Best OReilly Data Podcasts (2025)

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Context Engineering with Drew Breunig 41:01

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2d ago41:01

41:01

In this episode, Ben Lorica and Drew Breunig, a strategist at the Overture Maps Foundation, talk all things context engineering: what’s working, where things are breaking down, and what comes next. Listen in to hear why huge context windows aren’t solving the problems we hoped they might, why companies shouldn’t discount evals and testing, and why …

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Emmanuel Ameisen on LLM Interpretability 29:04

21d ago29:04

29:04

In this episode, Ben Lorica and Anthropic interpretability researcher Emmanuel Ameisen get into the work Emmanuel’s team has been doing to better understand how LLMs like Claude work. Listen in to find out what they’ve uncovered by taking a microscopic look at how LLMs function—and just how far the analogy to the human brain holds.…

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Understanding A2A with Heiko Hotz and Sokratis Kartakis 33:10

29d ago33:10

33:10

Everyone is talking about agents: single agents and, increasingly, multi-agent systems. What kind of applications will we build with agents, and how will we build with them? How will agents communicate with each other effectively? Why do we need a protocol like A2A to specify how they communicate? Join Ben Lorica as he talks with Heiko Hotz and Sok…

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Faye Zhang on Using AI to Improve Discovery 22:11

30d ago22:11

22:11

In this episode, Ben Lorica and AI Engineer Faye Zhang talk about discoverability: how to use AI to build search and recommendation engines that actually find what you want. Listen in to learn how AI goes way beyond simple collaborative filtering—pulling in many different kinds of data and metadata, including images and voice, to get a much better …

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Luke Wroblewski on When Databases Talk Agent-Speak 29:00

1M ago29:00

29:00

Join Luke Wroblewski and Ben Lorica as they talk about the future of software development. What happens when we have databases that are designed to interact with agents and language models rather than humans? We’re starting to see what that world will look like. It’s an exciting time to be a software developer.…

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Jay Alammar on Building AI for the Enterprise 42:37

1M ago42:37

42:37

Jay Alammar, director and Engineering Fellow at Cohere, joins Ben Lorica to talk about building AI applications for the enterprise, using RAG effectively, and the evolution of RAG into agents. Listen in to find out what kinds of metadata you need when you’re onboarding a new model or agent; discover how an emphasis on evaluation helps an organizati…

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Phillip Carter on Where Generative AI Meets Observability 38:00

1M ago38:00

38:00

Phillip Carter, formerly of Honeycomb, and Ben Lorica talk about observability and AI—what observability means, how generative AI causes problems for observability, and how generative AI can be used as a tool to help SREs analyze telemetry data. There’s tremendous potential because AI is great at finding patterns in massive datasets, but it’s still…

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Raiza Martin on Building AI Applications for Audio 36:00

1M ago36:00

36:00

Audio is being added to AI everywhere: both in multimodal models that can understand and generate audio and in applications that use audio for input. Now that we can work with spoken language, what does that mean for the applications that we can develop? How do we think about audio interfaces—how will people use them, and what will they want to do?…

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Stefania Druga on Designing for the Next Generation 33:07

1M ago33:07

33:07

How do you teach kids to use and build with AI? That’s what Stefania Druga works on. It’s important to be sensitive to their creativity, sense of fun, and desire to learn. When designing for kids, it’s important to design with them, not just for them. That’s a lesson that has important implications for adults, too. Join Stefania Druga and Ben Loric…

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Douwe Kiela on Why RAG Isn’t Dead 34:46

1M ago34:46

34:46

Join our host Ben Lorica and Douwe Kiela, cofounder of Contextual AI and author of the first paper on RAG, to find out why RAG remains as relevant as ever. Regardless of what you call it, retrieval is at the heart of generative AI. Find out why—and how to build effective RAG-based systems. Points of Interest 0:25: Today’s topic is RAG. With frontie…

