A set of principles to enhance testing APIs created inside R, and the engine behind automatic reloading of rendered Shiny apps becomes available for new use cases.

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
• Testing Your Plumber APIs from R
• watcher 0.2.0: filesystem watching for R, and the engine behind Shiny auto-reload
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W28

Supplement Resources

• {plumber2}: https://plumber2.posit.co/
• {httr2}: https://httr2.r-lib.org/index.html
• {mirai}: https://mirai.r-lib.org/index.html
• {nanonext}: https://nanonext.r-lib.org/index.html
• roxygen2 @exampleIF tag https://roxygen2.r-lib.org/articles/rd-functions.html#examples
• {watcher}: https://watcher.r-lib.org/
• fswatch https://emcrisostomo.github.io/fswatch/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter) 
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Relm's Weepy Loop - Final Fantasy 6 - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00178

The R Core team receives a prestigious award in the world of Statistics, a month-long recognition of the rOpenSci package maintainers, and a collection of helpful tips for obtaining robust R code from AI agents. 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• 2026 Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics Awarded to R Core Team for Transforming Statistics Computing Worldwide
• Celebrating Our Maintainers during Maintainers Month
• 10 tips for getting better R code from your AI coding agent
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W26

Supplement Resources

• The Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics 2026 https://www.rousseeuwprize.org/2026
• {btw} A complete toolkit for connecting R and LLMs https://posit-dev.github.io/btw/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Super Buck II - Super Mario Brothers 2 - Estradasphere - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00577
• Escape Route - Cave Story - Corran - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01513

The evolution of Posit's data science agents, robust approaches to unnamed parameters in R functions, and the power of math and visualization collide in an unexpected way.

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter)
• A brief and biased history of Posit data science agents
• Three small dots for more readable code
• Little useless-useful R functions – Ulam Prime Spiral
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W25

Supplement Resources

• Ulam Spiral Animation Function https://github.com/tomaztk/Useless_R_functions/blob/main/functions/ulam_spiral_animation.R
• Eric's new Quarto Terminal Theme https://github.com/rpodcast/quarto-revealjs-terminal

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Suco de Melancia - Final Fantasy 7 - Red Tailed Fox - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01671
• The Quick and the Blue - Mega Man 2 - The Megas - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02090

A friendly reminder on checking customization when upgrading R, how refactoring may not be so tedious when using the Jarl utility, and honest takes on various code smells you can prevent in your next testing suite. 
Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• The Lurking Dangers of the R Version Update
• Refactoring with Jarl: a coffee chat
• 11 Test Smells That Make Your Tests Lie to You
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W24

Supplement Resources

• {renv} - Project environments in R https://rstudio.github.io/renv/index.html
• rig - The R installation manager https://github.com/r-lib/rig

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Vamo alla Django - Final Fantasy 9 - AndyP, Dan Bryant, Fishy - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03579
• Gurgling Desert Pond - Final Fantasy 1 - blackguitar - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02555

R is capable of many analyes in the world of data science, but can it build a computer? Also a massive usability feature landing in the latest bslib to power up your cards, and optimizing memory usage with the latest rleases of mirai and mori. 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky)
• Building a Computer in R
• Introducing Toolbars: Supercharge your Cards and Inputs
• A memory model for production async R: mirai 2.7.0 and mori 0.2.0
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W23

Supplement Resources

• Mike's blog post: Reflections on AI and Security https://blog.ketchbrookanalytics.com/posts/2026-05-28-ai-security/ai-security.html

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• The Unnamed Frontier - Metroid II Return of Samus - Pyro Paper Planes, Viking Guitar - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02892
• Brushwork - Mario Paint - Fratto, Wiesty, The OC Jazz Collective - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04389

The power of choice is in full effect! How you can leverage GitLab to publish your next Quarto document online, how to bring key R functional paradigms to a Python session, and adding a larger safety net with your unit tests with {mutagen} 0.2.0. 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jon Carroll - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy (Bluesky) & @carroll_jono (X/Twitter)
• Deploying Quarto documents with GitLab
• Functions over Idioms - Writing R in Python with rfuns
• muttest 0.2.0: More Mutators, Better Reporting, and Parallel Execution
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W22

Supplement Resources

• Data Science at the Command Line https://datascienceatthecommandline.com/
• DevOps for Data Science https://do4ds.com/
• {pak} System Requirements https://pak.r-lib.org/reference/sysreqs.html

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix
 

• Wrestling with Double Bass - Street Fighter II - Malcos - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01270
• A Simple Flip can Change Fate - Final Fantasy VI - Level 99 - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02692

