This is part 1 of four episodes celebrating Canada.

On July 1 is Canada Day, and this year in 2026, it will be my 25th anniversary as a Canadian citizen. It is the country I choose to call home. Canada has as many problems as any other country. As we speak, Alberta, a province I called home for near a decade, is preparing for a referendum on separating from the country.

Today’s episode is about something that brings any group of people together: Music, and about a specific band that you have never heard of unless you are Canadian, or know a Canadian of the generations between 1980 and 2015. That band is The Tragically Hip.

When it comes to The Hip, as we like to call them, I cannot think of a bigger fan than my friend Edgar (Eddie) Thomas from Newfoundland and Labrador. Over many drinks we have often philosophized and spoken about music and what it means to us.

We talk a lot about the band, so who are/were they? The band members were Rob Baker, Gord Downie, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois, and Gord Sinclair. Gord Downie, the lead singer was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2015.

At the end of the episode I have an essay that I wrote in 2017, shortly after Gord Downie had passed away from his cancer. The essay was written six months into my life here in Helsinki and after a short visit from Eddie.

Episode Highlights

• A Shared Canadian Experience: Eddie and I discuss how The Tragically Hip transcended provincial borders and musical genres to unite a massive, varied country.

• But he won’t travel alone: A multi-part essay covering my discovery of Canada and the Tragically Hip.
  

  Want more tales of Canada? Subscribe my friend (everything is free)!

Eddie’s Top Tragically Hip Tracks

If you are new to the band, here are links to Eddie’s top picks:

• 50 Mission Cap:

• Fireworks:

• Wheat Kings:

• Bobcaygeon:

Johnny Nolan returns as my co-host for another Newfoundland Alternative music deep dive, but this time we are honoured to be joined by author and journalist Rhea Rolman. We wanted to explore the influence of alternative music on alternative communities in St. John’s, Newfoundland and how music is important in creating safe spaces during the 1990s and even earlier.

• The 1990s Analogue Culture: Yup this was before the time of Social Media and we had to rely on concerts, gigs, and the radio of all things!
  

• Safe Spaces and Organising: Rhea explains how the music scene provided vital safe spaces during a time when minorities, especially sexual minorities, may have faced repression in Newfoundland.
  

• Festivals as Catalysts: We chat about how events like the Peace Accord and modern festivals like Lawnya Vawnya bring diverse groups together to exchange ideas.
  

• Saving CHMR: Rhea shares the story of the recent community fight to save the funding for the campus community radio station, preserving one of the last remaining creative spaces in the city.
  

About Rhea

Rhea Rollmann (she/her) is an award-winning journalist, writer and audio producer based in St. John’s, NL, and is the author of A Queer History of Newfoundland (Engen Books, 2023).​

She’s a founding editor of The Independent NL and her journalism has appeared in Briarpatch Magazine, CBC, Xtra Magazine, Chatelaine, PopMatters, Riddle Fence and more.

Special Thanks for their tracks with permission

• Bob Earle and Draize Eye Test

• Liz Pickard and the Lizband for One Song

• Phil Winters and the band Bung for Ramirez.

Related Episodes

Today on the podcast, I’m joined by my old friend and former BioWare colleague, Brent Knowles. We chat all about the art and magic of world-building, drawing from Brent’s several decades of experience as a game designer and writer. Brent shares his creative journey, from drawing fantasy maps on grocery shop paper bags as a child to working on iconic titles like Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon Age. We also dive into his recent tabletop work, discussing his Norse-inspired D&D campaign, Raiders of the Serpent Sea , and how a family holiday to Iceland heavily influenced its design.

Key Highlights & Takeaways

• The BioWare Days: We look back at Brent’s time working on the Neverwinter Nights expansions , especially the creative freedom his team had whilst developing Hordes of the Underdark.

• A Mapmaker’s Origins: Brent explains how spending time at off-season logging camps with his grandfather sparked his imagination , leading him to draw maps of the woods and invent fantasy creatures.

