The Joe Reis Show

Michael Drogalis - Building a Company in Public

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Drogalis joins me to chat about building his company - Shadow Traffic - in public. We discuss sales, the psychological toll of rejection, the ...

John Giles - The Data Elephant in the Board Room, Data Modeling, and More

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Giles joins me to discuss his new book, "The Data Elephant in the Board Room," conceptual modeling, the unreasonable effectiveness of data modeli...

Zhamak Dehghani - Autonomous Data Products, Data Mesh, and NextData - Q&A

03 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Zhamak Dehghani joins the Practical Data Community for an open-ended Q&A about autonomous data products, Data Mesh, NextData and much more.NextDat...

Freestyle Friday - Advice for 2025 Graduates

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I've recently spoken to several groups of students (undergrad and graduate) about the data industry, career advice, and more. Here, I distill some...

Jessica Talisman - Libraries, Knowledge, Shitty Tech Jobs, and More

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Talisman and I hang out at my home and chat about libraries, data, ontologies, knowledge, shitty tech jobs, and much more.

Sarah McKenna - Web Scraping Explained

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah McKenna joins me to chat about all things web scraping. We discuss its applications, the evolution of alternative data, and AI's impact on the i...

Freestyle Fridays - "I Don't Need to Learn Anything Anymore"

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I recently overheard someone say, "I Don't Need to Learn Anything Anymore" because AI would do all of this person's work. This got me thinking about t...

Juan Sequeda & Jesus Barrasa - Unlocking Knowledge with Graphs

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Juan Sequeda and Jesus Barrasa are among the top experts on graphs in the world. In this episode, we chat about the definitions of semantics, ontologi...

Freestyle Fridays - Wartime Data Teams

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Data teams have had a rough few years. Lots of layoffs and cuts, doing more work with fewer resources, and a general sense of malaise. On top of all o...

Tim Berglund - The Art of Developer Relations, Hardware Hacking, and More

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Berglund is the OG of DevRel. We chat about the art and craft of developer relations, hacking on hardware, and much more.

Freestyle Fridays - Coding is Fun (Again)

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Just wrapped up a whirlwind tour, giving a workshop in Atlanta and then attending Google Cloud Next. B2b nonstop action, and I'm glad to home for ...

Juhani Vanhatapio - From the Arctic Circle to AI

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Juhani Vanhatapio lives in Finland at the Arctic Circle and is studying data engineering and machine learning. Juhani shares stories about life in the...

Freestyle Fridays - Random Rants

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I'm heads down with some work right now, but here are some random rants on workshops, the tariff chaos, and more.

Vin Vashishta - The Challenges of Implementing AI in Business

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vin Vashishta and I chat about the current state of AI in business, the challenges of implementation, the pervasive hype surrounding AI technologies, ...

Vinoth Chandar - The Future of Open Data Lakehouses

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vinoth Chandar (CEO at Onehouse and creator of Apache Hudi) and I chat about the creation of Apache Hudi, the future of open data lakehouses, and much...

Freestyle Fridays - Shifting Left AND Right. The Data Engineering Lifecycle in 2025. What's Changed?

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

People often ask me what I'd change in Fundamentals of Data Engineering. Usually, I reply "not much", as the the Data Engineering Lifecycle still rema...

Vaibhav Gupta - BAML and AI-First Tools

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vaibhav Gupta and I chat about our shared love for tacos in Austin, the evolution of AI tools, and why new thinking and approaches are required for AI...

Mark Freeman - Shifting Left in Data, Startup Rocket Ships, and More

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Freeman joins me to chat about data contracts, the crazy life of being the first employee at a hot startup, writing books and creating content, a...

Freestyle Fridays - Figuring Out Your Next Move

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I get a ton of questions from people about what their next career move should be. Given the increased turbulence in the job market and how companies a...

Willis Nana - Navigating Data Engineering Leadership, YouTube, and more

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Willis Nana and I chat about the challenges of data engineering leadership, foundational skills, and his journey to a content creator on YouTube.#data...

