American Dream Factory (ADF)

At 22 years old, Nathan Wozny was building the life he wanted.

He had dropped out of college, moved across the country, found a career he loved, and was beginning to build his version of the American Dream.

Then he found out he had cancer.

At first, there was reason for optimism. For a couple of weeks, doctors believed Nathan likely had a common and highly treatable form of cancer for someone his age.

Then the biopsy came back.

Nathan had Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumors, or DSRCT, an extraordinarily rare and aggressive cancer with very few specialists in the world experienced in treating it.

Doctors found a grapefruit-sized tumor in his pelvis and another large tumor wrapped around his liver and diaphragm.

Everything changed.

What followed was a year of chemotherapy, multiple major surgeries at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, radiation, an ileostomy, losing roughly 30 pounds, relearning how to walk and eat, and repeatedly confronting the possibility that the future he had imagined might never happen.

But this episode isn't really about cancer.

It's about what happens when, at 22 years old, life strips away almost everything you thought mattered.

Nathan talks about praying for a miracle after his diagnosis, the dark moments he faced during treatment, waking up from surgery simply grateful to still be alive, and the family, friends, doctors, and coworkers who carried him through it.

He also talks about how surviving changed his definition of the American Dream.

Before cancer, success looked like many of the things young people chase: money, a great career, a fast car, a nice house.

After cancer, it became much simpler.

Prioritize purpose over success.

Love people. Do cool shit.

Stay delusional.

Nathan came home from months of treatment and cried when he saw his favorite pair of sneakers because they reminded him that he was finally home.

That small moment captured one of the biggest lessons of his journey: you don't need much to have something worth being grateful for.

Now, at 23, Nathan is back at work, back in Coeur d'Alene, dreaming about traveling, climbing mountains, building things, and figuring out what to do with a life he came frighteningly close to losing.

His advice after everything he's been through:

You have no idea how big your story is. Believe in it and keep going.

This is a conversation about cancer, faith, friendship, purpose, gratitude, ambition, and what it means to get another shot at life.

What happens when a Republican entrepreneur, a Democratic political strategist, and a city manager sit down—not to win an argument, but to understand each other?

In one of the most thoughtful conversations we've had on American Dream Factory, Nick Smoot and Joe Toney welcome Adama Iwu, one of America's leading political strategists and one of TIME's 2017 "Silence Breakers," collectively recognized as Person of the Year for helping expose sexual harassment in politics.

The conversation begins with a question Nick has wanted to ask for months.

After witnessing Zohran Mamdani walk out of the West Wing following a meeting with President Trump, Nick realized something surprising: he had never actually spoken with someone who voted for Mamdani.

So he asked.

Why?

That simple question opens the door to a remarkably honest discussion about the future of American politics, capitalism, socialism, healthcare, AI, civic engagement, and what it means to build communities that actually work for people.

Adama shares her journey from growing up as an evangelical Christian and conservative to becoming one of the country's most respected voices on public policy. She explains why policies like universal childcare, public transportation, and expanded healthcare resonate with her—not as ideological positions, but as practical ways to help people flourish.

Nick offers a center-right perspective, arguing for entrepreneurship, local innovation, and community-led solutions while challenging assumptions about government and economic policy.

Joe guides the conversation with curiosity, helping both sides unpack difficult questions without turning disagreement into conflict.

Together they explore:

• Why Zohran Mamdani's message connected with so many voters
• Socialism versus capitalism and where Americans often talk past one another
• Whether healthcare should be treated as a public good
• The future of AI regulation, privacy, and innovation
• Open-source AI versus centralized technology platforms
• Representation, the Voting Rights Act, and civic participation
• Why local government may matter more than national politics
• Building stronger communities in an increasingly polarized nation

One of the recurring themes throughout the conversation is that meaningful progress rarely comes from shouting louder. It comes from asking better questions.

Whether discussing healthcare, artificial intelligence, economic opportunity, or public policy, all three guests repeatedly return to the same idea: communities improve when people choose to participate rather than retreat into political tribes.

