2025
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Burn The Map: Herding AIs, Dodging Doom, and the New Ethics of Intelligence w/ Dr. Craig Kaplan
We sit down with Dr. Craig Kaplan—the guy who was building AI before your favorite “disruptor” learned to tie their shoes. Dr. Kaplan takes us on a wild ride from the OG days of artificial intelligence (when data lived on floppy disks and having a “machine learning” project meant you had actual machines to move) to his current crusade: making sure superintelligence doesn’t wreck the joint for the rest of us. Kaplan lays out what everyone’s too scared—or too clueless—to admit: if you wouldn’t leave your wallet with a random LLM, why are you ready to entrust the future of humanity to black-box mega-brains? Spoiler: the answer isn’t “more GPUs.” Dr. Kaplan’s been in the room with the legends, built systems Wall Street still wishes it could copy, and now he’s here to torch lazy thinking about AI safety, collective intelligence, and why your Marcus Aurelius quotes aren’t enough to save you from an existential AI oopsie.
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Second Brains, Biometric Socks, and the AI Classroom: Lisa Dieker on the Future of Learning
We talk to Dr. Lisa Dieker about why the future of learning isn’t robots replacing teachers—it’s humans and AI teaming up (with a little extra caffeine and a lot of biometric gadgets thrown in). As the Williamson Family Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas and Director of the FLITE STEM Center, Lisa’s on a mission to hack how we teach, learn, and support every kind of mind out there. She takes us for a walk through her real-life MacGyver childhood, her family’s journey navigating disability, and her relentless pursuit to democratize access to education technology. If you’ve ever wondered whether “second brains” (read: AI copilots, fancy wearables, and those heart rate monitors you pretend you understand) actually help kids learn, or just give parents more to stress about—yeah, she’ll set you straight. Why are so many teachers burning out? Why can’t schools just teach to everyone’s strengths? And are spelling tests just baby boomer torture devices at this point?
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Burn The Map: Quivers of Legs and Law Changes w/ Brenda Novak
In This Episode: We talk to Brenda Novak, co-founder of the Connecticut Amputee Network and champion for anyone told they're “too expensive to fix.” Brenda breaks down her wild ride from business school grad to accidental activist, gives us the unvarnished scoop on the cutthroat world of prosthetic coverage (hint: it’s more ‘Shark Tank’ than ‘Grey’s Anatomy’), and shows us that sometimes, you’ve got to pass whole new laws just to get back on your feet—literally.
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Burn The Map: Book People, Broken Systems, and Why Kids Are Getting Dumber w/ Rae Foote
We talk to Rae Foote, the unicorn who went from running logistics in military manufacturing (yes, actual missiles) to wrangling the chaos of marketing tech at Hachette Book Group in NYC—all while moonlighting as a champion for children’s literacy. Rae's journey is less “lifelong calling” and more “epic faceplant after faceplant, but make it fashion”—falling into publishing, falling for NYC, and now rallying adults to stop outsourcing kids’ education to TikTok.
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Burn The Map: Joel McKay Smith — Networking Maestro, Rural Champion, and Master of Community Capital
We talk to Joel McKay Smith—a guy whose “Rolodex” literally stress-tested the Wrench platform—about why real power isn’t in the LinkedIn follower count, but in the relationships you actually maintain. From rural Utah dairy farms to industrial parks, Joel’s journey is a hilarious, head-spinning tour straight through the heart of economic disruption and small-town resurrection. You think you’re a “super-connector”? Please. Joel remembers your name, your birthday, and probably your lactose intolerance from a conversation in 1997, all while masterminding a carbon-neutral Olympics bid and hustling for tech that lets seniors outsmart scammers.
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Burn The Map: Ask Me Anything with Dan & Gabi
We sit down with Gabi Barragan—strategic advisor, organizational change whisperer, and the go-to for real talk about taming the AI beast in business. Gabi ditches the ‘thought leader’ theatrics and gets honest about what it really takes for companies to stop talking about AI adoption and actually get their hands dirty—without blowing the lunch budget on useless software. She walks us through the mess and magic of wrangling data chaos, the power of fierce internal experimenters (yes, she thinks your employees are already using ChatGPT behind your back), and how a little skepticism can save you from a lot of “hot takes” gone sideways. There are plenty of eye-roll-worthy AI promises out there, but Gabi’s here to call the bluff and offer a no-nonsense blueprint for culture change, customer engagement, and ROI that doesn’t require a PhD (or a fortune teller).
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Burn The Map: Doors, Data, and Digital Twins with Timber Barker
We talk to Timber Barker, founder/CEO of BOOM Interactive, about turning flat floor plans into living, AI-powered digital twins—and the not-so-glamorous reality of building the company that does it. From selling his truck to keep the lights on to landing partnerships with NVIDIA and projects with the NBA, Timber breaks down how CoreSpec3D makes the built world actually usable: chat with your floor plan, drop “sticky notes” that act like tasks, render photorealistic options in seconds, and hand first responders a real-time 3D view when things go sideways. Translation: less guesswork, fewer change orders, more control.
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Burn the Map: Are You Even Using Your Data? Drew Phillips on the Realities of Content & Chaos
We talk to Drew Phillips—part globe-trotting data wrangler, part content whisperer—about what actually moves the needle in enterprise content, data integration, and personalization (hint: it’s not a magic vendor pitch or an AI buzzword bingo). Drew reveals the truth behind making content less painful for brands that have more SKUs than most people have socks—and how chaos in digital marketing is just an average Tuesday for him.
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Burn The Map: Home Hacks & Human Hacks for building a Healthier, Smarter World w/ Matt Fischer
We corral Matt Fischer—startup troublemaker, AI obsessive, and the guy who actually uses data for good (no, seriously)—for a whirlwind tour through everything from hacking the smart home to fighting mold, to upending how businesses actually make decisions. Forget the hype-cycle fluff; Matt is deep in the trenches, building tech that might actually keep your kid out of the ER and your boss in business (but hey, don’t get too cozy, bosses: AI’s coming for your inbox).
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Burn The Map: White Collar Hunger Games with Gabi Barragan
We sit down with Gabi Barragan, Wrench.AI’s Co-Founder and CMO (and, let’s be real, the original “Gabi Filter” for anyone who couldn’t write their way out of a Slack thread). Gabi gets brutally honest about the future of work, why most people are totally unprepared for the AI tidal wave, and the one skillset robots still can’t fake—being a decent human. She and Dan swap war stories about flattening orgs, surviving existential tech dread, and why soft skills are the new power tools. Plus: why your lawyer’s job is toast, how to future-proof your career (hint: meditation and MMA?), and what happens when your kid can assemble IKEA furniture better than you.