• Icelandic Inspiration: How the deep history, sagas, and natural landscapes of Iceland directly inspired his Viking-esque tabletop world.

• Embracing “Mistakes”: Why collaborating with artists and embracing their misinterpretations or mistakes often results in far cooler monsters and organic lore than originally planned.

• What Breaks Immersion: Brent discusses his biggest bugbears in game design, like when a video game’s narrative completely contradicts its gameplay mechanics —such as finding a +1 warhammer right next to characters who are complaining about being poor.

• Advice for Game Masters: Why it’s crucial for DMs to talk to their players to build a shared experience , ensuring it becomes our campaign rather than just the DM’s strict storyline.

Related Episodes:

In our previous episode we explored the idea of creating worlds for writing and especially table top roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons. In that episode which is Episode 54 if you want to take a listen, I noted that because our entire lives are spent within the imagination of our own creations, there is a connection to manufacturing reality.

This week, I invited back to the show my friend, former professor and long time collaborator on this podcast, Dr. Erwin Warkentin to discuss the topic of creating worlds and the intersection with propaganda. Dr. Warkentin has not only led media and communications at Memorial University in Canada, he has written and studied extensively on the subject of propaganda.

Episode Highlights

• We explore the bizarre history of Enver Hoxha, the former First Secretary of the Communist Party in Albania (the picture in the episode is of Hoxha from Wikipedia)

• Hoxha completely isolated his country and forced his citizens to read his estimated 70 volumes of work just to build a specific world in their minds.

• We discuss the concept of “Ostalgie” and why some older generations still harbour nostalgia for the old East.

• Our everyday reality is heavily influenced by television programmes and pop culture, proven by the fact that Canadian PSAs had to remind citizens they don’t actually have American Miranda rights.

• We examine how celebrated historical narratives, like Canada’s Heritage Minutes, often act as pure fantasy by omitting dark truths, such as Nellie McClung’s ties to the eugenics movement.

• Dr. Warkentin shares a fascinating story about how post-WWII American forces completely dismantled and rebuilt the German media landscape to prevent dangerous monopolies.

• We wrap up by challenging the illusion of “social media,” questioning if platforms like TikTok are just one-way broadcasts feeding us untrustworthy narratives without us realising it.

For those not Canadian and curious about our “Heritage Minutes” here’s tghe Nellie McClung one we talk about:

Related Episodes

In this episode, we dive into an introduction on creating the fictional realities we love to get lost in. From the shores of Midkemia to the neon-lit streets of homegrown tabletop RPG campaigns, I explore how our imaginations construct and inhabit these spaces. Joining the discussion are my friends and fellow tabletop DMs, Andrés Díez de Castro and Nik Paro, who share the collaborative creative processes behind their own unique worlds.

Highlights

• The Foundation of Worlds: Reflections on my early introduction to fantasy through Raymond E. Feist’s Magician and then into other worlds. However, it’s not just about fantasy and science fiction
  

• The Secret to Relatability: Andrés argues that the best world-building balances relatable cultural elements with fresh magical or technological twists so the setting doesn’t feel too mundane or too alien.
  

• Finding the “Red Thread”: Nik emphasises the importance of having a core narrative thread that ties a fantastical world together, warning that introducing too many contrasting elements can cause a setting to clash.
  

• Hyperphantasia vs. Aphantasia: Dups discusses the fascinating spectrum of human imagination. He contrasts his own hyperphantasia—experiencing imagination like a vivid 4K film—with aphantasia.
  

• Finding Inspiration: The group discusses their creative influences, from the intricate, storm-ravaged ecology of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive to the consciousness-transferring, gritty sci-fi of Altered Carbon.
  

• Words Over Visuals: Dups shares a personal anecdote about discovering the world of Star Wars through a novelisation before ever seeing the film, illustrating the raw power of descriptive storytelling.

  Subscribe so you can get the latest episodes, stories and articles from Tales under the cat tree!

