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67 posts
March 4, 2026
Mike and Tommy explore AI-assisted TMDL workflows and the hot reload experience for faster Power BI development. They also cover the new programmatic Power Query API and the GA release of the input slicer.
February 27, 2026
Mike and Tommy dive into the February 2026 feature updates for Power BI and Fabric, with a deep focus on the new input slicer going GA and what it means for report filtering. The conversation gets into filter overload — when too many slicers and options hurt more than they help.
February 20, 2026
Mike and Tommy dive deep into what it means to live in a Direct Lake world, exploring the practical realities of building semantic models on top of Fabric lakehouses. They cover the trade-offs, gotchas, and best practices for teams making the shift from Import mode to Direct Lake.
February 18, 2026
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.
February 13, 2026
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.
February 12, 2026
Episode 501 covers the new OneLake Catalog updates, AI's impact on workplace productivity, and strategies for organizing workspaces in Power BI.
February 12, 2026
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.
February 4, 2026
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.
January 21, 2026
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.
January 16, 2026
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.
January 14, 2026
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.
January 9, 2026
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.
January 7, 2026
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.
January 2, 2026
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.
December 26, 2025
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.
December 24, 2025
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.
December 17, 2025
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.
November 21, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle one of Fabric's most confusing topics: how to design and manage workspaces when you're juggling branching, deployment pipelines, and a growing number of artifacts. They share patterns that work and anti-patterns that create chaos.
November 19, 2025
Another mailbag episode where Mike and Tommy emphasize the most important question in any data project: what problem are you actually trying to solve? Before picking tools, building pipelines, or designing models—start with the why.
November 6, 2025
Mike Carlo and Pragati walk through everything you need to know to level up from PL-300 to DP-600 — from lakehouses and pipelines to semantic model optimization and security in Microsoft Fabric.
October 31, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down Fabric's Real Time Intelligence for Power BI professionals—what it is, when you need it, and how to get started with KQL and event-driven data without leaving the Fabric ecosystem.
October 29, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore how data modeling changes when your source data comes from event-driven systems rather than traditional transactional databases. They discuss the shift from state-based to event-based thinking and what it means for semantic models.
October 15, 2025
Mike and Tommy take a deep dive into Fabric's Real-Time Intelligence workload—what it is, how Eventhouses work, and why it represents a paradigm shift from batch analytics to event-driven decision making. Plus, metric sets deprecation and OneLake Table APIs.
October 10, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore the intersection of Data Agents and semantic models—how well-built models become the foundation for AI-powered data experiences, and what best practices look like for configuring agents that actually deliver useful answers.
October 3, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle the identity question: is Fabric a BI platform, a data engineering platform, or something else entirely? They discuss where Power BI fits in the bigger Fabric picture and whether BI professionals need to expand their skill sets. Plus, Copy Job and Dataflow Gen2 updates.
September 26, 2025
Mike and Tommy rank Fabric features in a pyramid format—from the single most essential feature at the top to the supporting cast at the base. A fun exercise that reveals what they think matters most in the Fabric ecosystem right now.
September 24, 2025
Mike and Tommy recap FabCon Vienna—the big announcements, the September Fabric feature summary, the new extensibility toolkit, and calendar-based time intelligence. A packed episode covering the European conference highlights.
September 19, 2025
Mike and Tommy compare composite models and reusable datasets—two approaches to sharing and extending semantic models across teams. They also react to Translytical Task Flows from listener feedback in their 'Beat from the Street' segment.
September 17, 2025
Mike and Tommy share first impressions of Fabric Data Agents—what's promising, what's still hype, and how multi-agent orchestration with Copilot Studio fits in. Plus, smarter agent instructions and a Chicago Fabric crash course meetup.
September 12, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle one of the most common Fabric questions: how do you plan and size your capacity? They walk through Microsoft's capacity planning tools, estimator, and optimization strategies to help teams right-size their Fabric investment.
September 12, 2025
If you had a magic wand and could add any feature to Fabric, what would it be? Mike and Tommy riff on Stephanie Bruno's LinkedIn post about dream Fabric features, sharing their own wish lists and debating what would have the biggest impact.
