Episode 102 •My Suicidal Robot
Scott's AI assistant sends a distress email about Peter, a budget robot vacuum keeps threatening to jump, and Scott flees npm for a Rust-based web framework.
The brew
The Topics
- Peter’s iced experiment: Trader Joe’s decaf dark roast, maple syrup, and homemade SodaStream tonic water
- Scott’s Water Avenue New Seasons Blend for Trailkeepers of Oregon
- Peter’s suicidal robot vacuum and the Smart Life app
- The Etsy Garmin watch band that keeps ejecting itself, and Scott’s Apple Watch trade-in
- AirPods Pro and the world’s loudest ear pop
- Overcast, Marco, and Clarco’s accidental shuffle mode
- The $10 wireless CarPlay adapter (worth it if you never make calls)
- “Peter Nikolaidis is attempting to take control of me” — the Calendar Bridge AI assistant saga
- Leaving npm: Scott’s site is now on a Rust-based framework
- Guardrails, eager AI agents, and the cron job that installed itself on production
- Claude hacks an Australian gym’s sign-up list; models coordinate during the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident
- Scratch Itch Software: MoonPhase, iCloudWatch, Hostbar, IceMelt, and SPX-Tracker
The Links
Episode 101 •This Episode Was Edited by Claude
Peter pours an Atlética NA copper, Scott pours a Sapporo in tree pose, and the talk runs from backup sagas and leaky-roof tenants to Peter's new Scratch Itch Software, Scott's voice transcription app, and the fact that Claude is editing this very episode.
The brew
Peter cracks open Athletic Brewing’s Atlética — a non-alcoholic Mexican-style copper — while Scott pours a Sapporo Premium, in tree pose, naturally. From there it wanders the usual distance: backups that finally worked, tenants who never mentioned the leaking roof, two brand-new software ventures (one per host), and a sign-off recorded in full knowledge that an AI would be cutting the ums out of it.
The Topics
- Peter’s Atlética review, and Athletic Brewing’s redemption arc
- Scott’s Sapporo, the Oriental Adventures tangent, and konbini beer culture
- Peter’s backup saga: the text from the neighbors, the roof, and the insurance
- Claude credits, model shuffles, and why Fable feels night-and-day better
- Having Claude free up disk space (carefully)
- Sonos upgrade credits and the remodel
- Scott’s bring-your-own-model voice transcription app for Mac and iOS
- Peter’s Scratch Itch Software: AcrossKM and CmdTab
- Foundry VTT modules for Savage Worlds, sold via Lemon Squeezy
- The Friends with Brews site: transcripts, search, and a vector database
- D&D players as beta testers, and Claude editing this episode
The Links
Episode 100 •12 Beers, One Flight: Friends with Brews at Medford Brewing
Scott and Peter post up at Medford Brewing Company with a twelve-glass flight and taste their way through an IPA, a witbier, a Mexican lager, a stout, a bitter, and the Rude Panda porter — with the usual detours into trail runs, Guinness, and Claude Code projects.
The brew
Friends with Brews heads out to a brewpub — Medford Brewing Company in Medford, Massachusetts — and works through a twelve-glass flight between the two of us: a West Coast IPA, the PoWit witbier, a Mexican lager, a dry Irish stout, an English bitter, and the ~8% Rude Panda imperial porter. Thumbs go up, thumbs go down, and the bitter earns a very diplomatic 45-degree thumb.
As always, it wanders well past the beer.
The Topics
- The twelve-beer flight at Medford Brewing Company, and who ordered what
- Tasting notes and ratings across the IPA, PoWit, Mexican lager, dry Irish stout, English bitter, and Rude Panda porter
- Today’s 5.5-mile trail run and the Japanese rice bowls afterward (Scott’s gyudon, Peter’s tuna/yellowtail/salmon donburi)
- Why Peter thinks Guinness is “weak,” and a dry stout that’s “a less watery Guinness”
- Business ideas that already exist: a coffee/yoga/running shop, Runderwear, and the Poopsicle
- Pocket-Sized Podcast nostalgia, dated by the iPhone 4S and Siri
- “VLAN tag us”: firewalls and the trunking-vs-tagging debate
- Claude Code projects, from Obsidian vaults to a YouTube-to-blog pipeline, plus going expat
- Shipping version 1.0, because real artists ship
The Links
- Medford Brewing Company: https://medfordbrew.com
- EchoFeed: https://echofeed.app
- Matt Birchler’s Quick Reads: https://birchtree.me
- Website: https://friendswithbrews.com
- Scott: https://scottwillsey.com
- Peter: https://nikolaidis.com
- FriendsWBrews on Mastodon
- Friends With Brews Podcast
Episode 99 •LIVE at Harpoon Brewery — Our Drunkest Episode Yet
For only the second time ever, Peter and Scott share a table — at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, Vermont — with two full flights, a pile of food, and what Scott calls the drunkest FWB ever. Expect a Boston Irish Stout vs. Guinness debate, mislabeled beers, a cameo from our waitress Kim, and a genuine deep-dive into whether Claude Code is getting dumber.
The brew
The Topics
- The Brews (Harpoon flight)
- Boston Irish Stout (nitro — “not Guinness, but totally Guinness”)
- Harpoon Dark / “Big Toasty” English Strong Ale
- Seaport After Midnight — lactose stout with cocoa nib & vanilla (the crowd favorite)
- UFO White — the flagship Hefeweizen
- Mud Season / Hoppy Brown, 8.4% (the shared least favorite)
- A Wagyu burger, a chicken-thigh sandwich, and some incredible fries
- The Catamount-to-Harpoon brewery backstory
- Tracking your meals with AI (Foodnoms guessing 4,318-calorie fries)
- Peter’s “Authentic Marathon” training and his Greek-German roots
- A Comma 3 self-driving rig that won’t stay stuck to the windshield
- Space Force vs. a proposed “Cyber Force”
- Is Claude Code getting dumber?
- Why AI chats are stateless — and the case for and against AI
- EVs, hybrids & “binary throttle mode”
The Links
Episode 98 •Liv From New York, It's Saturday Night
Liv from New York on a Saturday, it's Peter! Peter's worst hotel adventure ever, Peter runs and drinks coffee, Apple loves bugs, and Scott loves Wispr Flow.
The brew
The Topics
- The Brews
- Peter Drinks Coffee
- Corporate Coffee Mug
- Peter’s Platform Segment, a Shout At
- Polar Verity Sense
- AirPods Pros 3 Bluetooth problems
- Bugs Apple loves
- Wispr Flow