Chit Chat Across the Pond

This week our guest is my friend and yours, Adam Engst of TidBITS. Adam recently wrote an article about the kerfuffle caused by Apple's message to developers about how it's going to tighten full disk access controls. I asked Adam to come on the show and explain first what happened and what he thinks the solution(s) could be. Here's a link to Adam's article: Why Full Disk Access Matters—and What Apple Should Fix During our conversation, Adam mentioned his app, SetShot, which shows you what has changed in your System Settings vs. the defaults and can take snapshots to see what you've changed over time. He brings it up because while his app only needs read access, Apple makes him ask for full disk access, which is both read and write. Join the Conversation: [email protected] podfeet.com/slack Support the Show: Patreon Donation Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation PayPal one-time donation Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle NosillaCast 20th Anniversary Shirts Referral Links: Setapp - 1 month free for you and me 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us CleanShot X - Earns me 25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

On our trip to Spain to see a total solar eclipse, we met the amazing Dr. Bonnie (Yvonne) Maldonado. I have to say I have a bit of a crush on her because she has one of the _coolest_ jobs of anyone I know. And I know Dr. Andrea Ghez, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics! Bonnie has spent her career studying viruses in order to save the lives of babies across the globe. Bonnie starts her story with her sister as children of immigrants and the first to attend college. She completed her undergrad at my alma mater, UCLA, and then she'll tell you how much _fun_ she had in medical school at Stanford (seriously). Then there was the little jaunt out to Johns Hopkins for a smidge of research. She's worked in the Federal Government as part of ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (the people who figure out what vaccines children should have based on the science and data from the CDC). I don't want to spoil the story, but Bonnie is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She's also really fun to hang out with! Learn more about Bonnie at [med.stanford.edu/...](https://med.stanford.edu/maldonadoepigroup/aboutus.html) Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_10_12

Adam Engst is the owner and writer of the longest-running Apple newsletter, TidBITS. Writing is literally his business. Imagine what would happen if he couldn't write. That's exactly what he faced when he broke one wrist and badly sprained the other. Since it's Adam we're talking about here, you know he turned this "adventure" into an article explaining how the accessibility features in OS 27s have helped him stay relatively productive. You might think he simply started using dictation, and while that's part of the solution, it's more nuanced than that. macOS and iOS are quite different in the maturity of their dictation engines, which required him to learn Voice Control. You can read his article explaining more at [tidbits.com/...](https://tidbits.com/2026/09/21/what-a-broken-wrist-taught-me-about-ios-27-dictation-and-macos-voice-control/) Join the Conversation: [email protected] podfeet.com/slack Support the Show: Patreon Donation Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation PayPal one-time donation Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle NosillaCast 20th Anniversary Shirts Referral Links: Setapp - 1 month free for you and me 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us CleanShot X - Earns me 25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

This week, our guest is the lovely Steve Sheridan, here to talk about the technology behind how he captured and produced an amazing video of the total solar eclipse we witnessed in Spain this year. Links to Steve's videos: 2026 Spain Total Solar Eclipse 2026 Spain Total Solar Eclipse 360 View - Spin It! Subscribe to Steve's YouTube channel Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_09_14 Referral Links: Setapp - 1 month free for you and me 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us CleanShot X - Earns me 25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

In yet another delightful conversation with Adam Engst, he fires up the WABAC machine and walks us through his journey to never successfully become a programmer. Two periods in time allowed him to unleash his creativity: HyperCard in the 1980s and today with AI-assisted programming. The basis for the conversation was his article on TidBITS titled Decades After HyperCard, AI Is Democratizing Development Again. Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2026_08_27 Join the Conversation: [email protected] podfeet.com/slack Support the Show: Patreon Donation Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation PayPal one-time donation Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle NosillaCast 20th Anniversary Shirts Referral Links: Setapp - 1 month free for you and me 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude