More Than A Refresh
A podcast about data and the people who wrangle it.
Welcome to the More than a Refresh podcast series, now celebrating its fifth year as your uniquely human gateway into the world of data.
In 2025, we bring you an even more eclectic mix of speakers and subject matter experts from diverse industries and backgrounds. Our guests excel in topics such as leadership, networking, DEIA, data protection and privacy, and cutting-edge technology, including healthtech, edtech, and fintech. Additionally, enjoy top-tier content from leading experts in the open-source community.
Where to listen:
MTAR 12: Proactive health management and the line between user privacy and the effective wearable
Welcome to episode 12 of More Than a Refresh, where JD sits down with Geoffrey Gill, President, Shimmer Americas and Co-Founder at The Open Wearables Initiative (OWEAR). Listen in as they discuss proactive health management, the line between user privacy and effective wearables, magic vs. math in neuromarketing, and the necessity of peer review.
MTAR 11: User friendliness vs. engineering correctness, and why any organization's greatest asset is its people
Welcome to episode 11 of More Than a Refresh, where JD sits down with Altinity CEO, Robert Hodges. Listen in as they discuss user friendliness vs. engineering correctness, high speed compression, and why any organization's greatest asset is its people.
MTAR 10: VC Funding, why databases must evolve and why community is vital to the Open Source Ecosystem
Welcome to episode ten of More Than a Refresh, where JD sits down with Jim Mlodgenski, Principal Engineer at Amazon Web Services. Listen in as these two old friends discuss the ins and outs of VC funding, why databases must evolve to meet the needs of more complex data, and why community is vital to the Open Source ecosystem.
MTAR 09.01: The foundation of a strong organization, management vs. leadership and the value of leaving your ego at the door
Welcome to our second bonus episode of More Than a Refresh, where we revisit the topic of engineering culture with Mark Porter, CTO at MongoDB. Listen in as he and JD discuss the foundations of building a strong organization, management vs. leadership, and the value of leaving your ego at the door.
For more discussion on this topic contact Command Prompt.
MTAR 09: The importance of persistence software , the beauty of the ah ha moment, and why organizations need to be built according to Dunbar's Number and Conway's Law
Welcome to episode nine of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he and Mark Porter discuss the importance of persistence software, the beauty of the ah ha moment, and why organizations need to be built according to Dunbar's Number and Conway's Law.
MTAR 08: Cockroach Labs, and what drives a successful OSS project.
Welcome to episode eight of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he and Jordan Lewis, Director of Engineering, SQL at Cockroach Labs, discuss what drives a successful OSS project, writing a database in Go, and what to eat when you're in New York City.
MTAR 07: Soundscapes, and why the small business is vital to the economy
Welcome to episode seven of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he and Hicham Oudghiri, Co-Founder & CEO at Enigma, chat about soundscapes, breakdown why small business is vital to the economy, and discuss the necessity of democratizing access to credit.
MTAR 03.01: Cattle ranching, nonsensical EMR systems and Breast Cancer
Welcome to the first bonus episode of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as we check back in with Karinn Chambers, Breast Cancer Oncologist and Surgeon. In addition to a segue to cattle ranching, where happy cows come from, and calving season, we discuss nonsensical EMR systems and bridging the communication divide between Doctors and Software Developers.
MTAR 06: Human beings are always at the center of data and questioning "could" vs "should"
Welcome to episode six of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he and Stephanie Kirmer, Senior Data Scientist at Saturn Cloud, discuss why human beings are always at the center of data, questioning "could" vs. "should," and why requiring a data scientist to have a PhD is "bananas."
MTAR 05: Demonstrating value to potential clients, and how automated caching and read/write split are really one and the same
Welcome to episode five of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he and Heimdall Data Founder, Erik Brandsberg, discuss demonstrating value to potential clients, visiting 40 countries in 40 years, and how automated caching and read/write split are really one in the same.Erik Brandsberg, Founder and Chief Architect of Heimdall Data
If you would like to dig deeper into this topic contact Command Prompt.
MTAR 04: Psycopg3, Open Source licensing, humble drivers and the nature of adapt or die
Welcome to episode four of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he discusses Open Source licensing, "humble" drivers, photography, and the nature of adapt or die with Daniele Varrazzo, Creator of Python Driver Psycopg3.
MTAR 03: Breast Cancer and how data complexities affect patient care in our healthcare system
Welcome to episode three of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he chats with Karinn Chambers, Breast Cancer Oncologist and Surgeon, about how data complexities affect patient care in our healthcare system.
MTAR 02: The Seattle Data Guy, being a digital nomad and how small business can manage their data
Welcome to episode two of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he chats with Ben Rogojan, better known as the Seattle Data Guy, about being a digital nomad, how small businesses can manage their data, Wall Street Bets, and his path from chef to data consultant.
MTAR 01: Yugabyte, PostgreSQL, Open Source and the best surf movie ever made
Welcome to episode one of More than a Refresh, with Joshua "JD" Drake. Listen in as he has an honest discussion with Karthik Ranganathan about Yugabyte, PostgreSQL, Open Source, and the best surf movie ever made.
To dig deeper, contact Command Prompt.