My guest today is Chris Hutchins, host of the All the Hacks podcast — heard by over a million listeners, with more than 10 million downloads — ChatGPT describes Chris as “Tim Ferriss meets Mr. Beast with a spreadsheet.”

He’s also founded and sold two companies — one to Google and the other to Wealthfront.

In our conversation, Chris explains why AI could replace a huge number of podcasts — and which ones actually survive and why.

He shares what he’s learning from a current test in which for the past 2 weeks he’s recorded everything he says (and I mean everything including conversations with his wife) .

He shares how that experiment is changing how he thinks about the new way content will be created and consumed.

He lays out a future where you don’t use apps at all — just one AI interface.

He also breaks down a test where he used AI to read his podcast ads — and even his wife couldn't tell which was her husband and which was AI

He explains why he stopped using OpenClaw, even though it blew him away… and how his use of LLMs has completely flipped in the past year.

Special thanks to Jay Clouse for connecting Chris and me through his amazing Creator Science Lab, including an event in Boise where Chris and I first sat down together.

Speaking of that, this episode has a bonus second part. The first part you’re about to hear is purely on AI.

But then at the end, I’ve included a separate, mostly uncut conversation we recorded last year where I asked Chris tactical questions I had myself on how to build a great podcast –I hadn’t yet launched mine.

That bonus includes how he thinks about audio vs. video, when to start selling ads, how he picks which topics to work on, and how he prepared for his appearance on the Tim Ferriss show

Please enjoy my conversation, parts 1 and 2, with Chris Hutchins.

Thx, Rob Kelly

My guest today is Thad McIlroy, author of The AI Revolution in Book Publishing – and the most strategic thinker I know on where AI and books collide.

He’s an insider who knows the big publishers but he also tracks more than 1,800 startups in the space (including 350 in AI).

In this conversation Thad breaks down the“original sin” of AI in publishing—and why it’s driving so much fear and anger across the industry.

We talk about why publishers are, in his words, “constipated by copyright,” and how that same mindset crippled them during past tech waves—from Amazon… to Kindle… to the Google Books project.

He shares a wild story of an author who made over $100K by quickly creating 200 books using AI.

He also lays out his simple “15% framework” for publishers and calls out one common approach from publishers as “pathetic.”

He explains John Grisham’s AI pushback (he’s banning it) is a bad move for the Big 5 publishers.

And for those of you building startups in this space, he lays out what he calls the “Manifest Destiny” of publishing—and how AI could finally make that a reality

Make sure you stick around for the final question—Thad's story about his dad came out of nowhere (and got me weepy).

Special thanks to Zach Stewart at the Canessa Art Gallery on Montgomery Street in SF (right at the heart of AI) for connecting Thad and me.

Please enjoy my conversation with Thad McIlroy.

Thx!
Rob

My guest today is Jennifer Elliott, a veteran engineer in data centers, whose customers include some of the largest players in the world like Google, Meta, AWS, and Netflix

She is highly technical, lives in Silicon Valley, and has invested in multiple AI startups

But, what makes Jennifer so fascinating is the duality.

At the same time she’s bullish on AI, she’s also actively preparing ​​for a future where AI becomes — in her words — an ‘apex predator’ that could take humans out

She’s already building a list of her ‘Ride or Die’ people and designing an off-grid ‘Hidey Hole’ bunker community.

We get into exactly what concerns her about AI — including the surprisingly simple way she thinks it could attack, the personality traits of her Ride or Die people, and the two locations she’s already scouting out.

One of them happens to be a place where Peter Thiel spends time.

She also shares her take on the one way a startup could beat Nvidia — the most valuable company in the world.

This conversation feels both extreme and oddly familiar — because I think we all have a Jennifer in our lives… someone thinking a few steps ahead about worst-case scenarios.

Special thanks to the artist Sean Orlando for connecting me with Jennifer— go Glenview Elementary!

Now please enjoy my conversation with Jennifer Elliott.

Thx,

Rob