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Danielle Belgrave on Generative AI in Pharma and Medicine 31:32

1M ago31:32

31:32

Join Danielle Belgrave and Ben Lorica for a discussion of AI in healthcare. Danielle is VP of AI and machine learning at GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline). She and Ben discuss using AI and machine learning to get better diagnoses that reflect the differences between patients. Listen in to learn about the challenges of working with health data—a field …

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The Startup Opportunity with Gabriela de Queiroz 30:51

1M ago30:51

30:51

Ben Lorica and Gabriela de Queiroz, director of AI at Microsoft, talk about startups: specifically, AI startups. How do you get noticed? How do you generate real traction? What are startups doing with agents and with protocols like MCP and A2A? And which security issues should startups watch for, especially if they’re using open weights models? Poi…

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Securing AI with Steve Wilson 42:50

1M ago42:50

42:50

Join Steve Wilson and Ben Lorica for a discussion of AI security. We all know that AI brings new vulnerabilities into the software landscape. Steve and Ben talk about what makes AI different, what the big risks are, and how you can use AI safely. Find out how agents introduce their own vulnerabilities, and learn about resources such as OWASP that c…

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Shreya Shankar on AI for Corporate Data Processing 30:13

1M ago30:13

30:13

Businesses have a lot of data—but most of that data is unstructured textual data: reports, catalogs, emails, notes, and much more. Without structure, business analysts can’t make sense of the data; there is value in the data, but it can’t be put to use. AI can be a tool for finding and extracting the structure that’s hidden in textual data. In this…

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Vibe Coding with Steve Yegge 39:58

2M ago39:58

39:58

Ever since Andrej Karpathy first tweeted it, “vibe coding” has been on every software developer’s mind. Join Ben Lorica and Steve Yegge to find out what vibe coding means, especially in a professional context. Going beyond the current memes, what will the future of software development look like when we have multiple agents? And how do you prepare …

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Interactions Between Humans and AI with Rajeshwari Ganesan 33:22

2M ago33:22

33:22

In this edition of Generative AI in the Real World, Ben Lorica and Rajeshwari Ganesan talk about how to put generative AI in closer touch with human needs and requirements. AI isn’t all about building bigger models and benchmarks. To use it effectively, we need better interfaces; we need contexts that support groups rather than individuals; we need…

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Getting Beyond the Demo with Hamel Husain 32:08

2M ago32:08

32:08

In this episode, Ben Lorica and Hamel Husain talk about how to take the next steps with artificial intelligence. Developers don’t need to build their own models—but they do need basic data skills. It’s important to look at your data, to discover your model’s weaknesses, and to use that information to develop test suites and evals that show whether …

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Agents—The Next Step in AI with Shelby Heinecke 27:24

2M ago27:24

27:24

Join Shelby Heinecke, senior research manager at Salesforce, and Ben Lorica as they talk about agents, AI models that can take action on behalf of their users. Are they the future—or at least the hot topic for the coming year? Where are we with smaller models? And what do we need to improve the agent stack? How do you evaluate the performance of mo…

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Measuring Skills with Kian Katanforoosh 30:55

2M ago30:55

30:55

How do we measure skills in an age of AI? That question has an effect on everything from hiring to productive teamwork. Join Kian Katanforoosh, founder and CEO of Workera, and Ben Lorica for a discussion of how we can use AI to assess skills more effectively. How do we get beyond pass/fail exams to true measures of a person’s ability? Points of Int…

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Chloé Messdaghi on AI Security, Policy, and Regulation 30:05

2M ago30:05

30:05

Chloé Messdaghi and Ben Lorica discuss AI security—a subject of increasing importance as AI-driven applications roll out into the real world. There’s a knowledge gap: Security workers don’t understand AI, and AI developers don’t understand security. It’s important to be aware of all the resources that are available. Make sure to bring everyone toge…

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Tom Smoker on Getting Started with GraphRAG 35:24

