It's an interesting podcast, but wanders a bit, and there's no transcript. But does mention Jordan Walke who wrote the first prototype of react for Facebook ads. Jordan is currently working on reasonml:

https://github.com/jordwalke

And Pete Hunt is:

https://github.com/petehunt

I should've remembered the bit about sml - it's mentioned here after all! :

https://reasonml.github.io/docs/en/what-and-why.html

I do wonder if it'd be easier to port sml syntax to ocaml rather than make reasonml - I guess not. But it might give similar benefits: a pleasant syntax dialect for ocaml, a mature compiler for js and native, and bringing in th js and ocaml library ecosystems. [ed: but not, perhaps, 90% overlap with js syntax.]

As I mentioned - I haven't really played with reasonml/reason-react - I think maybe some of the impressions alluded to in my first comment came in part from this:

https://medium.com/@Imaginary_Cloud/reasonml-react-as-first-...

In particular sentiments like:

"When using ReasonML, we don’t need Redux anymore. ReactReason stateless components already come with the concept of a build in reducer, which is meant to take care of the problems Redux used to address."

Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17143494

As well as the introduction here:

https://github.com/reasonml-community/reductive/blob/master/...

"Reductive

A reimplementation of redux in Reason.

Word of Caution

You might not need this library, especially so in a language which provides good enough construction blocks out of the box. ReasonReact already comes with reducers!"

Also somewhat related (re: state) :

https://reasonml.github.io/reason-react/docs/en/state-action...