#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 Talk Python Courses Python in Production 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 Developer Rap Theme Song: Served in a Flask: talkpython.fm/flasksong --- Stay in touch with us --- Subscribe to Talk Python on YouTube: youtube.com Talk Python on Bluesky: @talkpython.fm at bsky.app Talk Python on Mastodon: talkpython Michael on Bluesky: @mkennedy.codes at bsky.app Michael on Mastodon: mkennedy