The episode concludes with a reminder that democracy isn't something that happens every four years. It's something we build every day through local involvement, civic responsibility, and a willingness to engage people we disagree with.

If you're looking for a conversation that challenges assumptions without demonizing people, this episode is for you.

About Adama Iwu

Adama Iwu is a political strategist and government affairs executive with leadership experience across state government, Fortune 500 companies, and public policy. She has served in the Schwarzenegger Administration, led California Government Affairs for Farmers Insurance, served as Vice President for Political Strategy and External Partnerships at Visa, and is currently a political strategist with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

She co-founded We Said Enough, the movement that exposed widespread sexual harassment in California politics, and was recognized as one of TIME's 2017 "Silence Breakers," the collective recipients of TIME's Person of the Year honor. She also serves on the University of San Diego Board of Trustees and is a nationally recognized speaker on leadership, ethics, and public policy.

American Dream Factory explores the people and ideas shaping the future of America through conversations that prioritize curiosity over certainty and solutions over slogans.

What happens when AI can think faster than us and robots can work longer than us?

In this episode, Nick Smoot explores the future of work and argues that the real crisis won't be unemployment—it will be a loss of human purpose. After more than 16 years researching, testing, and building community-based innovation systems, Nick introduces Project-Based Incentives (PBI): a new economic model that rewards people for solving problems instead of simply holding jobs.

Instead of asking, "How do we replace lost income?" Nick asks a different question:

"How do we create a world where everyone has something meaningful to build?"

• Why AI and humanoid robots are changing the future faster than most people realize
• The hidden danger isn't unemployment—it's losing purpose
• Why humans still outperform AI at creativity, experimentation, and breakthrough thinking
• Why Universal Basic Income (UBI) solves the wrong problem
• Introducing Project-Based Incentives (PBI) as an alternative economic model
• How governments, corporations, and philanthropy can fund people to solve real problems
• Reimagining community colleges as local innovation and project hubs
• Why ownership, equity, and community matter in the AI era
• How Build Cities is already testing pieces of this future today

• The future economy should reward contribution, not just employment.
• Purpose comes from creating, building, and solving problems with others.
• AI can process information, but humans still create what has never existed before.
• Communities can become engines of innovation instead of waiting for jobs to arrive.
• Project-Based Incentives align learning, work, ownership, and impact into one system.

"If the robots take our jobs, the answer isn't Universal Basic Income. It's giving every human something meaningful to build."

• Build Cities: buildcities.com
• Email: [email protected]

Subscribe for more conversations on the future of work, community building, entrepreneurship, and how we create an economy where humans continue to flourish alongside AI.

There are only about 76 daily newspapers left in America that are not owned by a major corporate chain or billionaire-backed private owner.

Seventy-six.

In a country with more than 19,000 cities, towns, and villages, that number should stop us in our tracks.

Chapters

06:43 The State of Local Journalism

09:15 Challenges of Independent Voices

14:17 Reflecting Community Voices

16:01 The Role of Local Journalism

17:41 The Impact of Digital Disruption

19:26 The Soul of a Newspaper

22:55 Community Engagement and Trust

24:52 Building Relationships with Public Officials

27:44 Navigating AI in Journalism

44:46 Engaging Voters and Civic Responsibility

53:17 The Future of Print vs. Online Journalism

59:01 The Importance of Supporting Local News

01:02:17 The Importance of Content in Media

01:03:05 Engagement and Community Action

In this episode of the American Dream Factory Podcast, Nick Smoot and Joe Toney sit down with Clint Schroeder, President and Publisher at Hagadone Media, for a conversation about local journalism, civic trust, the First Amendment, AI, news deserts, and why every community still needs someone watching, listening, verifying, and telling the truth.

