Feb 18, 2026
Hiring the Report Developer – Ep. 503
Mike and Tommy unpack what a report developer should know in 2026 — from paginated reports and the SSRS migration trend to the line between report building and data modeling.
Posts – Page 2
Page 2 of 23
Feb 13, 2026
Trusting In Microsoft Fabric – Ep. 502
Mike and Tommy dive deep into whether Microsoft Fabric has earned our trust after two years. Plus, the SaaS apocalypse is here, AI intensifies work, and Semantic Link goes GA.
Feb 12, 2026
Central BI & Workspace Strategies – Ep. 501
Episode 501 covers the new OneLake Catalog updates, AI's impact on workplace productivity, and strategies for organizing workspaces in Power BI.
Feb 12, 2026
Late Adopter Advantage? AI Readiness – Ep. 499
Is being late to the data game actually an advantage? We explore AI readiness, the power of coding agents like OpenClaw, and why the conductor's era is here.
Feb 6, 2026
We Made It! Episode 500 of Explicit Measures
Celebrating 500 episodes and 5 years of the Explicit Measures podcast. Reflecting on the journey, predictions, and what's next for Power BI and AI.
Feb 4, 2026
497 Instructions for AI: Get the Data
Give the AI instructions, get data, put it here. Build the pattern in different tools and test them all in minutes.
Feb 4, 2026
Being a Data Analyst in the Era of AI
Mike Carlo and Eugene Meidinger discuss how AI is reshaping the data analyst's toolkit with practical frameworks for adopting AI in your daily workflow.
Feb 4, 2026
Two Things Happening with AI in Data Engineering
AI is transforming data engineering in two major ways: democratizing who can build data pipelines and creating new skills around trusting and debugging AI systems.
Jan 31, 2026
OpenClaw, ClawdBot, MoltBot: Our Thoughts on AI Agents
Armando and I dive deep into AI agents, why natural language might be the last programming language, and how to treat your AI like a new employee.
Jan 29, 2026
Define the Problem Before Tools – Ep. 498
Mike and Tommy tackle a mailbag question about defining problems before choosing tools — and why goal setting matters more than ever in a world where AI lets you build anything. Plus, the January 2026 Fabric feature updates drop with 17 noteworthy items.
Jan 28, 2026
Remote Fabric Jupyter & Local VS Code – Ep. 497
Mike and Tommy dive into a listener mailbag question about connecting a local VS Code desktop to a remote Fabric Jupyter kernel — unpacking the tradeoffs of local vs. cloud development, custom environments, cost optimization, and why OneLake File Explorer might be the missing piece. Plus, AI-generated music as a metaphor for the future of data engineering.
Jan 23, 2026
Experience Overuse – Ep. 496
Mike and Tommy tackle a listener mailbag question: is the word 'experience' being overused in the Fabric and Power BI world? Plus, a surprise January Power BI Desktop release and Mike gushes about deployment pipeline improvements nobody announced.
Jan 21, 2026
Do You Really Need Fabric? – Ep. 495
Mike and Tommy unpack a viral LinkedIn article where a consultant saved a client $57,000 per year by moving from Fabric F64 to Premium Per User — sparking a bigger conversation about when Fabric actually makes sense, licensing confusion, and the tipping points that justify the investment.
Jan 16, 2026
MCP Your Fabric Data – Ep. 494
Mike and Tommy unpack Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers for Power BI and Fabric — what they are, how to use them, and whether organizations should be turning them on today. Plus, a deep dive on what makes AI agents actually useful versus just impressive.
Jan 14, 2026
AI Drives Fabric Success – Ep. 493
Mike and Tommy kick off 2026 asking the big question: will AI drive Fabric's success? They share their real AI toolkits, debate the future of consulting in an agent-powered world, and brainstorm how Claude Code and agent skills could transform their daily workflows.
Jan 9, 2026
Fabric Awards – Ep. 492
Mike and Tommy hand out their completely made-up Fabric Awards for 2025 — from 'Most Likely to Be Disabled by IT' to 'This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.' Plus, Marco Russo confirms what they've been saying all along: notebooks win.
Jan 7, 2026
Our Fabric Resolutions – Ep. 491
Mike and Tommy share their 2026 Fabric resolutions — from doubling down on Power BI embedding and data warehouses to validating AI-generated code and building custom workloads. Plus, Microsoft acquires Osmos to bring agentic AI to Fabric data engineering.
Jan 2, 2026
Revisiting Dataflows Gen 2 – Ep. 490
Mike and Tommy revisit Dataflows Gen 2 after giving it a hard time for months — and the verdict? It's actually good now. New parallelization, modern query evaluation, and smarter pricing make it a real option again. Plus, the PBIR format admin setting and creative image visual tricks.
Dec 31, 2025
Why Fabric IQ Will Cause Friction – Ep. 489
Mike and Tommy unpack Fabric IQ's new ontology feature and why it will create friction in organizations—from cultural resistance to political turf wars over data definitions. They explore MCP vs. IDE workflows and debate whether businesses are mature enough for enterprise-wide semantic alignment.
Dec 26, 2025
Power BI Secret Santa – Ep. 488
Mike and Tommy exchange Power BI and Fabric feature wishlists in a holiday Secret Santa format, proposing everything from sticky notebook cells to integrated Python notebooks in desktop. A fun Christmas special packed with product ideas that could reshape the developer experience.
Dec 24, 2025
The Intelligence Developer – Ep. 487
Mike and Tommy explore the emerging 'Intelligence Developer' role—a new position shaped by AI and Fabric IQ that shifts focus from metrics to dimensions and data governance. They also recap the biggest SQL, Fabric, and Power BI developments of 2025.
Dec 19, 2025
Backwards Ontology – Ep. 486
Mike and Tommy ask the big question: who in your organization is going to build the Fabric IQ ontology? They explore a 'backwards' approach—starting from semantic models you already have—and debate whether the BI team, data governance, or a new role should own it.
Dec 17, 2025
1-Click Notebooks – Ep. 485
Mike and Tommy explore the new 1-click notebook experience for Power BI semantic models, including Semantic Link integration and what it means for BI developers moving into Python and Spark workflows. Plus, how Fabric's forecasting service makes Spark notebooks feel instant.
Dec 12, 2025
Data Governance with Fabric IQ – Ep. 484
Mike and Tommy explore what data governance looks like in the Fabric IQ era, unpacking how ontology changes the governance conversation from policing data to defining business meaning. Plus, notebooks in pipelines now support service principals and workspace identity.