Books & Media Mentioned in this Episode

• Magician by Raymond E. Feist

• The works of J.R.R. Tolkien, David Eddings, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, and R.A. Salvatore

• Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive

• Altered Carbon

• Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Doctor Who
  

Connect with the Show

What is your favourite fictional world? Dups would love to hear from you.

• Email: contact@dups.ca

• Website & Archives: tales.dups.ca

Related Episodes

If tomorrow your digital world disappeared through no fault of your own, would anyone know who you are?

We explore the fragile nature of memory and the misconception that our digital lives are permanent. From the ancient ruins of Sri Lanka to the disappearing “master servers” of early video games, this episode examines how the “ordinary person” remains at risk of being erased from history.

• The Missing Ordinary: Why history prioritises the powerful and why modern data hasn’t solved the “ruins” problem.
  

• The Shrinking Internet: A look at the 25% of the original web that has already vanished and the immense technical challenge of archiving 145 petabytes of data.
  

• Digital Fragility: The loss of personal history due to dead formats, forgotten passwords, and the shift from ownership to “cloud” reliance.
  

• The Gatekeepers: How corporate whims, server costs, and shifting online sources (like Wikipedia) can effectively rewrite the past.
  

• The Chain Letter: A reflection on the host’s story and the potential for our “sophisticated” era to become as silent as the “primitive” ancestors we study.

This episode features the following original short story:

Welcome to the first anniversary of Tales Under the Cat Tree. When I started this podcast, I did not think we would be here one year later. Over this past year, I’ve had so many of the amazing people I know, or who are in my extended circle, on air. From ex-colleagues talking about the past to folks talking about their hobbies and their creations today. We’ve explored so many different topics, and I hope you take some time to listen to the many voices that have joined me.

From the Holocaust to immigration, from investments to pop culture, from writing to role-playing games, from music to video games, from war photography to travelling as a tourist.

This brings us to a question a friend asked me recently. Have I found my niche?

This has not been a podcast about a specific topic where I do a variation every week. I don’t have celebrities; I’m neither spouting off angrily nor tilting at windmills most of the time. That just isn’t me, and therefore I choose to produce content that appeals to my own curiosity and creativity. Tales Under the Cat Tree is essentially an audio magazine. The current podcast platforms do not have a category for me. I am everything, but that means in the world of social media and AI, I am also “nothing.” I am likely not being promoted by the various algorithms.

That is completely okay by me.

To put it into perspective, I have supplied almost 24 hours of audio to the world, and over this past year, some four thousand plus unique listeners have come to download one or more of my podcast episodes from all around the world. Though obviously those in Canada, the USA, and Finland rank the highest in my listenership.

I am touched.

If you enjoyed even one episode, it means a lot to me.

The podcast has also given me a sense of grounding in a world that has changed so much in just one year. Since May 11, 2025, this past year has been a year of profound change, from geopolitical explosions and implosions to AI spreading with a speed many of us predicted but with consequences we are only now grappling with.

Every week, I sit down and contemplate what to bring on the air. Do I visit music, writing, or history? Do I tell you a story, or do I have a friend on to tell you a story? Do we scramble up the sides of mountains or plumb the depths of dungeons deep? In a world where our own footing seems precarious, and questioning our very reality becomes the norm, I’m happy to provide a weekly magazine of human exploration.

I’ve enjoyed this so much that I will continue for a while longer! Can I make it one more year? Let’s see. There are just so many more stories to tell, and there are so many of my incredibly talented friends you have yet to meet.

I will continue to keep this absolutely free. However, on my Substack, I will soon enable the ability to donate to the Internet Archive. There will be no difference whether you subscribe with money or not. I will not keep a single cent; any monies you pay will go directly to the Internet Archive. Over this past year, as I have plunged deep into my own content and seen the havoc caused by the unscrupulous use of AI content generation, I feel the work that the Internet Archive does to preserve this medium for generations to come is immeasurable.

Again, subscribe or not, you will get the same content! I’m still working my way through the subscription and charity details on my Substack, so that’s coming later this spring and summer.

