Preparing for Retirement and Future

I don't like to dance and I don't like to dance naked in a sauna, so there you. they weren't naked. They were semi naked. Anyway, neither here nor there So Hi everyone from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is onn with Caris Wisher and I'm Karis S Wisher. We're doing something a little different on this show today. For this episode of O, I'll be the one answering questions your questions For the last few weeks, you've all been sending us your career advice questions You've asked about everything from how to think about using AI at work to dealing with bad managers to preparing for retirement And I've got at least some answers for you It's a really good time to do an episode like this too, because there's a lot of anxiety about the job market right now. I think everyone is feeling it. People are worried about AI, the war in Iran, the Trump administration's policies and what it all means for them I want to do this episode because I get asked for career advice all the time. I could open my own business. I should charge for it. actuallyually, maybe I will charge for it and it'll be my career, my next career. But actually, I think people ask me about career advice frequently because I've changed my careers a lot and I take a lot of risks with them. and it usually ends up pretty well. And so when people are especially in media or transitioning I'm the go to person, usually becausecause I don't sugarcoat it. I've had so much fun answering the questions you sent to me, so don't go anywhere Thanks again to Odu for supporting this show Oda wants to be your ultimate all in one fully integrated platform to handle everything Seriously, everything. Inventory, CRM, accounting, HR, and much more. No more shopping around or settling for expensive services that can only handle a fraction of your business Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you tryry Odoo for free at odu. com that's o doo d. com for the show comes from Co hereere As AI advances, one thing matters more than ever, staying in control Most AI comes with strings attached like sharing your data and infrastructure or compromising your independence. With Chere, you don't have to give up control to gain capability. You can have both. From frontier models to out of the box tools, Cohere gives you everything you need to build and deploy secure, scalable AI that drives growth and delivers results. Your data decisions and competitive edge stay yours. You control your AI on your terms. See how AI can empower your organization without compromising what matters most Coere d. com slash box. When I got a new car, I thought my insurance premium would increase and empty my bank account If between won the lottery I've invested most of my winnings in chicken tenders because they're bnd. But bro, I bought a house and it's sick, bro I'm thinking the floor is going to be all trampoline broke T helelpat on the roof The contontractor said it's structurally unsound. They're just big babies. But switching to GeIico saved me hundreds, so my bank account is safe. It feels good to sayve some hard earned cash. It feels good to Geico . We're back with a special episode of On, where I'm answering the questions you all send in, asking for career advice. So let's just jump right into it. A lot of you had questions about the ways to adapt or grow in your current line of work Sue Frida sent us this question about the role social media plays in her line of work as an artist Hi Cara I'm a huge fan. I love your work Um Okay, so I'm a sculptor I've been an artist for thirty years. I went to RSDy I've had a pretty good career. whichich means I've shown internationally, I've ran my own gallery, I've Sold to celebrities, I've had run ratios. I make wearable sculpture and other kind of sculpture for the wall But I am not making a strong living. Like I can support myself barely Um But I don't really know what else you do except you become like a hype machine Like if I could get recognition I'm sure I would sell a lot more things and I would make a lot more money, but I'm not a hype person. I'm kind of an introvert. I just don't really Love the spotlight So How do I get around that with making myself known in the world? if I'm not really that kind of a person Do you have any advice for me? L should I hire somebody who's just really good at marketing? Should I like make a fake social media? personersa. I don't know. It just feels like another whole body of work to become famous. And is that really what you have to do to sell art Thank you, Sue. That's a great question. I agree. It's really frustrating. It used to be you did your work And you' recognized for good work. and same thing for writing as with sculpture, I guess, or anything you do. and the quality of your talent should matter the most. And it still does To an extent, But the fact of the matter is, there's so much noise in the world that a lot of lesser people are getting more attention and they do better Um I think it's really hard If you want to get more people to understand you not to be on social media, I hate to say it, and you have to be on all kinds of social media. You may want to find the one that's most comfortable to you, whether it's YouTube or Reddit or LinkedIn. I know that sounds crazy, but actually there's a lot of interesting people on LinkedIn. But you really do, and I hate to use this expression, but I use it, You have to be promiscuous on social media getet your stuff out there. And unfortunately, it also has to be genuine to you. You can hire social media people, but it really a lot of times does have to come from you and the quality of work you're doing. Being successful on social media is a genuine thing, whether you're Kim Kardash, and you may not like her, but's certainly genuine and it has done a really good job So I think maybe start with a social media manager that helps you figure things out and helps you figure your messages You know, again, it has to be true to you. and what I would do is go online on whether it's Instagram or TikTok or whichever platform, Instagram is probably the easiest one to work with for now or YouTube and start seeing things that you like. It may not be in your area, if there's There's a lot of really amazing food influencers who I think actually are doing great work you know, maybe show someone how you