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Topics covered in this episode:

• django-orjson
• Best Django Redis configuration for speed and size
• Linus Torvalds puts the foot down against Anti-AI Kernel Maintainers
• Django Steering Council backs the Triptych Project
• Extras
• Joke

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Michael #1: django-orjson

• Adam Johnson dropped django-orjson - drop-in replacements for the Django and DRF pieces that touch JSON, swapping stdlib json for orjson, the Rust-based library. Headline numbers: 10x faster serialization, 2x faster deserialization.
• The interesting question is why this needs to be a package at all. pip install orjson is the easy part. Adam's actual pitch: adopting it "isn't easy, especially when your framework uses json in many different parts." Django scatters JSON across JsonResponse, the test client and test case classes, the json_script template tag, and more. There's no single hook to grab, so you get a library that catches them all.
• Adam is refreshingly honest about the scale of the win. His words: "While database queries tend to dominate the typical Django application's runtime, the time spent in serialization and deserialization can still be significant." He calls it "a nearly free performance win" - not "this will 10x your app." That's a claim about cost, not magnitude, and it's worth keeping those straight.
• Worth flagging what the post doesn't cover: caveats. There are none in the article, but orjson has real ones. Django and Flask both render datetimes as RFC 822 HTTP-date (Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT); orjson does ISO 8601. It can't do ensure_ascii, it rejects NaN and Infinity (which stdlib happily emits), and it raises on Decimal. If you've got a JS client parsing dates, that's a wire-format change.
• Who should actually take this? If you're a DRF shop shoveling JSON all day, yes - it's cheap and it's real. If your app mostly renders HTML templates, you're optimizing a slice of runtime that's already near zero.
• The problem Adam's package solves doesn't exist in Flask or Quart. They already centralize every JSON operation - jsonify, request.get_json(), the test client, the |tojson filter - behind one provider object at app.json. So there's no library to install. It's about ten lines:

  import orjson
  from quart.json.provider import JSONProvider  # or flask.json.provider
  class OrjsonProvider(JSONProvider):
  def dumps(self, obj, **kwargs) -> str:
      return orjson.dumps(obj).decode()   # provider must return str
  def loads(self, s, **kwargs):
      return orjson.loads(s)
  app.json = OrjsonProvider(app)
  

The numbers on talkpython.fm

• Evaluated it, measured it, and skipped it. The biggest JSON payload we serve is our MCP server returning a cached episode transcript, about 139 KB. Swapping the provider saves 0.119 milliseconds per request. That total response takes 1.1 ms
• We got 4.1x, not 10x - and the reason is the good lesson. Payload shape decides your speedup. The 10x is for structure-heavy data, lots of small keys where stdlib burns time in Python-level dispatch per item. Our hot payload is one giant transcript string, so the work is escaping and memcpy

Calvin #2: Best Django Redis configuration for speed and size

• Peter Bengtsson revisits a classic: his 2017 "Fastest Redis configuration for Django" benchmark now has a 2026 update posted this week.
• The 2017 post pitted django-redis serializers (json, ujson, msgpack, pickle) and compressors (zlib, lzma) against each other; conclusion was msgpack + zlib as the sweet spot - avoid the json serializer, it's fat and slow.
• The 2026 update narrows focus to just compressors: default (no compression), zlib, lzma, and newcomer zstd.
• New results: lzma compresses best but is slowest; zstd is the fastest compressor on Ubuntu; differences between them are very small.
• Big takeaway across both: compression buys you a lot of space (2–3.5x smaller) for very little speed cost - worth it for Redis where memory is the constraint.
• Caveat from the author: results depend heavily on your data - his test stores short strings of numbers, so benchmark your own workload.

Michael #3: Linus Torvalds puts the foot down against Anti-AI Kernel Maintainers

• Write up on Ars.
• Really good coverage by Maximillian: Time to wake up (for some)
• Torvalds said that “Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it. Or just walk away.”
• I agree with Max, putting your head in the sand and waiting for AI to go away will likely mean you won’t be working professionally in software development in the coming years.
• The statement came amid a lengthy thread arguing about the use of Sashiko, an “agentic Linux kernel code review system” that its creators claim can, in tests, independently find 53.6 percent of the bugs that would end up being fixed by human coders in later commits.
• “We’re not forcing anybody to use [LLM tools], but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it,” Torvalds said.
• “Anybody who points to the problems at AI had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at themselves at the same time,” Torvalds wrote.

