A weekly podcast about all things PostgreSQL
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Nov 13, 2026 · 38:42
Tip: watch on YouTube. Since episode 193, the video shows charts and illustrations as we talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAdhpYewLZ8 Nik and Kirk discuss the hidden costs…
Nov 6, 2026 · 1:08:38
Tip: watch on YouTube. Since episode 193, the video shows charts and illustrations as we talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oeAAqU00zk Nik and Kirk are joined by Álvaro…
Oct 30, 2026 · 48:07
Tip: watch on YouTube. Since episode 193, the video shows charts and illustrations as we talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf8e3JkQ_8M Nik is joined by Kirk Wolak to discuss…
Oct 23, 2026 · 50:52
Nik is joined by Kirk Wolak, Software Architect at KiraSoft, to discuss what a database still needs after pg_restore finishes and before it takes production traffic — what…
Oct 16, 2026 · 58:53
Nik and Michael are joined by Álvaro Hernández to discuss sharding Postgres with Citus and StackGres, especially the new query router support that has been added very recently.…
Sep 25, 2026 · 49:28
Nik and Michael are joined by Salma El-Sayed and Kirk Wolak to discuss their in-progress and very ambitious Google Summer of Code project around adding Btree Merge support to…
Sep 18, 2026 · 43:24
Nik and Michael are joined by Sai Srirampur to discuss ClickHouse's new managed Postgres service. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Sai Srirampur…
Sep 11, 2026 · 38:39
Nik and Michael discuss hot_standby_feedback — what it controls, whether and when read replicas should be changed to on, and other settings you can change to help too. Here are…
Aug 21, 2026 · 50:03
Nik and Michael are joined by Shaun Thomas to discuss estimating work_mem, memory management in general, and writing an extension to help. Here are some links to things they…
Aug 14, 2026 · 35:26
Nik and Michael are joined by Michael Malis, co-creator of pgrust, to discuss their Postgres rewrite, including reliability problems, compatibility testing, faster analytics, and…
Aug 7, 2026 · 44:19
Nik and Michael are joined by Radim Marek to discuss MVCC, including his recent article on how Postgres chose to implement it compared to other systems. Here are some links to…
Jul 31, 2026 · 46:00
Nik and Michael are joined by Tudor Golubenco, CTO of Xata, to discuss their architecture, progress, and open source tooling. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Tudor…
Jul 24, 2026 · 39:10
Nik and Michael are joined by Qian Li and Peter Kraft to talk about DBOS, an open source platform for durable workflows built on Postgres. Here are some links to things they…
Jul 17, 2026 · 44:04
Nik and Michael are joined by Fabrízio Mello to discuss his new extension pg_stat_log. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Fabrízio Mello…
Jul 3, 2026 · 1:13:24
Nik and Michael are joined by David Steele to talk all things pgBackRest. Here are some links to things they mentioned: David Steele https://postgres.fm/people/david-steele…
May 29, 2026 · 46:27
Nik and Michael discuss autovacuum, including what it does, and the basics of why and how to tune it. Here are some links to things they mentioned: autovacuum…
May 15, 2026 · 43:26
Nik and Michael are joined by David Ventimiglia to discuss pg_flight_recorder, a new tool he created for monitoring a Postgres database from within. Here are some links to things…
May 8, 2026 · 47:20
Nik and Michael discuss Nik's new project PgQue, a descendent of Skype's PgQ, for running queue-like workloads in Postgres. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Our…
Apr 24, 2026 · 44:25
Nik and Michael are joined by Dmitry Fomin to discuss his new tool pg_wait_tracer, as well as changes that could be made to core to allow wait event tracing with lower overhead,…
Apr 17, 2026 · 45:29
Nik and Michael discuss a list of things to check when designing new schema in Postgres. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Use BIGINT in Postgres (blog post by Ryan…
Apr 3, 2026 · 43:58
Nik and Michael are joined by Bruce Momjian to discuss his new talk "What’s Missing in Postgres?" Here are some links to things they mentioned: Bruce Momjian…
Mar 27, 2026 · 48:15
Nik and Michael discuss long-running transactions, including when they're harmless, when they cause issues, and how to mitigate those issues. Here are some links to things they…
Mar 13, 2026 · 53:11
Nik and Michael are joined by Regina Obe and Paul Ramsey to discuss PostGIS. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Regina Obe https://postgres.fm/people/regina-obe Paul…
Mar 6, 2026 · 42:48
Nik and Michael discuss query plan flips in Postgres — what they are, some causes, mitigations, longer term solutions, and the recent outage at Clerk. Here are some links to…
Feb 20, 2026 · 32:25
Nik and Michael discuss pg_ash — a new tool (not extension!) from Nik that samples and stores wait events from pg_stat_activity. Here are some links to things they mentioned:…
Feb 13, 2026 · 36:09
Nik and Michael discuss query level comments, object level comments, and another way of adding object level metadata. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Object…
Jan 23, 2026 · 44:19
Nik and Michael are joined by Lev Kokotov for an update on all things PgDog. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Lev Kokotov https://postgres.fm/people/lev-kokotov…
Jan 16, 2026 · 57:40
Nik and Michael are joined by Radim Marek from boringSQL to talk about RegreSQL, a regression testing tool for SQL queries they forked and improved recently. Here are some links…
Jan 2, 2026 · 47:25
Nik and Michael discuss the events and trends they thought were most important in the Postgres ecosystem in 2025. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Postgres 18…
Dec 19, 2025 · 31:03
Nik and Michael discuss a listener question about archiving a database. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Listener request to talk about archiving…
Dec 5, 2025 · 44:40
Nik and Michael discuss max_connections, especially in the context of increasing it to solve problems like migrations intermittently failing(!) Here are some links to things they…
Nov 21, 2025 · 45:13
Nik and Michael discuss the various changes to EXPLAIN that arrived in Postgres 18. Here are some links to things they mentioned: EXPLAIN (official docs)…
Nov 14, 2025 · 38:47
Nik talks Michael through a recent benchmark he worked with Maxim Boguk on, to see how quickly they could provision a replica. Here are some links to things they mentioned:…
Oct 31, 2025 · 39:49
Nik and Michael discuss the concept of gapless sequences — when you might want one, why sequences in Postgres can have gaps, and an idea or two if you do want them. And one quick…
Oct 17, 2025 · 38:22
Nik and Michael discuss lightweight locks in Postgres — how they differ to (heavier) locks, some occasions they can be troublesome, and some resources for working out what to do…
Oct 3, 2025 · 39:00
Nik and Michael discuss user management in Postgres — how roles work, making administration easier, setting passwords, and avoiding them being logged. Here are some links to…
Sep 26, 2025 · 55:43
Nik and Michael discuss the newly released Postgres 18 — the bigger things it includes, some of their personal highlights, and some thoughts towards the future. Here are some…
Sep 19, 2025 · 52:59
Nik and Michael are joined by Harry Brundage from Gadget to talk about their recent zero-downtime major version upgrade, how they use Postgres more generally, their dream…
Sep 12, 2025 · 49:36
Nik and Michael are joined by Simon Eskildsen from turbopuffer — among other things, they discuss ANN index types, tradeoffs that can make sense for search workloads, and when it…
Sep 5, 2025 · 46:17
Nik and Michael discuss when not to use Postgres — specifically use cases where it still makes sense to store data in another system. Here are some links to things they…
Aug 29, 2025 · 46:13
Nik and Michael discuss disks in relation to Postgres — why they matter, how saturation can happen, some modern nuances, and how to prepare to avoid issues. Here are some links…
Aug 22, 2025 · 41:21
Nik and Michael discuss multi-column indexes in Postgres — what they are, how to think about them, and some guidance around using them effectively. Here are some links to things…
Aug 15, 2025 · 59:13
Nikolay and Michael discuss self-driving Postgres — what it could mean, using self-driving cars as a reference, and ideas for things to build and optimize for in this area. Here…
Aug 8, 2025 · 26:22
Nikolay and Michael discuss case-insensitive data — when we want to treat columns as case-insensitive, and the pros and cons of using citext, functions like lower(), or a custom…
Jul 25, 2025 · 44:40
Nikolay talks to Michael about Postgres AI's new monitoring tool — what it is, how its different to other tools, and some of the thinking behind it. Here are some links to things…
Jul 18, 2025 · 55:43
Nikolay and Michael are joined by Andrew Johnson and Nate Brennand from Metronome to discuss MultiXact member space exhaustion — what it is, how they managed to hit it, and some…
Jul 11, 2025 · 1:19:27
Nikolay and Michael are joined by Sugu Sougoumarane to discuss Multigres — a project he's joined Supabase to lead, building an adaptation of Vitess for Postgres! Here are some…
Jun 20, 2025 · 50:18
Nikolay and Michael are joined by Gwen Shapira to discuss multi-tenant architectures — the high level options, the pros and cons of each, and how they're trying to help with…
Jun 13, 2025 · 38:51
Nikolay and Michael discuss looking at queries by mean time — when it makes sense, why ordering by a percentile (like p99) might be better, and the merits of approximating…
Jun 6, 2025 · 48:34
Nikolay and Michael discuss logging in Postgres — mostly what to log, and why changing quite a few settings can pay off big time in the long term. Here are some links to things…
May 30, 2025 · 47:33
