunk: https://wemightbedrunkpod.com/

CascadiaJS: https://cascadiajs.com/

Rick Rubin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin

Zombies Ate My Neighbors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombies_Ate_My_Neighbors

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_Always_Sunny_in_Philadelphia

Wayne's World: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne's_World_(film)

Super Mario: https://mario.nintendo.com/

Vite: https://vite.dev/

Connect with the hosts

Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner

Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd

Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

Subscribe and stay in touch

Website: https://whiskey.fm

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

Whiskey Web and Whatnot Merch
Enjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at https://whiskey.fund.

This week, Robbie and Adam talk with David K. Piano about state machines, the chaos of overusing React hooks, Tailwind controversies, AI agents, security risks in emerging AI tooling, and why determinism still matters. They also chat about pianos, creativity, and finding grounding outside of tech.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:40) - Whiskey rating & review: Nikka Miyagikyo Single Malt

(06:54) - Hot Take: Is useState still dead to David?

(08:34) - Hot Take: Was class-based React better?

(11:12) - Tailwind tip: Don’t sleep on child selectors

(14:47) - Hot Take: Are HTML & CSS programming languages?

(17:42) - Is Tailwind " the worst state management library"?

(22:24) - How a “simple boolean” exploded into a state tree

(24:13) - Debouncing, guarding, and timing transitions in state machines

(25:28) - Hot Take: Rails or Laravel

(26:19) - Why batteries-included frameworks struggle in JavaScript

(29:06) - Will AI push developers toward opinionated frameworks or away from them?

(34:44) - What Claude Skills are and why they matter

(36:47) - The newest AI hacks and whether you should be worried

(42:42) - Why David loves state machines (and how they keep AI on the rails)

(50:38) - David's love for the piano and having a non-tech hobby

(51:45) - What David would do if not in tech

(52:22) - Does playing an instrument make you a better programmer?

(57:39) - Plugs

Links

Nikka Miyagikyo Single Malt: https://www.nikka.com/

Glenfiddich 12 Year Old single malt Scotch: https://shop.us.glenfiddich.com/products/glenfiddich-12-year-old

React Summit: https://reactsummit.com/

Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/

Angular: https://angular.dev/

Backbone: http://backbonejs.org/

Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/

Claude: https://claude.ai

CSS: https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

JavaScript: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

C++: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp

Astro: https://astro.build/

Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/

Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/

Laravel: https://laravel.com/

Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/

Python: https://www.python.org/

Phoenix: https://www.phoenixframework.org/

Elixir: https://elixir-lang.org/

Next.js: https://nextjs.org/

Tom Preston-Werner: https://x.com/mojombo

RedwoodJS: https://redwoodjs.com/

PHP: https://www.php.net/

Remix: https://remix.run/

Rick Rubin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin

Claude Skills: https://claude.com/blog/skills

TypeScript: https://www.typescriptlang.org/

The "lethal trifecta" in AI browsers: https://bsky.app/profile/f3rmi.bsky.social/post/3m3oe4ky4us2c

OpenAI Atlas: https://chatgpt.com/atlas/

Dia: https://www.diabrowser.com/

Comet: https://www.perplexity.ai/comet

ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

Node: https://nodejs.org/

Deno: https://deno.com/

Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/

Opencode: https://opencode.ai/

Vite: https://vite.dev/

NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/

Ep 200: The One Rye to Rule Them All w/ Kendall Miller & Rishi Malik: https://whiskey.fm/the-one-rye-to-rule-them-all-w-kendall-miller-rishi-malik

Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/

VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com

Parasite Eve: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_Eve_(video_game)

Stately: https://state.new/

Connect with David

Website: https://stately.ai/

X / Twitter: https://x.com/DavidKPiano/

Connect with the hosts

Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner

Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd

Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

Subscribe and stay in touch

Website: https://whiskey.fm

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

Whiskey Web and Whatnot Merch
Enjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at https://whiskey.fund.