do your work or how you make things or People are really interested in process and it doesn't have to be a stunt. It should be the real you. So I know it's terrible, and I know you may be an introvert, but I don't see how you can't. It is a modern version of advertising, and by the way, it's free. so I spend a lot of time on social media more than I want to, but it's really important I'm Shelly Wilson and I am from Providence, Rhode Island and my question is what advice do you have when you're working for a jerk? Is it to leave that company? Is it to compomplain and give advice on how to improve things? Is it lead a revolt I encountered it a number of times in my career and I'm just curious what advice you have care of for other people? Thank you I have always left. I just leave. I don't think leading a revolt is a very good idea. It's not your business. If they want to operate that way, that's the way they're going to operate, but you're not going to change things by know if you remember the Tom Cruise movie where he plays an agent who essentially says, whoo's with me and nobody is I just think that's a waste of time. It's not something you built, you really can't do it. So revolt doesn't really work And I used to sort of wallow in gripery, and I don't think that works very much in life. I think it makes you unhappy and they don't care And it actually your work suffers for it. And so I always leave, I always leave, and that's my thing. I did it many times in my career. and in fact, one of my first and early job, well I got fired from one of them, and I deserved it. Another time I was working in a place for the McLaughlin group, I had written about this, and he was sexually harassing a woman. I witnessed it. We complained, and the people in charge didn't want to do anything about it in the before times, although the current times feel like the before times And I left. and a year later, I was asked to testify because he did it again. this guy did it again And I testified against him. and I feel great about it. It was really hard. I was a very young person, but it didn't matter. I was working for a terrible person and I left, essentially because they weren't going to change I did leave the Wall Street Journal because of issues. We had a number of economic issues with the Murdoch folks. And of course, we weren't very thrilled. Walt Mossberg and I weren' very thrilled to be working for him at one point, they did some terrible things at some of their other publications and we left and started our own thing. And again, my one line is go and start your own thing if you can, or go find a place that sort of is more in your wheelhouse of people that you're like. I'm having this issue right now with the contract I have, which I've talked about publicly with Sanna. and I just don't want to work for the Ellison family. And I think their choices are incompetent around the media stuff that would affect me. And so I'm hoping they'll let me out of the contract. If not, I'll just wait there and leave at the end of that. But yeah, I leave, I'm really old and I'm still leaving when I don't agree with people.. That's what I say, Start your own thing. It's always best in the end, and there's lots of opportunities Hello Kara My name is Ben Crowder and I'm a forty five year old senior manager in Microsoft's Gov Cloud division, working with our public sovereign customers in their AI journey If you looked at my LinkedIn profile though, that wouldn't be immediately obvious because there, most of my posts are concerning my other life as a fantasy writer and narrator on Audible. Lately with the AI craze hitting every industry, I've found it very hard to balance my IT life with my writing life. And I've had to delay the release of my third book because I've been assisting all levels of government, state, local, and federal with their AI journey. I know that you too have a lot of different lives as a podcast host, a journalist, a writer, a media personality. And I'm wondering if you have any advice on how best to approach a situation involving two wildly different careers with distinct demands and schedules Looking forward to hearing your answer. Thank you very much I try to keep things that keep me interested. and if I'm not interested, am I cut them. And so what I would do is cut anything that you don't find interesting. It sounds like you have a lot of choices here And I know know sort of you make, hey, well, the sun shines and right now, AI, helping people figure out how to deal with the AI craze whether it's government, whatever, is a big business right now and a lot of people need your help. And so you kind of want to take advantage of it, especially if you can make some money and solidify yourself there and maybe hire more people. But it sounds like being a fantasy writer and narrator is cooler and fun. and I bet you have more fun doing that. So you know, you may have to put that to the side for a little while and take advantage of this time frrame because it's not going to last forever So that's what I would say. although I'd love to know what your fantasy, I'm going to go look it for you at LinkedIn. But know again, helping governments get through this AI stuff is really important, especially state and local governments. So You're doing God's work in that regard Hey care, this is Tommy Howard from Seattle Washingt So I've been HR professional for almost twenty years I've had the rank of the guy answering the phones at the front desk all the way up to VP of the organization I got into the work because I wanted to do great things for decent people, but unfortunately, I found myself doing terrible things for even worse leaders. One of my superpowers has been helping organizations modernize their business practices if they might have fallen behind in the times a bit Unfortunately, what I've found is when leaders say they want to do these things, what they really want is for people to stop complaining and to carry on with their shitty business practices. Is HR or talent or people in culture or whatever lipstick we're putting on this pig These days doomed to suck and you're just basically doing terrible things for terrible leaders and that's what the work is O are there companies out there that are actually trying to do good for their people? I mean, that's a great question. You know mostostly, it's usually the