Stay ConnectedI’m Joe Reis, co-author of Fundamentals of Data Engineering, creator of Mixed Model Arts, international speaker, and long-time observer of the tech industry’s favorite recurring mistakes.
Weekly broadcasts from somewhere on the road. Expect raw solo rants and long-form conversations with the engineers and leaders actually building things. I dive into data, AI, architecture, and career survival.
This podcast is invitation-only. Unsolicited guest pitches and PR outreach are not considered.
Copyright: © Joe Reis
Wes McKinney returns to talk about his complete reversal from AI skepticism to being fully locked in on coding agents, why he thinks Go has become the best language for AI agents, and how he's building his own local data sovereignty tools.
In this Freestyle Friday episode, I catch up with Eric Weber after our recent walk through downtown San Francisco. We dive deep into the very real fear and identity crises sweeping through the tech industry as AI accelerates. We discuss how packing a year of change into a single week is disorienting workers and how the constant hustle culture in SF might finally be hitting its threshold.
We also get into the darker side of this shift, including the "reverse centaur" effect where humans are reduced to parts of a machine. Are white-collar engineers about to face the Amazon warehouse treatment through token consumption leaderboards? Eric also shares why he took a step back from leadership, his focus on writing, and the importance of genuine human connection right now.
Eric Weber: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericweberdata/
I recently sat down with Amit Prakash, the brilliant mind who co-founded ThoughtSpot and led AI teams at Google and Microsoft, to talk about a massive shift happening in the data world.For decades, we’ve been forcing the "messy reality" of business into rigid database tables, losing about 90% of the actual information in the process.Amit is now building Ampup to flip that script. We dive deep into how he’s using dynamic ontologies to extract high-fidelity insights from unstructured data, like the nuances of a 60-minute sales call—to drive massive ROI.In this episode, we explore:- The "SaaSpocalypse" and the Future of Agents: Why the early stages of the sales cycle might soon be a "dance" between AI buying and selling agents.- Sales as Athletics: Why high-stakes negotiation is more like football than a desk job.- The "Business Brain": Moving beyond simple CRMs to a central strategy engine that understands every department’s unstructured data.- Human-to-Human Trust: Why large contracts will always require a human touch, even in an AI-saturated world.- Amit’s perspective on how AI can deliver real value to the GDP by fixing the "distribution bottleneck" of innovation is a must-listen for anyone in tech, data, or leadership.
In this episode, I sit down with Chris Gambill, a data strategy and engineering leader, fractional consultant, and career coach. We dive into the realities of the data engineering job market in 2026, exploring what it takes to stand out, the massive shift AI coding tools are causing, and why mastering the fundamentals of data engineering remains crucial.
Chris shares his unfiltered thoughts on coaching career switchers into data engineering , why finance professionals make great data engineers , and the exact resume and portfolio strategies hiring managers are actually looking for. We also get into the weeds on the latest AI development tools, comparing GitHub Copilot, Claude, and Codex.
If you're looking for solid, no BS advice on the field of data engineering in 2026, this is a great discussion!
Gambill Data Engineering: https://www.gambilldataengineering.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/databasemanagement/
In this episode, I sit down with Gowtham Chilakapati, an analytics veteran of 18 years and Executive Director at Humana , to pull back the curtain on the reality of Agentic AI in the enterprise.We dive deep into the recent wave of tech layoffs—like the news of Block cutting 40% of its workforce —and debate whether AI is truly driving these decisions or simply serving as a convenient excuse for broader management failures.Gowtham shares his firsthand experience navigating an astounding $1 billion AI investment during the early adopter rush of 2024. He details the chaotic first six months of that initiative and the multi-dimensional framework his team developed to measure true return on investment beyond the traditional, and often flawed, software implementation mindset. From the massive risks of pasting PII into LLMs to how AI prototyping is finally bridging the historic gap between product and engineering teams, this conversation is a masterclass in pragmatism for anyone looking to cut through the AI hype, especially in highly regulated industries.
The new Practical Data Community Pulse Survey for March 2026 just came out, and I unveiled some of the findings at yesterday's Undercurrent event in San Francisco.
The short version is: AI is here to stay. Everyone's using it, but the hard parts we've always dealt with as an industry still remain unresolved. Listen and find out why.
In this episode, I sit down with Jake Ward, founder of the Application Developers Alliance. We dig into the AI "Frankenact," aka the EU AI Act, and why policymakers regulating tech they fundamentally misunderstand creates a cold wind for software innovation.Jake drops some harsh truths about why giving developers a voice in Washington is harder than it looks, why collective bargaining and developer unions probably won't work, and how bad policy is forcing companies to build for compliance rather than ship great products.
The data job market is evolving, but it's still there. In this episode, I give my thoughts on the data job market, ways to navigate it, going solo and having a Plan B, and more.
In this episode, I sit down with Demetrios Brinkmann (godfather of the MLOps Community) to talk about the absolute Wild West of AI right now.
We cover how fast coding agents are changing the game, the reality of "vibe coding" your own CRM , and how Demetrios's community saved $20,000 just by ditching bloated enterprise tools.
But we don't just talk tech. We get into the weeds on the content creation pipeline, from the bizarre rise of AI OnlyFans to the "Doorman Paradox" of automated content. Finally, we spill some serious inside baseball on the tech sponsorship game, calling out the sheer audacity of heavily-funded startups expecting free labor from communities , and why protecting your reputation is worth more than any quick paycheck.
In this episode, Matt Housley and I reunite for a Friday catch-up, bringing back some of that classic Monday Morning Data Chat energy. We dive into the absurdity of the "buzzword industrial complex," and why declaring it the "Year of Context" is mostly just industry hype, per usual.
We also tackle the chaotic reality of deploying AI agents (including the ultimate YOLO, OpenClaw) without proper data governance, the Anthropic class action lawsuit regarding copyright, and why regional conferences like DataTune are awesome. Finally, we discuss the shifting landscape of media, the death of traditional book publishing models, and the rise of the independent, niche creator.
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