Calvin #4: Django Steering Council backs the Triptych Project

• Django Steering Council issued a Letter of Collaboration backing Carson Gross & Alex Petros's funding bid for the Triptych Project - three proposals to make HTML more expressive natively, in every browser.
• The three additions: PUT/PATCH/DELETE methods for forms, button actions (buttons that fire HTTP requests without a wrapping form), and partial page replacement.
• Distills the core ideas from HTMX/Unpoly/Turbo into the HTML standard itself - no JS, no library, nothing to ship or maintain.
• Current focus is button actions (WHATWG #12330): <button action=/logout method=POST>Logout</button> instead of wrapping a button in a form.
• Relevant to Django directly - think the admin submit row and disguised delete links; Django 6.0's template partials were already inspired by these patterns.
• How to help: companies can send non-binding letters of support on letterhead; individuals can read the proposals and weigh in on the WHATWG issues.

Extras

Calvin:

• DOOMQL - A playable first-person shooter whose framebuffer is a SQL query.

Michael:

• Granian 2.7.9 fixes WSGI threadpool scheduler starvation/underscaling
• Welcome Calvin post

Joke: Solving all bugs

Nate and Danny go long on the fascinating Dort/Risacher trade. Was this the right way to save money by OKC? And was giving up on Risacher the right move for Atlanta?

Then, we break down the offseasons with our letter grading system for OKC, ATL, DAL, WAS, MEM and CHI, before hitting on some news including Matisse Thybulle in LA.

0:42 – Oklahoma City Thunder

31:06 – Atlanta Hawks

53:56 – Dallas Mavericks

1:07:32 – Washington Wizards

1:18:41 – Memphis Grizzlies

1:27:32 – Chicago Bulls

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Peter O’Neil was preparing for retirement after decades of practicing law when he learned that he was autistic at the age of 65. This realization inspired his memoir My So-Called Disorder: Autism, Exploding Trucks, and the Big Daddy of Rock and Roll, in which he looks back at his life and legal career to better understand how his neurodiversity played a role in both his most significant personal challenges and the unique professional talents which helped him to take on some of the largest corporations in the US as a products liability attorney. In this unusual intergenerational exchange between lawyers on the spectrum, Peter and Matt discuss their experiences and appreciate the ways that these so-called “disorders” have made them who they are.

Peter O'Neill is the author of My So-Called Disorder, Autism, Exploding Trucks, and the Big Daddy of Rock and Roll, this month's OA Book Club pick. Join him live for book club on July 26th at 4:30pm Eastern, for patrons at any level at patreon.com/law.

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

Zach and Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone go behind the scenes on the Nuggets journey to the 2023 NBA title, then ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk join to talk the Clippers at the crossroads, the James Harden situation, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill rambles about 90's heroine sheik, roller coaster malfunctions, and heli-hogging.

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Bill, Van, and Mina call up the date doctor for some dancing tips after revisiting the 2005 romantic comedy classic ‘Hitch,’ starring Will Smith, Kevin James, Eva Mendes, and Amber Valletta. Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Matt Pevic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Chris Ryan and Anthony Dabbundo LIVE on Netflix to react to Spain defeating Argentina 1-0 to win the 2026 World Cup Final. Then, they discuss the winners and losers of the World Cup before comparing the careers of Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. (0:00) Intro (1:14) World Cup Final reactions (20:19) Biggest winners and losers of the World Cup (1:09:00) Matt Damon vs. Leonardo DiCaprio (01:41:01) NBA catch-up Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Chris Ryan and Anthony Dabbundo Producers: Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Chris Wohlers Brought to you by PayPal. Learn more at paypal.comThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Python has many string formatting styles which have been added to the language over the years. Early Python used the % operator to injected formatted values into strings. And we have string.format() which offers several powerful styles. Both were verbose and indirect, so f-strings were added in Python 3.6. But these f-strings lacked security features (think little bobby tables) and they manifested as fully-formed strings to runtime code. Today we talk about the next evolution of Python string formatting for advanced use-cases (SQL, HTML, DSLs, etc): t-strings. We have Paul Everitt, David Peck, and Jim Baker on the show to introduce this upcoming new language feature.

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