Salma Bakouk - Data Observability, the Balance of Running a Startup, and More

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Salma Bakouk (CEO of Sifflet) and I discuss the evolving data and AI landscape, the rise of data observability in the age of AI, balancing personal an...

Freestyle Fridays - Public Speaking Tips w/ Jordan Morrow

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan Morrow and I have a lot of experience with public speaking. We get a lot of questions about tips for public speaking. In this episode, we chat ...

Simon Späti - The Art of Writing about Data Engineering

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Simon Späti and I discuss various aspects of writing, data engineering, and the impact of AI on the writing process. Simon shares his journey from bu...

Todd Beauchene - The Early Days at Snowflake, Modern Data Platforms, and More

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Todd Beauchene joins me to chat about being an early employee at a tiny startup called Snowflake, modern data platforms, and much more.

Freestyle Friday - How I Use AI for Writing

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I explain how I use (and don't use) AI for writing.

Matthew Kelliher-Gibson - The Data Cynic

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Data Cynic, aka, Matthew Kelliher-Gibson, and I chat about all things cynical about the data field, working in Dilbert-land, negotiation for data ...

Carly Taylor - The True Cost of Replacing Engineers with AI

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

My semi-regular co-host and bestie Carly Taylor joins me once again. This time we chat about the true cost of replacing engineers with AI. We explore ...

Freestyle Fridays - The Cult of Scrum, or Why Not Everything Needs to be a Sprint

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It seems like quite a few data practitioners I talk with are miserable. Forced to deliver things ever faster, there's not enough time to THINK. In...

John Thompson - The Path to AGI, Writing Books, and More

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Thompson joins me to chat about his upcoming book, The Path to AGI, his book writing process, and much more.John Thompson LinkedIn: https://www.l...

Freestyle Friday - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch of AI Data Slop

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Things aren't great in the world of data practitioners. Lots of technical debt and lack of pride in one's craft. The pressure to do more with ...

Eric Broda on AI Agents, Consulting Disruption, and the Future of Work

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join Eric Broda and me for a fascinating discussion on the cutting edge of AI! We chat about the rapidly evolving world of AI agent ecosystems, explor...

Hugo Bowne-Anderson - Exploring the Future of AI and Automation

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hugo Bowne-Anderson and I chat about the future of AI and automation, agents, and much more.

Ghalib Suleiman & Kevin Connolly - Data Team "What Ifs"

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ghalib Suleiman, Kevin Connolly, and I have all run data teams. In this episode, we chat about a bunch of data team "what ifs" - running a d...

Anne-Claire Baschet & Yoann Benoit - Unifying AI and Product Development

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With AI becoming engrained in nearly every product, there's still a BIG problem - AI and product teams have trouble working together. Whether it&#...

David Jayatillake - Semantic Layers, Proving Value in Data Work, and More

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David Jayatillake joins me to chat about semantic layers, assessing value in data work, AI, and much more.David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/i...

Freestyle Fridays - Old School vs. New School Data Modeling

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In data modeling - and pretty much anything else - do you choose "old school" or "new school"? In other words, do you move slow an...

Evan Wimpey - On Being a Data Comedian, a Bayesian, and Other Priors

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Evan Wimpey joins me to chat about working as a professional comedian, some Bayesian jokes, and other stuff that happened before ;)

Data Day Texas Recap w/ Tony Baer, Matt Housley, and Juan Sequeda

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tony Baer, Matt Housley, and Juan Sequeda and I recap our thoughts on Data Day Texas 2025.

Freestyle Fridays - Unhinged Rants w/ Carly Taylor

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

My "twin" Carly Taylor joins me to chat about careers, why Big Tech and Ivy League schools are overrated, and much more. Carly's Substack: https://ca...

Remco Broekmans - Data Modeling, Data Vault, and More

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Remco Broekmans and I chat about data modeling and the business, Data Vault, and using AI to accelerate data modeling.

