diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index 4866193..1051da0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: Setup Python
       uses: actions/setup-python@v5
       with:
-        python-version: "3.8"
+        python-version: "3.10"
     - name: Install nox
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade setuptools pip wheel
diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index a2444ac..125d4f1 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 LINT_PATHS = ["docs", "db_dtypes", "tests", "noxfile.py", "setup.py"]
 
 DEFAULT_PYTHON_VERSION = "3.9"
+LINT_PYTHON_VERSION = "3.10"
 
 UNIT_TEST_PYTHON_VERSIONS: List[str] = [
     "3.9",
@@ -86,10 +87,7 @@
 nox.options.error_on_missing_interpreters = True
 
 
-# TODO: the linting process still uses python 3.8.
-# As soon as that gets upgraded, we should be able to revert this session
-# to using the DEFAULT_PYTHON_VERSION.
-@nox.session(python="3.8")
+@nox.session(python=LINT_PYTHON_VERSION)
 def lint(session):
     """Run linters.
 
@@ -142,10 +140,7 @@ def format(session):
     )
 
 
-# TODO: the linting process still uses python 3.8.
-# As soon as that gets upgraded, we should be able to revert this session
-# to using the DEFAULT_PYTHON_VERSION.
-@nox.session(python="3.8")
+@nox.session(python=LINT_PYTHON_VERSION)
 def lint_setup_py(session):
     """Verify that setup.py is valid (including RST check)."""
     session.install("docutils", "pygments")
diff --git a/owlbot.py b/owlbot.py
index 04664d8..93572a0 100644
--- a/owlbot.py
+++ b/owlbot.py
@@ -34,7 +34,17 @@
         "pandas": "https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/"
     },
 )
-s.move(templated_files, excludes=["docs/multiprocessing.rst", "README.rst", ".github/workflows/unittest.yml", "noxfile.py"])
+s.move(
+    templated_files,
+    excludes=[
+        "docs/multiprocessing.rst",
+        "README.rst",
+        ".github/workflows/unittest.yml",
+        ".github/workflows/docs.yml", # to avoid overwriting python version
+        ".github/workflows/lint.yml", # to avoid overwriting python version
+        "noxfile.py",
+    ]
+)
 
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Fixup files
diff --git a/samples/snippets/requirements-test.txt b/samples/snippets/requirements-test.txt
index 2c78728..69d461f 100644
--- a/samples/snippets/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/samples/snippets/requirements-test.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-pytest==8.3.5
+pytest==8.4.0