Confluent Developer ft. Tim Berglund, Adi Polak & Viktor Gamov

Technology Podcasts

Hi, we’re Tim Berglund, Adi Polak, and Viktor Gamov and we’re excited to bring you the Confluent Developer podcast (formerly “Streaming Audio.”) Our hand-crafted weekly episodes feature in-depth interviews with our community of software developers (actual human beings - not AI) talking about some of the most interesting challenges they’ve faced in their careers. We aim to explore the conditions that gave rise to each person’s technical hurdles, as well as how their experiences transformed their understanding and approach to building systems. Whether you’re a seasoned open source data streaming engineer, or just someone who’s interested in learning more about Apache Kafka®, Apache Flink® and real-time data, we hope you’ll appreciate the stories, the discussion, and our effort to bring you a high-quality show worth your time.

Location:

United States

Genres:

Technology Podcasts

Description:

Hi, we’re Tim Berglund, Adi Polak, and Viktor Gamov and we’re excited to bring you the Confluent Developer podcast (formerly “Streaming Audio.”) Our hand-crafted weekly episodes feature in-depth interviews with our community of software developers (actual human beings - not AI) talking about some of the most interesting challenges they’ve faced in their careers. We aim to explore the conditions that gave rise to each person’s technical hurdles, as well as how their experiences transformed their understanding and approach to building systems. Whether you’re a seasoned open source data streaming engineer, or just someone who’s interested in learning more about Apache Kafka®, Apache Flink® and real-time data, we hope you’ll appreciate the stories, the discussion, and our effort to bring you a high-quality show worth your time.

Twitter:

@confluentinc

Language:

English

Website:

https://www.confluent.io/

Episodes

Killing Clusters & Orchestrating Chaos with Colt McNealy | Ep. 20

2/23/2026

Tim Berglund talks to Colt McNealy (LittleHorse Enterprises) about his career in distributed systems. Colt’s first job: software engineer at a real estate company. His challenge: working in a complex microservices environment and turning that pain into Little Horse. Colt's Current 2024 talk: https://current.confluent.io/2024-sessions/kafka-streams-as-a-data-store-for-a-workflow-engine Gunnar Morling's blog: https://www.morling.dev/blog/ Jack Vanlightly's blog: https://jack-vanlightly.com/ SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:38:00

Deleting Architecture for Better Systems ft. Daniel Doubrovkine | Ep. 19

2/16/2026

Adi Polak talks to Daniel Doubrovkine (Shopify) about his career building data‑intensive systems. Daniel’s first job: delivering pharmacy medications by bike. His challenge: building Artsy’s Art Genome and auctions as simple as possible. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:26:05

Fail Fast & Ship It with Jeremy Custenborder | Ep. 18

2/9/2026

Viktor Gamov talks to Jeremy Custenborder (Confluent) about his career in large-scale systems. Jeremy’s first job: paper boy. His challenge: keeping MySpace running at a massive pre-cloud scale while building the tools that didn’t exist yet and learning to fail fast. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:27:00

From “This May Never Work” to WarpStream with Richie Artoul | Ep. 17

2/2/2026

Tim Berglund talks to Richie Artoul (WarpStream/Confluent) about his career in data infrastructure. Richie’s first job: working at Howie’s Game Shack, a walk‑in LAN gaming cafe. His challenge: working at Datadog on a new log storage system. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:30:20

Inside $3M GPU Racks: Powering Modern AI with Bryan Oliver | Ep. 16

1/26/2026

Adi Polak talks to Bryan Oliver (Thoughtworks) about his career in platform engineering and large-scale AI infrastructure. Bryan’s first job: building pools and teaching swimming lessons. His challenge: running large-scale GPU data centers while keeping AI workloads predictable and reliable. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:30:18

Hacking Kafka Streams with Sophie Blee‑Goldman | Ep. 15

1/19/2026

Tim Berglund talks to Sophie Blee-Goldman (Responsive) about her career in container orchestration and Kafka Streams. Sophie’s first job: interning at Google. Her challenge: helping a hyper-growth customer whose Kafka Streams app was about to hit partition-based scalability limits. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:34:33

Turning Chaos into Push-Button Provisioning with Dhiraj Suri| Ep. 14

1/12/2026

Viktor Gamov talks to Dhiraj Suri (Confluent) about his career in systems engineering and stream governance. Dhiraj’s first job: software developer at NetApp. His challenge: working at Splunk to stitch together disparate systems into an event-driven provisioning platform. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:21:13

The Late Night Hack That Changed Daniel Hinojosa's Career | Ep. 13

1/5/2026

Tim Berglund talks to Daniel Hinojosa (an independent consultant) about his career in software development, data engineering, and event-driven architecture. Daniel’s first job: Sears credit card telemarketing. His challenge: working at a company with internal bad blood and being called at 11 p.m. to pull off a late night “security research” hack on Windows and Lotus Notes systems. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:16:18

