PODCAST

Postgres FM

Nikolay Samokhvalov and Michael Christofides

A weekly podcast about all things PostgreSQL

technology tech news

All Episodes

50:01

SQL vs NoSQL

Postgres FM ·

2025/02/14

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, NULLs, and more! Here are some links to things they mentioned:Franck Pachot https://postgres.fm/people/franck-pachotFranck's workshop at PGConf India https://pgconf.in/conferences/pgconfin2025/program/proposals/958 PostgreSQL Conference Germany https://2025.pgconf.de"Schema Later" Considered Harmful by Michael

51:46

Return of the BUFFERS

Postgres FM ·

2025/02/07

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 what effect that might have. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Our first BUFFERS episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/buffers-by-defaultOur second BUFFERS episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/buffers-ii-the-sequelBUFFERS enabled for EXPLAIN ANALYZE by default (commit for Postgres 18)

26:48

Reads causing writes

Postgres FM ·

2025/01/24

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 mentioned:Reads causing writes in Postgres (post by Alex Jesipow) https://jesipow.com/blog/postgres-reads-cause-writes/Exploring how SELECT queries can produce disk writes (post by Nikolay Sivko) https://blog.okmeter.io/postgresql-exploring-how-select-queries-can-produce-disk-writes-f36c8bee6b6f Hint Bits (wiki)

33:56

NOT VALID constraints

Postgres FM ·

2025/01/17

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 table_constraint NOT VALID https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-altertable.html#SQL-ALTERTABLE-DESC-ADD-TABLE-CONSTRAINTOur episode on zero-downtime migrations https://postgres.fm/episodes/zero-downtime-migrationsVALIDATE CONSTRAINT

36:26

pg_squeeze

Postgres FM ·

2025/01/10

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 are some links to things they mentioned:Antonín Houska https://postgres.fm/people/antonin-houskapg_squeeze https://github.com/cybertec-postgresql/pg_squeezeCybertec https://www.cybertec-postgresql.compg_repack https://github.com/reorg/pg_repackIntroducing pg_squeeze (by Kaarel Moppel)

40:08

pg_duckdb

Postgres FM ·

2025/01/03

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 working on next. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Joe Sciarrino https://postgres.fm/people/joe-sciarrinoJelte Fennema-Nio https://postgres.fm/people/jelte-fennema-niopg_duckdb https://github.com/duckdb/pg_duckdbHydra https://www.hydra.soMotherDuck https://motherduck.comThe problems and benefits of an elephant

40:48

RLS vs performance

Postgres FM ·

2024/12/20

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 they mentioned:Row Security Policies (docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-rowsecurity.html7+ million Postgres tables (recent talk by Kailash Nadh) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhi5Q_wL9i0Row Level Security guide (Supabase docs)

50:31

jOOQ

Postgres FM ·

2024/12/13

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 from a Postgres perspective. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Lukas Eder https://postgres.fm/people/lukas-ederjOOQ https://www.jooq.org/ DSL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language SQL Dialects https://www.jooq.org/javadoc/latest/org.jooq/org/jooq/SQLDialect.htmlMERGE

41:06

Column Tetris

Postgres FM ·

2024/12/06

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 they mentioned:“Column Tetris” by Erwin Brandstetter on Stack Overflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2966524/calculating-and-saving-space-in-postgresql/7431468#7431468Data Types https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype.htmlOrioleDB beta7 benchmarks

37:55

pg_stat_statements track_planning

Postgres FM ·

2024/11/29

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 some links to things they mentioned:pg_stat_statements.track_planning https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/pgstatstatements.html#id-1.11.7.40.9.2.4.1.3Our episode about pg_stat_statements https://postgres.fm/episodes/pg_stat_statementsPostgreSQL 13.0 release notes

48:44

Is pg_dump a backup tool?

Postgres FM ·

2024/11/22

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 and intent behind the statement "pg_dump is not a backup tool". Here are some links to things they mentioned:Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek https://postgres.fm/people/gulcin-yildirim-jelinekRobert Haas https://postgres.fm/people/robert-haasWhy you should upgrade PostgreSQL today (blog post by Gülçin)

44:07

Append-only tables

Postgres FM ·

2024/11/15

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 eventually. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Append-only https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Append-onlyOur episode on BRIN indexes https://postgres.fm/episodes/brin-indexesTips to Improve Insert Performance https://www.timescale.com/blog/13-tips-to-improve-postgresql-insert-performance/ Our episode on WAL and

35:08

Denormalization

Postgres FM ·

2024/11/08

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 things they mentioned:Denormalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DenormalizationOur episode on materialized views https://postgres.fm/episodes/materialized-viewsOur episode on data model trade-offs https://postgres.fm/episodes/data-model-trade-offsOur episode with Markus Winand

38:09

Postgres online communities

Postgres FM ·

2024/11/01

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 are some links to things they mentioned:https://www.postgresql.org/communityMailing lists https://www.postgresql.org/listIRC https://www.postgresql.org/community/ircSlack https://pgtreats.info/slack-inviteStack Overflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/postgresDBA Stack Exchange

52:37

Advanced psql

Postgres FM ·

2024/10/25

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 https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-psql.html Our episode on psql vs GUIs https://postgres.fm/episodes/psql-vs-guispostgres_dba https://github.com/NikolayS/postgres_dbaOur episode on massive deletes https://postgres.fm/episodes/massive-deletesPostgres hacking session on \watch with limited number of loops

40:19

Postgres Gotchas

Postgres FM ·

2024/10/18

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:Out episode on NULLs https://postgres.fm/episodes/nulls-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-and-the-unknownPostgres Gotchas (list by Ian Barwick) https://sql-info.de/postgresql/postgres-gotchas.htmlOur episode on slow count https://postgres.fm/episodes/slow-countDiscussion on X about major version upgrades and statistics

48:47

Advanced EXPLAIN

Postgres FM ·

2024/10/11

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 even better. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Michael’s solo episode on EXPLAIN basics https://postgres.fm/episodes/explainOur episode on auto_explain https://postgres.fm/episodes/auto_explainWhich cloud providers support auto_explain? (Blog post by Michael)

45:33

Patroni

Postgres FM ·

2024/10/04

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 improvements, and more.Here are some links to things they mentioned:Alexander Kukushkin https://postgres.fm/people/alexander-kukushkinPatroni https://github.com/patroni/patroniSpilo https://github.com/zalando/spilo Zalando Postgres Operator https://github.com/zalando/postgres-operatorCrunchy Data Postgres Operator

42:03

Postgres 17

Postgres FM ·

2024/09/27

Nikolay and Michael discuss the fresh new Postgres 17 release! They cover several performance improvements, favourite new features, and some considerations for upgrading. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Postgres 17 release notes https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/release-17.htmltransaction_timeout episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/transaction_timeoutVACUUM improvements discussed towards end of episode with Melanie Plageman

42:17

Planning time

Postgres FM ·

2024/09/20

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 some links to things they mentioned:Query Planning (docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-query.htmlAre there limits to partition counts? (Blog post by depesz) https://www.depesz.com/2021/01/17/are-there-limits-to-partition-countsNikolays recent experiment

174 results

Postgres FM

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs