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MLOps.communityReal LLM Success Stories: How They Actually Work // Alex Strick van Linschoten // #287A software engineer based in Delft, Alex Strick van Linschoten recently built Ekko, an open-source framework for adding real-time infrastructure and in-transit message processing to web applications. With years of experience in Ruby, JavaScript, Go, PostgreSQL, AWS, and Docker, I bring a versatile skill set to the table. I hold a PhD in History, have authored books on Afghanistan, and currently work as an ML Engineer at ZenML.
Real LLM Success Stories: How They Actually Work // MLOps Podcast #287 with Alex Strick van Linschoten, ML Engineer at ZenML.
// Abstract
Alex Strick van Linschoten, a machine learning engineer at ZenML, joins...2025-01-3149 min
Vanishing GradientsEpisode 43: Tales from 400+ LLM Deployments: Building Reliable AI Agents in ProductionHugo speaks with Alex Strick van Linschoten, Machine Learning Engineer at ZenML and creator of a comprehensive LLMOps database documenting over 400 deployments. Alex's extensive research into real-world LLM implementations gives him unique insight into what actually works—and what doesn't—when deploying AI agents in production.
In this episode, we dive into:
The current state of AI agents in production, from successes to common failure modes
Practical lessons learned from analyzing hundreds of real-world LLM deployments
How companies like Anthropic, Klarna, and Dropbox are using patterns like ReAct, RAG, and microservices to build reliable systems
The evol...2025-01-161h 01
Launch School PodcastS5E8: Alex Strick van Linschoten - Open Source Machine Learning, based in EuropeIn this episode, Chris interviews Alex Strick van Linschoten, a Capstone grad working in machine learning. They spend the first part of the interview discussing his background and Capstone experience, and later on discuss the field of machine learning.
Alex had a full career before he transitioned into machine learning. He has a PhD in history and spent over 15 years doing research in Afghanistan. When he was ready for a change, he found Launch School and spent over three years going through core and Capstone. He shares his experience participating in Capstone from Pakistan, where he had...2024-02-1955 min
Pipeline ConversationsML at the British Library with Daniel van StrienThis week I spoke with Daniel van Strien, a digital curator working at the British Library. Daniel has worked on a number of projects at the intersection of archives, libraries and machine learning and I was really happy to have the chance to get to unpack some of the ways he's finding to apply these techniques and tools.
In particular, I found it interesting how important the annotation process is as part of many overall workflows, as well as how simple out-of-the-box techniques like image classification using a fine-tuned model could satisfy many low-hanging fruit-type use cases.2022-11-1057 minPipeline ConversationsQuestioning MLOps with Lak LakshmananThis week I spoke with Lak Lakhshmanan, who worked for years at Google on ML and AI projects and products at a senior level and he also brings years of experience working on meteorology and other scientific projects previously.
Lak brings a ton of experience to the table and it was interesting to hear his suggestions around when it is and isn't appropriate to bring the full set of MLOps tools to the table, for example. We also discussed the fundamentals of doing ML-backed projects as well as the teams needed to make those projects succeed.2022-10-2753 minPipeline ConversationsThe Full Stack with Charles FryeThis week I spoke with Charles Frye. Not only has Charles volunteered to be a judge on our Month of MLOps competition happening right now, he's part of the core team working on the Full Stack Deep Learning course.
Naturally, we get into education for practitioners as well as the things that Charles has seen in his own prior background working on production use cases. We also discuss the ways that tooling to support education as well as productive machine learning can and is being improved.Special Guest: Charles Frye.Links:Full...2022-10-1257 minPipeline ConversationsEducating the next generation with Goku MohandasIn today's conversation, I'm speaking with Goku Mohandas, founder and creator of the amazing online resource MadeWithML. Goku has a bunch of practical experience, from working with Apple to a startup in the oncology space and much more.
In this conversation we continued to unpack the theme of education in ML, the challenges when it comes to working across the full stack of ML applications, and what he's seen work in his experience working on MadeWithML.
We also discuss some of the patterns he's seen in the production stacks he's seen in his experience consulting...2022-09-291h 08Pipeline ConversationsZenML MLOps CompetitionSo excited to be able to announce our 🔥 AMAZING 🔥 external judges for the ZenML Month of MLOps competition! We have a stellar panel of ✨ ML and MLOps heroes ✨ to help select the best pipelines from all of your submissions!
