The Simple Talk Podcast

Ed Pollack (Microsoft Data Platform MVP and community champion) sat down with Steve Jones at PASS Summit 2025 to discuss many topics including: Why change is good - but keeping on top of the fundamentals is still important Data modeling Recommended software/products to use SQL Server 2025, which was just launched into General Availability at the time of recording The process of testing & best practices The importance of community, and how to bring people together Running a marathon Plus, find out what Ed's baking specialism is – and try it for yourself at the Capital Area SQL Server User Group event in Albany, NY! Event information: https://www.meetup.com/capital-area-sql-server-user-group/ Ed's Simple Talk profile: https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/author/ed7alum-rpi-edu/ Ed's MVP profile: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-US/mvp/profile/c7dc42d5-ff3e-ed11-bba3-000d3a197333 Ed on Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/edward-pollack/  

Steve chats with John Sterrett, CEO of ProcureSQL, about his true love for data from a young age, how SQL Saturday and community events inspired him to start his own company, ProcureSQL's use of AI to provide more value, and the impacts of work on relationships - plus much more! ProcureSQL: https://procuresql.com/  John's website: https://johnsterrett.com/  Marriage Masterpeace: https://marriagemasterpeace.com/  Check out more Simple Talk podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

Steve sits down with Lee Brownhill, who by day helps clients optimize their SQL workloads in Azure and AWS at Cloud Rede, but is also a Redgate Ambassador, blogger and aspiring speaker. Lee talks about his interest in giving back to the SQL Server community through writing and speaking, having taken inspiration from others online and in-person at events, and naturally the conversation also touches upon AI, the cloud, and more. Lee's website: https://www.leebrownhill.com/  Check out more Simple Talk podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

Join Redgate Advocates Steve, Kellyn & Grant as they seek to answer the question: who owns the database? Hear everything from stories of being on-call 24/7 as a DBA and why it's not sustainable, to how the cloud is changing things today.  Ultimately, the answer looks different everywhere. Tell us how it plays out in your world by joining the 2026 State of the Database Landscape Survey and be in with a chance to win new SQL Prompt with AI features: https://rd.gt/4pBCh9d  Check out more Simple Talk podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

Steve Jones is at Redgate's Cambridge, UK headquarters once again, this time joined by Tom Hodgson, Innovation Lead on Redgate's Foundry team. Tom gives an overview of The Foundry, which is Redgate's innovation hub, offering some insight on what they do and what they're working on (spoiler: it involves AI)! Also, hear Tom's thoughts on AI & LLMs in general – including why sometimes just the basic version of a model is enough. Redgate Foundry: https://foundry.red-gate.com/  Check out more Simple Talk podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

Steve Jones sits down for a chat with Jeff Foster, Redgate's Director of Technology & Innovation, at the company's Cambridge, UK headquarters. The main subject covered is hugely topical – AI – with Jeff explaining how he feels about AI today and how it might impact us, and our jobs, in the future. You'll also learn a bit more about Jeff's background and Redgate's ways of working.  Jeff's recommended read is 'The Unaccountability Machine' by Dan Davies.  Check out more Simple Talk podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

To kick off Season 3, host Steve Jones is joined by Mike Bowers, Chief Architect at data technology company FairCom. The conversation includes an overview of Mike's background, the work he does at FairCom, plenty of SQL talk, and advice on getting into the industry.  FairCom: https://www.faircom.com/  Check out more Simple Talks podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9

Steve, Kellyn and Ryan sit down to discuss searching for a job in 2025. It was Ryan's last show that he recorded with the advocates before changing jobs which, interestingly enough, was not why the subject was chosen. Ryan Booz: https://www.softwareandbooz.com/ Steve Jones: https://voiceofthedba.com/ Kellyn Gorman: https://dbakevlar.com/ Check out more Simple Talks podcast episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9

Carlos Chacon of Marathon Consulting joins Louis for a lively chat about topics far and wide, from the community and podcasts to security and laundromats. Carlos has his own longstanding podcast and, as they came to the end of the interview, he turned the tables on Louis and made him answer some of his own questions too! SQL Data Partners: https://marathonus.com/about/podcast/  Follow Carlos on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carloslchacon/  Aaron Bertrand Podcast: https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/podcasts/coffee-chat-with-aaron-bertrand/  2025 State of the Database Landscape: www.red-gate.com/solutions/state-of-database-landscape/2025/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mc-202501-t1-navigating-the-database-landscape-in-2025-report-gc-all  PostgreSQL Book: https://rd.gt/3EsLdef  Robert Treat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtreat/  Check out other Simple Talks episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

In this special solo episode, host Louis Davidson stays 'full screen' for the entire show and answers the very questions he asks of others! Where it all started, what tech he loves, the one obvious thing he loves to do outside of working with databases (which has been mentioned before)...it's all covered here! Check out other Simple Talks episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9  Download Redgate's 2025 State of the Database Landscape report at www.red-gate.com/solutions/state-of-database-landscape/2025/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mc-202501-t1-navigating-the-database-landscape-in-2025-report-gc-all  Find Louis on: X: https://x.com/drsql  Web: https://drsql.org  Visit Simple Talk at https://www.simple-talk.com 

The Redgate Advocates (Kellyn Gorman, Ryan Booz, Steve Jones, and Grant Fritchey) sat down at the PASS Summit last year and spent some time telling how they went from working directly in tech, to helping others work with tech - both inside and outside of Redgate and their products. Check out other Simple Talks episodes at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9  Connect with the hosts:  Kellyn Gorman Web: https://dbakevlar.com  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/dbakevlar.bsky.social   Grant Fritchey Web: https://scarydba.com  X: https://x.com/GFritchey   Steve Jones X: https://x.com/Way0utwest  Web: https://voiceofthedba.com/  Ryan Booz  X: https://x.com/ryanbooz   Web: https://www.softwareandbooz.com/  