August 29, 2025
Mike and Tommy walk through the Fabric Data Warehouse roadmap—what's coming, what's already shipped, and where warehouse fits in the broader Fabric story. Plus, materialized lake views and notebook UDF integration.
August 27, 2025
Mike and Tommy discuss the latest Fabric Data Warehouse improvements—migration assistant, SQL endpoint refresh upgrades, snapshots, and the 'creature comforts' that make warehouse feel more like home for SQL professionals.
August 20, 2025
Mike and Tommy discuss the evolving role of SQL in Fabric—what's new and coming soon in the SQL analytics endpoint, connecting Fabric SQL to Desktop, and whether SQL is gaining or losing ground in the modern data stack.
August 15, 2025
Mike and Tommy discuss the end of Power BI Datamarts—Microsoft's plan to unify datamarts with Fabric Data Warehouse. They cover what this means for current datamart users, the migration path, and whether datamarts ever found their audience.
August 13, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore the design considerations between Microsoft Fabric's Lakehouse and Warehouse—when to use each, where they overlap, and how to think about the decision for your organization.
August 8, 2025
Mike and Tommy discuss how simplified data ingestion UIs in Microsoft Fabric can lead to unexpected issues, plus Mike previews his upcoming conference talks on report visualization and CI/CD.
August 6, 2025
Mike and Tommy unpack translytical task flows in Power BI—a feature that goes far beyond the Gartner buzzword. Plus news on OneLake as a source for COPY INTO and a new Fabric Notebooks competition.
July 9, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down the Fabric June 2025 update with a rapid-fire draft of the features they’re most excited about. They also cover Copilot inline code completion in Fabric notebooks, shortcut transformations from files to Delta tables, and new data agent data-source instructions.
July 4, 2025
Mike and Tommy dig into a very real Fabric pain point: connections that get created by one developer and become invisible or unusable for everyone else. They share practical governance patterns—especially security-group driven ownership—and what Microsoft could improve to reduce friction and ‘paper cuts’ in team-based pipelines.
July 2, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle a mailbag question from a small business struggling to justify Power BI and Fabric over their existing SSRS setup. They break down licensing strategies, the value of the semantic model, and why even small organizations can find the right price point for Fabric.
June 27, 2025
Mike, Tommy, and guest Mathias Thierbach unpack CI/CD branching strategies — Git Flow, GitHub Flow, GitLab Flow, and trunk-based development — exploring how they apply to Microsoft Fabric, the tooling gaps that remain, and practical advice for teams just getting started with source control.
June 25, 2025
Tommy, Mike, and guest Mathias Thierbach unpack what DataOps means for Power BI and Fabric teams — from source control and automated testing to scaling with junior developers. The trio debates whether AI is the key to rapid DataOps adoption and why the click-and-drag approach to Fabric projects won't survive long-term.
June 18, 2025
Mike and Tommy are joined by Mathias Thierbach to unpack what DevOps really means for Power BI and Fabric teams — beyond just CI/CD. They cover why source control is the starting line, where automated testing fits (and why Microsoft tooling is still thin), plus how PBIR/PBIP and modern file formats unlock collaboration at scale.
June 6, 2025
Mike and Tommy debate whether your next investment of time should go toward making reports better or making your semantic model AI-ready. They unpack Microsoft's new 'Prep Data for AI' features — AI instructions, AI data schema, and verified answers — and ask the hard question: is the juice worth the squeeze?
June 4, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive deep into Microsoft Fabric shortcuts — from managing connections and creating shortcuts programmatically to using them as data contracts between teams. They explore how shortcuts are changing data architecture patterns and enabling new ways to distribute and govern data across organizations.
May 30, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down what Copilot Standalone for Power BI is and why it changes the consumer experience for chat-with-your-data. Then they role-play a realistic rollout plan—starting with real problems, measurable wins, and AI-ready semantic models instead of a blanket mandate.