Hitting one year reminded me that one of the primary reasons I started this podcast was to air some of my writing and to make fun of myself. So today, no interviews, just some of my writing.

Featured today:

• Escape from an arranged marriage

• Hold’em

Continuing the previous conversation, Dr. Erwin Warkentin and I explore the subjective experience of art, the impact of technological tools on creation, and global storytelling differences.

Key Topics:

• Nuance and Subtlety: Finding hidden details in art, comparing Beethoven’s “false cadences” and Rembrandt’s framing to the environmental storytelling in games like Myst and The Last of Us.
  

• The Definition of Art: The idea that art only exists in the moment it is experienced and interpreted by the audience.
  

• Effort vs. Value: A discussion on whether the physical effort of creation defines art, comparing modern game development to the assembly-line nature of Renaissance painting studios.
  

• Technology Driving Art: How the tools of the time dictate the art produced, comparing historical paint pigments (Lapis Lazuli, Prussian Blue) to the adoption of CD-ROMs and 3D graphics.
  

• Western vs. Eastern Narratives: Contrasting goal-oriented Western RPGs with journey-oriented Japanese RPGs (JRPGs).
  

• A Global Medium: The conclusion that video games represent the first truly globally shared art form, utilizing technology and narratives from across the world.

Listen to the first part of this series:

Dups and Dr. Warkentin discuss whether video games qualify as classical art. They examine the philosophy of play and compare traditional theater structures to modern game design.

Key Topics:

• The Philosophy of Play: A look at Schiller’s concept of the “drive to play” (Spieltrieb) and how playing games connects logical and emotional thinking.
  

• Aristotle vs. Brecht in Gaming: Comparing linear, fixed narratives (Aristotelian) like The Last of Us to interactive, choice-driven narratives (Brechtian) like Baldur’s Gate 3.
  

• Player as Co-Author: How a player’s individual gameplay style and decision-making process become part of the artwork itself.
  

• Digital Ephemerality: The challenge of preserving video games as technology becomes obsolete, and the role of archivists in saving early games.

  Thanks for listening to Tales under the cat tree! Please subscribe!

This is the second part of our series on 80s and 90s alternative music from St. John’s, Newfoundland with my friend Johnny Nolan. Today we feature music from Schizoid, Malpractice and The Reaction.

A special note: On April 1, 2026, and this is not an April Fool’s Joke. The student’s union at Memorial University voted to shut down CHMR.

In a day and age where voices are being muzzled around the world and avenues of expression being more and more controlled, I am saddened that a place that brought artists and journalists to Canada and the world will no longer exist.

I don’t however think the battle is over. Please reach out to CHMR and MUNSU before June 1. If you disagree with CHMR being shut down, let your voice be heard. I am not in St. John’s these days, make sure you don’t lose a valuable asset to the community. Once something like this is gone, you can never really recover it. Does radio need to change with the times? Of course it does, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Featured music:

• Death Deliverer by Schizoid, Album Total Mayhem

• $1.44 day by Malpractice, courtesy of John Nolan and Malpractice

• On The Beach by The Reaction, courtesy of Mike Fisher and The Reaction

Listen to Episode 1

From ancient times to today, gods and humans have hammered red-hot metal into shapes of weapons and crafts of beauty. In Ancient Greek mythology, Hephaestus and in fantasy, beings such as Sauron forge the ultimate weapons in the insane heat at the heart of volcanoes. Without human blacksmiths, who were the technologists of their day, we would not have the tooling and the world-building that have brought us to today. However, in our present day we take machined metalworking for granted. We don’t think twice about stainless steel knives in our kitchens. What were once luxury goods can now be bought for pennies in thrift stores.

But the art of true blacksmithing survives and is even experiencing a renaissance. I am reminded of this every year when Helsinki plays host to the world’s largest community produced roleplaying convention, ROPECON. Last year, a local blacksmith had his beautiful knives available, and I picked up a stunning, functional blade that has been my go-to cooking knife all year.