Freestyle Fridays - Bridge Skills w/ Eevamaija Virtanen

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's Friday and Eevamaija Virtanen and I are hanging out at Data Day Texas in Austin. In this episode, we chat about her upcoming talk, "Br...

Chip Huyen - AI Engineering, Agents, and More

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chip Huyen joins me to chat about AI Engineering, AI Agents, and much more.

Jamie Davidson - Modern Data Modeling

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jamie Davidson (Chief Product Officer at Omni, Former VP of Product at Looker) joins me to chat about "modern" data modeling, going from a startup to ...

Carly Taylor & Ghalib Suleiman - Dealing with Burnout

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Burnout is a big topic right now. Carly Taylor and Ghalib Suleiman join me to chat about burnout and ways to deal with it.

Sarah Levy - Modern Data Governance for Analytics

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Levy (CEO of Euno) joins me to chat about modern data governance for analytics. Euno - https://euno.ai/

Carsten Bange - Trends in Data, Analytics, and AI

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Carsten Bange (Founder & CEO of BARC) joins me to chat about trends in data, analytics, and AI. BARC website: www.barc.com Carsten on LinkedIn: ...

Freestyle Fridays - Old School BI vs AI BI

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Will AI chatbots replace old school BI dashboards and reports? Or can they co-exist with one another? Will AI help the often poor adoption by the busi...

Dave Colls and David Tan - Effective Machine Learning/AI Teams

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dave Colls and David Tan join me to chat about building effective machine learning teams, the challenges they face, the 7 deadly wastes in data and ML...

Freestyle Fridays - The Year Ahead (Why Data Modeling Matters, AI, Being Human, etc)

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's 2025! We made it! ;) In this podcast, I rant about why data modeling matters more than ever, AI, and why humans will seek out "human" things in ...

Simba Khadder - Feature Stores, Reinforcement Learning, and More

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Simba Khadder (CEO of FeatureForm) joins me to chat about feature stores, reinforcement learning, surfing, and much more.

Gordon Wong - What We're Stoked for in 2025

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's December 31, 2024. Gordon Wong and I wrap up 2024 and chat about what we're excited about in 2025 in data and otherwise. ❤️ If you like my p...

Joe Reis + Matt Housley - End of 2024 Chat, Advice on Consulting, Leaving a Job, AI, and More

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Housley and I have a LONG chat about working in consulting, leaving your job, AI, the job market, our thoughts on what's coming in 2025, and much...

Amr Awadallah - Making AI Work in Enterprise, What Makes Humans Unique, and More

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first time I met Amr Awadallah, he struck me as a rare person genuinely curious about the world and how technology and AI impact it. We discuss ...

Freestyle Fridays - Is Writing Code Still Relevant for the Youth?

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a young gentleman upgrading my Google Fiber. While he was originally pursuing a career as a software ...

Tiankai Feng - Humanizing Data Strategy

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tiankai Feng joins me to chat about the people side of data, aligning on the value of data strategy, and much more.

Do You Really Need That New Data Tool, or is a Spreadsheet Good Enough?

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This morning, a great article came across my feed that gave me PTSD, asking if Iceberg is the Hadoop of the Modern Data Stack? In this rant, I bring...

Holden Karau - Fight Health Insurance

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Health insurance denials are a big topic in America right now. Holden Karau joins me to talk about using AI to appeal health claim insurance denials. ...

Freestyle Fridays - Building a Personal Brand

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve been asked many questions about building a personal brand for the last few weeks. Perhaps it’s the uncertain job market, people wanting to br...

Hannes Muhleisen - DuckDB Deep Dive, The Challenges of Lakehouses, and More

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hannes Muhleisen is the creator of DuckDB and CEO of DuckDB Labs. We finally got a chance to meet in person at the Forward Data Conference in Paris. W...