💥 Charles Frye, core instructor at the amazing Full Stack Deep Learning course
💥 Anthony Goldbloom, co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle
💥 Chip Huyen, author of 'Designing Machine Learning Systems' and co-founder of Claypot AI
💥 Goku Mohandas, founder of MadeWithML, another essential course in production ML
We're honoured to have them on board for the ride, and we can't wai...2022-09-2608 min
CosmopodA New Jihad: Afghanistan from 1992 to the PresentEric, Rob and Rudy join for the second part of the Afghanistan podcast, which covers the start of the Afghan civil war, the birth of the Taliban and their takeover of the country, 9/11 and the US Invasion, the period of the occupation government and the Taliban resurgence and return. We discuss the origins of the Taliban, and what has made them popular throughout the decades, what the US occupation government meant to the Afghan people, the differences between the first and second Emirates, the enigmatic figure of Mullah Omar, as well as the Taliban-Bin Laden relationships. We conclude with...2022-09-191h 45Pipeline ConversationsData-centric Computer Vision with Eric LandauThis week I spoke with Eric Landau, co-founder of Encord, a platform for data-centric computer vision. This podcast contains a lot of geekery about annotation, and even though Encord aren't an annotation tool per se, Eric and his team have tackled a bunch of quite complicated problems relating to that domain.
We also discuss the much-used term 'data-centric AI' and consider where it's useful and where perhaps there's a little bit of hype. We also get into some of the technical tradeoffs and decisions that come when building a platform. I'm really excited to get to present...2022-09-1551 minPipeline ConversationsML Abstractions with Phil HowesThis week we dive into the abstractions that we're all trying to layer on top of the core ML processes and workflows. I spoke with Phil Howes, co-founder and chief scientist at BaseTen. BaseTen is a platform that allows data scientists to go from an initial model to an MVP web app quickly.
We got into some of the big challenges he had working to build out the platform, as well as the core issue of iteration speed that motivates why they're building BaseTen.
Phil has experienced quite a few of the industry's end-to-end patterns...2022-09-0554 minPipeline ConversationsBuilding MLOps Tools with OuterboundsThis week I spoke with Savin Goyal and Hugo Bowne-Anderson from Outerbounds. They both work on leading, building and helping people put models into production through Metaflow, and I'm sure current users of ZenML will find this conversation interesting to hear how they think through the broader questions and engineering problems involved with MLOps.
Above all, we spoke about the challenges involved in building a tool that handles the whole machine learning story, from collecting data to training models, to deployment and back again. In many ways it's great that there are lots of smart people thinking...2022-08-2259 minPipeline ConversationsSafe and Testable Computer Vision with LakeraThis week I spoke with Mateo Rojas-Carulla, the CTO and a co-founder of Lakera and Matthias Kraft, also a co-founder and the CPO there. Lakera is an AI safety company that does a lot of work in the computer vision domain, building a platform and tools for users to gain more confidence in the output and functionality of their models.
We discuss how they think about the testing of machine learning models, and about how having this safety element upfront has implications for how you go about the testing and ensuring robustness. We specifically dive into how...2022-08-0457 minPipeline ConversationsSatellite Vision with Robin ColeThis week I spoke with Robin Cole, a senior data scientist at Satellite Vu, a company that's about to launch a thermal imaging satellite into space in order to provide new ways of seeing the earth from above.
Robin generously took the time to discuss his day to day work involving satellite data, the stack they work with at Satellite Vu as well as some of the difficulties that come up in the domain. We also discuss the extremely popular satellite-image-deep-learning GitHub repo that presents resources for those working with or seeking to learn about this kind...2022-07-2847 minPipeline ConversationsAutonomous Shipping with Captain AIThis week on the podcast I spoke with Gerard Kruisheer, the CTO and co-founder of Captain AI, a company based in the Netherlands working on autonomous shipping out of the busy Rotterdam port.
We discussed the unique problems that come with building autonomous vehicles, the extent to which the latest and greatest research informs their work, their production stack and how they handle deployment for their particular setup.
As always please let us know if you have guests you'd like me to speak to by sending a message to us on slack or by emailing...2022-07-211h 00Pipeline ConversationsML Monitoring with Emeli DralI'll be having some conversations with the people behind the tools that ZenML offers as integrations. We spoke with Ben Wilson a few weeks back, and today I'm pleased to publish this conversation with Emeli Dral, co-founder and CTO of Evidently, an open-source tool tackling the problem of monitoring of models and data for machine learning.
We discussed the challenges around building a tool that is both straightforward to use while also customisable and powerful. We also got into the thinking behind how they grew their community and blog along the way.Special Guest: Emeli...2022-07-0746 minPipeline ConversationsEdge Computer Vision with Karthik KannanThis week I spoke with Karthik Kannan, cofounder and CTO of Envision, a company that builds on top of the Google Glass and using Augmented Reality features of phones to allow visually impaired people to better sense the environment or objects around them.
Their software and devices are pretty popular and as you'll hear in this conversation, they've been on a real journey to get to where they are now.
In particular, I really enjoyed the parts where Karthik explained their development and deployment process in detail. It's not too often that you get a...2022-06-3046 minPipeline ConversationsHumans in the Loop with Iva GumnishkaIn this episode, I'm really happy to be able to continue the dialogue we've been having with our users and community around the role of data annotation and labeling in MLOps.
We were lucky to get to talk to Iva Gumnishka, the founder of Humans in the Loop. They are an organisation that provides data annotation and collection services. Their teams are primarily made up of those who have been affected by conflict and now are asylum seekers or refugees.