first that there's bad leaders who just don't like hearing employees gripe. I mean, I think that's the case. I think HR is often far too much for the employer than the employee and there's really not a lot of care for employees themselves. And to be fair, it's sometimes a mixed bag. sometometimes they actually do genuinely care about But it's a hard thing because you want to run an efficient company. I see that. and then at the same time, people of all different kinds of needs. And I think HR is put in the most uncomfortable of positions in that regard because ultimately you are kind of working for the CEO, no matter how you slice it I wish that people would care more because the more you care about your employees, the better the business tends to be. And at the same time, there's been a real backlash against all kinds of practices, whether it's DEI and things like that, which are designed to have a healthier workplace. I've always felt that employees should own parts of the company. I've always just felt like that sort of puts everyone's interests and it aligns them And that there should be more employee involvement in HR in everything else, not just as it's always pitted against each other and instead of trying to figure out the best way to have a company. I don't think at all you have to be doomed to doing this. I've seen lots of companies and they haven't been perfect, any of them who do spend a lot of time caring about their employees. and I'd like to see that a lot in a minute Support for this show comes from Framer If your team wants a website that looks and feels handcrafted but is still fast to ship, Framer is built for that. You design on a visual canvas with responsive layouts, hosting and a CMS built in so the work is production ready from day one Agents work alongside you to draft pages and polish sections, thenen you review and publish what Goes live. Framer is the pro site buildilder for creators, teams, and businesses that want a professional site and care enough to get every detail right Agents solved the gap between AI generated ideas and production ready website work The agent works in the same place where the real site is designed, managed, reviewed, and published. It lands on the canvas, stays editable and can be published when the team is ready Agents and Framer work alongside teams to streamline collaboration on the same canvas, build custom code components, create and manage CMS content, optimize SEO settings and ship everything all in one place Learn how you can get more out of your site from a Framer spepecialist or get started, buildilding for free today at framer. com slash Kera for thirty percent off of Framer Pro annual plan That's Framer dot com slash Kara for thirty percent off Framer d. com slash Kera rules and restrictions may apply Support for this show comes from Teleport In the AI era, one of the biggest questions is how to contain agent behavior in your production infrastructure In Teleport's survey of more than two hundred infrastructure leaders, the company found that those confident in their AI deployments have more than twice the incident rate of those that aren't, seventy two percent versus thirty three percent Let's talk security basics. The most frequent causes of data breaches are human error and compromised credentials. But in the AI era, the challenge is that agents with broad privileges can find these credentials and gain access to sensitive data Teleport establishes a unified identity layer for humans, machines, and agents that is cryptographically backed, which enables agents to be controlled and contained with the same rigor that you apply to other actors in your infrastructure Security is complicated, but with teleport, it doesn't have to be Download the free report at goteleport. com slash on with Kara for the show comes from Nwek There's a lot of talk about how much you need AI in your business and that can definitely feel overwhelming Because the truth is there's still a lot about AI that business owners don't exactly understand, but it still feels like your competitors are pulling away from you. Fortunately, there's Net Suite next Net Suite is an AI powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data It's a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth, trusted by over forty three thousand customers. Net Suite next is the next huge leap in how business gets done because AI is built into everything you do. Netuite Next automatically surfaces custom insights throughout your day. Their AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work Plus, NetsSuk is customized for a wide range of industries, so it supports the way your business truly works Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, it's time for Net Suite nexte where your business meets AI For the first time ever, you can try Netuite next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to netsSuite. ai slash on. Built for every industry, ready for every boardroom, Netsuite. AI slash on Some of you had questions about making a career change, so let's get into some of those The first one comes from Alex Nickeol. He has a question about balancing passion and the need to make a living. U, the age old question Hi Kara. Alex here from Victoria, Canada You and your guests have mentioned a few times on your various shows that With the rise in AI and social isolation, now is a good time to go into the performing arts As someone who had a professional career in musical theater, but transitioned into the tech and business space, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on pursuing career paths that are AI proof and beneficial to society, but have a significant financial disincentive I want my work to promote gathering and socializing in a time where streaming and social media platforms want you to stay home alone on your screens I'd also like to be able to buy groceries and raise a family What are your thoughts on balancing a safe career path versus a socially valuable career path I was talking more about creativity, Alex versus pererforming arts, which I love, by the way. And I do think there is sort of an AI proofness to all community gatherings, and I don't just mean performing arts, though I love it. No matter how you slice it, these are professions that earn less than AI. And so you're going to have to take a salary cut when you're in