Dave Yaffe and Johnny Graettinger (Estuary) - Data Integration, Running Startups While Raising Kids, and More

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dave and Johnny run Estuary, a data integration company focused on real-time ETL and ELT. We're also friends, so we decided to have a chat. In this ep...

Gordon Wong - Tech Stacks, Semantic Layers, and More

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Regular guest Gordon Wong joins me for a half hour to chat about tech stacks for analytics, semantic layers, and much more. Gordon's LinkedIn: https:...

Bill Inmon - Data Warehousing Facts and Myths

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Inmon is considered the father of the data warehouse. I just got back from spending a couple of days with Bill, and we discussed the history of t...

Valentin Becerra - Engineering for Space, DJing, and More

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Valentin Becerra and I chat about DJing, AI, space engineering, and much more.

Gwen Shapira - Multi-Tenant Databases Done Right

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Multi-tenancy in databases is very difficult to pull off at scale. Gwen Shapira and I chat about multi-tenant databases at Nile (and elsewhere), AI, R...

The Negative Net Present Value of Consulting

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While at lunch with a friend today, the question came up of whether he should invest his time into content (videos and courses) or consulting. Having ...

Ole Olesen-Bagneux - The Meta Grid (sneak peak)

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What if the world's metadata were interconnected in a decentralized way? This is part of the vision of Ole Olesen-Bagneux's Meta Grid. We have a chat ...

Freestyle Fridays - The Skills Gap in Data

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We've got so many awesome tools and technology, but I often don't think we know how to properly use them. In this episode, I discuss what I think is o...

Albert Bellamy - Getting Your Job in Data

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Albert and I discuss the do's and don't of finding a job in the data field. Do you do a portfolio project? What's the market like these days? This and...

Tanya Bragin - Clickhouse, Open Source vs Commercial, and More

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tanya Bragin and I have a wide-ranging chat about the tension of open source and commercial products, Clickhouse, aligning marketing and product, and ...

Freestyle Fridays - Obscurity is Your Enemy

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People often ask me for career advice. In a tough job market where people are sending out thousands of resumes and hearing nothing back, I notice a lo...

Chris Riccomini - Building (and Writing About) Data Intensive Applications

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Riccomini and I chat about building his latest project SlateDB, building data intensive infrastructure, writing, investing, and much more.

Beers and Data with Friends in Helsinki, Finland

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I have a chat with Antti Rask, Juha Korpella, Niko Korvenlaita, Russell Willis, and Kosti Hokkanen. We chat about data, startups, and...

5 Minute Friday - The Quality Paradox

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Let's do things the right way, not just the fast way. My works: 📕Fundamentals of Data Engineering: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/fundament...

5 Minute Friday - Asking Good Questions at Conferences

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I speak at a lot of conferences, and I've lost track of how many questions I've answered. Since conferences are top of mind for me right now, here are...

Wes McKinney

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Wes McKinney and I chat about Positron, Arrow, how he created Pandas and Arrow, and what makes him tick.

5 Minute Friday - Is AI a Hail Mary for Tech Debt?

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I've seen a TON of horror stories with tech debt and code migrations. It's estimated that 15% to 60% of every dollar in IT spend goes toward tech debt...

Anne-Claire Baschet and Yoann Benoit - The Data Death Cycle

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anne-Claire Baschet and Yoann Benoit recently wrote a wonderful article called The Data Death Cycle, which describes the feedback loop of doom that ma...

Larry Burns - Reimagining How Data Teams Can Add Value

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Larry Burns and I chat about all things data teams—how they fail, their challenges, and how they can add value. To add value, we need to reimagine n...

5 Minute Friday - Speaking at Conferences

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week I posted about how some major conferences charge a bunch of money for tickets and sponsorship, but don't pay speakers. As a speaker, I find ...

Vijay Yadav - GenAI-Ready Data

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vijay Yadav (Director of Data Science at Merck) joins me to chat about a very interesting project he launched at Merck involving LLMs in production. A...