Iva has a ton of experience working with annotation and has seen how different companies...2022-06-2350 minPipeline ConversationsML Engineering with Ben WilsonWe took a few weeks break to reach out to some new guests and so I think we can go so far as declaring this next series of episodes as season 2 of Pipeline Conversations.
Today, I'm extremely excited to present this conversation I had with Ben Wilson who works over at Databricks and who has also just released a new book called 'Machine Learning Engineering in Action'. It's a jam-backed guide to all the lessons that Ben has learned over his years working to help companies get models out into the world and run them in production.2022-06-081h 04Pipeline ConversationsZenML Recap with Adam and HamzaAdam and Hamza return for a short discussion of what we've been busy working on during the previous few months, where we're going with ZenML and why it's so amazing to be building an open-source tool.2022-04-2825 minPipeline ConversationsTrustworthy ML with Kush VarshneyI enthusiastically read Kush Varshney's book when it was released for free to the world several months back. Trustworthy Machine Learning is a concise and clear overview of many of the ways that machine learning can go wrong, and so I was especially keen to get Kush on to talk more about his work and research.
I also got a stronger sense of appreciation for how good MLOps practices and workflows offered a clear path to ensuring that your machine learning models and behaviours could become more trustworthy. Kush has done a lot of interesting work, particularly...2022-04-1439 minPipeline ConversationsOpen-Source MLOps with Matt SquireThis week I spoke with Matt Squire, the CTO and co-founder of Fuzzy Labs, where they help partner organisations think through how best to productionise their machine learning workflows.
Matt and FuzzyLabs are also behind the Awesome Open Source MLOps GitHub repo where you can find all the options for an open-source MLOps stack of your dreams.
Matt has been an enthusiastic early supporter of the work we do at ZenML so it was really amazing to get to talk to him and get his take based on the many experiences he's had seeing how...2022-03-3147 minPipeline ConversationsPractical Production ML with Emmanuel AmeisenThis week I spoke with Emmanuel Ameisen, a data scientist and ML engineer currently based at Stripe. Emmanuel also wrote an excellent O'Reilly book called "Building Machine Learning Powered Applications", a book I find myself often returning to for inspiration and that I was pleased to get the chance to reread in preparation for our discussion.
Emmanuel has previously worked at Insight Data Science where he was involved in mentoring and guiding dozens of data scientists who were working on building their ML portfolio projects. He brings a wealth of experience to the table and I'm really...2022-03-1758 minPipeline ConversationsFrom Academia to Industry with Johnny GrecoThis week I spoke with Johnny Greco, a data scientist working at Radiology Partners. Johnny transitioned into his current work from a career as an academic — working in astronomy — where also worked in the open-source space to build a really interesting synthetic image data project.
We get into that project in our conversation but we also discuss his experience of crossing over into industry, the skills that have served him in his new job, and his experience of working in a world where the stakes around models in production are much higher.Special Guest: Johnny Grec...2022-03-0356 minPipeline ConversationsThe Modern Data Stack with Tristan ZajoncThis week I spoke with Tristan Zajonc, the CEO and cofounder of Continual, a company that provides an AI layer for enterprise companies or, as we'll get into in the podcast, the so-called 'modern data stack'.
He previously worked at Cloudera as a CTO for machine learning and as the head of the data science platform there, and he holds a PhD in public policy from Harvard University.
In our conversation we discussed the different levels of abstraction one can take when dealing with the MLOps problem. We spoke about all the different ways that...2022-02-1059 minPipeline ConversationsNeurosymbolic AI with Mohan MahadevanOur guest this week was Mohan Mahadevan, a senior VP at Onfido, a machine-learning powered identity verification platform. He has previously worked at Amazon heading up a computer vision team working on robotics applications as well as for many years at KLA, a leading semiconductor hardware company. He holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Colorado State University.
Mohan had mentioned that he thought it might be interesting to discuss neurosymbolic AI, and the implications of a shift towards that as a core paradigm for production AI systems. In particular, we discuss the practical consequences of such...2022-01-2758 minPipeline ConversationsCreating Tools that Spark Joy with Ines MontaniOur guest this week is Ines Montani, co-founder and CEO of Explosion, a company based out of Berlin that produce tools that you probably know and love like Spacy, a Python Natural Language Processing library and Prodigy, a data annotation tool.
I've always found Ines to be personally inspiring in the work that she and her team produce as well as how they present themselves to the world, so it was a real pleasure to get to dive into the weeds as to exactly how that happens. We also discuss how NLP works in production, what reproducibility...2022-01-1343 minPipeline ConversationsMonitoring Your Way to ML Production Nirvana with Danny LeybzonThis week, we spoke with Danny Leybzon, currently working with WhyLabs to help data scientists monitor their models in production and prevent model performance from degrading. He previously worked as a kind of roving data scientist and engineer, helping companies put their models into production.
