Behind the Commit

Meet the people shaping open-source across Europe and beyond! Have you ever wondered who the people are behind the open source technologies you use every day? Behind the Commit explores the stories and technologies shaping open source across Europe—from the tools being built to the challenges of maintaining them in a constantly evolving ecosystem. We speak with maintainers about what they're building, why it matters, and how open source is changing in the age of AI.

Behind the Commit is a news podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 24 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Behind the Commit, a news show with 24 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Behind the Commit

  Daniel Moran | 40M+ Monthly Downloads: The Solo Maintainer Behind FakeRedis

  Sep 9, 202630 min

  How do you maintain a Python package downloaded more than 40 million times every month, while working on it in your free time? In this episode of Behind the Commit, Mia talks with Daniel Moran, the solo maintainer of FakeRedis, a pure-Python Redis-compatible implementation used for testing, compatibility checks, and server-agnostic development. Daniel shares how FakeRedis grew from a personal solution into a widely used open-source project supporting Redis, Valkey, and Dragonfly. They also discuss maintaining a 73-variation CI matrix, AI-generated pull requests, avoiding burnout, monetizing a JetBrains GitHub Actions plugin, Django Commons, and his vision for FakeRedis becoming a standard in the ecosystem. Outline 00:00 FakeRedis in numbers 00:24 What is FakeRedis? 02:32 Redis license changes 04:48 New use cases 06:21 Supporting Redis, Valkey, and Dragonfly 07:50 The 73-variation test matrix 10:45 Maintaining open source in your free time 16:10 AI and open-source maintenance 20:45 Building a JetBrains plugin 24:42 Django Commons 27:10 The future of FakeRedis 29:19 Connect with Daniel Episode links – https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/19347-github-actions-manager – GitHub Actions Manager Plugin – https://django-commons.org/ – Django Commons – https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-moran-8a096a15/ – Daniel's LinkedIn profile

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  Behind the Commit

  Trailer – Daniel Moran | 40M+ Monthly Downloads: The Solo Maintainer Behind FakeRedis

  Sep 3, 20260 min

  From 1–2 million to over 40 million downloads per month. Explore 73 variations and discover the DragonFly flavor, its commands, and supported arguments.

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  Behind the Commit

  Emily Morehouse: Becoming a CPython Core Dev, the Walrus Operator and Chairing PyCon

  Aug 25, 202615 min

  In this episode, I'm chatting with Emily Morehouse — CPython core developer, former Python Steering Council member, PSF Fellow, and co-founder and director of engineering at Cuttlesoft. She holds three degrees in theater, computer science, and criminology, and picked up Python in college simply because it was more fun than C++. After Guido van Rossum announced at a Python conference that he wanted more women in CPython core development, she emailed Guido. He said yes and personally mentored her. She went on to implement the walrus operator (:=), one of the most controversial features in Python's history and one of the things that ultimately led Guido to step down as BDFL. She also chaired PyCon US for three years, two of which went fully online during the pandemic. Outline 0:00 Episode highlights 0:26 Introduction 1:02 "If someone told you 10 years ago you'd be a core developer…" 1:47 Three degrees: theater, CS, and criminology 1:54 Journey into core development 2:43 Guido's call for female core developers 3:08 "My husband was elbowing me in the side" 3:20 What were you afraid of? 3:57 She emailed Guido — and he said yes 4:34 First language summit: realizing experts are human 5:08 What it's actually like to be mentored by Guido 5:43 The async Friday ritual with Guido and Eric Snow 6:22 Why there's no low-hanging fruit in CPython 7:10 Implementing the Walrus operator (:=) 8:27 Support from the core developer community 8:32 How to inspire more people into core development 9:38 People still reach out years later 10:04 Chairing PyCon US through a pandemic 11:05 What community work teaches you about leadership 12:54 How parenthood changed her relationship with open source 13:59 Practical first steps to contribute to CPython 14:56 Outro Episode links – CPython dev guide: https://devguide.python.org – Cuttlesoft: https://cuttlesoft.com – Emily on GitHub: https://github.com/emilyemorehouse

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  Behind the Commit

  Emily Morehouse: Becoming a CPython Core Dev, the Walrus Operator and Chairing PyCon

  Aug 19, 20260 min

  In this episode, I'm chatting with Emily Morehouse — CPython core developer, former Python Steering Council member, PSF Fellow, and co-founder and director of engineering at Cuttlesoft. She holds three degrees in theater, computer science, and criminology, and picked up Python in college simply because it was more fun than C++. After Guido van Rossum announced at a Python conference that he wanted more women in CPython core development, she emailed Guido. He said yes and personally mentored her. She went on to implement the walrus operator (:=), one of the most controversial features in Python's history and one of the things that ultimately led Guido to step down as BDFL. She also chaired PyCon US for three years, two of which went fully online during the pandemic. Full episode coming soon!

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  Behind the Commit

  Is Your Vacuum Cleaner Spying on You? Kushal Das on Privacy and Digital Rights

  Jul 20, 202641 min

  In this episode, I'm chatting with Kushal Das — public interest technologist, core team member at the Tor Project, core developer of CPython, and director at the Python Software Foundation. He is also the founder of dgplug and a maintainer of SecureDrop — the platform journalists use to communicate securely with whistleblowers. We talk about why privacy is increasingly hard to protect, the hidden cameras in your robot vacuum cleaner, what happens to data once it leaves your hands, and what any developer can do right now to build more privacy-respecting software. Outline 0:00 Episode highlights 0:17 Introduction 0:38 "Privacy is a human right" — is it? 1:22 What turned Kushal from technologist to privacy advocate 2:57 SecureDrop: what it is and who it protects 3:33 How SecureDrop works in practice 5:36 Biggest technical challenges building SecureDrop 6:35 Helping people living under authoritarian regimes 10:38 Vacuum cleaner cameras and the toilet photo incident 11:44 The year hackers took over vacuum cleaners and shouted at owners 13:44 Why Kushal removed Alexa from his home 16:08 Social media as a surveillance tool 18:24 Stalkerware: when someone close to you is tracking your every move 19:31 Cambridge Analytica, the Great Hack, and election manipulation 21:43 Are governments fast enough to regulate technology? 22:55 Once you upload something to the internet, it never comes back 25:20 AI tools and what happens to the data you share with them 35:15 "If you break encryption, it will be broken for everyone" 37:36 How to fight for privacy 40:04 EFF, Tor Project, and where to get involved Episode links – Tor Project: https://www.torproject.org – SecureDrop: https://securedrop.org – EFF: https://www.eff.org – Stop Stalkerware: https://stopstalkerware.org – dgplug: https://dgplug.org – Kushal's blog: https://kushaldas.in

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