2M ago35:24

35:24

Join Ben Lorica and Tom Smoker for a discussion of GraphRAG, one of the hottest topics of the last few months. GraphRAG goes a step beyond RAG to make the output of language models more consistent, accurate, and explainable. But what is a graph? A graph is a way of structuring data. In the end, it’s the structure that’s important, along with the wo…

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Robert Nishihara on AI and the Future of Data 29:58

2M ago29:58

29:58

Robert Nishihara is one of the creators of Ray and cofounder of Anyscale, a platform for high-performance distributed data analysis and artificial intelligence. Ben Lorica and Robert discuss the need for data for the next generation of AI, which will be multimodal. What kinds of data will we need to develop models for video and multimodal data? And…

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Getting Ahead of the Curve with Claire Vo 26:50

2M ago26:50

26:50

In this episode, Ben Lorica talks with Claire Vo, chief product officer at Launch Darkly and founder of ChatPRD. AI gives us a new set of tools that make everyone more productive and efficient. Those tools will allow more experimentation; they will allow more people to participate in product development; and they will create new opportunities for s…

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The Future of Programming with Matt Welsh 46:02

2M ago46:02

46:02

Join us for a conversation between Ben Lorica and Matt Welsh, cofounder of Fixie.ai, former engineer at Apple and Google, and one of Mark Zuckerberg’s professors at Harvard. Learn how AI is changing computing. Whether it’s in C or a human language, programming is telling a computer what you want it to do—but AI opens up new classes of things that w…

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Kingsley Ndoh on Improving Cancer Care with AI 35:12

2M ago35:12

35:12

What can AI do to improve healthcare? Kingsley Ndoh, founder of Hurone AI, talks with Ben Lorica about how Hurone is making cancer care more effective for people who are underserved by the medical system. He discusses how AI can streamline the medical process, both helping doctors to treat patients more effectively and making clinical trials more d…

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Putting AI in the Hands of Farmers with Rikin Gandhi 34:54

2M ago34:54

34:54

Rikin Gandhi, CTO of Digital Green, talks with Ben Lorica about using generative AI to help farmers in developing countries become more productive. Farmer.Chat integrates information from training videos, sources of weather and crop information, and other data sources in a multimodal app that farmers can use in real-time. Points of Interest 0:45: D…

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Adopting AI in the Enterprise with Timothy Persons 33:56

2M ago33:56

33:56

Timothy Persons of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) talks with Ben Lorica about adoption of AI in the enterprise. They discuss the challenges enterprises experience, including the need to change corporate culture. To succeed, it’s important to focus on solving well-defined problems rather than just doing something cool with AI. Good data strategies and…

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Learning How to Do AI Effectively with Alfred Spector 40:11

2M ago40:11

40:11

Alfred Spector has been a leader in AI and machine learning at Google, IBM, and Two Sigma. He is now a visiting scholar at MIT, an advisor at Blackstone, and coauthor of the text book Data Science in Context. Alfred talks with Ben Lorica about what people developing with AI need to be successful. Succeeding with AI is about more than just a model. …

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Andrew Ng on where AI is headed. It’s about agents. 27:39

2M ago27:39

27:39

Andrew Ng is one of the pioneers of modern AI. He was Google Brain’s founding technical lead, Coursera’s founder, Baidu’s Chief Scientist, DeepLearning.ai’s founder, a Professor at Stanford—and much more. Andrew talks with Ben Lorica about scaling AI, agents, the future of open source AI, and openness among AI researchers. Have you experienced an “…

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Democratizing AI with Gwendolyn Stripling 34:26

2M ago34:26

34:26

Gwendolyn Stripling, author of Low-Code AI, talks about the democratization of AI, the primacy of data, the future of data science, and the coming of agents. It’s easy to think that AI is all about algorithms and models but it’s not; it’s really about understanding the business use case and the data that can be applied to that use case. We’re only …