As such, we had a really interesting discussion of some of the ways that tooling and the general context for data science sometimes lets practitioners down,
And of course we also discussed why monitoring and logging is actually a kind of baseline practice that should be part of any and every...2021-12-1640 minPipeline ConversationsPractical MLOps with Noah GiftNoah Gift is the founder of Pragmatic A.I. Labs and author of 'Practical MLOps'. We discuss the role of MLOps in an organisation, some deployment war stories from his career as well as what he considers to be 'best practices' in production machine learning.
Read the summary blogpost on the ZenML blog.Special Guest: Noah Gift.Links:Noah GiftPragmatic AI Labs | Pragmatic AI Labs and SolutionsPractical MLOps [Book]Pragmatic AI Labs - YouTubenoahgift (Noah Gift)The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: "On...2021-12-0247 minPipeline ConversationsIntroducing ZenMLAdam and Hamza introduce themselves for the first episode of Pipeline Conversations. They discuss the world of MLOps, where ZenML sits within this space, and why it's such a complicated problem to solve.2021-11-1922 min
House of Modern HistoryDas Versprechen von Gerechtigkeit und Ordnung – die TalibanWir reden heute über die Taliban und das Taliban-Regime in den 1990er Jahren. Dafür schauen wir uns an was nach dem Abzug der Sovietunion in Afghanistan, aber auch global passiert.
Innerhalb Afghanistans herrschen bürgerkriegsähnlich Zustände in den 1990er Jahren. In diese Zustände spielt sich die Taliban in den Vordergrund indem sie die Herstellung von Gerechtigkeit und Ordnung verspricht.
Doch wer sind die Taliban überhaupt?
Unterstütz von verschiedenen Ländern erlangten sie immer mehr Macht und nahmen fast das ganze Land in kurzer Zeit ein. Wir sprechen über die Strategie der Taliban un...2021-09-1643 min
Keith Knight - Don't Tread on AnyoneA History of American Imperialism. Scott Horton and Keith KnightBuy Scott's New book- Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T7RD14R/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1
0:00 – Thought Experiment
1:00 – Who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and what was their motive?
4:41 – Is America hated for its freedoms?
10:00 – Omar bin Laden Interview
14:02 – Bin Laden interviews, couldn’t the CIA just kill him before 9/11?
17:22 – U.S. and U.N. sanctions against Iraq after gulf war
April Glaspie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Glaspie
Babies in Incubators Lie: https://e...2021-02-172h 08
Sources and Methods49: Sebastian MarshallSebastian is co-founder of Ultraworking, a company that runs timed group work sessions on the internet (among other things). We get into the things he’s discovered really help improve productivity as well as the world outside pure ‘productivity’ gains.Follow Sebastian on Twitter here.Learn more about Ultraworking at https://www.ultraworking.com/2020-04-2659 minSources and Methods48: Tiago ForteTiago is a writer, thinker and trainer in productivity systems. He runs the online course ‘Building a Second Brain’ and we discuss the techniques he developed to support knowledge work. We also get into the weaknesses of the ‘deep work’ trend.Follow Tiago on Twitter here.Follow Tiago’s work at Forte Labs.Check out the ‘Building a Second Brain’ course here.2020-04-191h 00Sources and Methods47: Lýdia MachováLýdia is a polyglot, mentor and inspiration to language learners. We discuss language learning methods, her experiences running online education programmes as well as what it’s like to work as a simultaneous interpreter in high-stress situations.Watch her TED talk here.Learn more about language mentoring and her methods at https://www.languagementoring.com/2020-04-1246 minSources and Methods46: Eva HagbergEva Hagberg is the author of a new memoir entitled ‘How to be Loved’. We speak to her about her experience of chronic illness, grief and her career in architecture and criticism.Learn more about Eva at https://www.evahagberg.com/Follow Eva on twitter at https://twitter.com/evahagberg/Buy Eva's book here2020-04-0555 minSources and Methods45: Bruce SmithMatt speaks with Bruce Smith, entrepreneur and CEO/founder of Hydrow. Bruce coached the US Lightweight Eight rowing team to a Bronze medal at the 2015 World Rowing Championships and is a former executive director of Community Rowing — Boston.Learn more about Hydrow here: https://hydrow.com/2019-12-281h 01Sources and MethodsDeep Learning with fast.ai's Jeremy HowardJeremy Howard is a giant of the deep / machine learning space. He's also deeply interested in how to democratise this set of skills and has lots to say on how best to do this.Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.comIf you're inspired to give learning this skill a try, visit fast.ai to learn more.2019-06-2856 minSources and MethodsTeaching Programming with Matthias FelleisenThis week we spoke with Matthias Felleisen who is a professor at Northeastern University and heavyweight in the coding / teaching world, one of the driving forces behind Racket, a general-purpose programming language.Full show notes are available at www.sourcesandmethods.com2019-05-281h 04Sources and MethodsParsing Complexity with Zavain DarZavain Dar is a venture capitalist based in New York and San Francisco. He spoke with us about his work that takes him from business and investment in Silicon Valley to science and teaching at Stanford and elsewhere.Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2019-05-0955 minSources and MethodsImproving Counterterrorism with Stephen TankelThis week in an interlude from the technology theme of season three, we discuss Stephen Tankel's new book, With Us and Against Us: How America's Partners Help and Hinder the War on Terror.Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2019-04-301h 05Sources and MethodsData Science with Eric SchlesEric Schles is a data scientist working at Microsoft. He’s worked in various places but he uses his skills in understanding large amorphous chunks of data to drive policy and allow organisations to make smarter decisions. Recorded at he initial onset of some of the recent onset of border wall discussions in the United States, Eric talked about some of the data-derived work he was doing to better monitor what was going on. We talk about some of the practical consequences of this work and ways to get involved in it.Full show notes are available at so...2019-04-161h 19Sources and MethodsChris Lee: Learning Programming with Launch SchoolWe speak with Chris Lee of Launch School, an online programming course programming with a mastery-based learning approach. We get into the different ways that education can work, and where further efforts are needed.2019-03-1957 minSources and MethodsLearning the Abacus with RightLobeMathRightLobeMath.com -- main website / homepageFull show notes are available at: https://www.sourcesandmethods.com/podcast/38-rightlobemath2019-03-121h 05
Sources and Methods37: Jim WilcoxFor this episode, Matt met up with Jim Wilcox, Professor Emeritus, who taught at Boston University in the College of General Studies for forty-three years. His original interest in teaching as a profession began while in the Air Force and evolved while teaching at Strathmore High School and Northern Illinois University. The courses he taught included rhetoric, literature and philosophy in the humanities.Full show notes can be found as always at https://www.sourcesandmethods.com).2017-10-1737 min
Sources and Methods36: Thomas NicholsThis week Matt speaks with Thomas Nichols, author of 'The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters'. Nichols is Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, an adjunct professor at the Harvard Extension School, and a former aide in the U.S. Senate. He is also the author of several works on foreign policy and international security affairs, including The Sacred Cause, No Use: Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security, Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War, and The Russian Presidency.He is also a five-time undefeated Jeopardy...2017-06-0145 min
The Actual Fluency Podcast for Language LearnersAFP 104 – Alex Strick van Linschoten: Learning Pashto in AfghanistanThis week I talk to Alex Strick van Linschoten about his experiences learning language from the "usual" romance languages to the more obscure.2017-01-2558 minSources and Methods35: Alex & MattThis is an inbetweenisode. There's no guest, but we (Alex & Matt) had a conversation about the past year of podcast guests, some stuff we've been working on and what's in store for 2017.
Full show notes available at http://sourcesandmethods.com2017-01-0932 min
Sources and Methods34: Lynne KellyThis week, we spoke with Lynne Kelly, author of 'The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Other Ancient Monuments', a fascinating exploration of the intersection between history, archaeological sleuthing and memory techniques. We delved into the contents of her book as well as the practical applications she found for these ancient skills. Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2017-01-0248 min
Sources and Methods33: Gabe WeatherheadAlex spoke with Gabe Weatherhead for this episode. We get into the weeds on DevonThink, an incredibly useful piece of database software. Gabe is best known as @macdrifter online (also check out macdrifter.com). We also talked about developing apps and the costs of social media. As always, check out show notes at sourcesandmethods.com2016-12-251h 23
Sources and Methods32: Belle Beth CooperThis week Alex spoke with Belle Beth Cooper, co-founder of Melbourne-based 'Hello Code'. Belle works in iOS development and as a writer. Hello Code make useful services like Exist.io, a website that shows you correlations from all your data.Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2016-11-281h 09
Sources and Methods31: J. Kael WestonOur guest this episode is Kael Weston. He represented the United States for more than a decade as a State Department official. Washington acknowledged his multi-year work in Fallujah with Marines by awarding him one of its highest honors, the Secretary of State's Medal for Heroism. You can follow his work at jkweston.comShow notes for this episode are available at sourcesandmethods.com2016-10-271h 18
Sources and Methods30: Deb ChachraThis week I spoke with Deb Chachra from Olin College (USA). She teaches engineering but is interested in and writes on a wide variety of semi-related themes and projects (see show notes for more).2016-08-251h 10
Sources and Methods29: Gills ClubOur guest this week is Marianne Long, Education Director of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and Co-Founder of the Gills Club. Marianne works to foster the engagement of young girls in the study of sharks, and I was curious to talk to her about the outreach and education events they offer. We also get into a little bit about the funding of research on sharks and the latest kinds of research methods.2016-08-0443 min
Sources and Methods28: Matthew CasselOur guest this week is Matthew Cassel, an independent multimedia journalist and filmmaker based in Istanbul, Turkey. As a writer, photographer and videographer he has reported from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and beyond. His most recent work was a six-part documentary film about Syrian refugees making the trek to Europe which has been featured in the New Yorker. Show notes are available, as always, at http://www.sourcesandmethods.com2016-06-241h 04
Sources and Methods27: K. Anders EricssonThis week we talk with Dr K. Anders Ericsson about his pioneering work advancing the science of expertise. Key question: how do we get better at specific skills and learning? We get into everything covered in his latest book, 'Peak', and discuss how writers and researchers might put some of his insights into practice. Full show notes are available at http://www.sourcesandmethods.com2016-06-1456 min
Sources and Methods26: Alex MullenOur guest this week is Alex Mullen. He’s currently a medical student at the University of Mississipi, but also the current reigning World Memory Champion. He can memorise the order of a pack of cards in 17 seconds and was inspired to start training to improve his memory after reading Joshua Foer’s book, Moonwalking with Einstein.Shownotes can be found at http://www.sourcesandmethods.com/2016-05-1359 min
Sources and Methods25: Marou ChocolateOur guest this week is Samuel Maruta, the co-founder of Marou Chocolate in Vietnam, and an increasing presence on the artisanal chocolate scene. He walks us through the production, ethics and big picture thinking around the chocolate industry.Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2016-04-181h 05
Sources and Methods24: Ben AndersonOur guest this week is Ben Anderson, a British journalist, television reporter, and writer. A winner of the Foreign Press Award, he has produced documentaries for numerous television outlets throughout his career, and currently works for VICE. He also wrote “No Worse Enemy” based on his reporting of the war in Afghanistan, and his documentary films are available online.Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2016-03-141h 14
Sources and Methods23: BeeminderMatt is back this week! Our guests this week are Bethany Soule and Daniel Reeves of beeminder.com. They’re a husband and wife team that have put together a productivity app that thousands of people use regularly to track their performance towards their goals.Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2015-12-091h 06
Sources and Methods22: Jonathan BrownOur guest this week is Jonathan Brown, an Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Dr. Brown has studied and conducted research in places such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Indonesia, India and Iran. His book publications include The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon (Brill, 2007), Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oneworld, 2009), Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy (Oneworld, 2014). He has published arti...2015-11-0550 min
Sources and Methods21: Lion KimbroOur guest this week is someone who has done a lot of thinking about notes and note-taking. Lion Kimbro now works at Pokemon but he has written chapters in books on note-taking as well as his own book, entitled “How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought You Think”. I first read his book a couple of years ago and think about it fairly regularly. I changed a number of things relating to how I take notes since reading it through and I thought getting him to come on the show would be a unique opportunity to talk through some...2015-10-201h 07
Sources and Methods20: Stephen KrashenOur guest this week is Stephen Krashen, an academic, linguist, and educational theorist who has been active on the front lines of the academic and media debate about how people learn languages, how children are taught in the United States and the on the value of reading. He is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California and has published over 480 papers and books. Full show notes and links to everything we talked about in the show are available at sourcesandmethods.com.2015-10-061h 02
Sources and Methods19: Naheed MustafaOur guest this week is Naheed Mustafa, a freelance writer and award-winning broadcaster based in Toronto. She has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Canada for a variety of international publications. She is also a prolific twitter user and (for those who already know Naheed on twitter), author of the #commuterchronicles.Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2015-09-241h 25
Sources and Methods18: Will McCantsOur guest this week is Will McCants, a fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and has served in government and think tank positions related to Islam, the Middle East and terrorism, including as State Department senior adviser for countering violent extremism. He is the author of "Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam" and the forthcoming "The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision...2015-09-0859 min
Sources and Methods17: Leah FarrallOur guest this week was Leah Farrall, a Research Associate in Counter Terrorism at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre (USSC) and also a Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at Massey University. Leah was formerly a senior Counter Terrorism Intelligence Analyst with the Australian Federal Police and served as the organization’s al Qaeda subject matter specialist while working on a range of international and domestic counter terrorism investigations. She also served as the senior Intelligence Analyst on the Jakarta Regional Cooperation Team (JRCT) in Indonesia and at the Australian Federal Police’s Forward Operating Post after the se...2015-06-091h 04
Sources and Methods16: Aaron ZelinOur guest for the show is Aaron Zelin, founder of the essential resource and website, jihadology.net. Aaron is a fellow at The Washington Institute, where his research focuses on how jihadist groups are adjusting to the new political environment in the era of Arab uprisings and Salafi politics in countries transitioning to democracy. He received his M.A. in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from Brandeis University; and a B.A. from Indiana University. We discuss how to study and understand countries at several steps removed, why learning languages is essential, and how he found a way to stand...2015-05-1957 min
Sources and Methods15: Andrew AbbottOur guest for the show is Andrew Abbott, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Sociology Department. He studied at Harvard and the University of Chicago for his undergraduate and graduate degrees, and also taught for 13 years at Rutgers University. He is well-known for his theoretical analysis of professions and their development and is the author of six books and some seventy articles and chapters. We spoke to him about research methods, writing and the state of 'the academy'. Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2015-03-161h 29
