Talking Drupal 500: An Audio Time Capsule of Where Drupal Stands

Talking Drupal has just dropped its 500th episode with the weight of more than a decade of experience on its shoulders. Five hundred episodes in, Talking Drupal remains one of the most enduring and community-driven podcasts in the Drupal ecosystem. An episode like this, nearly four hours long, is less a podcast and more a living document of a community still growing, still arguing, still laughing. It’s a compilation of voices that built Drupal, extend it, question it, and teach it. With over two dozen guests and every major theme in Drupal on the table, episode 500 becomes a natural checkpoint and archive.

Nic Laflin, John Picozzi, Martin Anderson-Clutz, and Stephen Cross guide the conversation with a balance of lighthearted camaraderie and deep technical engagement. Among the many guests is Drupal founder Dries Buytaert, who reflects on Drupal’s roots and future. While acknowledging the project's humble beginning, he underscores its modern ambitions: 

“It’s not a legacy CMS. It can still be cutting edge.”

The technical heart of the discussion focuses on the architectural transformations underway in Drupal. One of the more significant changes discussed in detail by core contributors is the progressive deprecation of `.module` files, and the ongoing shift toward object-oriented design patterns.

Nic, credited with major API changes replacing hooks with object-oriented implementations, reflects on the depth of the transformation: 

“This is probably the biggest API change I've seen in Drupal in a long time.” 

He mentions spending over 150 hours on issues like `hook_module_implements_alter`, and highlights how much groundwork was required to decouple traditional behaviors from legacy patterns.

Similarly, efforts to eliminate `.install` and `.module` files are moving forward. The remaining uses, such as batch processing callbacks, are rare edge cases. Once those are handled, core contributors anticipate a future where Drupal's module structure aligns with modern PHP conventions, reducing learning curves for developers entering from outside the Drupal ecosystem.

Artificial intelligence is the other major focus of the episode. Kevin Quillen, James Abrahams (Freely Give), and Jurgen Haas (ECA) discuss how AI capabilities are being integrated into Drupal not as experimental novelties but as core features.

“We have a thing in Drupal. It’s AI. It can do all the providers.” 

says Kevin, emphasizing how Drupal’s open AI ecosystem avoids vendor lock-in. Rather than competing module ecosystems, contributors have chosen to centralize AI tooling, providing flexibility through plugins and a standardized framework.

James discusses upcoming features like a module that can visually generate layout components from images using AI, to be released via Experience Builder. “You’ll be able to just install that module... and try it out,” he says. That work is part of a broader vision where Drupal behaves as an “AI-native CMS” offering seamless AI interaction across editorial, development, and automation workflows.

ECA (Event-Condition-Action), maintained by Jurgen Haas, plays a significant role in that vision. With more than 1,000 action plugins, ECA acts as a bridge between AI, automation, and the site builder experience. “ECA and AI together is just more than one plus one,” Jurgen notes, highlighting potential use cases involving wearable tech, voice control, and automated user workflows.

The episode features several community leaders shaping the human infrastructure around Drupal.

Norah Medlin and Thomas Scola introduce the Bluefly Collective, a network of former Acquia employees formed after layoffs. The group operates with a collaborative impact model, partnering with agencies and focusing on sustaining both contributors and projects. “Bringing earnings back to the makers versus the takers,” is how Norah describes it.

Thomas adds that Bluefly is entirely built on open source, including internal collaboration tools. The group has integrated Drupal with GitLab using ECA for streamlined Kubernetes deployments, an example of Drupal functioning not just as a CMS, but as a workflow and infrastructure hub.

Avi Schwab shares updates from MOSA (Midwest Open Source Alliance), which now serves as a fiscal host for several Drupal camps and community initiatives. He describes MOSA’s purpose as enabling events and groups to operate without administrative overhead, preserving focus on community impact.

Training and onboarding are recurring themes. Norah, who leads MidCamp, outlines how the event is shifting toward deeper training offerings. This year’s MidCamp includes multi-day sessions from experts like Michael Anello and April Sides, covering topics from module building to Git workflows.

Martin Anderson-Clutz also confirms that he’ll be presenting recent updates to the Event Platform, including its dedicated theme and recipe integrations. AI, Markdown editing, and decoupled site builds all feature prominently in this year’s camp sessions, highlighting how camps are evolving in lockstep with Drupal itself.

Chris Wells, CTO at Redfin Solutions and lead on the Project Browser initiative, updates listeners on progress toward browsing and installing contributed modules and recipes directly from within Drupal’s UI. “Recipe browsing is our next big one,” he says, referring to upcoming plans to surface contributed site recipes through Drupal.org’s APIs.

While Project Browser was initially targeted for core inclusion, Chris acknowledges that the rise of Drupal CMS Acquia’s new default starter kit has shifted that assumption. “We’re re-evaluating whether we need to be in core,” he explains. Instead, the focus is now on stability, extensibility, and ecosystem alignment.

Package Manager, the API that powers both Project Browser and Automatic Updates, is now stable and in core. Its role is growing as a secure and flexible composer interface, critical for non-developers and enterprise workflows alike.

Maintainers like Steven Jones (Views Data Export) and Matt Glaman (PHPStan, Rector) offer glimpses into what long-term care for widely used modules looks like.

Steven describes returning to active maintenance after years of stagnation. With over 100,000 installs, his module helps export structured Views data, a cornerstone for reporting and integrations. “It's kind of a weird thing to know this random project... is in use by one in seven Drupal sites,” he says.

Matt Glaman talks about upcoming deprecation work in PHPStan, particularly around annotated plugins. He also reflects on how Drupal’s tooling like Rector and static analysis, has become more robust, enabling smoother upgrades and developer productivity.

500 Episodes and Still Building

Throughout the episode, the tone remains celebratory but grounded. It’s not just about marking a round number. Talking Drupal 500 is a community-wide moment a shared recognition of the durability and depth of the Drupal project.

“Drupal had a lot to do with building my career,” says Josh Mitchell, former CTO of the Drupal Association. “Giving me opportunities to do really ambitious projects early on.” That sentiment echoes across the conversation.

The show ends not with nostalgia, but with momentum. From AI agents and recipe installers to low-code workflows and community-backed infrastructure, the Drupal ecosystem in 2025 is full of activity, vision, and people still eager to build.

For listeners, new or long-time, the episode is less a celebration of what Talking Drupal has done, and more a demonstration of what the Drupal community continues to do together.