Watching a traditional blacksmith work is mesmerizing. The process is anything but simple: it is immensely physical. Heated metal is pounded, tweaked, and otherwise worked with any number of torturous-looking implements to produce something both practical and beautiful.

When I was watching a blacksmith work in his forge, it reminded me that I have a friend and former colleague whose hobby is this most ancient and practical of arts. If you know video games, then you certainly know some of the titles that he has worked on and helmed.

I am talking about none other than Trent Oster. Trent and I worked together at BioWare, where he was a founding member, as well as Project Director and Producer when I was helping with Neverwinter Nights. These days, he is the CEO of Beamdog. Aside from its own intellectual property such as Mythforce, Beamdog has been instrumental in bringing Dungeons & Dragons games such as Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, and even Neverwinter Nights back as enhanced editions that run on modern computers.

But today, Trent and I will not be talking about video games. Many of us in the tech industry have hobbies which we take to extremes of all kinds. Mine include writing and photography, but Trent’s is on a scale of power hammers, steel, and red-hot chemistry. This is a dense discussion on smithing, knifemaking, and the wonders of metallurgy.

I’ve added pictures of the knives he has produced that we talk about. I’ve also included a video of Trent’s power hammer, the machine that he affectionately calls “Thumpy”.

Watch “Thumpy” the power hammer at work in Trent’s shop

This is part 4 of my series on BioWare. In this episode, I’m lucky to have Dave Chan talking about sound design and more. Dave started working at BioWare before me on games such as MDK2, Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2. We overlapped on games such as Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire.

Dave has had a long career in video games, for a full list please check out his profile on Moby Games .

Episode Highlights

• From IT to Audio Director: Dave shares how a chance encounter with BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk at a computer store led him from IT to doing placeholder sound effects for MDK2. Dave eventually became a full-time audio designer.

• Scrappy Studio Days: Listen in for a hilarious late-night outtake from MDK2 involving a monkey, a blow-dryer, and K-Y Jelly. Dave also reflects about the sheer passion of BioWare fans .

• Behind the Sounds:

  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Dave reveals that none of the sound effects were actually taken directly from the films; they were all meticulously reproduced in-house or by contractors like Paul Gorman.

  • Lost Outtakes: Dave laments losing unreleased, hilarious outtakes of the iconic character Minsc (and his giant miniature space hamster, Boo) from Baldur’s Gate.

  • Lost in Translation: A funny anecdote about how the French localization of Baldur’s Gate combat sounds ended up sounding a bit too much like a porn film.

• The Philosophy of Sound: Dave explains his approach to audio, such as crafting the desolate, isolated atmosphere for The Long Dark. He also breaks down why user interface (UI) sounds are actually the hardest to design: they must be noticeable, unique, and critically, not annoying after thousands of clicks.

  Subscribe for more BioWare Stories :)

Mentions & Links

• Greg Zeschuk: BioWare co-CEO and founder.

• Trent Oster: Beamdog CEO and next week’s guest!

• Ben Burtt: Legendary film sound designer who crafted iconic Star Wars audio.

March 21 is designated by the United Nations as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In South Africa, it is Human Rights Day. On March 21, 1960 police opened fire into a crowd of protestors at Sharpeville in South Africa. This event would start the process of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-African Congress (PAC) being outlawed, Nelson Mandela being jailed, and the start of direct resistance against the South African Apartheid regime.

The events of Sharpeville happened to be part of my master’s thesis when I was studying under Dr. Christopher Youé at Memorial University. As a person of colour, and often a minority wherever I have chosen to live, race and racism is a topic that fascinates me, but also scares me to bring up.

Today on the podcast, I have my good friend and former professor, Dr. Erwin Warkentin, on the show for exactly that conversation. We are two very different people from opposite sides of the world with very different backgrounds. So have a listen to our conversation about race, racism, Apartheid, and indeed, the Sharpeville Massacre.