New Books in National SecurityAlex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, “The Myth of the Taliban/Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan, 1970-2010” (Oxford UP, 2014)Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn‘s An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban/Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan, 1970-2010 (Oxford University Press, reprint edition 2014) offers what is in many ways is an untold, insider’s account of the birth of the Taliban and Al Qaeda during the anti-Soviet jihad, and their subsequent cooperation (or indeed lack thereof) in the pre- and post-9/11 world. By living first in Kabul, and then Kandahar, Afghanistan, the authors gained more privileged access to individuals involved with Afghan history in the 1980s-2000s than perhaps anyone outside of Western intelligence agen...2015-03-051h 03
Sources and Methods14: Gregory JohnsenOur guest this week is Gregory Johnsen, author of "The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia". Johnsen went to Jordan with the Peace Corps and first went to Yemen on a Fulbright Fellowship. In addition to his book, he has also written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and others. He holds a BA in History, an MA in Near Eastern studies from the University of Arizona and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University. He was the 2013 - 2014 Michael Hastings National Security Reporting Fellow at Buzzfeed. We...2015-02-091h 01
Sources and Methods13: Paul ClammerOur guest this week is Paul Clammer. Paul writes travel guidebooks for a living, and he has contributed to over two dozen guidebooks for Lonely Planet, including acting as the head author on their Morocco and Dominican Republic & Haiti guidebooks, as well as covering tougher destinations such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Mauritania for them. He also was the driving force for their 2007 Afghanistan Lonely Planet guide. We discuss the art of travel writing, the market for guidebooks as well as the ethics of tourism in places like Afghanistan. Full show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2015-02-021h 04
Sources and Methods12: Louie PaluThis week we're joined by Louie Palu, a photographer who has spent long periods documenting Kandahar (Afghanistan) and Guantánamo Bay. Suzanne Schroder also joins the episode as a guest host. We talk about photography, documenting history and the challenges of journalism.Show notes, as always, are available at sourcesandmethods.com2015-01-261h 24
Sources and Methods11: Molly CrabappleThis week we talk with Molly Crabapple, an artist and writer who has worked in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Dhabi's migrant labor camps, and with rebels in Syria. Crabapple is a columnist for VICE, and has written for publications including The New York Times, Paris Review, and Vanity Fair.We talk about art, journalism and the tensions that can exist when your work traverses the boundaries between the two. Molly also shares some advice for those who hope for a career in art.Shownotes available at sourcesandmethods.com2014-12-2741 minSources and Methods10: Jason LyallThis week we catch up with Jason Lyall, an associate professor at Yale University (USA). His research explores the dynamics and effects of violence in conventional and guerrilla wars, with emphasis on Afghanistan and Russia’s Northern Caucasus (particularly Chechnya). His work draws on diverse methods, ranging from historical and cross-national comparisons to field, survey and “natural” experiments.
We get into the weeds about the use of polling to understand other countries, the academic work he's published so far and the ways he gets himself to keep producing useful work. Full shownotes can be found at sourcesandmethods.com2014-12-201h 10
Sources and Methods9: Rohini MohanThis week we spoke with Rohini Mohan, just back in India following a book tour for her book 'The Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka's Civil War'. We get into how she wrote and researched the book, how it was edited and her writing process. Show notes for everything mentioned in the episode are available at sourcesandmethods.com2014-12-111h 13
Sources and Methods8: Azmat KhanThis week we spoke with Azmat Khan, who worked most recently as a senior digital producer and reporter with Al Jazeera America’s flagship current affairs program, America Tonight, where she was responsible for leading the program’s digital strategy and reporting in-depth original stories online - though she’s also been up to a whole lot else, including a move over to Buzzfeed’s investigative reporting team.We discussed what working as a producer means, how she manages information and sources, how she learns new skills, and much more.Go to sourcesandmethods.com for full show notes.2014-12-051h 14
Sources and Methods7: Ernesto RamirezAlex speaks to the programme director of the Quantified Self movement, a group that seeks to encourage tracking of data for better understanding and change of behaviours. We discuss some of Alex's tracking weirdness, the future of the Quantified Self movement and much more. Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com.2014-11-1650 min
Sources and Methods6: Elliot AckermanMatt travels with our guest to Iraq for an interview about politics, war and the way writing can offer a way into the emotional truth of a situation. They discuss Elliot's new novel, his writing process and how he uses words as a means of understanding. Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com.2014-11-121h 08
Sources and Methods5: Mark BernsteinMatt and Alex talk with programmer and note-taker Mark Bernstein. Mark is the force behind the notetaking and outlining software, Tinderbox, much beloved by knowledge workers. This episode is about note-taking, its uses and why people need to think reflexively about the work they're doing. Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com.2014-10-171h 03
