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Podcast profile

The Hedge

By Russ White

culture eats technology for breakfast

Latest episode

Hedge 315: Engineering Psychology

47 min

Cadence
Weekly
Typical length
47 min
Latest release
Aug 7, 2026
Language
EN-US

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Latest episodes

25 available
The Hedge47 min

Hedge 315: Engineering Psychology

We often talk about "human infrastructure" in network engineering--but what does this mean, and how do we help engineers "produce" while helping them to flourish as individuals? Catherine Hicks joins Tom and Russ to discuss the psychology of software engineering, and how the lessons learned apply to network engineering

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The Hedge53 min

Hedge 314: Questions from a New Engineer

Sometimes we can be so focused on the problems in front of us that we forget the people who are following in our footsteps. Michael McCollum, a new network engineer, joins Tom and Russ to ask questions about life as a network engineer.

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The Hedge43 min

Hedge 313: Out of Band Management Networks

Most designers and operators default to carrying all traffic--including network management traffic--across the same paths as application data, or in band. Is this the right choice, or should operators seriously consider creating an out-of-band network just for network management? If you decide to build an out-of-band n

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The Hedge48 min

Hedge 312: Keys and DNS

The entire technology world has, for decades, treated the IP address as a shorthand host identifier. This is clearly not the way IP was designed, but what are our other choices? In this episode of the Hedge, Scott Robohn joins Russ And Tom to discuss a recent paper arguing cryptographic keys should be the primary host

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The Hedge51 min

Hedge 311: The Dangers of AI

We are often told that if engineers who don't go "all in" on AI will be left behind. While there are a few voices who argue that AI can be a dangerous tool, impacting not only the quality of our work, but the very quality of our thinking skills. Doug Smith, a critic of using AI for engineering, joins this episode of th

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The Hedge43 min

Hedge 310: AI Ops

What is AI Ops, and how can it be useful for your network? Akshay Balaganur and Sushanth Mascaren join Tom and Russ to discuss various aspects of AI Ops.

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The Hedge38 min

Hedge 309: DNS Persist

As DNS is more widely used to distribute certificate information, proving ownership of a resource becomes more critical. The constant challenges required to prove resource ownership, however, increase delay in connecting or using a resource. DNS persists--as the name implies--creates a persistent connection between a r

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The Hedge36 min

Hedge 308: Hidden Competence

We all talk about how engineers deal with imposter syndrome--but we don't often talk about the experience of making things work "in the background." What is competence, and what do we do when competence isn't recognized? Justin Wilson (j2sw) joins Russ and Tom to discuss. https://media.blubrry.com/hedge/media.blubrry.c

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The Hedge46 min

Hedge 307: bgproutes.io

If you advertise routes into the default free zone (or global Internet), you might struggle with seeing and understanding what they look like "on the other side." While there are many manual tools to help operators with this process, bgproutes.io gives you visibility in the global routing table through interfaces like

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The Hedge59 min

Hedge 306: RPKI Transport

Synchronizing information across the Internet, at an initial glance, looks like a fairly simple problem to solve. Just copy a file to a host and create a magic protocol, right? Not really. Each kind of data has a fairly unique set of requirements--and RPKI data, used to provide security information for BGP, is no diffe

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The Hedge31 min

From Security to Networking

We don't often hear the stories of those who move from some other IT career field into network engineering. Ayush Mishra, a student at University of Colorado Boulder, joins Tom and Russ to discuss why he moved from security to network engineering.

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The Hedge36 min

Hedge 304: Deep Dive into a Network Master’s Program

If you've ever been curious about what an advanced degree in network engineering looks like, you'll want to join us for this episode of the Hedge. Levi Perigo from the University of Colorado at Boulder joins Tom and Russ to talk through what earning a Master's in Networking involves and what kinds of things you would l

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The Hedge32 min

Hedge 303: Data Centers?

In this roundtable episode of the Hedge, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ hang out and talk about data centers--why are we building all these things again? Our second topic is the FCC's ban on non-US made home routers. Was this the right thing to do? Was it the wrong thing to do? Were there any other policy options?

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The Hedge55 min

Hedge 302: Communications in Biological Systems

What does biology have to do with computer networks? Much more than you might think. Communications systems, after all, need to solve the same problems--and they often use the same kinds of tools. In this episode of the Hedge, Emily Reeves and Joe Deweese join Russ and Tom to talk about a recent paper comparing compute

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The Hedge50 min

Hedge 301: SONiC

What's the deal with SONiC? Is it easy to build and use, or hard? Is it something you should be looking at? Jeff Doyle joins Russ and Tom to look at the SONiC operating system, ecosystem, and deployment.

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The Hedge56 min

Hedge 299: 6G

As we discussed in the prior episode, the 6G hype is building. What's in 6G, though, and how realistic is it that a new wireless technology is going to radically change the world? In this episode of the Hedge, George Michaelson joins us from Australia to discuss the ins and outs of 6G.

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The Hedge44 min

6G Hype!

It's 2026, and it's time for a new cellular telephone hype cycle: 6G! Doug Dawson from CCG joins Russ and Tom to talk about why 5G is really 4.5G, the proposed changes for 6G, and the challenges higher frequency ranges and bandwidths face in the real world. It's definitely worth following Doug's daily post about the te

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The Hedge49 min

Hedge 296: AS-SETs

AS-SETs (not that kind) were originally designed to simplify filtering at eBGP peering points--but they seem to have gone horribly wrong. Job Snijders and Doug Madory join Tom and Russ to discuss the history, use, problems, and (hopeful) demise of AS-SETs.

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The Hedge38 min

Hedge 295: Specialization

Should network engineers focus on specializing in one technology, vendor, or solution, or should they think about building a diverse skill set? Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ discuss the advantages of each, how these options relate to the future of network engineering, and skill diversification.

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The Hedge48 min

Hedge 294: Resource Constrained Environments

The future of network design and architecture is--based on current trends--is going to be working with and around resource constraints. How would resource constraints impact the way we design and manage networks? Mike Bushong joins Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ to ponder network engineering in a resource constrained world.

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The Hedge52 min

Hedge 293: Moore’s Law

Is there an interaction between Moore's Law and network computing? If so, what is the relationship? How do advances in silicon capabilities and network speeds and feeds rely and drive one another. Geoff Huston joins Russ on this episode of the Hedge to look at a bit of the history.

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The Hedge32 min

Best of the Hedge 9: Ethics in IT

Nash King (@gammacapricorni) joins Russ White and Tom Ammon in a wide ranging discussion of ethics in IT, including being comfortable with standing up and saying “no” when asked to do something you consider unethical and the virtue ethic.

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