In this episode, Giuliano Giannetti sits down with ⁠Bill Inmon ⁠— the father of the data warehouse — to talk about how modern data thinking actually began, and why its original ideas still matter today.

Bill reflects on a time when data was used only for transaction processing, why his ideas were once considered heresy, and how business — not IT — pushed the data warehouse into existence. Along the way, he shares his own path: from mathematician and outspoken critic of IT culture to reluctant entrepreneur, learning the hard way what it takes to stand by your ideas.

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This episode features ⁠Serge Gershkovich⁠ author of Data Modeling with Snowflake and product success leader at SQLDBM.

Serge shares the story behind his book, shaped by years of hearing recurring pain points from data architects and engineers. He talks about his transition from the SAP ecosystem to Snowflake, the dramatic shift modern cloud platforms bring, and why strong fundamentals—not tools alone—lead to effective data architecture. The conversation dives into practical modeling guidance, how to bridge business and technical teams, and how writing publicly reshaped Serge’s career.

🎙️ Tune in to learn the principles, pitfalls, and real-world lessons every data practitioner should know — and don’t forget to follow the show for more conversations like this.

In this episode of Insane Data, Giuliano sits down with Lukas Schulte — former Microsoft developer, co-founder of the recently acquired SDF Labs, and now Director of Engineering at dbt Labs.

They dive into the story behind dbt Fusion, what it means to bring Rust into data engineering, and how adding type systems to SQL can transform development. Lukas explains why reusability and better developer tooling are the future of analytics, and how Fusion is changing orchestration and cost efficiency on platforms like Snowflake and BigQuery.

The conversation also looks beyond the technical: Lukas reflects on the balance between open source and enterprise, the evolving role of analysts in the AI era, and where the data ecosystem is heading as companies like Snowflake, Databricks, and 5Tran reshape the landscape.

Whether you’re a data engineer, analyst, or just curious about the next big shifts in the modern data stack, this episode offers a unique inside look at the future of dbt and beyond.

In this episode of Insane Data, host Giuliano Giannetti sits down with Andrew Foote – data modeler, consultant, and creator of the Hook methodology.

Frustrated by the shortcomings of Data Vault in real-world projects, Andrew developed Hook as a simpler, more flexible way to build and maintain data warehouses. Instead of piling on complexity, Hook focuses on formalizing business keys (hooks) and keeping ingestion and modeling separate – a lightweight approach that can extend the shelf life of a warehouse.

Andrew explains how Hook works using a classic e-commerce example, how it compares to Data Vault and dimensional modeling, and why “less modeling is often the best modeling.” We also touch on his consulting experiences, his upcoming book, and how Hook could combine with Francesco Puppini’s Unified Star Schema.

If you’ve ever struggled with brittle data models, endless rules, or projects collapsing after a few years, this conversation offers a fresh perspective – and maybe a way forward.

🎙 This episode of Insane Data is a bit different – but absolutely worth your time. Giuliano Giannetti takes over the studio, and together with Jakub Stopel – the mind behind the YouTube channel Kaiser Bauch – they explore a topic that’s quietly shaping the future of our world: the global population crisis.

For the first time ever, Jakub speaks publicly and walks us through the dramatic shifts in global population trends. From the silent collapse of Southern Europe’s birth rates, to why countries like South Korea may be headed for demographic extinction, to how population pyramids reveal our economic future – this episode is packed with powerful data, surprising insights, and long-term consequences.

🧠 A data-heavy, eye-opening conversation that might change how you see the future.
👀 Want the full experience? Watch the video – the visuals take it to a whole new level.