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Competing in a Generative World with Justin Norman 36:56

2M ago36:56

36:56

Justin Norman, author of Product Management for AI and co-founder of Vera, a startup focused on security for generative AI, talks with Ben Lorica about how product management has changed since Generative AI came on the scene. He discusses the issues retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) raises for product management; how reliability has become part …

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Pete Warden on Running AI on Small Systems 33:58

2M ago33:58

33:58

Pete Warden, founder of Useful Sensors and co-author of TinyML, discusses use cases for artificial intelligence that we rarely think about: how can you run AI on very small systems? How can you put AI on consumer devices in ways that are actually useful and not just buzzword-compliant? AI doesn’t have to rely on massive GPU farms. Pete talks about …

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Chip Huyen on Finding Business Use Cases for Generative AI 34:59

2M ago34:59

34:59

O’Reilly’s Generative AI in the Enterprise survey reported that people have trouble coming up with appropriate enterprise use cases for AI. Why is it hard to come up with appropriate use cases? Chip Huyen, cofounder of Claypot AI and author of Designing Machine Learning Systems, talks about why many companies have trouble coming up with appropriate…

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The Power of a Strong Parental Leave Policy with Lacey Kempinksi 41:47

11M ago41:47

41:47

If you’re a nonprofit leader looking for strategies to help your organization retain more employees, then give this episode a listen. I sat down with special guest and founder of Balanced Good, Lacey Kempinski, to chat about how her organization is partnering with nonprofits to provide parental leave coverage. She dove into how she supports nonprof…

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Making the Pivot to Nonprofit Consulting with Julia Devine 49:08

12M ago49:08

49:08

If you’ve been thinking about a career change, but still want to stay in the nonprofit sector, then this episode is for you! I sat down with special guest, Julia Devine, founder of Relatable Nonprofit. She shared her journey from six-figure nonprofit job to consultant including how she made the shift, stepped out of her comfort zone, and what she w…

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Using Cross-Sector Collaboration to Maximize Your Impact with Jennifer Hutchins 46:49

1y ago46:49

46:49

If you’re looking for ways to make a massive, lasting impact with your nonprofit, then this episode is for you. I sat down with special guest, Jennifer Hutchins Executive Director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits and collaboration expert. She spoke on the importance of collaborating across different sectors and how it has transformed nonprofi…

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Implementing Technology and Change in Your Nonprofit Effectively with Christa Stelzmuller 45:40

1y ago45:40

45:40

If you’re a nonprofit leader looking to make a change in your organization, then this episode is for you! I sat down with Christa Stelzmuller, Chief Technology Officer of charity:water, to chat about how nonprofits can become more innovative. We dove into how to leverage technology, even if your nonprofit is small. Christa also shares strategies fo…

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Collecting and Communicating Impact Data in a Meaningful Way with John Mark Vanderpool 52:27

1y ago52:27

52:27

If you’re looking for a way to improve your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy, then this podcast episode is for you. I sat down with special guest and impact data expert, John Mark Vanderpool. He is diving into how to get clarity on your nonprofit’s big goals, collect and translate data meaningfully, and put the right systems in place. This is a gre…

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Preventing Burnout for You and Your Team with Elle McPherson 45:03

1y ago45:03

45:03

Are you a nonprofit leader battling burnout? If you’re working in the nonprofit sector, chances are you’ve had some experience with burnout, which is why I was so excited to sit down with special guest and nonprofit coach, Elle McPherson. She breaks down burnout red flags, contributing factors, balancing woo with logic, and so much more. This is a …

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Raise More Money by Creating Strong Donor Experiences with Barbara O'Reilly 40:36

1y ago40:36

40:36

Nonprofit leaders, if you’re ready to catapult your revenue, then this episode is for you! I sat down with special guest, Barabara O’Reilly, expert fundraiser and CEO of Windmill Hill Consulting, to chat about what organizations can do to boost their fundraising revenue. We dove into what’s holding nonprofits back and how they can grow to become fi…

