What do guitar busking, geospatial queries, and agentic coding have to do with Postgres? In Episode 33 of Talking Postgres, principal engineer Rob Emanuele at Microsoft shares his winding path from Venice Beach to building a new VS Code extension for PostgreSQL—that works with any Postgres, anywhere. We dig into GitHub Copilot, ask vs. agent mode, and how Rob now codes in English—and then spends even more time in code review to decide what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s dangerous. Also: how PyCon changed his life; his work on the Microsoft Planetary Computer with spatio-temporal queries and PostGIS; and how music, improv, and failure shape his approach to developer experience.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Visual Studio Marketplace: VS Code extension for PostgreSQL with ~261K downloads to date
• GitHub repo: VS Code extension for PostgreSQL (for issues/discussions)
• Docs: GitHub Copilot agent mode
• POSETTE 2025 Talk: Introducing Microsoft’s VS Code Extension for PostgreSQL, by Matt McFarland
• VS Code Live: Working with PostgreSQL databases with the Microsoft PostgreSQL VS Code extension, with Olivia Guzzardo & Rob Emanuele
• Talking Postgres Ep30: AI for data engineers with Simon Willison
• Postgres Meetup for All: VS Code Tools for Postgres, happening on Thu Dec 11, 2025
• Wikipedia: Dogfooding
• Talking Postgres Ep07: Why people care about PostGIS and Postgres with Paul Ramsey & Regina Obe
• POSETTE 2024 keynote: The Open Source Geospatial Community, PostGIS, & Postgres, by Regina Obe
• Website: Microsoft Planetary Computer
• GitHub repo: PgSTAC
• Cal invite: LIVE recording of Ep34 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Dec 10, 2025

What do chess clocks, jazz, and Postgres replication have in common? In Episode 32 of Talking Postgres, solution architect Boriss Mejías shares how the idea of “interconnectedness”—inspired by Douglas Adams—can help you untangle complex Postgres questions. We explore OpenAI’s approach to scaling Postgres, how Postgres active-active mirrors Sparta’s dual kingship, and how a holistic approach can reveal the behavior of synchronous replication. Also: Beethoven’s 17 drafts, and why chasing perfection can hold you back. Listen to learn more about Boriss, Postgres, and the fundamental interconnectedness of all things.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Podcast Ep32 of Talking Postgres: What went wrong (& what went right) with AIO with Andres Freund
• Podcast Ep03 of Talking Postgres: Why give talks at Postgres conferences with Álvaro Herrera & Boriss Mejías:
• Wikipedia: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams
• Talk at PGConf NYC 2025: Scaling Postgres to the Next Level at OpenAI, by Bohan Zhang
• Video of PGConf.dev 2025 talk: Scaling Postgres to the Next Level at OpenAI, by Bohan Zhang
• Talk at PGConf NYC 2025: Improved Freezing in Postgres Vacuum: From Idea to Commit, by Melanie Plageman
• Talk at PGConf NYC 2025: Database Modeling to Study the New York Jazz Scene, by Boriss Mejías
• Jazz Club in NYC: Patrick’s Place in Harlem
• Video of PGConf EU 2024 talk: Sparta’s Dual-Kingship and PostgreSQL Active-Active, by Boriss Mejías
• Video of POSETTE 2025 talk: Postgres Storytelling: Cunning Schema Design with Creative Data Modeling, by Boriss Mejías & Sarah Conway
• Talk at FOSDEM PGDay 2024: High Availability Configurations Are Very Common for PostgreSQL, But How Do You Investigate Performance Problems When the Standby Can’t Keep Up? by Boriss Mejías and Derk van Veen
• Conference: PGDay Lowlands 2025, the second year of this “second-best Postgres conference in Europe”
• Conference Schedule: upcoming PGConf EU 2025 in Latvia
• Wikipedia: Chess clock
• Book: Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey
• Article: It Takes Two to Think, by Itai Yanai & Martin J. Lercher
• Poem: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Coleridge
• Wikipedia: City of Bruges Belgium, a good place for beer and cheese
• Cal invite: LIVE recording of Ep33 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Nov 5, 2025

Six years, a prototype, and a brief multi-layered descent into “wronger and wronger” design—what does it take to land a major architectural change in Postgres? In Episode 31 of Talking Postgres, Andres Freund—major contributor, Postgres committer, and lead of the Asynchronous I/O project—shares the wins, the missteps, and why he thinks AIO definitely took too long. We dig into io_uring in Linux, direct I/O, streaming reads, technical leadership, and exactly when is the right time to stop working on a prototype. If you’ve ever wondered how big architectural changes happen, or why they sometimes take years, this episode is for you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Talking Postgres podcast: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki Linnakangas
• Release Notes: PostgreSQL 18 release notes
• News: PostgreSQL RC 1 Released on Sep 04 2025
• Wikipedia page: io_uring
• PostgreSQL: Join the PostgreSQL Hacking Discord
• Video of talk: What went wrong with AIO by Andres Freund at PGConfdev 2025
• Commit: Add core asynchronous I/O infrastructure to PostgreSQL
• Wiki page: AIO project in PostgreSQL with state, sub-projects, and work still to be done
• Upcoming Talk: AIO in PG 18 and Beyond at PGConf NYC on 30 Sep 2025
• Upcoming Talk: AIO in PG 18 and Beyond at PGConf EU on 23 Oct 2025
• Wikipedia page: XZ Utils backdoor discovery by Andres Freund
• Cal invite: LIVE recording of Ep32 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Oct 8, 2025