these areas and you're more vulnerable. At the same time, you know you're just sort of starting to see a real push byy young people towards community, towards in person things. And it cannot be disrupted by AI. it just can't. The only thing it can do is keep people in that social isolation and then not attending these things. But you see a real push for it, whether it's people going to church, whether it's people joining Hajan games. For my show, I was at this incredible games night that was organized by this young man who brought together all these especially mostly young people actually, but there were older people there too playing games, putting their phones down. I'm like, that would be a really good business, wouldn't it? Another one was was a sober rarave. This woman's built this amazing company of people just dancing In all manner, this was in a sauna, and it was incredibly awkward for me, by the way. I don't like to dance and I don't like to dance naked in a sauna. so there you have. they weren't naked. They were semi naked. Anyway, neeither here nor there. there's all manner of things you can do that are sort of community based. and I do think people are going to be rushing back towards them. Again, it might not make as much money as doing tech and AI, I'm sorry to tell you that. But I always love when people go into performing arts, and again, I think it's ripe for some real innovation in terms of how people consume it Next, we got a question from Robin Bennett. She asks how she can best position herself in a field where she sees a lot of potential growth. Hi, Kara. Thankk you so much for considering my question. I'm a fifty two year old CFO currently of a small business, and I'm also in an MBA program. I have a background in science and ecological research. So I have a master's in ecology and then went back to school to get my MBA because I didn't know really much about business at all. outsided some accounting And I'm really looking to kind of be in room where it happens, Kara. like you always talk about how The next great frontier is going to be somebody that can pursue climate entrepreneurship. and the next company set of companies that are really able to look at that as an opportunity is going to really be able to take climate science to the next level where it merges with entrepreneurship. and I'm specifically interested in that intersection So if you have any advice on that, how to get in that room and how to findind out where those opportunities are. That's what I'm looking for. Thanks a lot My dog, Icho says, hi Hi, I Co. I love that you're going back to school. like you're a CFO, so you're probably good at accounting and sort of running businesses, but it's really important to get even more skills. I love when people go back to school. I took an accounting course of all things at University of Pennsylvania at the Wharton School one year because I wasn't as good as I could be being a reporter and not understanding spreadsheets. I wanted to learn about spreadsheets and I did that. I feel like really recently I thought I should go to school again because school is wasted on the young in a lot of ways So it's great you're doing that. That's the key part. The second part is really doing a lot of research and what's happening around the space and try to get in on a startup of some kind. There's all kinds of areas. You know, my son is in engineering and climate. There's so much stuff happening and so much interesting innovation to happen that there's lots of opportunities. So you should sort of target areas you're interested in. I'm very interested in nuclear issues right now and how to create And a lot of people are frightened of it, but I think it's really interesting. My son was working on a fusion startup. Now he's working at advanced manufacturing to try to it's climate focused because it's trying to be more efficient. So there's all kinds of directions you could go. but I would first get this training and then look around and really do some research into a startup. That's where I'd begin, and then just get yourself in there. And if that doesn't work Get yourself in somewhere else, E at fifty two, you can change jobs. You know, it's not for the young necessarily to do that. I've changed recently changed my job. again. I keep doing it. I just did a TV show. I didn't know anything about television on a topic I thought was interesting. So I think you could do it at any time in your life p Next, Victoria Zunich has a question about turning her side job into more of a profession Hi Kara, Thankks for doing this. My name is Vicki and I consider myself a re emerging journalist I have a day job and what I want to do is work on some investigative type stories. This is not a get rich plan, but it is something that I would like to be fairly compensated for. I'm presuming that as I develop the story ideas, I'll be reading other outlets and I'll get ideas for where I want to pitch them What else you think I should be thinking about at this stage? Thank you Well, you're talking about investigative reporting, which is really hard to do on your own, although people do it. And I often think, I'm not an investigative reporter. I've done investigative pieces, but that's not what I do. I'm so in awe for investigative reporters and what they do, But it's a tough job because one, you have to be legally protected, you have to have the support of an organization very much helps. and it's really a team sport at most newspapers that I've seen. There's this image of a crusading investigative reporter, but they are backed by researchers. They're backed by the organization. was priviley to it when I worked at the Washington Post and also the Wall Street Journal. And it's a real slog What I do is I try to start smaller, I guess, maybe a smaller investigative process and let it build. I just had a great interview with Theo Baker who did that at Stanford, and he managed to get the head of Stanford out of his job because of stuff he found. And so I would start small with story after story after story rather than start big People who work for me, let's not try to boil the ocean today. Let's start with a tiny little thing and a tiny little thing and a tiny little thing. And as you become an expert in the area that you're talking about and you will over time, then you can really go for the big swings