In this episode of The SDM Show, host Rob Cairns sits down with good friend Marcus Burnett to dive deep into Marcus’s latest side projects, the realities of building for the WordPress ecosystem, and where WordPress core is headed next.

Marcus shares the latest updates to The WP World, including real-time AI-powered multilingual messaging and a revamped job board designed to connect community members with new career opportunities. The conversation also explores Well Played WP, Marcus’s unified plugin library model that solves plugin licensing headaches, the build-vs-buy dilemma facing developers in the era of AI, and a candid debate on what truly belongs in WordPress core versus feature plugins.