Applying novel statistical and visualization techniques to predict war duration, why there is more than meets the statistical eye behind a classical model benchmarking statistic, and celebrating a major milestone for pioneers in open science with R. 
Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Colin Fay - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFay]](https://twitter.com/_ColinFay) (X/Twitter)
• Durations of wars by @ellis2013nz
• Learning Data Science: Why a High R^2 Can Be Misleading
• 15 Years of rOpenSci, and We're Just Getting Started
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W21

Supplement Resources

• Correlates of war data set: https://correlatesofwar.org/data-sets/cow-war/
• tidymodels https://www.tidymodels.org/
• Donation to rOpenSci https://ropensci.org/donate/
• Upcoming rOpenSci events https://ropensci.org/events/
• Software peer review https://ropensci.org/software-review/
• R Pharma Hangouts recordings https://rinpharma.com/docs/hangout/recordings

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• The Quick and the Blue - Mega Man 2 - The Megas - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02090
• Serenity & Grace - Chrono Cross - timaeus222 - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04143

A massive milestone for the language that eventually led to the R we know and love, plus a comprehensive look at two popular workflow frameworks across the R and Python ecosystems.
 
Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
• S at 50
• Comparing R's {targets} and dbt for Data Engineering
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W20

Supplement Resources

• Fifty years of S poster https://blog.r-project.org/post/S-at-50/s_at_50_poster.jpg
• Quarto 2: Parsing and Source Maps https://opensource.posit.co/blog/2026-05-07_quarto-2-parsing/
• Beyond Feasibility: Learning from FDA’s Response to WebAssembly and Container-Based Submissions https://r-consortium.org/posts/beyond-feasibility-learning-from-fdas-response-to-webassembly-and-container-based-submissions/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• J-Type - Tetris - Nostalvania - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04401

If Shiny wasn't awesome enough, a new toolkit is bringing the awesome to new heights! Plus a handful of ggplot2 functions that can immediate impact common visualization operations, and knitr gains support for a much-hyped typesetting format for the static document crowd. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• Announcing shiny.webawesome: a web UI package for R/Shiny
• Five ggplot2 functions I wish I’d known about earlier
• Preliminary Support for Typst in knitr
• Issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W19

Supplement Resources

• Add links discussed in the episode (in place of this sentence)
• {shiny.webawesome} documentation https://www.shiny-webawesome.org
• Web Awesome: The Web's Open Source Design System https://webawesome.com
• {lemon} Freshen up your ggplots https://github.com/stefanedwards/lemon
• ligt.js Miscellaneous lightweight tools and utilities in JavaScript https://github.com/yihui/lite.js/blob/main/js/pages.js
• R 4.6.0 binary transition https://github.com/eddelbuettel/R-4.6.0-binary-transition
• Exploring and Learning Quantum Computing Part 1 https://www.kenkoonwong.com/blog/qc1/
• Mike's talk "Fully Reproducible Model Validation Reports Using Docker, R, Quarto, {renv} and {targets}" https://youtube.com/watch?v=hRIbxv516hY

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Moonlight Vibin - Megaman X5 - DCT - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02053
• Countdown to Infinity - Megaman X: Maverick Rising - WillRocky - https://maverick.ocremix.org/music.php

How the new logrittr package gives you a peek behind the tidy pipelines of dplyr, and a fascinating glimpse into the universe of seeds going far beyond a favorite 80's song. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky)
• logrittr: A Verbose Pipe Operator for Logging dplyr Pipelines
• Generating universes within universes with a single seed
• Working Smarter in R: Tips, Tricks & Real-World Lessons
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W18

Supplement Resources

• tidylog https://github.com/elbersb/tidylog/
• logrittr documentation https://guillaumepressiat.github.io/logrittr/
• Fine-grained control of RNG seeds in R https://blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2023-12-27_seedcatcher

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Passing Breeze (Lounge Suite) - OutRun - Remorse - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00875

After an unexpected break we are back with a new episode of R Weekly Highlights! If you thought the easiest way to create pivot tables was in Excel, the a new package just might change your perspective. Plus how you can pull the strings for a multi-agent LLM workflow with the new puppeteeR package.

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• perspectiveR: Interactive Pivot Tables and Charts from R
• puppeteeR - orchestrate multiple LLM agents into coordinated workflows
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W16

Supplement Resources
 

• Perspective upstream library https://perspective-dev.github.io
• You can just build your own programming language https://brodrigues.co/posts/2026-04-03-tproject.html
• {gglite} https://pkg.yihui.org/gglite/

Supporting the show
 

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• A flea and his giant - Mega Man X: Maverick Rising - Chuck Dietz - https://maverick.ocremix.org/music.php