and then find the outlet you think would like it the most. And sometimes some of the bigger places do take freelance, although Mostly it's career people who work there. But good luck, it's a great thing to do The next question comes from Cara Stevens. She has a question about moving from the public sector to the private sector mid career Hi Kara I'm Kara. from Central Ohio I've been a school counselor in public education for over twenty years I spent two decades doing what most companies now will pay consultants six figures to attempt 've been building trust with resistant stakeholders Tenagers D escalating crisis situations in real time Navigating bureaucratic systems while really moving the needle for individuals I've chaired nonprofit boards. I've worked with our family court system I've even founded a grassroots advocacy organization in my own community So I'm pivoting into the private sector from the public sector I'm looking for something related to E tech, public affairs, mediation, instructional design And the question I keep running into is How do I make the market See me for what I actually am, which is a seasoned and highly educated professional. and not see me as an entry level career changer. Wow, It sounds like you' an enormous experience. And I would think private sectors would find that valuable. It sounds like you have a lot of skills, whether it's at tech, public affairs, mediation, all this stuff. I would begin with the people you've worked with and find out if there are companies that are affiliated with the things you were doing in your public job. Same thing with your nonprofit boards. There's probably people on those boards who have some ideas, same thing with your family court system, findind out from where you've worked, where there's opportunities, where there's companies that are working on that stuff. Someone with all these kind of skills are very valuable to the private sector. And one of the things you have to sell yourself on is that you're not a public sector. I mean people like trash, public sector people, I find that ridiculous I them to be some of the best workers. And it's such a trope that they're not as good as private sector people. It's just not true. But one of the things that's really important and it sounds like you have the skill is an incredible ability to network and understand and maybe start thinking of people you've worked with that might give you an idea. One of the things I do when I was thinking about leaving places, I talk to everybody. I talk to everyone Often it comes from a strange place, some a tip or an idea or something that occurs to me, but you got to follow it up. and unfortunately, when you're making these shifts, you need to be dogged in terms of calling people and calling people and calling people. and you absolutely have to get used to rejection. Unfortunately, it's really hard to make a shift. And then once you get in there, it does make it easier. I would suggest maybe starting off doing some consulting because then people don't have to hire you right away, but maybe you could work on contract And once someone's really good, when you have m contract, most people wantna keep them. Although honestly, a lot of people, more people are working on contract permanently because then they get to pick and choose their things. So again, I would start off much smaller, maybe do a contract here and there and then prove yourself to people and prove your usefulness Up next, Bruce Hackney has a question about how to market your skills to employers Hello, Karis Wisher. This is Bruce. I live in New York City And I'm sixty two years old. And I've been unemployed for fourteen sixteen months So I decided to do something very un sixty two year old which is to ask artificial intelligence to get some idea of a question to ask you. So the question was what career advice should a sixty two year old gay man He's been unemployed for sixteen months was previously employed as an office operations manager and a freelance project manager for a live events production company, as an artist liaison and gallery director at several contemporary art galleries in New York City and as an unpaged manager of the estate of a dead Swiss gay photographer Ask Karis Swish here And my artificial intelligence said, What a rich and unconventional career history and They said why this works well to ask you is you've been in outspoken about ageism in tech and media You value people who've built unconventional paths You don't respond well to self pity, but you respect directness and self awareness And you're likely to give a blunt Uful answer rather than a generic one So that's my question I am sixty two years old I have a genuinely varied career across operations live events, contemporary art and have been out of traditional employment for over a year. How do I reframe what looks like a scattered resume into a compelling narrative Especially when aggeism is real and I'm not trying to pretend I'm forty. First of all, stop asking yeah questions. They don't know. All they did was just vomit up me at me I just can't stand why people as AI questions. I know Scott does it all the time, so I apologize, but I think you already know, and you say this at the end, how do you reframe what is a scattered resume? I think the way you reframe it is're a can do person. It sounds like if you've been an operations manager or freelance project manager, it means you had to solve problems. And so that's the way I would do it as I'm here to solve your problems you know, especially operationally. I think one of the things where a lot of companies fall down is operationally. And I think there's a creativity to being operational in a lot of ways. I think what you have to do is sort of sell yourself as someone who can wherever you're put, you can fix the problem, create a system Because that is't really I do know a lot of people who have a hard time finding very competent people who can do just operations and don't want to do something else by the way. I think that's another thing you can seself. don't you're sixty two, you don't want to run the company. you don't want to do this. you just want to you know be someone who's going to make things go smoother. And I can tell you a lot of people who have high output careers really value that as a person. So I would say I wouldn't worry about your age