Clint oversees newspapers, magazines, and media properties across the Inland Pacific Northwest, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Hawaii. After nearly 30 years in the industry, he has watched newspapers move from being the dominant civic voice in town to fighting for survival in a world shaped by Craigslist, Cars.com, social media, shrinking newsrooms, and now AI.

But Clint does not talk about newspapers with nostalgia. He talks about them as mission.

Local newspapers are not just businesses. They are civic infrastructure. They are archivists, watchdogs, conveners, mirrors, and defenders of the First Amendment. They record the story of a place. They cover school boards, city councils, local elections, public institutions, infrastructure fights, community victories, and warning signs that no national outlet will ever care enough to cover.

And when they disappear, the information does not disappear.

The verification disappears.

The context disappears.

The accountability disappears.

Clint makes the case that healthy local media is one of the last remaining foundations of healthy civic life. As he says in the conversation, the press is the only industry named directly in the U.S. Constitution. That means newspapers carry a responsibility that goes far beyond content, clicks, ads, or subscriptions.

Nick, Joe, and Clint explore what happens when a community loses its paper, why opinion pages and letters to the editor still matter, how local media can preserve balanced civic conversation, and why communities should not take their local newspaper for granted.

They also discuss the difference between real reporting and content generation, why AI should not replace original journalism, how young people consume news, and what it would take to rebuild local news in places that have become news deserts.

In this episode of the American Dream Factory Podcast, Nick Smoot sits down with Morgan Linton, co-founder and CTO of Bold Metrics, early Sonos employee, AI builder, and one of the most compelling people experimenting at the edge of artificial intelligence.

Morgan’s path is not linear, which is exactly what makes it valuable. He studied computer engineering and computer science at Carnegie Mellon, then turned down traditional software jobs to become an unpaid intern in the DreamWorks story department. From there, he joined Sonos before the product had launched, when the company had only a few months of runway left, and helped it grow into a billion-dollar company.

That unusual path gave Morgan a rare mix of technical depth, storytelling, taste, sales experience, startup scars, and founder judgment. It also prepared him for the moment we are in now, where the future will not belong only to people who can write code. It will belong to people who can see what the world needs, imagine something better, and use machines to help build it.

Today, Morgan and his wife Dana lead Bold Metrics, a machine learning company helping major apparel brands reduce returns, improve fit, and design clothing around real human body data. Bold Metrics can predict dozens of body measurements from simple inputs, then map those insights to garment data so brands can recommend better sizes and make better products.

Nick and Morgan talk about why that matters in the AI era. As software becomes easier to build, the real moats become harder things: data, momentum, distribution, taste, and trust. Morgan explains why proprietary data is so powerful, why most people underestimate distribution, and why building something useful still requires judgment, creativity, and real-world understanding.

The conversation then moves into the new world of AI-powered software development. Morgan shares how he moved his engineering team into agentic coding workflows and why he believes leaders now have a responsibility to use these tools. They discuss Codex, GPT-5.5, Cursor, Droid from Factory AI, Grok Build, Devin, Graphite, Claude Code, model routing, agentic code review, and the difference between a model and a harness.

Morgan explains that a model is not the whole product. The model is the intelligence. The harness is the system that tells it how to behave, use tools, execute tasks, and interact with the user. The same model can perform very differently depending on the harness around it. That means the future is not just better AI models. It is better combinations of models, harnesses, workflows, and human judgment.

For people just beginning with AI, Morgan’s advice is simple: do not start with a book, a course, or a four-hour tutorial. Start by building. Pick one repetitive thing you do every day and ask an AI coding agent to help you automate it. A spreadsheet process. A report. A tax calculation. A file cleanup task. A simple internal tool. Once you build something useful, you cannot unsee what is happening.

The deepest part of the conversation is not technical. It is human.

Nick frames AI as the next wave of the internet, and Morgan pushes the idea further. This is not just the next wave of the internet. It is the next wave of humanity.

Morgan argues that non-creative work can and will be done by machines at scale. That should not terrify us. It should free us. The computers can do the 996. Humans get to return to the work that makes us human: creativity, love, emotion, imagination, risk, beauty, invention, and solving real problems with people we care about.

