Welcome to Data and Drams, the podcast where we distill the best careers in tech and the incredible craft behind the bottle. I'm your host, Sarah. By day, I'm a tech delivery manager, which means my actual job is acting as a translator.I sit right between developers and executives, two groups who are technically speaking the same language, but practically they're speaking completely different ones. My job is to make sure they actually understand each other. Now, as it turns out, that translator skill is exactly what inspired season two.Look, there are hundreds of tech and leadership podcasts. There are hundreds of whisky podcasts, but there isn't a single show that puts both worlds in the same room and asks them what they have to teach each other. Data and Drams isn't a niche. It's a bridge, and like any bridge, they carry traffic in both directions.Forget the standard interview format. This isn't a panel, it's not a talking head show, and it's definitely not a polished sit-down where someone recites their LinkedIn bio while I nod along.And genuinely, that would be boring for everyone involved.
Instead, I'm putting aside the emails, the meetings, and the corporate speak to pour a dram, because whisky does something to a conversation. It slows it down, it strips away the corporate performance and makes it real.Every episode starts with my guest's preferred dram, and if it's way too early for them, I'll gladly have one for both of us. Now, I want to be very clear, I am not an expert on this show, and I never claim to be (though I am slowly making my way through a diploma in single malt). My goal is simply to be the most curious person in the room, learning in public and bringing you along the journey.
In season one, we broke down boardroom barriers with tech execs. For season two, we're expanding. We're running two distinct alternating streams to show how a complex data transformation is actually a lot like a process of moving from grain to bottle.
Here is how the two streams will work.
We have the executive barrel.
This is where I sit down with C-suite leaders, CIOs, VPs, and tech founders. We go way beyond the CV and into the raw, unpolished stories, the projects that nearly went sideways, the leadership frameworks that actually work, and the lessons forged in real-world hurdles and not corporate case studies.And our second stream is the master blend. This is where the spirits industry gets to tell its own data story.I'm talking to master blenders, distillery operators, and researchers who are using predictive fermentation, IoT sensors on stills, and e-commerce data to scale a craft that's been done the same way for hundreds of years.The tech behind your favourite bottle is massive, and no one else is talking about it. When you place these two worlds side by side, you start to realise how much they actually share.A relentless willingness to iterate until something incredible emerges. Yet historically, both industries have a habit of gatekeeping and excluding the very people who have the most to offer them.Data and Drams exists to break those barriers down, open those doors, and make both rooms accessible to anyone and everyone.We are demystifying data one dram at a time. So whether you're here for the Executive Barrel or the Master Blend, or like me, you're part of the growing group that loves both.
Pull up a chair, get comfortable, and let's pour a glass.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss a single drop.