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Capital Campaign Fundraising with Amy Varga 56:23

1y ago56:23

56:23

Are you a nonprofit leader wondering if your organization should launch a capital campaign? If you’re on the fence about it, then this episode is for you. I’m chatting with special guest, Amy Varga, capital campaign expert and founder of The Varga Group. She dives into what you need to know, including how to leverage your donor base, conduct a feas…

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Implementing a Quarterly Review Process for Your Nonprofit 26:37

1y ago26:37

26:37

Nonprofit leaders, are you leveraging the power of a quarterly review in your organization? If you haven’t implemented one yet or are looking for ways to improve your process, then this episode is for you. I’m breaking down strategies for how to effectively conduct a quarterly review. I’m giving you strategies to help you do a deep dive into your f…

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Creating Collaborative Environments for Social Change with Topher Wilkins 35:50

1+ y ago35:50

35:50

If you’re a nonprofit leader looking to shake up the way you connect and collaborate, then this is the episode for you. I chat with Topher Wilkins, CEO of Opportunity Collaboration (OC), as he shares his journey of building a global community of leaders working to create positive change. Topher also discusses the importance of understanding what pe…

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A Special Update: My Book-Writing Journey 23:24

1+ y ago23:24

23:24

In this episode, I’m giving a behind-the-scenes look at a project that is near and dear to my heart, writing a full-length book! I’m diving into why this project is so special to me and what my journey has been like so far, including the ups, downs, and bumps in the road. I’m also sharing a huge mindset shift that helped me get fully aligned with m…

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Using Ethical Storytelling in Your Marketing with Diana Farias Heinrich 45:44

1+ y ago45:44

45:44

If you’re a nonprofit leader looking to elevate your marketing using storytelling, then this podcast episode is for you. I chat with special guest, Diana Farias Heinrich, CEO of Habrá Marketing and ethical communication strategy expert. We dove into how she became an advocate for ethical storytelling and important lessons she’s learned along the wa…

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Start Spending Money on These Five Things 16:35

1+ y ago16:35

16:35

Nonprofit leaders, are you spending enough money on your organization? This probably sounds like a strange question, especially since many of you are looking for ways to minimize your expenses. However, there are five crucial things nonprofit leaders need to invest in in order to have a thriving organization. In this episode, I dive into what these…

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How to Become a Successful Leader with Erica Rooney 43:54

1+ y ago43:54

43:54

Are you a nonprofit leader looking to take your leadership skills to the next level? If so, then give this episode a listen! I got some amazing insight from special guest, Erica Rooney, Executive Coach and a Chief People Officer. She shared how she empowers leaders, particularly women, to step into their own and become successful leaders for their …

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Stop Spending Money on These Six Things 19:08

1+ y ago19:08

19:08

Nonprofit leaders, are you wasting money on unnecessary things? I know this sounds like a harsh question, but it’s so important to evaluate. It’s something I see all the time with many of the nonprofits my team and I work with. That’s why, in this episode, I dive into the six main things nonprofits need to stop spending money on and what you can do…

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Elevating Your Individual Fundraising Strategy with Haley Cooper 37:28

1+ y ago37:28

37:28

Are you looking for fresh, new ways to up your individual fundraising game? This is the episode for you! I chatted with special guest, Haley Cooper, CFRE, about how she is empowering new nonprofits to be strategic with their individual fundraising. We dove into how Haley stumbled into the nonprofit world after one mission trip completely changed th…

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Behind the Scenes of Our 2024 Team Retreat 23:50

1+ y ago23:50

23:50

Does your organization have team retreats? Whether you’re just beginning to explore them or you’re looking for new ideas for your next one, this episode is for you. I’m diving into a special, behind-the-scenes look at our annual team retreat. I’m discussing the benefits of retreats and why I think they are 100% worth the investment. Plus, the logis…