Rory Campbell-Lange <rory(at)campbell-lange(dot)net> writes:
> The following query on some small datasets takes over a second to run.
> I'd be grateful for some help in understanding the explain output, and
> to remake the code.
I think the problem is you have an unconstrained join against "people
p", which is wasting a bunch of time generating duplicate records
(and then sorting them, and then discarding them in the DISTINCT step...)
regards, tom lane