How I went from Oracle to Postgres (with a big NoSQL detour) with Gwen Shapira

It’s rare for developers to genuinely love their database, so why does Postgres earn that kind of loyalty? In Episode 38 of Talking Postgres, Gwen Shapira, co‑founder of Nile, joins Claire to trace her path from operating Oracle at scale, through a long NoSQL chapter, to co‑founding a Postgres company that wasn’t originally meant to be one—after discovering how much Postgres quietly gets right. Gwen shares how she spun up on Postgres after years with other databases (shout-out to the Happiness Hints and a strong sense of curiosity), and why Postgres has made her appreciate Codd. We also touch on blogging as a career catalyst, the upcoming PGConf.dev conference (where a lot of PG20 work gets discussed, and where we’ll celebrate 30 years of Postgres)—and the #1 rule of consulting: it’s always the consultant’s fault. Previously on Talking Postgres:Talking Postgres Ep15: My Journey to Explaining Explain with Michael ChristofidesTalking Postgres Ep24: Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert HaasTalking Postgres Ep30: AI for data engineers with Simon WillisonLinks mentioned in this episode:Gwen’s company: NileArdent Performance Computing blog: PostgreSQL Happiness HintsBook: Just Use Postgres! by Denis MagdaGitHub repo: HypoPGWikipedia page: Codd’s 12 rulesBlog post: Transaction Isolation in Postgres, by Gwen ShapiraPodcast: Postgres.FMDiscord server: PostgreSQL Hacking Upcoming conferences & talks mentioned:Conference: PGConf.dev 2026 on May 19-22 in Vancouver CanadaConference Schedule: PGConf.dev 2026 scheduleCFP deadline: PGConf.dev Community Discussion Sessions deadline on 14 Apr 2026Conference: PGConf EU 2026 in Valencia SpainLinkedIn post: PGConf.dev 2026 conference t-shirt, celebrating 30 years of PostgresPOSETTE 2026 talk: The Rise of PostgreSQL as the Everything Database, by Varun DhawanPGConf.dev 2026 Panel: Real-Time Patch Idea EvaluationPGConf.dev 2026 Roundtable: Unexpected Successes & Epic Failures by PostgreSQL committersCalendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep39 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed May 06, 2026