There’s no shortage of podcasts about new tools, trending libraries, and web development hot takes. But what’s often missing are the deeper conversations, the ones about how teams actually made things work in production, under pressure, and with real-world constraints.

That’s the gap we’re hoping to close with 🎙️ On Rails.

Produced by The Rails Foundation, On Rails is a new podcast focused on the technical decisions, architectural trade-offs, and long-term thinking behind building and maintaining Ruby on Rails applications.

This podcast isn’t about chasing the latest trends. It’s about understanding the choices that help teams ship and sustain reliable software over time. You’ll hear from engineers and leaders who’ve navigated legacy code, scaled monoliths, introduced new tools, and kept Rails apps running smoothly for years.

🎧 Season One: What to Expect

We’re experimenting with a few different episode formats:

• Deep-dive case studies
• Panel discussions
• Technical retrospectives
• Tech stack spotlights

Yes, we’ll talk about newer gems and features, but always through the lens of why they came to be, how they were implemented, and what was learned along the way. These episodes aim to move beyond surface-level highlights and into practical, often messy realities.

👋 About Your Host

I’m Robby Russell, a long-time member of the Rails community and your host for On Rails. Through my work with clients at Planet Argon and as the host of Maintainable.fm, I’ve spent years talking with engineers about the challenges of building and sustaining real-world software. This podcast is a way to share more of those candid, behind-the-scenes conversations with the broader Rails community.

🚀 Available Now

You can listen to On Rails at onrails.buzzsprout.com, or in your favorite podcast app. Subscribe if you’re into that sort of thing.

We’re also proud to be launching the show on Buzzsprout, which is also built on Rails.

New episodes will be released regularly, but we’re not chasing a publishing quota. Our focus is on real conversations that reveal how Rails teams build systems that last. We hope On Rails becomes a valuable resource for developers and teams looking to build and maintain great software with Ruby on Rails.

Have a listen, and let us know what you think!