This episode is part founder story, part AI field guide, and part hopeful argument for the future. Morgan’s message is clear: stop watching from the sidelines. Start building. Use the tools. Experiment. Automate something small. Follow your curiosity. Take the weird path. Build with taste. Create something useful.

In this episode of the American Dream Factory Podcast, Nick Smoot sits down with Daron Babcock, Managing Director of Community Transformation at Stand Together Foundation and founder of Bonton Farms, for a powerful conversation about poverty, dignity, health, faith, entrepreneurship, and what it actually takes to transform a community.

Daron’s story begins far from the nonprofit world. He started his first business at fifteen, wrestled at the University of Oklahoma, worked in corporate America, helped run a beverage distributorship, launched a startup, and eventually entered the world of private equity after his company was acquired by Blackstone.

But after the death of his first wife, Daron’s life took a different turn. Through grief, friendship, faith, and a hunger for deeper human connection, he found himself drawn into Bonton, a struggling neighborhood in South Dallas. What began as a desire to be a better friend became a long-term commitment to living in proximity with people most of society had overlooked.

At the time, Bonton faced staggering challenges. Median household income was around $19,000. High school graduation rates were low. Teen pregnancy, infant mortality, incarceration, chronic disease, and early death were painfully common. But Daron did not see a community defined by failure. He saw trapped potential.

The first lesson was simple but profound: listen and respond.

Residents told him they needed jobs, so Daron started with workforce development. But that effort quickly revealed deeper barriers. Many people were too sick to work. Others lacked transportation, access to fresh food, safe housing, health care, banking, or the confidence to articulate their own value. What looked like a jobs problem was actually a system problem.

That insight led to the creation of Bonton Farms, which became far more than an urban farm. It became an economic engine, a health intervention, a gathering place, and a catalyst for local businesses including a coffee house, farm-to-table restaurant, security company, facility maintenance company, landscape business, and more. As dollars began circulating inside the neighborhood, wealth and confidence began to build.

Daron explains that real community transformation requires more than charity. It requires building the conditions where people can flourish: relationships, economic opportunity, health, transportation, education, safe housing, and access to the basic tools needed to participate fully in life.

Over eight years, Bonton saw dramatic improvement. Median household income more than doubled. Home values rose. Graduation rates improved. Teen pregnancy dropped. Crime declined significantly.

Nick and Daron also explore the failures of modern philanthropy, the danger of toxic empathy, the limits of giving money without proximity, and the need to measure what actually matters. They discuss why downstream interventions alone will never solve upstream problems, why human flourishing must be measured by the people experiencing it, and why the future of community transformation depends on believing in people enough to hold them accountable to their own potential.

This is a conversation about dignity, systems, friendship, health, faith, business, poverty, and the hard, slow, beautiful work of helping people and places become whole.

Key Themes

• Proximity creates the will to change.
• Jobs alone are not enough.
• Poverty is a systems problem, not a people problem.
• Market-driven solutions can restore dignity.
• Health is foundational to human flourishing.
• Charity without accountability can become harmful.
• Human flourishing must be measured.

Resources Mentioned

• Bonton Farms
• Stand Together Foundation
• Poverty, Inc.
  
• 
  Toxic Charity by Robert D. Lupton
  
• 
  The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
  
• 
  Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  
• 
  The W. Edwards Deming Institute
  
• Believe in People by Charles Koch and Brian Hooks
  

Nevada is putting real capital behind founders, manufacturers, builders, and companies ready to scale.

In this episode of American Dream Factory, Nick Smoot sits down with Kyle Ferguson, head of Nevada’s Battle Born Growth Escalator venture program, to unpack how Nevada is deploying nearly $40 million into high-potential companies through venture capital, debt programs, and state-backed financing tools.