as much as putting the message out that you can get things done. And you can use tech skills and stuff like that. You have those skills U and I hope you get a job Next, we have a question from Dorothy Novak. She worries about pigeon holding herself in a changing industry Karea. I'm Sking career advice. so I work in public media And as you know, things are really, really rough Killy rough right now. and T make it harder, I'm on the TV side instead of I'm not in the radio side. So feels kind of feels right now like we're on a sinking ship. and I hate that feeling because I love what I do I love our mission. I love O supporters. I love I love it But I'm In my mid fifties, I'm a single mom Where do I go from here ks. Thankks a lot B bye. I don't think public television is a sinking ship. You got to stop using the term sinking ship because public television has been astonishing for people and the kind of output that it's had has been amazing. Again, another area that gets pillary in ways they don't deserve because of the stuff that public television has given us over the years compared with what it's taken just just so much more additive to this world. That said, it's unfortunately been caught in a political Vice grip for a long time. This is not a recent thing. And I think in this country, at least, compared to other countries, which value public television, although there's stuff happening at the BBC, there's this and that, everywhere across the world, there's been contractions in this area. I'm sorry to say, especially because public television probably didn't act as quickly as it should have with the advent of all manner of different innovative technologies And so doing what you're doing, there's going to be fewer people and there's just no two ways around it. I talk to a lot of these people who run these stations and As much as they like to keep people employed, they're not going to be able to do it on the funding they're getting, especially as the government cuts it down. So it's not a sinking ship, it's an underfunded ship. So I do think it's going to be around it's just going to be a lot smaller. I hate to say that in this country because we don't value that. I don't know what to do if you've lived in this. There's other media businesses, but they're contracting too, and that's the issue And it is very hard to enter a media business pretty far into your career. I don't know. I think what you should do is try to hold on your job as long as you can. There's going to be cuts No two ways about it. And then sort of assess what part of your job you like doing the best and what you're the best at. Be honest with yourself on that one. And then try to figure out where you might fit into a production company that makes things or any manner of things you might not have thought of, you might think about podcasting a growing area because that's video now, by the way I have all podcasts like look at me, I have a face for radio public radio do. And so I think it's really important to try to figure out where you might fit in in maybe the newer things that are growing, like podcasting. But it is tough. There's no two ways about it. I hope you find something in a minute Support for this show comes from Green Chef Everyone wants to eat healthier and it's easier to get tricked by trendy diets, But where fat diets fail, Green Chef delivers real food and recipes that make healthy eating not only easy but lasting. With Green Chef, every week you get over forty recipes made with organic produce, responsibly sourced proteins, and nothing you can't pronounce, Green Chef sent me over some things to try. I had their delicious egg bites, which are amazing. One was mushroom, one was shrimp And I have to say they're protein shakes. I usually find protein shakes gross. These are amazing. I really like it. It's really nice and incredibly fresh, and I'm going to make the food with my kids, which is always fun to do. You can pick what matters to you from Mediterranean high protein meals to their longevity line built around brain and gut health All green chehef meals come pre portioned and ready in minutes when if you want guidance beyond the plate Creen Chef includes free unlimited one on one nutrition coaching that helps you stay on track Head to greenshef d. com slash fifty Ka and use a code fifty Kara to get fifty percent off your first month And then twenty percent off for two months. That's code fifty Kera at greenshhef d. com slash fifty Kera. this show comes from Fetch Pet Insurance Cats are special little creatures, so are dogs. I have both. I love my cats and dogs And my cat's name right now is lovely. and she means a lot to me and she's really quite narcissistic, but I enjoy it. She's been pretty healthy throughout her life, but I've had other cats who have gotten sick at the end. And I do think about what's going happen in the next years ahead because she could get sick, have a health issue. and with previous pets I've had, the bills racked up were enormous. and I never got pet insurance And I think it's really important going forward to do that because these are big surprises. And here's what surprises a lot of pet owners. Every six seconds, a pet owner in the US. gets hit with a vet bill of over a thousand dollars. Emergency vet bills can run into thousands and always seem to land on a Sunday night be prepared for the unexpected with Fetch Pet insurance Pet insurance is billt so you never have to worry about giving your pet the best care Vetch is the most complete coverage for dogs and cats, you get paid back up to ninety percent of vet bills for accidents, illnesses, diagnostics, and more Every vet in the US and Canada is in network so you keep the vet you already trust, which is really important Plus with Fetch, you can build a plan that fits your budget. Once your claim is approved, get paayb back in as little as two days Don't wait until your pet has a health problem. Believe me, go to fetch dot com slash save and get your free quote. It takes about two minutes. That's fetchpet dot com slash save Fatch Love longer. for the show comes from Pebble Teams aren't all in one place anymore, but hiring systems still act like they are. Pebble is the hiring system built for modern teams. Their platform takes the delays in guesswork out of going global and they do it with embedded compliance and AI driven workflows