Why Python developers just use Postgres with Dawn Wages
When I found out that Django developer and Python Software Foundation chair Dawn Wages has a chapter in her upcoming Domain-Driven Django book called “Just Use Postgres”, I knew we had to get her on the show. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, Dawn breaks down why so many Python and Django developers have such an affinity for Postgres. And we dive into the Djangonaut Space mentoring program (where contributors launch), learn why “free as in puppies” beats “free as in cake” for open source vibes, and dig into why Python is the second-best language for everything.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Project page: psycopg
- Documentation: Psycopg 3 – PostgreSQL database adapter for Python
- Project page: PostgreSQL open source project
- Git repo: code for PostgreSQL.org website
- Conference: PyCon US 2025, happening May 14-22 in Pittsburgh
- Conference: PGConf.dev 2025 Schedule, happening May 13-16 in Montreal Canada
- Conference: Prague PostgreSQL Developer Day 2025 (P2D2) Schedule, which took place Jan 28-29
- Wikipedia page: Model-view-controller software design pattern
- Book: Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0, affectionately called “the four heads book”
- Podcast episode: Working in Public with Simon Willison & Marco Slot
- Blog: Simon Willison’s TILs, aka Things I’ve learned
- Simon Willison’s Weblog: Here’s how I use LLMs to help me write code
- Simon Willison’s Weblog: How I make annotated presentations
- Survey: Python Developers Survey 2023 Results
- Python Docs: What’s new in Python 3.14
- Mentorship program: Djangonaut Space
- Mentorship program: Media & Talks about Djangonaut Space
- Podcast episode: Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert Haas
- Slides: PGConf EU 2024 talk by Claire Giordano about Contributions to Postgres, including maps showing how global the Postgres project is
- Video of POSETTE 2024 talk by Paolo Melchiorre: Semantic search with Django, PostgreSQL, & pgvector
- Video of Citus Con 2023 talk: Maps with Django (and PostGIS), by Paolo Melchiorre
- Video of Citus Con 2022 talk: Django with PostgreSQL superpowers, by Paolo Melchiorre
- Conference: DjangoCon Africa 2025, happening August 11-15 in Tanzania
- Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep26 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Apr 02, 2025 with guest Bruce Momjian, to talk about Open Source Leadership
Creators and Guests
Host
Claire Giordano
Claire Giordano is head of the Postgres open source community initiatives at Microsoft. Claire has served in leadership roles in engineering, product management, and product marketing at Sun Microsystems, Amazon/A9, and Citus Data. At Sun, Claire managed the engineering team that created Solaris Zones, and led the effort to open source Solaris.
Producer
Aaron Wislang
Open Source Engineering + Developer Relations at Microsoft + Azure ☁️ | Go (golang), Cloud Native, Linux 🐧 🐍 🦀 ☕ 🍷📷 🎹 | Toronto 🇨🇦🌎 | 💨😷💉 | https://aaronw.dev/hello/