5 Minute Friday - Playing Not to Lose

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In my newsletter last week, I wrote "Data’s still a mess. Most data initiatives fail. Data teams are seen as a cost center and not getting the suppo...

Navnit Shukla - Data Wrangling and Architecting Solutions on AWS, Writing Books, and More

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Navnit Shukla is a solutions architect with AWS. He joins me to chat about data wrangling and architecting solutions on AWS, writing books, and much m...

5 Minute Friday - Field Notes, Early Fall 2024 Edition

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I've spent the last three weeks visiting the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Here are my observations and anecdotes about the data and ML/AI industry ...

Ilya Reznik - How to Lead New and Existing ML Teams and More

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ilya Reznik has been in the ML game for ages, having worked at Adobe and Twitter and led teams at Meta, among others. We chat about leading ML teams,...

5 Minute Friday - Boring is Good

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As I travel this Fall, I'm reminded that most people don't work at fancy tech companies. Most people work at traditional companies with "...

Jordan Morrow - How to Write Amazing Books

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan Morrow has written a ton, including four books. We chat about the process of writing books, the ins and outs of working with a publisher, the r...

Venkat Subramaniam - Moving Beyond Agile as a Buzzword, Learning to do Less, and more

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Venkat Subramaniam is a programmer, author, speaker, and founder of Agile Developer, Inc. I've seen him speak several times, and was always blown ...

5 Minute Friday - Uncle Rico

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Uncle Rico is a character in the movie Napoleon Dynamite, who is stuck in the past, reminiscing about his days as a high school football star. If only...

Paco Nathan - Hacker Culture, Cyberpunk, AI, and More

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Paco Nathan is a national treasure. He's not only an OG in the field of AI, but he's also instrumental in early hacker and cyberpunk culture. ...

Bethany Lyons - Disrupting the Recruitment Industry, Startups, and the Future of Work

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bethany Lyons and I chat about disrupting the recruitment industry, startups, and the future of work.

5 Minute Friday - How Good Does AI Have To Be To Do Your Job?

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last week I talked about how good you have to be at your job. Yesterday's OpenAI announcement of it's "reasoning" model, o1, got me ...

Ergest Xheblati - Things That Don't Change

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ergest Xheblati is a data architect and author of Minimum Viable SQL Patterns. We chat about the opportunities and challenges of SQL, things that don&...

Dylan Anderson - Bridging the Gap Between Data and Strategy

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dylan Anderson is a UK-based data strategist. We chat about bridging the gap between data and strategy, why talking about business value is a waste of...

5 Minute Friday - How Good Do You Have To Be At Your Job?

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While speaking to one of my best friends, who's worked as a pilot for over 30 years, he mentioned that a "good" pilot doesn't crash ...

Jordan Tigani - Why Small Data is Awesome, DuckDB, and More

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan Tigani is back to chat about why small data is awesome, data lakehouses, DuckDB, AI, and much more. Motherduck: https://motherduck.com/ Linked...

Demetrios Brinkmann - AI Hype vs Reality, Building a Global Community, and More

03 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Demetrios Brinkmann is the co-founder of the massively global MLOps Community. We chat about AI hype vs reality, building a global tech community, and...

5 Minute Friday - Zero-Sum vs Positive Sum Games

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"Do you and Zach Wilson hate each other?" I get asked questions like this, and it makes me laugh. We're good friends for the record. Mo...

Vinoo Ganesh - Strong Open Source Communities

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vinoo Ganesh is an open source enthusiast and contributor, and a data and ML engineer. We chat about strong open source communities, LLMs and AI, and ...

Lekhana Reddy - Building Technology Mindfully

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lekhana Reddy is a data content creator focusing on mindfulness. We chat about how mindfulness in technology is key, especially given the need to main...

Nik Suresh Will F*cking Piledrive You If You Say AI Again

24 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Until recently, Nik Suresh wrote under a mysterious blog that had several viral posts, including the famous "I Will F*cking Piledrive You If You ...