Nikolay and Michael discuss moving off managed services — when and why you might want to, and some tips on how for very large databases. Here are some links to things they…
May 23, 2025 · 38:53
Nikolay and Michael discuss heavyweight locks in Postgres — how to think about them, why you can't avoid them, and some tips for minimising issues. Here are some links to things…
May 9, 2025 · 46:28
Nikolay and Michael discuss ten dangerous Postgres related issues — ones that might be painful enough to get onto the CTO and even CEOs desk, and then what you can do…
May 2, 2025 · 50:53
Nikolay and Michael discuss synchronous_commit — what it means on single node setups, for synchronous replication setups, and the pros and cons of the different options for each.…
Apr 25, 2025 · 35:37
Nikolay and Michael discuss managed service support — some tips on how to handle cases that aren't going well, tips for requesting features, whether to factor in support when…
Apr 11, 2025 · 42:42
Nikolay and Michael discuss time-series considerations for Postgres — including when it matters, some tips for avoiding issues, performance considerations, and more. Here are…
Apr 4, 2025 · 38:08
Nikolay and Michael are joined by Tomas Vondra to discuss single query performance cliffs — what they are, why they happen, some things we can do to make them less likely or less…
Mar 28, 2025 · 48:34
Nikolay and Michael are joined by Lev Kokotov to discuss PgDog — including whether or when sharding is needed, the origin story (via PgCat), what's already supported, and what's…
Mar 21, 2025 · 44:05
Nikolay talks Michael through using cloud snapshots — how they can be used to reduce RTO for huge Postgres setups, also to improve provisioning time, and some major catches to be…
Mar 14, 2025 · 40:59
Nikolay and Michael discuss GIN indexes in Postgres — what they are, what they're used for, and some limitations to be aware of. Here are some links to things they mentioned: GIN…
Mar 7, 2025 · 40:49
Nikolay and Michael use a recent "best practices" article as a prompt — giving a few tips each on the topics mentioned, like schema design, performance, backups, and more. Here…
Feb 28, 2025 · 32:41
Nikolay and Michael discuss the CREATE STATISTICS feature in Postgres — what it's for, how often it's used, and how to spot cases where it would help. Here are some links to…
Feb 14, 2025 · 50:01
Nikolay and Michael are joined by Franck Pachot to discuss SQL vs NoSQL — did Franck change teams by joining MongoDB, normalisation vs denormalisation, developer experience,…
Feb 7, 2025 · 51:46
Nikolay and Michael return to the topic of BUFFERS for the third (and final?) time! They discuss the news that it'll be on by default with EXPLAIN ANALYZE in Postgres 18, and…
Jan 24, 2025 · 26:48
Nikolay and Michael discuss a couple of surprising ways read queries (selects) can cause writes (shared buffers dirtied) in Postgres. Here are some links to things they…
Jan 17, 2025 · 33:56
Nikolay and Michael discuss adding constraints in an online fashion, using NOT VALID and then VALIDATE CONSTRAINT. Here are some links to things they mentioned: ADD…
Jan 10, 2025 · 36:26
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Antonín Houska to discuss pg_squeeze — what it is, how it started, some of its features, and hopes of getting the functionality into core. Here…
Jan 3, 2025 · 40:08
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Joe Sciarrino and Jelte Fennema-Nio to discuss pg_duckdb — what it is, how it started, what early users are using it for, and what they're…
Dec 20, 2024 · 40:48
Nikolay and Michael discuss Row Level Security in Postgres, focussing on the performance side effects and some tips to avoid (or minimize) them. Here are some links to things…
Dec 13, 2024 · 50:31
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Lukas Eder, the creator of jOOQ, to discuss what it is, some nice developer experience features it has, and some fun things he's come across…
Dec 6, 2024 · 41:06
Nikolay and Michael discuss "Column Tetris" — what it is, why it matters, how to order columns for new tables, and how to re-organise existing ones. Here are some links to things…
Nov 29, 2024 · 37:55
Nikolay and Michael discuss the track_planning parameter of pg_stat_statements — what it is, how it affects performance, and when or whether you should switch it on. Here are…
Nov 22, 2024 · 48:44
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek and Robert Haas to discuss both the technical question of whether or not pg_dump is a backup tool, as well as the tone…
Nov 15, 2024 · 44:07
Nikolay and Michael discuss append-only tables in Postgres — what they are, some unique challenges they bring, and some options for compressing / removing / offloading the data…
Nov 8, 2024 · 35:08
Nikolay and Michael discuss denormalization in Postgres — when and why to denormalize things, and a couple of specific cases Nikolay came across recently. Here are some links to…
Nov 1, 2024 · 38:09
Nikolay and Michael discuss online Postgres communities — the ones they prefer, the types of conversations in each, and some other places to ask questions or follow news. Here…
Oct 25, 2024 · 52:37
Nikolay and Michael discuss some cool things you can do with psql, the official CLI that ships with Postgres. Here are some links to things they mentioned: psql docs…
Oct 18, 2024 · 40:19
Nikolay and Michael discuss some Postgres Gotchas, things you might expect to work one way in fact working another way. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Our episode…
Oct 11, 2024 · 48:47
Nikolay and Michael discuss some more advanced topics around EXPLAIN, including some tips for complex query plans, some recent improvements, and an idea or two that might make it…
Oct 4, 2024 · 45:33
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Alexander Kukushkin, PostgreSQL contributor and maintainer of Patroni, to discuss all things Patroni — what it is, how it works, recent…
Sep 27, 2024 · 42:03
Nikolay and Michael discuss the fresh new Postgres 17 release! They cover several performance improvements, favourite new features, and some considerations for upgrading. Here…
Sep 20, 2024 · 42:17
Nikolay and Michael discuss planning time in Postgres — what it is, how to spot issues, its relationship to things like partitioning, and some tips for avoiding issues. Here are…
Sep 13, 2024 · 43:25
Nikolay and Michael discuss why counting can be slow in Postgres, and what the options are for counting things quickly at scale. Here are some links to things they mentioned:…
Sep 6, 2024 · 57:49
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Peter Geoghegan, major contributor and committer to Postgres, to discuss adding skip scan support to PostgreSQL over versions 17 and 18. Here…
Aug 30, 2024 · 45:27
Nikolay and Michael discuss PostgreSQL emergencies — both the psychological side of incident management, and some technical aspects too. Here are some links to things they…
Aug 23, 2024 · 50:19
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Haki Benita, a technical lead and database enthusiast who writes an excellent blog and gives popular talks and training sessions too, to discuss…
Aug 16, 2024 · 56:32
Michael and Nikolay are joined by Melanie Plageman, database internals engineer at Microsoft and major contributor and committer to PostgreSQL, to discuss getting started with…
Aug 9, 2024 · 39:15
Nikolay and Michael discuss Index-Only Scans in Postgres — what they are, how they help, some things to look out for, and some advice. Here are some links to things they…
Aug 2, 2024 · 41:00
Nikolay and Michael discuss why they chose Postgres — as users, for their businesses, for their careers, as well as some doubts. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Our…
Jul 26, 2024 · 45:16
Nikolay and Michael discuss compression in Postgres — what's available natively, newer algorithms in recent versions, and several extensions with compression features. Here are…
Jul 19, 2024 · 43:26
Nikolay and Michael discuss Postgres running out of disk space — including what happens, what can cause it, how to recover, and most importantly, how to prevent it from happening…
Jul 12, 2024 · 35:42
Nikolay and Michael discuss the Postgres startup ecosystem — some recent closures, some recent fundraising announcements, and their thoughts on where things are going and what…
Jul 5, 2024 · 45:50
Nikolay talks Michael through a recent experiment to find the current maximum transactions per second single-node Postgres can achieve — why he was looking into it, what…
Jun 28, 2024 · 37:40
Nikolay and Michael discuss soft deletion in Postgres — what it means, several use cases, some implementation options, and which implementations suit which use cases. Here are…
Jun 21, 2024 · 51:21
Nikolay and Michael discuss foreign keys in Postgres — what they are, their benefits, their overhead, some edge cases to be aware of, some improvements coming, and whether or not…
Jun 14, 2024 · 55:27
Nikolay is joined by Mat Arye and John Pruitt, from Timescale, to discuss their new extension pgvectorscale and high-performance vector search in Postgres more generally. Main…
Jun 7, 2024 · 47:42
Michael and Nikolay are joined by three special guests for episode 100 who have all scaled Postgres to significant scale — Arka Ganguli from Notion, Sammy Steele from Figma, and…
May 31, 2024 · 32:17
Michael is joined by Claire Giordano, Head of Postgres Open Source Community Initiatives at Microsoft, to discuss several ways to contribute to the Postgres community — from core…
May 24, 2024 · 50:20
Nikolay and Michael discuss full text search in Postgres — some of the history, some of the features, and whether it now makes sense to try to replace or combine it with semantic…
May 17, 2024 · 39:46
Nikolay and Michael discuss Postgres minor releases — how the schedule works, options for upgrading to them, and the importance of reading the release notes. Here are some links…
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