Further Reading

• Read and learn more about the Sharpeville Massacre

• A YouTube playlist of music from the movement against Apartheid

• Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory and Learning

One of my favourite anti-Apartheid songs is Asimbonanga by the late great Johnny Clegg and Savuka. Here’s a famous video of Nelson Mandela joining Savuka on stage.

Related Episodes with Dr. Erwin Warkentin

Between 2003 and 2009 my friends and I used to host something called the St. Patrick’s Day Drunk Dial Contest. What was the St. Patrick’s Day Drunk Dial you ask? At its heart, it was a simple attempt to connect friends from university in Newfoundland and who were now spread throughout Canada and the world.

St. Patrick’s Day, which is the national day of Ireland, is also celebrated around the world wherever Irish immigrants settled. In Newfoundland, it’s a rare public holiday as winter blows its last. It was a day friends would gather at the pub. When I left Newfoundland and the shamrocks went up in all the bars no matter where I was living, I longed to hear the voices of my friends.

Initially I had asked friends to phone me when they were out, night or day, on St. Patrick’s Day. Later someone gave my phone number out to strangers and the calls I received got weirder and even more fun. Each year the tradition grew until in 2009 when we decided to go big with an advert on Time Square and more.

So this is the story of the St. Patrick’s Day Drunk Dial Contest along with the calls of many of the winners.

I hope you have a great St. Patrick’s Day, no matter your nationality, but especially to all my friends in Ireland and those of Irish descent.

Show Notes and Highlights

• Interview with Niall Brown including the fallout from the Global TV news spot.

• Watch the Global TV news spot from Montreal, 2009

• The Times Square ad and pictures of the 2008 Montreal St. Patrick’s Day parade.

God Save the Queen, Instrumental by the Band of the Grenadier Guards, 1952 from the Wikimedia Commons

Why do humans purposefully subject themselves to freezing winds, exhausting altitudes, and perilous drops? In the first of our mountaineering series, host Dups opens with an autobiographical story from Indian Ridge in the Canadian Rockies. Then, Dups is joined by two long-time friends and climbing partners, Mike Mannion and Keli Ryan, to discuss the philosophy, humour, and hazards of modern mountain trekking. From the ethical dilemmas of summiting Mount Everest to being circled by vultures on Kilimanjaro, this episode explores the irresistible pull of the peaks.

Show Highlights

• Indian Ridge: Dups shares a personal story of a solo summit attempt in the Canadian Rockies.
  

• The Philosophy of Climbing and the lure of Everest: Mike Mannion breaks down how his love for hiking and indoor climbing evolved into global mountaineering. Mike and Dups discuss the ethical issues of putting people at risk for a tourist summit.
  

• Kilimanjaro, the Barafu scale, and freezing on Elbrus: Keli Ryan shares her memories of tackling Kilimanjaro. Keli recounts the reality of altitude sickness, and other stories from Kilimanjaro. She contrasts that with the cold of Elbrus and lessons for life

About the Guests

• Mike Mannion: A seasoned trekker who has climbed alongside Dups in the Rockies, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
  

• Keli Ryan: A long-time friend of Dups who joined the team for the ascent of Kilimanjaro and tackled the freezing, technical climb of Mount Elbrus in Russia.

Mentions & Resources

• Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane

We walk through life as one among a multitude, but what happens when you are tasked with standing in the eye of historical storms? In this episode, we explore what it truly means to bear witness to the darkest and sometimes, most profound, moments of the human experience.

Award-winning photojournalist Greg Locke joins the show to share his incredible journey spanning forty years of covering crime, business, politics, and war. From the surreal, celebratory chaos of the Berlin Wall coming down , to the savage heartbreak of the Bosnian War, Greg takes us behind the lens of the stories that shaped our modern world. He opens up about the moral weight of photographing grief , the absurdity of navigating lawless borders , and why we cannot simply turn away and ask, “Who cares?”

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The Accidental Photojournalist: How serendipity and a restless desire to explore the world launched Greg’s forty-year career.

• The Party at the End of the World: Arriving in Berlin the exact night the gates opened in 1989, and capturing the chaotic, history-making street parties.

