#518: Celebrating Django's 20th Birthday With Its Creators

Twenty years after a scrappy newsroom team hacked together a framework to ship stories fast, Django remains the Python web framework that ships real apps, responsibly. In this anniversary roundtable with its creators and long-time stewards: Simon Willison, Adrian Holovaty, Will Vincent, Jeff Triplett, and Thibaud Colas, we trace the path from the Lawrence Journal-World to 1.0, DjangoCon, and the DSF; unpack how a BSD license and a culture of docs, tests, and mentorship grew a global community; and revisit lessons from deployments like Instagram. We talk modern Django too: ASGI and async, HTMX-friendly patterns, building APIs with DRF and Django Ninja, and how Django pairs with React and serverless without losing its batteries-included soul. You’ll hear about Django Girls, Djangonauts, and the Django Fellowship that keep momentum going, plus where Django fits in today’s AI stacks. Finally, we look ahead at the next decade of speed, security, and sustainability.

Episode sponsors

Seer: AI Debugging, Code TALKPYTHON

Sentry AI Monitoring, Code TALKPYTHON

Talk Python Courses

Links from the show Guests

Simon Willison: simonwillison.net

Adrian Holovaty: holovaty.com

Will Vincent: wsvincent.com

Jeff Triplett: jefftriplett.com

Thibaud Colas: thib.me

Show Links

Django's 20th Birthday Reflections (Simon Willison): simonwillison.net

Happy 20th Birthday, Django! (Django Weblog): djangoproject.com

Django 2024 Annual Impact Report: djangoproject.com

Welcome Our New Fellow: Jacob Tyler Walls: djangoproject.com

Soundslice Music Learning Platform: soundslice.com

Djangonaut Space Mentorship for Django Contributors: djangonaut.space

Wagtail CMS for Django: wagtail.org

Django REST Framework: django-rest-framework.org

Django Ninja API Framework for Django: django-ninja.dev

Lawrence Journal-World: ljworld.com

Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com

Episode #518 deep-dive: talkpython.fm/518

Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm

Theme Song: Developer Rap

🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸: talkpython.fm/flasksong

---== Don't be a stranger ==---

YouTube: youtube.com/@talkpython

Bluesky: @talkpython.fm

Mastodon: @talkpython@fosstodon.org

X.com: @talkpython

Michael on Bluesky: @mkennedy.codes

Michael on Mastodon: @mkennedy@fosstodon.org

Michael on X.com: @mkennedy