Catalog & Cocktails: The Honest, No-BS Data Podcast

Can't believe it's already been 6 years. Thank you to our amazing guests and specially our listeners. In this season finale episode, Juan and Tim rant about the honest no-bs discussions they've had in 2026 and what are the topics they are looking forward to cover in the next season.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jason Doerr has spent years watching governance programs undermine themselves by cataloging everything without a use case, naming data stewards who have nothing to actually do, and building central teams that become blockers instead of enablers. In this episode, he walks through what pragmatic governance actually looks like: start with use cases, give stewards real work to action on, and let the c...

This is the takeaway episode with Jason Doerr who has spent years watching governance programs undermine themselves. He walks through what pragmatic governance actually looks like and digs into PADU (Preferred, Acceptable, Discouraged, Unacceptable) as a practical roadmap framework.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Seiner has spent decades in data governance, and in this episode he joins Juan and Tim to unpacks his new framework, Data Catalyst Cubed, which multiplies data governance by change management and data fluency. Miss any one of them, and you get zero. The problem is that leadership has never treated behavior change as part of the governance mandate, and most data programs have never connected wi...

Takeaway episode with Bob Seiner where he unpacks his new framework, Data Catalyst Cubed: multiplies data governance by change management and data fluency. Miss any one of them, and you get zero.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most organizations are treating AI governance as a compliance checkbox. Victoria Gamerman argues it's the gateway that finally forces organizations to confront the human side of AI adoption. In this episode, Victoria breaks down why the POC-to-operationalization gap is so hard to close, why people, process, and data each carry more human weight than most leaders acknowledge, and what "AI-ready dat...

This is the takeaway episode with Victoria Gamerman who argues that AI Governance is the gateway that finally forces organizations to confront the human side of AI adoption.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody wants AI. AI adoption conversations are dominated by tools, models, and metrics. Far fewer organizations have figured out what to do with it once it's inside the building. The harder question, one that most leaders are avoiding, is what happens to the humans? Diana Wu David, Director of Futures at ServiceNow joins Juan and Tim to unpack what leaders should and should not be doing. ...

This is the takeaway episode with Diana Wu David, Director of Futures at ServiceNow where we discuss AI adoption, the metrics and how far fewer organizations have figured out what to do with AI once it's inside the building. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Juan and Tim's Friday rant covers a lot of ground, from Juan's TED takeaways on AI's unprecedented speed and what it means for humanity, to the uncomfortable shift data teams need to make: work and decisions are the point, not pipelines and gold layers. They dig into what Medallion Architecture 2.0 looks like (feedback loops, insights to action, agent governance), why organizational design theory...

Data teams spend enormous energy building pipelines, platforms, and governance frameworks but often skip the most fundamental step: truly understanding what people are actually asking for. In this episode, Juan and Tim sit down with data librarians Jenna Jordan and Amalia Child to explore why library science may be the missing lens for data work. At the heart of the conversation is the reference i...

Data teams obsess over pipelines and platforms but often skip the most fundamental step: truly understanding what people are actually asking for. We chat with data librarians Jenna Jordan and Amalia Child who share a framework for exactly that; it's called the reference interview, and it might be the most practical toolkit data teams have never used. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa...

There's a gap at the heart of most organisations and data hasn't filled it. Pete Williams, an experienced data leader, has spent years watching companies build sophisticated data capabilities, only to see insight stall before it reaches action. In this episode, we diagnose why: organisations still make decisions along traditional vertical lines, while data sits in a horizontal layer that was never...

This is the takeaway episode with Pete Williams, an experienced data leader, who argues that organisations still make decisions along traditional vertical lines, while data sits in a horizontal layer that was never given real authority. Pete makes a compelling case for why fixing this structural void is the defining challenge for data leadership today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Juan and Tim have a rant session with a special guest in person,  Jesús Barrasa , well known in the knowledge graph space. We covered AI trends, the balance between operational vs. strategic work, knowledge graphs, context graphs. The most valuable part of our rant was our pragmatic discussion about ontologies stripping them down to what they actually are and why they matter. Starting...

Most organisations know they're not getting value from their data and AI investments, but few are willing to name the real culprit: the boardroom. In this episode, Kyle Winterbottom joins Juan and Tim to argue that the mandates handed to CDAOs are fundamentally broken because the people hiring them don't understand what good looks like. Boards continue to build capability without starting with the...

This is the takeaway episode with Kyle Winterbottom where he argues that the mandates handed to CDAOs from the board are fundamentally broken because the people hiring them don't understand what good looks like. The result? An entire industry that has learned to play the wrong game.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stop treating AI governance like a compliance checkbox handed down from the boardroom. Kierra Dotson joins Juan and Tim to argue that the chasm between ambitious AI strategy and messy technical reality exists precisely because we've made governance someone else's problem. The fix? Empower engineers, data scientists, and product owners to own their role in shaping ethical, sustainable AI — no...

This is the takeaway episode with Kierra Dotson where she argues that the chasm between ambitious AI strategy and messy technical reality exists precisely because we've made governance someone else's problem.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does dentistry have to do with data analytics? More than you'd think. Thais Cooke went from cleaning teeth to cleaning datasets and her unconventional path turned out to be a superpower. In this episode, Thais joins Juan and Tim to talk about why subject matter expertise is the ultimate force multiplier, how to build trust with stakeholders (hint: "I don't know" is a valid answer), and why th...

This is the takeaway episode where Thais Cooke joins Juan and Tim to talk about why subject matter expertise is the ultimate force multiplier. Oh, and what does dentistry have to do with data analytics? More than you'd think! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Want to get the honest no bs scoop of what happened at the Gartner Data & Analytics in Orlando, then this short and sweet episode is for you. This was an impromptu recording where Sanjeev Mohan and Ryan Dolley join Juan and Tim to share what they learned.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Juan and Tim rant about whats on their mind going into Gartner Data and Analytics conference: "Context" is going to be the word of the week, The Execution Gap, Decision intelligence might be the bridge and the thing nobody's talking about yet: context lock-in.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most data and AI initiatives don't fail on technology — they fail on meaning. In this episode, Juan and Tim chat with Säde Haveri, who makes the case that metadata is the bridge between systems and people: the language and structures that help humans understand, trust, and use data in their daily work. Her focus isn't on building smarter pipelines, but on turning complexity into shared...

This is the takeaway episode with Säde Haveri where she makes the case that metadata is the bridge between systems and people. Most data and AI initiatives don't fail on technology — they fail due to the lack of meaning. If your data doesn't speak your language, it simply won't work for you. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.