Jonathan and Luke talk through the upcoming end of the Crossword season. They discuss WP Engine’s new offering and offer their speculations. Luke brings up the new Agent Skills project and steps up onto his soapbox.

Jonathan and Luke have a chat with Jonathan Desrosiers, WordPress Core Committer and Principle Software Engineer at Bluehost. They discuss a recent episode of Crossword and a preview of Desrosiers’s now published blog post. Wold asks for clarity on do-acracy vs meritocracy and the three discuss the importance of both active and passive contributions. Desrosiers offers his guidance for new contributors.

Luke and Jonathan catch up with Jeff Paul, VP of Open Source Solutions at Fueled and an active contributor to the WordPress project for the past decade. They discuss Jeff’s contribution journey, their shared agency experiences, and thoughts on the upcoming 7.0 release. Luke introduces the concept of cool and dodgy versions of WordPress and Jeff shares guidance for newcomers to contribution.

Luke kicks off Crossword with a surprise and Jonathan rolls with it. They discuss fresh WordPress drama, the plugin review team’s use (or non-use) of AI, and Luke shares his take on AI in WordPress plugins.

Luke and Jonathan enjoy a conversation with Rae Morey, publisher of The Repository. Rae shares her origin story and they discuss the top stories of 2025. We discuss 2026, Luke expresses his optimism, and Jonathan asks Rae about the sustainability of The Repository itself. Oh, and AI, of course.

Tammie Lister joins Luke and Jonathan to discuss vibe coding, product thinking, and breaking free from a designer typecast into a reputation for product engineering. They also discuss the importance and relevance of WordPress, themes, and cricket.

Luke and Jonathan start talking immediately after the previous episode and decide to record again. Luke geeks out about the Notes feature, his experiments with it, and subsequent contribution attempt. Jonathan enjoys the show.

Luke and Jonathan talk through the WordPress 6.9 update and their highlights. Jonathan attempts to make a point about comparing WordPress updates to other ecosystems and Luke isn’t having it.

Jonathan and Luke discuss Matt’s keynote and the reversal in their expectations going into the event. They share their surprise at a particular data point and Luke offers a few highlights from his recent experience at Enqueue in Sydney.

Luke and Jonathan are back from an unplanned break and pick up with Luke’s growing interest in the FAIR project. Jonathan asks questions about how things work and expresses his present, yet softening cynicism. They also talk about the Internet Archive’s new project with Automattic.