Pebble, you can hire in over one hundred and eighty five countries in minutes And when it comes to compliance, Pebble has built a decade of expertise directly into the platform. Stop juggling separate tools for contracts, payroll, benefits and compliance, Pebble brings everything together in a single platform that integrates with the tools teams already use Bottom line, anywhere is possible with Pbble. Global hiring Simplified. And here's a special offer for our listeners. Peble is normally three hundred and ninety nine dollars a month per employee. already in no brainer for what you get, but right now there's a limited time offer on their site that makes it even easier to get started Go to h pebble. Ai before it's gone. That's HI p E bl. Ai Terms and conditions apply A lot of you are sending questions about AI, of course, and how to adapt to its arrival in the workplace. So let's get to some of those Hi Kara. My name is Carolyn Champa. I'm a longtime listener and reader I am a librarian. I'm originally from Minnesota, but right now I work at an overseas military library serving soldiers and their families E have a family, a six and a four year old. We also love K pop demon hunters. So here's the thing, career advice. thanks for doing this. I am a librarian, but I've done cybersecurity work and I honestly hated it hated it What I love is the human side of information. I love connecting people to what they need to learn. I love putting books in hands. I love programming I'm watching AI reshape everything we're doing and I feel like I'm in a good place to help bridge it responsibly. So here's the question. where are the most realistic entry points for someone with both technical experience and a really deep sense of public service Last thing, if you ever need a personal librarary I love a librarian. I have to say, librarians have changed my life more than almost anybody, teachers and librarians. I had a wonderful woman when I was growing up who really helped me. I read a lot and was really just guided in beautiful ways by librarians. So what a great job. I also worked when I worked at the Washington Post, I made friends with the archive librarians at the post where did pictures and stuff like that. I always thought they knew more than any reporter. It was always my feeling. So I always went to them for questions because I knew they'd know the answer compared to other people. Information science is really undergoing a change because of AI, but it doesn't mean, like I grew up in the card catalog era where you had to go look for things. So information is changing constantly, but it doesn't aggregate the need for a librarian. And I think it's really important to really hone your AI skills here. And in library science, that's a great thing to want to do because then there's a lot of problems with factual stuff with AI and knowing what's right and what's wrong. And so I do think it requires a human AI interaction there. And I think there's nothing more valuable than that T have those skills. So you've got to get really good at AI and using it and understanding its flaws and its attributes to be able to guide people because I do think there's a big business in helping people understand information better going forward. And the more skills you have in that area, the better I don't think you're going to be replaced. those who are going to be replaced don't understand how to use these technologies I would recommend a movie that I love. It's one of my favorite movies called, I think it's called Desk Set with Spencer Tracy And u and Catherine Hepburn and it's about this topic, which is kind of funny. Watch it. It's got a lot of lessons for today. There has to be a marriage between AI and humans in a way that is much more significant for it to be truly useful for us Hi Cara, I'm thinking which is M shot I have an eighteen month old daughter and I'm worried about how AI is going to reshape the job market What skill should I be teaching her that will be the most successful In the age of AI eighteen months old, I think you don't have to do anything but teach her how to play with blocks or if you really want magnet tiles, I highly recommend them. They're fantastic. I love all those things, Legos, things like that. So I would start with those kind of things. I know it sounds crazy, but I think your kids have to understand how to problem solve or build things or make things or think creatively. and a lot of the hands on stuff really helps a lot. It doesn't mean she's gonna to do hands on stuff But it really does create a brain that's a problem solver. So I would not put your kid in front of a computer for a very long time. I don't put my younger kids in front of them. And actually my older kids one of my kids uses it more than others. But in general, I was very interested in problem solving and the ability to figure things out and to build things. Those are the three things I focus on, and of course, reading And so I think reading skills are really important. An eighteen month old is too young to do that, But there's all manner of interesting toys that kids could play with. And I think play is as much as people joke about play being play, it isn't, It's about figuring out how to think And that's the best thing you can do for your kid is to teach them how to think and to challenge themselves. Now my one kid, all he wants to do is play with matchbox cars but I'm okay with that. He actually creates You know I listened to him the other day and he was doing all kinds of role playing with them and the creativity and everything else. and I couldn't help, but I think this would help him later. My daughter's much more organized. She's already organizing businesses with her dolls and things like that. But again, play is critically important and playing with other kids, eventually, eighteen months olds usually play side by side and not together But helping them figure that out, and then of course, giving them as they get older little jobs and skills and things like that, I make my kids do all manner of things and to teach them how to work, really and how to work with others. And then later, you know, introduce the use of AI. It'll be different by the time she gets older, so it'll be much more clear about what skills she needs. But don't shy away from those skills either. Don't be scared of them and start to use