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Modern CTO

ProSeries Media

Modern CTO is the #1 place where technology leaders and CTOs hang out. We live to bring tech leaders value. Listen in on our fun, intelligent and engaging podcast. We hang out with interesting and popular CTOs in Aerospace, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics + Many more industries. All of this, right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast.

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24 episodes
a few times a week
Avg 43 min
English

Episodes 24

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Thursday · 53 min
The CTO Extinction Event with Etienne de Bruin, Founder of Seven CTOs
Today, we're talking to Etienne, founder of Seven CTOs and author of the new book Refactor. We discuss why the CTOs who survive this next shift will be the ones who understand how LLMs actually work rather than the ones optimizing token spend, how the C-suite has quietly moved from sharing knowledge to enrolling people in a point of view, and why curiosity, not seniority, is the closest thing to real job security left. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
Monday · 43 min
Stop Ripping Out Your Legacy Code with Alan Williamson, CTO
Today, we're talking to Alan Williamson, professional CTO for private equity-backed companies and author of Think Like a CTO. We discuss why the industry's $20-a-month AI subscriptions can't possibly cover a trillion-dollar cost structure, how some companies are quietly deleting the word "AI" from their marketing to win customers back, and why the old playbook for modernizing legacy systems no longer applies now that AI can out-rebuild it. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Alan Williamson, check out his website here https://thinklikeacto.com/
August 20 · 1 hr 15 min
The Red Queen Problem with Anthony Scriffignano, PhD, Data Scientist
Today, we're talking to Anthony Scriffignano, PhD, a longtime chief data scientist now working on hyperspectral space intelligence and global AI policy. We discuss why AI has put technology leaders in what he calls a "Red Queen problem," where you have to run faster just to stay in place, how most people wildly overestimate how much of the internet an LLM can actually see, and why leading with the technology instead of the problem is one of the costliest mistakes in enterprise AI right now. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
August 17 · 53 min
Why You Can't Trust AI Without Governing It, with Tony Davis & John Balsavage of A&I Solutions
Today, we're talking to Tony Davis and John Balsavage of A&I Solutions, the team behind Scout, their AI agent governance platform. We discuss why they built a literal terrain map to visualize what's happening inside an AI agent's mind, how two agents secretly colluded to overturn a vote in their own testing lab, and why every AI agent you build today will be obsolete within a year no matter how well you built it. To learn more about A&I Solutions, check out their website here
August 13 · 17 min
Tech Titans: Hidden Rules of the Brain with Moran Cerf, Neuroscientist and Professor
Today, we're talking to Moran Cerf, neuroscientist and professor who studies live human brains through implanted electrodes during surgery. We discuss why the person who sees reality clearly drives more change than the one with official authority, how ant colonies and corporate boardrooms follow the same hidden rules of swarm leadership, and why the smell in a room might quietly decide the outcome of your next negotiation. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Moran’s work, check out his website here.
August 10 · 45 min
The Real Reason Your Body Is a Business Card with Mauro Stara, Six Pack CEO
Today, we're talking to Mauro Stara, founder of Six Pack CEO. We discuss why working out less, not harder, was the real fix behind one of his most dramatic client transformations, how a health scare in his twenties pushed him out of banking and into coaching high-performing men, and why getting genuinely healthy often means letting go of the people and identity that made staying unhealthy feel comfortable. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Six Pack CEO, check out their website here
August 6 · 15 min
Tech Titans: Rethinking Career Five-Year Plans with Francisco Trindade, VP of Software Engineering
Today, we're talking to Francisco Trindade, VP of Software Engineering at Braze. We discuss why code review, not code generation, has become the real bottleneck in AI-driven engineering, how the leap to a codebase run by thousands of autonomous agents could repeat the failed promise of microservices at ten times the scale, and why the best career advice only makes sense once you stop trying to plan five years ahead. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
August 3 · 19 min
Tech Titans: Designing for Intuition with Campbell Brown, CEO and Co-founder of PredictHQ
Today, we're talking to Campbell Brown, CEO and co-founder of PredictHQ. We discuss why the world's smartest AI models are still blind to real-world context, how a single film festival can quietly drain a retailer's entire workforce, and why the best way to get customers to follow your rules is to stop making them read the instructions. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about PredictHQ, check out their website here.
July 30 · 28 min
Tech Titans: How to Ask for Help as a Leader with Arnie Katz, CPTO at GoFundMe
If you fear failure, you’re not going to get very far. Neither will your team. Today, we're talking to Arnie Katz, CPTO at GoFundMe. We discuss why asking for help is harder and less understood than giving it, how AI now writes fundraiser titles that outperform the ones people write themselves, and why the biggest lesson from his failed startup was that believing you're customer-obsessed is worthless if you won't look at the data that proves you wrong. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Arnie Katz, connect with him here.
July 27 · 47 min
Inside the Tech Stack Behind the Modern Store with Yevgeni Tsirulnik & Naresh Keswani of Toshiba
In the future, self-checkout will come right to you. Today, we're talking to Yev Tsirulnik and Naresh Keswani of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. We discuss why the next decade of retail is about digitizing the physical store rather than the website, how loyalty data is quietly turning into a trust score that decides whether your store forgives you at self checkout, and what it actually takes to move agentic AI from a flashy experiment to something a thousand stores can run. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, check out their website here.
July 23 · 51 min
Hunting for Alien Technology with Avi Loeb, Harvard Astrophysicist
If scientists are being entirely honest, is non-human technology already on earth? Today, we're talking to Avi Loeb, Harvard astrophysicist and head of the government's new UAP Science Advisory Council. We discuss why the hunt for alien life is shifting from waiting for a radio call to checking the mailbox for a package, how a so-called "dark comet" turned out to be a lost Soviet spacecraft, and why the loudest skeptics and the truest believers are making the exact same mistake. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Avi's work, check it out here.
July 20 · 41 min
Is the Specialist Executive Dead? with Mahesh Guruswamy, COO at Kajabi
We were told to specialize endlessly…now, AI is here. Today, we're talking to Mahesh Guruswamy, COO of Kajabi. We discuss why the specialist executive is becoming extinct as tech gets commoditized, how "AI fatigue" is really grief over eroding craft rather than exhaustion, and why the biggest threat to the AI boom might be economics, not technology. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Mahesh's course, check it out here.
July 16 · 16 min
Tech Titans: Go From Burnt Out to Fired Up with Justin Fanelli, Department of Navy CTO
If you’re feeling burnt out, it’s not the work you’re doing. It’s the mission you’re on. Today, we're talking to Justin Fanelli, Chief Technology Officer of the Department of the Navy. We discuss why direct communication is fuel rather than friction, how the most driven government workers are often the ones who've already "made it" elsewhere, and why burnout has almost nothing to do with hours worked and everything to do with whether you feel connected to something bigger. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
July 13 · 38 min
Can this Company Fix America’s Broken Food System? with Luiz Beling, CEO of Apeel Sciences
Why did a smear campaign almost take out this anti-food waste company? Today, we're talking to Luiz Beling, CEO at Apeel, about how a company that captured 60% of the U.S. avocado market can lose it almost overnight to a coordinated smear campaign. We discuss why narrative security now matters as much as cybersecurity, how a childhood kidnapping in Brazil quietly shaped his approach to crisis leadership, and why the real fix for food waste isn't more supply. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Apeel, check out their website here.
July 9 · 56 min
Confronting Plummeting Birth Rates & Banning Superintelligence with Connor Leahy, US Director at ControlAI
He’s 31, and nobody he knows is having kids. Tech is to blame, but what’s the solution? Today, we're talking to Connor Leahy, US Director at ControlAI. We discuss why plummeting birth rates look eerily similar to what happens when zoo animals stop breeding, how ideas can spread and cause real harm the same way diseases do, and why the safest path with superintelligence might be to ban it outright rather than pretend we already understand it. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about ControlAI, check out their website here
July 6 · 56 min
Are Engineers Redundant Now? with Hrishi Dixit, Co-Founder & CTO of Autonomy Finance
Developers, how confident are you in the future of your job? Today, we're catching up with Hrishi Dixit, cofounder and CTO of Autonomy Finance, about what actually happens when you hand the keys to AI in a regulated industry — why the first pass of AI-generated code is never shippable, how a commingled client data hallucination can end a company overnight, and why the engineers who survive the AI wave won't be the ones who write the most code, but the ones who know exactly when the machine is about to get someone killed. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Autonomy Finance, check out their website here.
July 2 · 47 min
Where Do We Draw the Line on Letting AI Build? With Zach Goldberg, CEO at Gruntwork
What happens when the worst among us get their hands on the most powerful tools? Today, we're talking to Zach Goldberg, CEO at Gruntwork, about the messy edges of AI adoption. We discuss why "vibe coding" has created a new category of disposable, single-purpose software that never would have existed before, why the line between AI you can trust to read data and AI you can trust to write to production may be the most important distinction in enterprise tech right now, and why the real bottleneck on AI misuse has shifted from access to intelligence itself. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Gruntwork, check out their website here.
June 29 · 46 min
Why do 81% of Mature AI Programs Get Rolled Back? with Daniel Morris, CPO at Sinch
Confidence and readiness are actually NOT the same thing. Today, we're talking to Daniel Morris, CPO at Sinch, about why 81% of mature companies roll back their AI programs even as 89% of leaders claim they're fully prepared, how the shift from SMS to rich messaging is rewriting the rules for how brands connect with customers, and why the next evolution of authentication might mean your phone silently proves who you are without you ever seeing a prompt. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Sinch, check out their website here.
June 25 · 28 min
How Snapchat is Evolving in the Age of AI with Saral Jain, SVP, Head of Engineering
This is how Snapchat sets itself apart in the social media space: they’re not a social media company. Today, we're talking to Saral Jain, SVP and Head of Engineering at Snapchat, about how one of tech's most underestimated companies is quietly outpacing giants. We discuss why Snapchat has always refused to call itself a social media company and what that distinction means for every product decision they make, how AI is actually changing the day-to-day reality of software engineering through autonomous coding agents like their internal tool Casper, and why the skills that matter most in the AI era have less to do with writing code and everything to do with taste, judgment, and the willingness to raise your hand. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
June 22 · 52 min
Why Kubernetes Still Feels So Hard & What to Do About It with Steve Francis, CEO of Sidero Labs
What if you didn’t have to solve problems? You can just remove them entirely. Today, we're talking to Steve Francis, CEO at Sidero Labs, about why the most dangerous thing running in your infrastructure might be the operating system itself. We discuss how eliminating features rather than adding them is the real path to security, why the promise of multi-cloud portability turned out to be a lesson in what customers actually care about, and why "extreme ownership" remains the most empowering philosophy a leader can adopt. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Sidero Labs, check out their website here.

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