Episodes
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Aaron Neiderhiser (CEO of Tuva Health) has an audacious goal of improving US healthcare analytics. It all starts with the data. Aaron discusses his journey and obsession with making sense of the gigantic mess of US healthcare data.
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There have been lots of social media posts declaring things to be dead - SQL, R, data engineering, BI, etc.
I give my thoughts on these proclamations, why it's a wrong way to think about our space, and more.
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Missing episodes?
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Jeroen Janssens and Thijs Nieuwdo join me to chat about all things Polars. We discuss the evolution of the Polars library, its advantages over pandas, and their journey of writing 'Python Polars: The Definitive Guide.'
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Zhamak Dehghani (creator of Data Mesh, CEO of NextData) joins me to chat about what she thinks is next in data - autonomous data products, decentralized data and AI, and much more.
Zhamak is one of the people I most respect in our industry. She's a once-in-a generation phenomenon who will change the trajectory of our industry.
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Matthew Scullion (CEO, Co-Founder of Matillion) joins me to chat about the future of data engineering, namely agentic data engineering teams.
What does this new world look like? Matthew shares some ideas of what he's building at Matillion, and the broader context of what agentic AI means for the data ecosystem, teams, and workflows.
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Wrapping up the week at Snowflake Summit. As always, the big platform ate away at their partners. If you're a partner, what can you do to shield yourself from platform cannibalization? In this episode, I give some advice from what I've seen in the data ecosystem over the years.
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Svetlana Tarnagurskaja (CEO of the Dot Collective) joins me to chat about her entrepreneurial journey in the data space, building a boutique data consultancy, competing with Big Consulting, the challenges of building a team, and the importance of creating a human-centric company culture.
The Dot Collective: https://www.thedotcollective.co.uk
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Hannes Mühleisen shows off DuckLake and answers live questions.DuckLake: https://duckdb.org/2025/05/27/ducklake.html
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Ash Smith is a data engineer based in Perth, Australia (the most remote city in the world). We chat about data products, interoperability, and the importance of collaboration and incentive structures within data teams.
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Regular guest Gordon Wong and I chat about what you should think about if you want to work in data. Spoiler - it's probably not what you think.
Shoutout to GoodData and MonteCarlo for sponsoring this episode.
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Imagine writing SQL and getting instant results as you type? Yes, this is reality now. It's amazing!DuckDB/MotherDuck's Instant SQL made a big splash at last month's Data Council. Hamilton Ulmer gives a demo of Instant SQL at the Practical Data Community.----------------------------Instant SQL: https://motherduck.com/blog/introducing-instant-sql/Practical Data Community Discord: https://discord.gg/gNfw5AKWSK
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Gaëlle Seret is a data leader based in France. We chat about how she helps large organizations drive change, especially around data architecture and strategy. We dig into her approach to upskilling teams, why data strategy matters, and how to work through the inevitable organizational challenges that come with transformation. We also discuss the AI in learning and work, and some interesting differences in education between USA and France. Enjoy! 🇫🇷
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Last week I posted about the gulf in the data industry between people in favor and opposed AI. The data industry has an atrocious track record of success over the decades. Shall we keep repeating the same mistakes with AI?
I think AI denialism is holding back and AI has the potential to help us correct a lot of the sins of the past, namely quick delivery of value. Whether we get there is another question...
Thanks to dbt, GoodData, and Ellie.ai for sponsoring this podcast.
dbt: https://www.getdbt.com
GoodData: https://www.gooddata.com
Ellie.ai: https://www.ellie.ai
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Ryan Russon is an ML Engineer. He stopped by my house for a practical and grounded chat about ML and AI. Enjoy!
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Join dbt Labs May 28 for the dbt Launch Showcase to hear from executives and product leaders about the latest features landing in dbt. See firsthand how features will empower data practitioners and organizations in the age of AI.
Thanks to dat Labs for sponsoring this episode.
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Some people speculate that AI will make software and data engineers obsolete. If the only thing engineers do is write code, sure.
But we do a lot more than that, and I believe we'll actually need more engineers, not fewer.
In this episode, I discuss how I think AI will change the craft of software and data engineering. Spoiler - I think it will make it way more fun and productive.
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Thanks to dbt and GoodData for sponsoring this episode. Please support them, as they're awesome.
dbt Launch Showcase
Join dbt Labs May 28 for the dbt Launch Showcase to hear from executives and product leaders about the latest features landing in dbt. See firsthand how features will empower data practitioners and organizations in the age of AI.
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GoodData Webinar
Analytics and data engineering used to live in separate worlds—different teams, different tools, different goals. But the lines are blurring fast. As modern data products demand speed, scale, and seamless integration, the best teams are embracing engineering principles and best practices.
In this no-BS conversation, Ryan Dolley, Matt Housley, and Joe Reis, dive into how engineering principles are transforming the way analytics is built, delivered, and scaled.
📆 May 27, 2025🕘 9:00 AM PDT, 12:00 PM EDT, 6:00 PM CEST🔗 Register here!
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Laura McDonald is an enterprise account executive, and she walks me through navigating the complex world of enterprise sales. We chat about the sales cycle, the importance of building relationships, the challenges of navigating long complicated procurement processes, and much more. Whether you're a sales rookie, an experienced salesperson, a founder, or just interested in sales, you'll learn something new from this conversation.
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I've spoken all over the world, at the biggest events, the most intimately small, and everywhere in between. In this Practical Data Community lunch and learn, I share some experiences with public speaking, give some advice on getting your first public speaking gig, how to prepare, preparing talks, dealing with stage fright, getting paid, and much more. Enjoy!
From the Practical Data Lunch and Learn, May 9, 2025
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