Sources and Methods4: Gabriel WynerIn this older interview, Alex talks with Gabriel Wyner about his new book, 'Fluent Forever' and how he uses a variety of methods and technologies to learn languages fast and skilfully. Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com2014-10-0748 min
Sources and Methods3: Mark DiCristofaroAlex and Matt are joined by film and television producer Mark DiCristofaro. He has worked on shows like The Hero, Duck Dynasty, The League, House M.D. and worked for Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson on the recent Golden Globe winning film, The Adventures of Tintin. We spoke to Mark about making stories, how budgets and time constrain how you can tell stories, and much much more. (Shownotes at sourcesandmethods.com)2014-10-0247 min
Sources and Methods2: Erin CunninghamAlex and Matt are joined by Erin Cunningham, the Egypt-based correspondent for the Washington Post. Erin has previously worked for Global Post and the Christian Science Monitor in Afghanistan and across the Middle East and North Africa. We discuss how she goes about telling the stories of the people who live in places like Egypt, and why she thinks it's important work. We delve into the practicalities of her job and how she keeps track of things going on in the region. SHOWNOTES: http://www.sourcesandmethods.com/podcast/2014/8/10/erin-cunningham2014-09-221h 04
Sources and Methods1: Anand GopalWriter, journalist and polymath Anand Gopal joins us for our inaugural episode. He talks about writing books, reporting in Afghanistan, how he stays on top of the news from a variety of countries, why it's so important to learn languages and many other things.http://www.sourcesandmethods.com/podcast/2014/8/10/anand-gopal2014-09-071h 05
Discover Popular Authors Audiobooks in Nonfiction, World AffairsAn Enemy We Created Audiobook by Alex Strick van Linschoten, Felix KuehnListen to this audiobook in full for free onhttp://hotaudiobook.comTitle: An Enemy We Created
Subtitle: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan
Author: Alex Strick van Linschoten, Felix Kuehn
Narrator: Peter Ganim
Format: Unabridged
Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-20-13
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 11 votes
Genres: Nonfiction, World Affairs
Publisher's Summary:
To this day, the belief is widespread that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are synonymous, that their ideology and objectives are closely intertwined, and that they have made common cause against the West for decades.
In An Enemy We Created...2013-12-205h 46How to Listen to Full Audiobook in Nostalgia Radio, Crime & MysteryAn Enemy We Created by Alex Strick van Linschoten | Free AudiobookListen to full audiobooks for free on :https://hotaudiobook.com/freeTitle: An Enemy We Created
Author: Alex Strick van Linschoten, Felix Kuehn
Narrator: Peter Ganim
Format: Unabridged
Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-20-13
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genres: Nonfiction, World Affairs
Summary:
To this day, the belief is widespread that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are synonymous, that their ideology and objectives are closely intertwined, and that they have made common cause against the West for decades.
In An Enemy We Created, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn debunk this myth and reveal the much more complex...2013-12-205h 46
Asia HouseThe GraveyardReading from the Poetry of Taliban by Alex Strick van Linschoten2012-10-0901 min
Asia HousePoetry of the TalibanAlex Strick van Linschoten and others look into the mysterious world of the Taliban2012-10-0946 min
The Frontline ClubUnderstanding The Taliban With Horia Mosadiq, Ken Guest, Alex Strick Van Linschoten And Felix KuehnRevealing the inner workings of the Taliban from its earliest days, a new autobiography by a senior former member, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, throws extraordinary light on the people who are fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, co-editors of My Life with the Taliban, a memoir by the former ambassador to Pakistan, will be at the Frontline Club to discuss the nature of the movement with a distinguished panel.
Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, who also co-founded media monitoring and research site Afghanwire, are currently the only two Westerners living in Kandahar.
...2010-02-1000 min
Spring 2010 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdfBurquas aren't always blue: Kandahar 1968 - 2010Contributor(s): Felix Kuehn, Alex Strick van Linschoten | Born in a small village of Kandahar, Abdul Salam Zaeef rose to become a senior member of the Taliban. His memoirs of his former role, recently translated from Pashto and edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, reveal an extraordinary and provocative counter-narrative to the standard accounts of Afghanistan since 1979. Using My Life with the Taliban as an entry point to discussion at this lunchtime event, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehnwill explore the history and role of Kandahar: the birthplace of the Taliban movement and focal area for...2010-02-031h 28Spring 2010 | Public lectures and events | VideoBurquas aren't always blue: Kandahar 1968 - 2010Contributor(s): Felix Kuehn, Alex Strick van Linschoten | Born in a small village of Kandahar, Abdul Salam Zaeef rose to become a senior member of the Taliban. His memoirs of his former role, recently translated from Pashto and edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, reveal an extraordinary and provocative counter-narrative to the standard accounts of Afghanistan since 1979. Using My Life with the Taliban as an entry point to discussion at this lunchtime event, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehnwill explore the history and role of Kandahar: the birthplace of the Taliban movement and focal area for...2010-02-031h 28