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25 posts
July 28, 2026
A listener watches junior staff prompt their way to DAX they don't understand, and asks how to train them. Mike and Tommy name the three fundamentals they'd require before handing over agentic tooling — and argue the senior's real job is now building the agent that teaches everyone else.
January 28, 2026
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.
November 5, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore developer experience (DevEx) in the BI world—what makes tools stick, why UDFs (User Defined Functions) in DAX are a game-changer, and how Tabular Editor's TMDL scripts and notebooks fit into modern BI development workflows.
October 24, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive into the quirky world of DAX measure totals—why they don't always behave as expected and what Daniel Otykier's research reveals about the underlying mechanics. Plus, dbt Labs gets acquired by Fivetran and Dataflows Gen2 gets a performance revolution.
October 1, 2025
Mike and Tommy take a deep dive into DAX User Defined Functions—one of the biggest additions to the DAX language in years. They discuss the potential impact on model development, code reuse, and the emerging DAX library ecosystem.
August 22, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore calculation groups in practice—one of DAX's most powerful features for reducing measure proliferation and creating dynamic calculation patterns. They reference SQLBI's deep dives and Bernat's practical blog posts.
July 18, 2025
Mike and Tommy refocus on DAX after weeks of Fabric talk. They cover the Power BI July 2025 feature summary, discuss what companies are actually doing about Fabric adoption, and dive deep into the current state and future of DAX.
April 11, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down the biggest DAX and semantic model announcements from FabCon 2025. From Direct Lake improvements to DAX calendars and user-defined functions, this episode covers what matters most for Power BI practitioners.
March 21, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive into the new DAX Performance Testing notebook from Microsoft's Fabric Toolbox, a powerful open-source tool for automating query benchmarks across cold, warm, and hot cache states. They also cover the latest Tabular Editor releases and code actions features.
December 6, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down filter context in DAX—what it is, how it’s created, and why it’s the root of so many ‘my measure is wrong’ moments. They walk through practical mental models for reading a visual’s filters and using CALCULATE intentionally, so you can predict results instead of trial-and-error debugging.
December 6, 2023
Ep. 273 breaks down two power-user additions: DAX Query View in Power BI Desktop (plus Performance Analyzer integration) and Fabric’s new `DeltaLake.Table` M function—bringing Power Query closer to Delta tables.
September 20, 2023
Ep. 251 focuses on where AI genuinely helps (and where it doesn’t) in a BI workflow—turning vague questions into clear requirements, accelerating DAX and documentation, and improving communication—while staying realistic about security, governance, and hallucinations.
August 18, 2023
In Ep. 242, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down a sneaky performance lesson: you can cut render time dramatically without rewriting DAX by rethinking the visual and using constant lines from the Analytics pane.
July 12, 2023
In Ep. 231, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack what a “data model” actually is and why it matters—from conceptual diagrams to logical fields and finally the physical star schema you build in Power BI. You’ll learn how clearer modeling conversations reduce DAX complexity, improve trust, and set teams up for scalable, reusable reporting.
May 10, 2023
Low-code is less about ‘no programming’ and more about accelerating real work with guided UI, defaults, and reusable patterns. In Ep. 212, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down how Power BI, Power Query, Power Apps, and automation fit on that spectrum—and what guardrails and ‘wizard’ experiences would make teams faster without sacrificing fundamentals.
October 17, 2016
Build a Pareto chart in Power BI using DAX measures for cumulative totals and percentages. Identify which products comprise the majority of your sales.
October 4, 2016
Organize your Power BI data model by creating a dedicated measures table. Group all your DAX measures in one place for cleaner, more maintainable reports.
August 30, 2016
Learn how to create custom calendars in Power BI using DAX with Calendar() and CalendarAuto() functions. Video tutorial from Ruth Pozuelo at Curbal.
July 28, 2016
Create a smart card visual in Power BI that displays the selected item name when one item is chosen, or shows the count when multiple items are selected.
July 14, 2016
Learn how to calculate month-to-month percent change in Power BI using DAX. Use PREVIOUSMONTH to compare current month sales against prior month values.
June 10, 2016
Build a DAX measure that dynamically calculates percent change as you select different items in Power BI visuals. Learn to use DIVIDE and FILTER functions.
May 27, 2016
Learn how to calculate a dynamic Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in Power BI using DAX. The calculation updates automatically as you select different data points.
May 7, 2016
Learn how to create measures in Power BI to calculate totals using the SUM function in DAX. Watch how totals dynamically change as you select different data points.
May 2, 2016
Learn how to create percent change calculations in Power BI using DAX measures with practical examples using real-world automotive production data.
April 27, 2016
Learn how to create histograms with custom bins in Power BI using DAX measures to categorize and visualize your data distributions.