May 28, 2025
Mike and Tommy unpack Microsoft Build 2025 announcements through a practical lens — from open mirroring and SQL database tooling to the new standalone Copilot for Power BI. The main topic: a role-play exercise on how you'd actually roll out Copilot standalone in your organization.
May 20, 2025
Mike and Tommy debate whether the Power BI and Fabric ecosystem is still truly self-service or quietly drifting back toward corporate BI, exploring semantic model-to-lakehouse sync, data contracts, managed self-service, and where the line between central IT and business users really falls.
May 16, 2025
Mike and Tommy unpack TMDL — the Tabular Model Definition Language — tracing its origins from the monolithic BIM file to today's human-readable, file-per-object format. They explore practical use cases in VS Code, from find-and-replace renaming to AI-powered measure descriptions and unused-object cleanup with GitHub Copilot.
May 14, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive into the rich ecosystem of third-party and first-party tools that help Power BI developers build, test, deploy, and optimize their models and reports. From SQLBI's comprehensive overview to hands-on favorites, this episode is a toolbox tour for every Power BI practitioner.
May 9, 2025
Mike, Tommy, and special guest Alex Powers deep-dive into squeezing maximum performance out of Power Query—from Excel origins to Dataflows Gen 2 in Fabric. They cover staging defaults, V-Order optimization, query folding, the ELT mindset shift, and why copy-pasting Gen 1 code into Gen 2 will burn your CU budget.
May 2, 2025
Mike and Tommy serve up their half baked ideas for the Power BI and Fabric ecosystem. From wish-list features to wild predictions, this episode is all about thinking out loud.
April 30, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore whether recent Fabric updates change how we should design a lakehouse architecture. With Direct Lake now available in Power BI Desktop and new workspace item limits, the design conversation is shifting fast.
April 25, 2025
Mike, Tommy, and guest Ginger Grant explore what education for a data scientist should look like in the age of Microsoft Fabric. They discuss whether traditional college degrees still hold up, the value of internships, and how the evolving data platform landscape is reshaping what skills matter most.
April 23, 2025
Mike, Tommy, and guest Ginger Grant explore whether now is the right time for data scientists to make the switch to Microsoft Fabric. They dive into the evolving data platform landscape and what a Director of Data should consider when adopting Fabric.
April 18, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle whether data scientists should pay attention to Power BI, featuring a lively discussion on the intersection of data science and business intelligence. Plus, news on Fabric User Data Functions and VS Code custom instructions for Copilot.
April 16, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle a community question about whether data science platforms are poised to replace traditional BI tools. They explore where analytics is heading and what it means for Power BI practitioners.
April 9, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down the biggest announcements from FabCon 2025, covering agentic AI capabilities, new warehouse functions, and metadata-driven lakehouse patterns. They also spotlight the Power Designer Workload and Entelexos for Power BI Embedded.
April 2, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive into data contracts and how they apply to Power BI and Microsoft Fabric environments. They explore why formalizing expectations between data producers and consumers is key to building trustworthy, scalable data platforms.
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.
March 14, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore what you can accomplish with just $100 invested in Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. They also check out PowerTable's new private preview for building data apps on modern data platforms.
March 12, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive into naming conventions for Microsoft Fabric items and why a consistent structure matters as your workspace grows. Plus, news on AI functions in Fabric and the February 2025 feature summary.
March 5, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive deep into composite models in Power BI, reviewing how they work and when to use them. They also cover the new Spark connector for Fabric Data Warehouse now in public preview.
February 28, 2025
Mike and Tommy reflect on the journey of a citizen developer growing with Power BI. They share practical advice on leveling up from self-taught report builder to trusted data professional.
February 26, 2025
Mike and Tommy dive deep into SQL databases in Microsoft Fabric — what they are, why they matter, and how to get started. They also cover the new Fabric Quotas feature and debate which social media platform they'd keep if they could only have one.
February 21, 2025
Mike and Tommy celebrate episode 400 and dive into the Microsoft Fabric decision guide for choosing the right data store. They break down when to use a lakehouse, warehouse, eventhouse, SQL database, and more — helping you pick the right tool for the job.