• Greg’s “Lost Years” in the Balkans: Navigating the brutal civil war in Sarajevo.

• The Philosophy of Bearing Witness: Why we must document human misery so the world doesn’t forget.

• Close Calls and Absurd Realities: Surviving a terrifying encounter at a burning checkpoint in Sarajevo , and how Greg bribed a guard to get into Zaire.

• The Exodus: The story behind one of Greg’s most powerful photographs

About Our Guest: Greg Locke is a veteran photojournalist with four decades of experience covering international affairs, conflict, and politics. His work has been featured in major publications including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, Reuters, and Time Magazine and won numerous awards. He has spent extensive time documenting crises around the world from Africa to the Americas, and was the first photographer to be awarded a fellowship for journalism in the area of foreign affairs and international development by the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Learn more about Greg Locke at https://greglocke.com

Nine months ago, I asked if engineers were really adopting AI in larger companies. Today, that question is irrelevant. We have moved past chatbots and “vibe coding” into the era of agentic engineering.

In this sequel to Episode 2, I explore how my own identity as a developer is being restructured. I’ve moved on from writing syntax to managing autonomous fleets of agents that plan, code, and test on their own. I’m also joined by Tony Nysten and Mirva Laatunen from OpenOcean to discuss why this shift is dismantling traditional organizational silos and changing what it means to be a “software team.”

• (00:00) Intro: A sequel to Episode 2

• (00:37) The death of the traditional developer identity

• (02:00) What is “Agentic Engineering”?

• (03:15) Why the “Product Trio” (PM, Design, Eng) is broken

• (06:41) Dismantling silos and the new organizational blueprint

• (09:50) 5 steps to survival: From flat orgs to “vibe” hiring

• (13:32) Interview: Tony Nysten & Mirva Laatunen (OpenOcean)

• (16:00) The unit economics of AI vs. human labor

• (18:20) How VC roles are being disrupted by AI agents

• (23:04) Outro

Key Takeaways

• The New Developer Identity: Coding is now less about syntax and more about reviewing plans and obsessing over outcomes. If you entered this industry just to write code, the problem has shifted.

• Agentic Workflows: We aren’t just using ChatGPT/Gemini; we are managing agents that argue with each other to plan, code, and test independently.

• Organizational Panic: Traditional structures like microservices and agile teams were built for human limitations. Agents expose the bureaucracy in these old systems.

• Hiring for “Vibe”: As technical barriers lower, the most valuable engineers are those with high creativity, business understanding, and communication skills and not just coding proficiency.

Links & Resources

• Original Article: Why are we building software development teams like it’s 2020?

• Reference: Episode 2: How deeply are engineers adopting AI in larger software teams?

• Reference: Episode 16: MySQL, MariaDB, and AI – A conversation with Kaj Arnö

• Talk: Brandon Sanderson: The hidden cost of AI

• Firm: OpenOcean VC

Cast

• Host and Producer: Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana

• Guests: Tony Nysten & Mirva Laatunen
  
  

Grab a kettle of tea and dive into the isolated, vibrant, and “too radical” world of the St. John’s punk scene. In this episode, old-time punk musician Johnny Nolan and I spin tracks and tell stories from the late 80s and nineties. Back then Johnny was heavily involved in the alternative music and I was a student and DJ at CHMR broadcasting from Memorial University. The music scene at that time (as it has always been) in St. John’s was vibrant and you did not need to look far to end up at an alternative music gig or festival.

Inside the Episode

• Island Isolation: How being stuck on a rock in the Atlantic forced a tight-knit community to pick up instruments and create their own “cultural smorgasbord”.

• The Venues: A look back at the all-ages shows at the LSPU Hall and the legendary Peace A-chord festival—which was eventually shut down for being a bit too loud for municipal politics.

• CHMR Roots: Dups and Johnny reminisce about their days behind the mic at St. John’s alternative campus radio station.

