Joe Reis

The Joe Reis Show

I’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.

Website

22 September 2026

The Past, Present, and Future of DuckDB, DuckLabs, and More w/ Hannes Mühleisen

Hannes Mühleisen (co-creator of DuckDB) joins me to chat about the past, present, and future of DuckDB, Ducklabs (recently acquired by AWS), and more.Note - parts edited due to AWS's request.

18 September 2026

Designing the AI-Driven Data Foundations: Architecture, Principles, and Practice w/ Sanjeev Mohan

Former Gartner VP Analyst and principal at SanjMo, Sanjeev Mohan, joins me to break down the reality of AI adoption, data foundations, and why enterprises are hitting roadblocks with agents and LLMs. From comparing the current AI boom to the dot-com era to unpacking his new concept, ECL (Extract, Context, Link), Sanjeev explains why moving data around is no longer viable and why "there is no AI...

18 September 2026

Why Write Books?

This week at dbt Summit, Tristan Handy (co-founder of dbt) asked me why I write books. It's a good question, especially today when reading is declining and any answer is seemingly at your fingertips.In this Freestyle Friday, I discuss why I write books, why they still matter, and much more. If you're interested in writing a book, this episode is definitely a must-listen.

11 September 2026

Nobody Knows...

I talk to executives and practitioners around the world about AI and what comes next. Everyone has predictions and pontifications, and everyone seems to think someone else has the answers. But the more conversations I have, the clearer it gets that nobody knows what's next. In this episode, I explore that uncertainty and how we move forward anyway.Because in the end, nobody knows...

10 September 2026

Why AI Agents Will Break Modern Data Engineering (And How to Fix It) w/ Christophe Blefari (Nao)

In this episode of The Joe Reis Show, I catch up with my good friend Christophe Blefari, co-founder of NAO, to dig into what's actually happening on the front lines of AI agents and data engineering. We talk about the evolution from building SQL IDEs to agentic analytics harnesses, how prompt-driven workflows are reshaping data teams, and why age-old problems like data discovery, modeling, and...

08 September 2026

The Return of Conceptual Data Modeling w/ Sami Hero (CEO of Ellie.ai)

In this episode, I sit down with Sami Hero, CEO of Ellie.ai, to talk through the evolution of data modeling and why foundational conceptual modeling is more critical now than ever. With the explosion of AI agents, LLMs, and semantic layers, many teams assume they can bypass data modeling and just let an AI infer meaning directly from raw tables. We dig into why that mindset leads to bad...

04 September 2026

Agents, Self-Service BI Redux, and "Death of Data Teams"

AI agents are being pitched as the “death of the data team,” with CEOs supposedly able to do the work themselves. We’ve heard versions of this promise before, from self-service BI to low-code analytics.In this episode, I revisit that history and ask what agents actually change. Who prepares the data, resolves conflicting definitions, and checks the answers? What does the hiring research tell us...

01 September 2026

Bringing Distributed Compute & AI to the Edge w/ David Aronchick (CEO of Expanso)

In this episode of the Joe Reis Show, I sit down with David Aronchick, co-founder of Expanso and one of the early pioneers behind Kubernetes, Kubeflow, and the CNCF. We dive deep into the evolving data landscape and discuss why the architectural pendulum is swinging back from pure cloud centralization toward distributed edge compute. David breaks down the real operational nightmares of edge data...

28 August 2026

Are You Still Hands-On?

I get asked all the time whether I’m still “hands-on.” The short answer: not in the traditional sense. My work has shifted toward writing, teaching, advising, investing, building companies, and working with the people building what comes next. In this episode, I argue that technical relevance isn’t about staying trapped in the same operating mode forever, and that AI is drastically changing what...

27 August 2026

Building with AI, DuckDB + RDF, and the Semantic Future w/ Dan Bennett (Head of Tech @ S&P Global)

On this episode of The Joe Reis Show, I’m joined by Dan Bennett, Head of Technology for the Enterprise Data Organization at S&P Global.We get into what it actually looks like to build with modern AI coding tools like Claude Code. Not just as a toy, but for writing production-grade C++. Dan walks through how he built an open-source RDF extension for DuckDB, why rock-solid test coverage is...