In this Coffee Chat episode, Louis sits down with Redgate Advocate Kellyn Gorman. Kellyn tells her origin story of becoming a leader in the data community, which is as inspiring as it is interesting, and the conversation also covers security (and the inherent trust issues data professionals have!), fact-checking ourselves, aging DBAs, Lego obsession, and Raspberry Pi.  Also, ever wondered why Kellyn's social media handle is dbakevlar? Listen in to find out!  Kellyn's website: https://dbakevlar.com  Kellyn's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dbakevlar.bsky.social  Check out other episodes of Simple Talks, including the Coffee Chats with Scott Stauffer and Erik Darling mentioned in this episode, at https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

In this episode of Simple Talks, Louis, Steve, Kellyn and Grant get together to discuss the recently released State of the Database Landscape Report 2025, delving into topics around security, professional development and AI.  Download the full report here: https://www.red-gate.com/solutions/state-of-database-landscape/2025/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mc-202501-t1-navigating-the-database-landscape-in-2025-report-gc-all For more Simple Talks, visit https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9  Connect with the hosts:  Kellyn Gorman  Web: https://dbakevlar.com  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/dbakevlar.bsky.social  Grant Fritchey Web: https://scarydba.com X: https://x.com/GFritchey  Steve Jones  X: https://x.com/Way0utwest Web: https://voiceofthedba.com/ Louis Davidson  X: https://x.com/drsql  Web: https://drsql.org 

This week's show is with "definitely not a folk music artist" Erik (with a k) Darling from Darling Data. Erik weaves a tale of a decidedly non-data focused start to his career, solving the same problems over and over, spicy foods, family life, all while dropping some great names along the way.   https://sqlsaturday.com/2025-05-10-sqlsaturday1105/ X: @erikdarlingdata YouTube: ErikDarlingData Web: ErikDarling.com  LinkedIn: darling-data TikTok: @darling.data   Redgate's 2025 State of the Database Landscape report: https://www.red-gate.com/solutions/state-of-database-landscape/2025/ For more Simple Talks episodes, visit https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

In this week's podcast, we are doing our very first "special episode". Two of the Redgate Advocates (Ryan Booz and Grant Fritchey) have written a book on PostgreSQL titled "Introduction to PostgreSQL for the data professional". So Louis sat down with them and asked them about the book, the process of creating it, and much more.  For more about the book, visit https://rd.gt/3EsLdef   More on the authors:  Ryan Booz   X: https://x.com/ryanbooz    Web: https://www.softwareandbooz.com/   Grant Fritchey:   X: https://x.com/GFritchey    Web: https://www.scarydba.com/  For more podcast episodes visit https://rd.gt/3TJocZ9 

It is the start of season 2, and we are kicking it off with Scott Stauffer talking about coffee, video games, the glorious innovation of technology over our years, guide dogs, AI, and so much more. Without giving away too much, in the show there is a discussion about guide dogs. This part of the recording went on too long, so it was cut for the main show, but as our first Simple Talks Extra, if you want to see a more complete version of this section, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BiQamHg8Go, and see our entire discussion on the topic! Scott can be followed or contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/scottstauffer/ Guide dog organization mentioned: https://bcandalbertaguidedogs.com/ SQL Bits presentation (Service Dogs in the Cabin - Web Scraping Puppy Data with Microsoft Fabric): https://sqlbits.com/sessions/event2024/Service_Dogs_in_the_Cabin-Web_Scraping_Puppy_Data_with_Microsoft_Fabric-1st_Leg https://sqlbits.com/sessions/event2024/Service_Dogs_in_the_Cabin-Web_Scraping_Puppy_Data_with_Microsoft_Fabric-2nd_Leg

Today, all the hosts (Louis Davidson, Ryan Booz, Kellyn Gorman, Steve Jones, and Grant Fritchey) get together for a festive adjacent discussion about AI, content, books, community, vector, PIVOTing, observability, and we end up with a brief discussion on gluten-free gingerbread men (because we did!) All this, though absolutely none of us broke into song like a Hope/Crosby musical!  For more episodes of Simple Talks, visit www.simple-talk.com/podcasts  Check out Simple Talk at www.simple-talk.com 

In this coffee chat episode of Simple Talks, Louis spends nearly an hour chatting with SQL Server community champion Mala Mahadevan. Learn how Mala got into computing despite her passion for horticulture, her favorite thing about working in technology, and a love for national parks. And stick around to the end where Mala and Louis share their frustrations about a SQL Server feature they both love but really want to see enhanced, so it will be a great feature worthy of use by everyone, everywhere.  You can find Mala online on:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mamahadevan/  Website: https://curiousaboutdata.com/  For more episodes of Simple Talks, visit www.simple-talk.com/podcasts  Check out Simple Talk at www.simple-talk.com  

In this Advochats episode of Simple Talks, we welcome a new Advocate to the podcast - Kellyn Gorman! And since Kellyn is the Oracle Advocate, this week's show focuses on how Oracle differs from other data platforms that the advocates have used.  More episodes of Simple Talks can be found at: https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/podcasts/  Check out Simple Talk at: www.simple-talk.com 

On this episode of Simple Talks, Louis hangs out with Aaron Bertrand and talks hockey, curling, football, hybrid cars and even some technology. One of the big (non-sports) themes of the episode is that Aaron is a problem-solver and is interested in how issues can be overcome with technology - even if his focus now and in the conceivable future is being a top-level expert with some of the aspects of SQL Server.