Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/signal-and-stories The signal behind the AI hype and the stories of the people building it. Signal & Stories is a podcast hosted by Max Buckley and Boris Meinardus. Every episode is a long-form conversation with the engineers, researchers and founders shaping AI — cutting through the hype cycle to the technical detail and the human story behind it. © 2026 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 022cde25-caf5-5662-a7a9-8f8c82b9b8c2 yes en Tue, 08 Sep 2026 06:21:03 -0700 Tue, 08 Sep 2026 06:24:54 -0700 https://signalandstories.ai https://img.transistorcdn.com/BTzZqa10_97mNHPH9YBBxi4so-_-gmQK56V4SM3_42c/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lMDFl/MmI1Y2M0ZmMzOWI5/NTc3NmJjMzdmZDc1/MWRkYS5qcGc.jpg https://signalandstories.ai episodic Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley The signal behind the AI hype and the stories of the people building it. Signal & Stories is a podcast hosted by Max Buckley and Boris Meinardus. Every episode is a long-form conversation with the engineers, researchers and founders shaping AI — cutting through the hype cycle to the technical detail and the human story behind it. The signal behind the AI hype and the stories of the people building it. AI, careers, machine learning, research Max Buckley and Boris Meinardus maxwbuckley@gmail.com No No 7 7 Cognition AI Engineer: Inside The $26B AI Tool Replacing Enterprise IT – Ben Lau full 0ac94db0-8cc0-417a-b66d-da7cda945a7e https://share.transistor.fm/s/716e479d Sun, 23 Aug 2026 08:00:16 -0700 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 4573 After a decade at McKinsey and a promotion to Junior Partner, Ben Lau reset his career to become a Forward Deployed Engineer at Cognition. We talk about why FDEs are replacing slide decks with working software, and how cloud agents handle enterprise repos that local tools choke on. After a decade at McKinsey and a promotion to Junior Partner, Ben Lau reset his career to become a Forward Deployed Engineer at Cognition. We talk about why FDEs are replacing slide decks with working software, and how cloud agents handle enterprise repos AI, careers, machine learning, research No 6 6 ML Systems CEO: NVIDIA's Monopoly Will Have a Problem - Emilio Andere full b856cf3e-2264-42ef-a2be-9a634b902f33 https://share.transistor.fm/s/2e8b4172 Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:00:22 -0700 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 4613 NVIDIA's real moat is CUDA, not silicon. Emilio Andere is automating low-level kernel engineering to erode it — and serving billions of tokens a day on OpenRouter while doing it. NVIDIA's real moat is CUDA, not silicon. Emilio Andere is automating low-level kernel engineering to erode it — and serving billions of tokens a day on OpenRouter while doing it. AI, careers, machine learning, research No 5 5 AI Expert Warning: The Permanent Underclass Discourse Is A Lie, Do This Instead! full 1c0f6762-14e0-48e9-9632-63cc4cf5da4e https://share.transistor.fm/s/852d15ef Sun, 28 Jun 2026 09:00:01 -0700 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 5519 Devansh helped beat Apple at detecting Parkinson's from voice calls — then watched corporate politics bury it. He explains why he open-sourced his research instead of joining a lab, and what the real engineering bottlenecks in AI are. Devansh helped beat Apple at detecting Parkinson's from voice calls — then watched corporate politics bury it. He explains why he open-sourced his research instead of joining a lab, and what the real engineering bottlenecks in AI are. AI, careers, machine learning, research No 4 4 Behind the Scenes: Working At Top AI Startups full feac0b27-bd10-479f-819c-db63f2232a44 https://share.transistor.fm/s/351f35ac Sun, 31 May 2026 08:00:01 -0700 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 5129 What it actually takes to work at a frontier AI startup — from startup towers in the Valley to poster sessions in Rio, and standing out when 400+ people apply for two roles. What it actually takes to work at a frontier AI startup — from startup towers in the Valley to poster sessions in Rio, and standing out when 400+ people apply for two roles. AI, careers, machine learning, research No 3 3 My Final Day at Google After 12 Years (Senior ML Engineer) full 0d237996-3d59-404f-8b5f-55d1408c5e4a https://share.transistor.fm/s/e7c31bf1 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:00:37 -0700 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 5549 Max's last day at Google after 12 years and ten roles. Why being a top contributor won't save your career, and the high-agency playbook for owning your trajectory. Max's last day at Google after 12 years and ten roles. Why being a top contributor won't save your career, and the high-agency playbook for owning your trajectory. AI, careers, machine learning, research No 2 2 The Man Automating Coding: Lessons Learned Building a SOTA Coding Agent (#2 - Nicolay Gerold) full 94dbdddd-078b-403a-83e4-c1f210d29e70 https://share.transistor.fm/s/6d12a7bd Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0700 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 5428 Nicolay Gerold on building Amp — the "Porsche of coding agents" — and the still-unsolved problem of when an agent is safe to push straight to production. Nicolay Gerold on building Amp — the "Porsche of coding agents" — and the still-unsolved problem of when an agent is safe to push straight to production. AI, careers, machine learning, research No 1 1 AI Engineer and Researcher: Why Who You Know Is More Important Than Your Code full 1288d893-18e8-4a2f-a9c5-56c0fa547a5e https://share.transistor.fm/s/a35090e1 Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:01:24 -0800 Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley Boris Meinardus and Max Buckley 6052 The first episode: how to engineer luck in AI, why chasing top labs is a trap for new grads, and the framework Max and Boris used to land roles at Google and frontier startups. The first episode: how to engineer luck in AI, why chasing top labs is a trap for new grads, and the framework Max and Boris used to land roles at Google and frontier startups. AI, careers, machine learning, research No