North Meets South Web Podcast

In this milestone 10-year anniversary episode of North Meets South, Michael and Jake reflect on a decade of podcasting, from their first awkward recordings and early Laravel community connections to the friendships, conferences, and recurring topics that have shaped the show over nearly 200 episodes. A large part of the episode focuses on Michael's work-in-progress event ticketing platform inspired by the challenges of running Laracon AU. He explains the limitations of existing conference ticketing systems, the difficulties of collecting attendee information for multiple conference-adjacent events, and his vision for a more attendee-centric system that manages profiles, dietary requirements, event registrations, and conference networks across multiple Laravel events. To wrap up, Michael and Jake discuss giving developers direct database access, the security implications of SSH access, database permissions, and Laravel filesystem configuration, including why enabling exception throwing for filesystem operations can help avoid silent failures.Show linksLaracon AULaracon US TicketTailor Transistor Laravel News PodcastNo Plans to Merge Notes on WorkTalking BusinesslyLarabelles LaraProm WalletWalletLaravel filesystem throw on fail

In this episode, Jake and Michael catch up on life, family, and tech.Michael shares proud stories about his son Eli turning into a “soccer terrorist” on the field, while Jake recounts his own stint as a stand-in soccer coach. They dive into Laracon AU updates — from speaker announcements and Road to Laracon podcasts, to quiz night and swag planning.Other highlights include experiments with AI-generated artwork, Bruce’s new social media adventures, sponsor promotion, and even a tangent on coding tools like PHPStan and how AI can help fix issues in the background.Show linksLaracon AURoad to LaraconBruce on XLaravel Live DenmarkBoost

In this episode, Michael and Jake kick things off with some Laracon travel talk, sharing their hotel plans, coffee quests, and even jokes about pillow fights at the conference hotel. Michael reveals his precise coffee scouting for the Vib by Best Western hotel, determined not to survive three days on Starbucks alone.Should you define middleware in a controller’s constructor? Michael explains why he avoids it - preferring to keep all middleware in route definitions for better visibility and maintainability. Jake explores the pros and cons and why he’s still tempted to use it for certain edge cases.Dynamic permissions vs. static definitions: We switch gears to talk about the balance between flexibility and clarity when defining permissions for applications, especially when it comes to handling user roles, teams, and complex business rules.Mentioned in this episode:Laracon US travel plansVib by Best Western (the hotel coffee and tacos!)Laravel middleware usagePermission handling in appsTravel gear for developers on the go

In this episode, Jake and Michael reflect on parenting, discuss Apple's new Liquid Glass UI, finding smarter ways to use video on the web, plus share thoughts on AI overload, Laracon prep, and why Wistia might be your next favourite video tool.In this episode:- Apple’s Liquid Glass UI- Kit.com and Wistia for video- Reflections on AI, tech bubbles, and accessibility- Laracon US and vox pop interviews- The emotional ride of watching your kids grow up

In this episode, Jake and Michael discuss using interfaces as a dictionary of constants, working with and testing inputs passed down multiple layers of the application, and refactoring legacy code with PHP's ArrayAccess interface.

In this episode, Jake and Michael discuss Michael's new recording gear, building integrations with external APIs using Saloon, and configuring Laravel Horizon.

Jake and Michael discuss those features you ship that nobody uses but everybody has feedback for, testing a system where the valid state can change based on user input, and compliance auditing and adherence.