them and understand them just like you would, you know, teach a kid how to use a computer Don't worry about it for a long, long time He. My name is Kati O'Mey, founder and principal cooach of Encourage cooaching. and I'm currently at an HR conference here in Orlando, Florida And everyone is talking about AI and the difference between jobs and roles and skills And I haven't yet heard anyone make a mention of The J curve that is hitting the labor market. So when a new technology kind of comes into play, whether we're thinking about the printing press or internet or electricity, how long folks are going to be down in that trough before we start seeing gains again? And so my question to you is How long do you think this disruption is going to last before we actually start seeing AI lead to job gains instead of job losses First of all, I don't think we've seen job losses yet. You know, You're starting to sort of see it, but it's not clear yet. And so we don't quite know where this is going to hit precisely. As much as there's been lots of articles about it. The numbers are still very unclear. But it's really clear some jobs, like you could guess a couple of them that AI can do better And you don't quite know what the job gains are going to be doing because you don't know what companies are going to get formed by using this technology. And I think you didn't know that. At the beginning of the printing press, you didn't know that what was going to be disrupted. The internet, it was very unclear and actually it took turns that people didn't see although some of them were obvious. W the beginning of the internet age, I was there in the mobile age. I remember looking at a teleype machine. I remember looking at a typewriter. I remember looking at a payphone and understanding these would be replaced. You can start looking around and sort of start to guess at what could happen. I was pretty good at it because I had this basic idea that everything that could be digitized would be digitized seemed simple, but it wasn't so simple at the time, and that there were real problems with the business plans of some of the businesses I work for, like newspapers when this happened. And it would not just disrupt, it would collapse industries. So one of the things to do is start to pay attention of where it might hit first and be intelligent about that But I do believe in the end and I hate to say this because there's going to be a lot of pain between then and now. there will be job gains because of industries we don't know. No one would have thought of Uber way back in the nineteen nineties. They just wouldn't have when I was started covering the interternet. They wouldn't have thought of the app whichber was a part of or our Airbnb or this and that. And you know, all those businesses, we always had cabs, but this is a new way of doing cabs. We always had rental apartments, but this is a new way of doing that. And so be a little creative in terms of where you think it might go. And I think that's what we have to think about. I do think eventually there will be gains, but I'm not sure who's going to suffer more and how quickly our country can get from one place to the other. And that's why I think government iss critical to being part of this in terms of getting people through what are inevitably going to be bumps along the way. And What are the jobs for people, which are probably more hands on stuff? until the robots get here and then we're all screwed. No, I'm kidding. I don't think robots are going to be as big a thing as other people, but that's just my guess Hi, Kara. My name is Jan Paluturi. I'm recording this from Nar Lzanne in Switzerland. I was a physicist, like a researcher until two thousand eight in nuclear fusion Then I decided that it was too slow for my passion. so I moved into corporate world as an R and D engineer, R and D scientist for Metteech then for material comppany, then for robotics. And thanks to chance and maybe also hard work, I made it up to a CEO level of SMEs around five hundred FTEs which was the case until last january twenty twenty five, when my company was sold to a Chinese conglomerates also thanks to my help and they say goodbye, GP Thank you for having been a nice partner. So I started Thinking what I do next, I started doing a bit of consulting. And finally, in August, I received a call from an old friend it was finalizing adventurous startup on AI for rare diseases And I went there in Ticino and I had a discussion with him and I found it really passionating. So I started working one hundred percent of my time b. We know salary. in this new idea. It's my first entrepreneurial idea. And I have two kids. I am married with my husband. And so my question is Am I too old now to move to entrepreneurial and risking a little bit, you know, of my money, but also my time learening about AI, learning about how you approve a drug for rare diseases. So this is the question for you. I'm in my car and I said, well, I really need to to send this to her because you are Fucking incredible. Very very sharp, sometimes maybe too sharp, but I love it. Thank you so much First of all, I'm not too sharp. I'm never too sharp Actually, it sounds like you're already an entrepreneur. Dean Polo, I think you're very much an entrepreneur. You went from being a physicist and nuclear fusion. That's pretty interesting. Too slow. wow, it is slow. From what I know about it, it is quite slow. what's happening there But it sounds like you've constantly been an entrepreneur. So I don't know why this is any different. It sounds like you've had lots of experiences and you're very willing to accept risks. So I don't know why you're not willing to accept risk here now This AI and rare diseases is really interesting. I only know a tiny bit about it, but it really is. a lot of people that I trust are telling me this is the one area where AI is really going to shine in terms of all manner of businesses, solving diseases, figuring out connections, patterns, coming up with new drug discovery drug interactions. I mean, it just is I feel like this is one area where AI is going to play an important role in terms of cancer, in terms of helping with MRNA vaccines. you know, I just did an interview about Demis Hasbus, who is working on gene folding, it's just such a ripe area and it seems to me that a huge market too in terms of