In this episode, Catherine Bracy, Founder and CEO of TechEquity and author of World Eaters, joins Medlir to examine how the venture capital model shapes not just startups, but the broader economy. From labor disruption and “ghost workers” to the growing concentration of power in the AI stack and the transformation of housing markets through tech platforms, the discussion explores how innovation, capital, and inequality intersect. Grounded in TechEquity’s work, the episode also considers what meaningful intervention could look like, and whether it is possible to steer technological progress toward more equitable outcomes.

Links:

• Catherine Bracy
• The tech industry's growth should benefit everyone.
• World Eaters | How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy
• Privacy, Technology, and Fair Housing – In a nutshell
• AI & Workforce Development – November 2025 Report

Caryn Lusinchi, Young Diogenes, and Medlir are back to unpack the rapidly shifting landscape of AI safety following the IASEAI Conference in Paris.

They explore how AI risk is evolving beyond technical challenges into global coordination problems, especially as systems become autonomous and agentic.

From “synthetic outlaws” and shifting accountability, to emerging economic disruption and geopolitical competition, the discussion highlights how current governance frameworks are designed for humans, and struggling to keep pace.

The episode closes by examining the unresolved gap between accelerating AI capabilities and fragmented global oversight. This raises a central question: is AI safety becoming a tool for protection, control -- both?

Links:

• IASEAI’26 Conference
• AEGIX AE Ethics & Governance Institute

Send us Fan Mail

Trooper Sanders joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation on artificial intelligence and its effects on the economy, governance, and everyday life. Drawing on his experience advising on national AI policy, Sanders walks through the White House's new AI framework and the competing legislation it faces, unpacking the key tensions between innovation, safety, and federal versus state authority — and making the case that AI policy ranks among the defining societal challenges of our time, comparable to the great turning points in American history.

Links:

• White House National Policy Framework
• Blackburn Omnibus AI Bill

In this episode of Age of AI, I share a conversation with international business attorney Jonathan Bench on what it means to govern intelligence in a rapidly shifting legal and geopolitical landscape. We explore how AI is reshaping the practice of law, what is keeping boards and executives up at night, whether regulation is constraining or enabling innovation, and why the global competition over AI may ultimately be a race to define standards rather than simply build faster models. Drawing on Jonathan’s experience advising companies, founders, and investment funds across multiple continents, this discussion examines the intersection of corporate governance, regulatory strategy, and long-term national competitiveness in the age of artificial intelligence.

Links:

• Jonathan Bench Personal Page
• AEGIX AI Law and Governance Practicum
• Lawbalization Podcast

From AI built religions on Moltbook to human simulation platforms like RentAHuman, the boundaries between human and machine are already blurring. While Congress debates national frameworks, US states are advancing their own AI transparency and safety laws. In this episode, Alexandra Tsalidis of the Future of Life Institute breaks down how state governments are shaping AI policy, why voters are backing these efforts, and how a growing federal preemption fight could determine who governs AI in America.

Links:

• Alexandra Tsalidis - Future of Life Institute
• Moltbook: AI bots use social network to create religions and deal digital drugs – but are some really humans in disguise?
• The Hill Republican who could get a deal on AI — if his leadership lets him
• ‘Vance Is Handcuffed’: The Tech Fight Bedeviling 2028 Republicans

In this episode, we sit down with entrepreneur, investor, educator, and author Jeff Burnigham to explore what it truly means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence. The author of bestselling book: The Last Book Written by a Human, Jeff reframes AI not as a technological challenge but as a human one. We discuss why simulated understanding is not the same as lived experience, how love, loss, and wisdom ground us in an age of acceleration, the risks of synthetic relationships and attention capture, and why becoming an anomaly willing to step outside normalized patterns may be essential to shaping a more humane future.

Links:

• Jeff Burningham LinkedIn
• The Last Book Written by a Human
• Podcasting @ The Extraordinary Us

In this episode of Age of AI, Medlir sits down with Melissa McKay, Founder of the Digital Childhood Institute. They examine how Big Tech platforms and app store gatekeepers have failed to protect kids online. From Google emailing children in order to remove parental controls, to deceptive app age ratings, we discuss how safety breakdowns are not accidents but predictable outcomes of misaligned incentives. Online harm to children is not inevitable. It appears to be designed, normalized, and protected by powerful systems that profit from inaction.

Links:

• Digital Childhood Institute
• Google’s Broken Promise of Safety
• Child Advocates File Landmark FTC Complaint Against Apple Over Pervasive Harms to Kids
• OpenAI, childrens’ advocates join forces on initiative to protect kids from chatbots
• Grok, CSAM, and the Gatekeepers Who Looked Away
• H.B. 273 Classroom Technology Amendments

In this episode of Age of AI, Medlir speaks with Seth Lewis, professor at the University of Oregon and a leading scholar of journalism, AI, and communication. The conversation explores what Lewis calls the “AI turn” in journalism: a moment when generative AI begins to challenge core ideas about authorship, creativity, trust, and professional identity. We examine how AI is moving from a backstage technology to an active participant in communication, how it shapes trust in society, and how we can retain our ability to ‘think’ in an age of AI.

Episode Links:

• https://www.sethlewis.org/
• Artificial intelligence and communication: A human–machine communication research agenda
• Technological Hype and AI in Journalism: Five Functions and Why They Matter
• Generative AI and its disruptive challenge to journalism: An institutional analysis
• The AI turn in journalism: Disruption, adaptation, and democratic futures