A Posit podcast for
data science

For data science junkies, anomaly hunters, and those who play outside the confidence interval.

LATEST: EPISODE 16

RECENT EPISODES

Thumbnail of Alenka Frim

EPISODE 15

Alenka Frim: What yoga teaches us about discipline and collaboration in data science

Alenka Frim went from teaching yoga full-time to becoming a committer and PMC Member on Apache Arrow. In this episode, Alenka joins The Test Set hosts to talk about how Arrow grew from spec to critical infrastructure, and why she started contributing to a project she had never even used. She reflects on imposter syndrome, the discipline of showing up (on the mat and in GitHub), and how agents are changing what it means to write code. Plus: managing 4,000 open issues without losing your mind.

Thumbnail of Emily Riederer

EPISODE 14

Emily Riederer: Column selectors, data quality, and learning in public

Emily Riederer writes Python with an R accent, and we’re all comfortable with it. In this episode, Emily reflects on her journey through R, Python, and SQL — from lessons learned in averaging default values (oops, we're not all rich!) to discovering that column selectors are way cooler than they sound. She weighs in on the delicate art of learning in public, why frustration often makes the best teacher, and how to find your niche by solving the boring problems. Oh, Oh, and the crew casually drops that she's keynoting posit::conf 2026!

Thumbnail of Rebecca Barter

EPISODE 13

Rebecca Barter: Persistent learning, tool building, and 'Will code even exist?'

Rebecca Barter, senior data scientist at Arine and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Utah, refuses to work on things she doesn’t care about. Lucky for us, she cares about a lot, most of all impact. In this episode, Rebecca joins The Test Set to talk about learning fast, building better tools, and staying motivated and adaptable.