Featured Tracklist

• “Newfie Rastaman” by Da Slyme A “fabulous” track from the band that started it all and released Canada’s first double punk album. By permission of Da Slyme.

• “No Protest” by Hardliner A “peace punk” anti-military anthem about a young Newfoundlander with no alternatives. By permission of Hardliner.

• “Evil Drunks” by Dog Meat BBQ A fun song that serves as the ultimate reminder of university drinking days. By permission of Dog Meat BBQ.

Cast

• Guest: Johnny Nolan

• Host and Producer: Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana

In 2025, I launched tales.dups.ca and photos.dups.ca, alongside my podcast, “Tales Under the Cat Tree.” With this week’s release marking 40 episodes of recorded content, I’ve decided to move my podcast hosting from Substack to Captivate.fm. The new page for the podcast content can be found at pod.dups.ca

While Substack will remain the home for my writing, I’ve realized the value of using a mature platform dedicated to doing one thing exceptionally well. After researching options like Transistor.fm and Podbean, I landed on Captivate. I’ve already had a minor technical hurdle resolved by a real support person—which says a lot in today’s world!

As far as I can tell, this transition should be seamless for listeners; in fact, my latest episodes are already being routed through the new host. I’ll be updating the links here on Substack shortly and will do my best to ensure there are no disruptions.

To answer the inevitable question: there’s nothing inherently “bad” about Substack’s podcast hosting—it’s just a bit basic. I’m excited to see what a top-tier, specialized platform can help me with.

John Lennon wrote the line, “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together” in I Am the Walrus to intentionally confuse. I know I am treading on well-worn ground by starting off this with that line to explore narrative voice—and especially the sin of “I”—but bear with me.

Here is a really short story:

“I stood on the side of the river. A duck flapped its wings and looked at me as if asking. I patted my pockets and turned up my palms; maybe the duck understood I got nothing today. Nothing. I can barely keep it all together. She left me this morning. A letter on the bathroom mirror. Her handwriting happier than I’ve ever seen it. The bird was still there. Can’t it see she was the one with the food? She was the one who brought me here?”

Now, let me retell the story:

“He was standing by the river. The duck flapped its wings as it cut through the water, driving a sharp line towards him. A common sight along these banks through the winter. The man sighed, patted his pants, and turned his palms up. Exasperation matched to pleading eyes. He reached out to his wife and almost fell when he realized she was not there. Today, he was alone. A crumpled figure, shuffling through the snow by the banks.”

Every story can be told from an infinite number of perspectives. I could tell the story above from the point of view of the duck: hungry, watching the world go by from the banks of the river. I could add some magic realism and have the river narrate its journey past the banks and this man. I could be a leaf, a blade of grass, or even a lamp post. Each perspective adds something to the story.

There is a story I have written some half-dozen times over the years. It’s been written from any number of perspectives, and yet I still don’t feel it’s remotely correct—or even conveying what I want.

For me, “I” is possibly the hardest perspective to take. In that narrative voice, I need to live the trials and tribulations of my protagonists. I might even cry as I write; I can feel the sadness; I can feel the hurt of the words that go down on paper. Even worse, we rarely write from pure imagination. Every story has the hallmarks of some pain that I have gone through. Reliving those moments can be as painful as the first time, struggling to put words to paper.

The omniscient narrator, on the other hand, allows a freedom to step outside, to stand back, to handle emotions from the sidelines.

There is so much to explore when it comes to narrative voice that we could be here for hours. Dr. Erwin Warkentin sent me a rough first draft of a story to review. He was kind enough to have me critique it on air. This is one of the hardest things a writer can do: have your work be examined in front of you. For me, it’s exhilarating. I get to see what landed and what did not.

Purposefully, the story has not been provided. The idea of the story—the framework of the story—is more important than the story itself. One day, after many rewrites, I am sure you will hear or read the full story in its final form, whatever narrative voice Erwin eventually chooses.

So let’s get down to it. Listen to my conversation with Dr. Erwin Warkentin on the sin of “I”.