From Early Startups to Product Leadership with Mike Agnich | Ep. 12

12/15/2025

Tim Berglund talks to Mike Agnich (Confluent) about his career in product leadership and startups. Mike’s first job: refereeing youth basketball. His challenge: leading product across connectors, governance, stream processing, and partnerships at Confluent. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:18:39

Adventures in Data Infrastructure with Gwen Shapira | Ep. 11

12/8/2025

Adi Polak talks to Gwen Shapira (Nile) about her career in databases and data infrastructure. Gwen’s first job: a side hustle fixing computers. Her challenge: figuring out why a production report at HP slowed down dramatically after daylight saving time. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:21:32

Decreasing Java Build Times with Pratik Patel | Ep. 10

12/1/2025

Tim Berglund talks to Pratik Patel (Azul Systems) about his career in developer relations and Java. Pratik’s first job: computer lab assistant at UNC Chapel Hill. His challenge: working at a large enterprise with manual, slow build processes and transforming them through automation. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:25:56

Reimagining Stream Processing with Matthias J. Sax | Ep. 9

11/17/2025

Viktor Gamov talks to Matthias J. Sax (Confluent) about his career in stream processing and, specifically, Kafka Streams. Matthias’ first job: an electrician-in-training on BMW’s assembly lines. His challenge: building Kafka Streams at Confluent with a focus on API design, backward compatibility, and a library-first approach that also fits microservices. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:36:42

How Time Kills All Deals in Pre-Sales with Rachel Predreschi | Ep. 8

11/5/2025

Listen: https://confluent.buzzsprout.com | In this episode, Tim Berglund talks to his guest, Rachel Predreschi (DeltaStream), about her career in pre-sales engineering. Her first job: rectory office assistant at her local parish. Her challenge/theme: working at early-stage startups to bridge sales, marketing, and engineering to reach product-market fit. Check out Tim and Rachel's previous podcast, Keyboard and Quill: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLihIrF0tCXdeJxpAJgbOsY48B9lD_w24v&si=5NjdA-Rss9Rsmyy1 SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:27:40

Scaling AI in Engineering with Peter Bell | Ep. 7

11/3/2025

Listen: https://confluent.buzzsprout.com | Today, Adi Polak talks to her guest, Peter Bell (gather.dev), about his career in software engineering leadership, CTO community building, and AI-driven development. Peter’s first job: electronics lab technician at their school (alongside shifts at Tesco). His challenge/theme: working at scale with AI adoption and change management. Check out gather.dev: https://www.gather.dev/ SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:27:16

How Kafka Expert Robin Moffat Tackles Open Source Problems | Ep. 6

10/27/2025

Today, Viktor Gamov talks to his colleague Robin Moffat (Confluent) about his career in data engineering. His first job: paperboy. His challenge: working at a retailer with Oracle materialized views as well as teaching others how to productively approach Kafka’s internal systems. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:24:50

Building Parquet into Apache Pinot ft. Neha Pawar | Ep. 5

10/20/2025

Today, Tim Berglund talks to Neha Pawar (StarTree) about her career in real-time analytics and open source database engineering. Her first job: a year-long internship at NVIDIA. Her challenge: leading the technical effort to add native Parquet support into Apache Pinot. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:26:07

The Fix That Secured 1000s of Credit Cards ft. Brian Sletten | Ep. 4

10/13/2025

In this episode, Tim talks to Brian Sletten (Bosatsu Consulting) about his career in software development. His first job: working at a small communications company that built network matrix switch interfaces. His challenge/theme: overhauling credit card storage and security at a major hospitality company. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:29:37

How Viktor Gamov Stays Curious as Tech Rapidly Evolves | Ep. 3

10/6/2025

Adi Polak interviews her co-host, Viktor Gamov, about his career’s evolution from distributed systems to streaming technology. Viktor’s first job: apple picking. His challenge/theme: staying curious and non-judgmental in the ever-changing landscape of tech. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:30:11

How Tim Berglund Found His Calling | Ep. 2

9/29/2025

Viktor Gamov interviews his co-host, Tim Berglund, about his career in the world of streaming data. Tim’s first job: Burger King broiler steamer. His challenge/theme: pivoting from working in hardware and firmware to finding his calling in enterprise software and developer relations. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:30:36

Real-time Threat Detection ft. Adi Polak | Ep. 1

9/22/2025

The Confluent Developer Podcast is here! For this first episode, Tim Berglund talks to his co-host, Adi Polak (Confluent), about her career in distributed data systems. Her first job: neighborhood dogwalker. Her challenge/theme: working at Akamai with Hadoop on data optimization and real-time threat detection, and the power of collaboration. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo SubscribeSubscribe on YouTubeLife Is But A Stream

Duration:00:32:53