✨This talk was recorded at Code BEAM America 2024. If you're curious about our upcoming event, check https://codebeamamerica.com ✨ Relational databases are powerful tools for managing data. Erlang is great at moving data around. Why is it so hard to mesh the two of them together? Many projects use relational databases in only the simplest way, through simple templating libraries, or custom code, forgoing the power of the relational database. Is there a better way? We'll survey some of the technology pieces such as ODBC, dispel some misconceptions, and explore the awkward impedance mismatch between Erlang and relational databases.