Kyle is a sixth-generation Nevadan with a background in hedge funds, private equity, fund operations, and entrepreneurship. Early in his career, he helped evaluate and allocate capital into some of the most successful hedge funds in the world, including Renaissance, D.E. Shaw, and Paul Tudor Jones. That experience shaped how he now thinks about risk, discipline, patience, and backing great operators.

Battle Born is not a grant program. It is investment capital for companies that want to grow in Nevada, hire in Nevada, build in Nevada, or relocate meaningful operations to the state.

Through the SSBCI program, Nevada was allocated up to $112 million from the U.S. Treasury, released in tranches as the state hits deployment milestones. After deploying roughly $40 million over its first 10 to 11 years, Battle Born is now moving faster, with another nearly $40 million expected to go into the market over a much shorter window.

Kyle breaks down the three major ways Battle Born can support companies:

Venture capital: equity investments typically ranging from $250,000 to $2 million, with an average check around $750,000.

Collateral support: state support for up to 80 percent of collateral on qualifying bank loans.

Loan participation: Battle Born can participate alongside Nevada banks to lower the blended cost of capital for companies seeking debt.

Nick and Kyle also discuss why Nevada is becoming one of the most compelling states in America for founders. The state has favorable tax policy, room for manufacturing, major industrial momentum, a growing AI and data center economy, and a strong builder culture rooted in mining, logistics, energy, construction, and hard work.

The conversation covers major opportunity areas including advanced manufacturing, energy, batteries, robotics, drone systems, defense technology, industrial AI, aerospace, precision manufacturing, and companies looking to leave higher-cost states.

This episode also introduces the partnership between Battle Born and Build Cities through the Build Nevada network. Founders can now explore challenge areas, submit projects, connect with other builders, and use UDAYOS, Build’s AI engine, to discover capital, collaborators, workforce resources, and state-aligned opportunities.

The message is simple: if you are building a serious company and Nevada could be part of your future, do not sit on the sidelines. Get into the Build Nevada network, submit your project, ask questions, and start the conversation.

Nevada is not just talking about the American Dream. It is writing checks to help build it.

Start here: Go to BuildCities.com, search Build Nevada, and explore the Battle Born challenge opportunities.

For questions, introductions, or help figuring out where your company fits, email [email protected] .

In this episode, Nick & Joe sit down with John Keisler, CEO of Sunstone Management and former Economic Development Director for the City of Long Beach, for a conversation about public-private partnerships, civic expertise, investment, and what it really takes to build stronger communities.

John brings a rare perspective from both sides of the table. He spent more than 20 years in public service before moving into the private sector, where he now helps connect capital, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, and community.

The conversation explores the power of P3s, why government often serves as a market maker, and how private capital can align with public purpose. John also shares a simple but powerful lesson for cities: know what you are if you want to grow who you are.

At its core, this episode is about how government, capital, and community can work together to build places where people belong, contribute, and create the future.

About John Keisler
John P. Keisler is CEO & Managing Partner of Sunstone Management, a Southern California venture capital firm that invests in diverse early-stage technology startups through public-private partnerships across government, education, and private sectors. Before joining Sunstone, John spent more than 20 years in public service, most recently as Economic Development Director for the City of Long Beach. His work has focused on inclusive economic growth, private-sector investment, entrepreneurial ecosystem development, infrastructure, and community-building strategy.

Links
Sunstone Management: https://www.sunstoneinvestment.com
Sunstone Cities: https://sunstonecities.com
John Keisler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpkeisler/

In this episode of American Dream Factory, Nick Smoot sits down with Morgan Dixon, a 24-year-old PhD student in artificial intelligence and machine learning at the University of Idaho.

Morgan represents a rare but replicable archetype: a young man preparing to launch into the world with technical competence, grounded character, and calm confidence. While many of his peers feel uncertain about the future of work, Morgan is building inside it. He works as a consulting data scientist and software engineer, contributing to healthcare and behavioral health systems, including AI-driven modernization efforts connected to state-level crisis infrastructure.

This conversation is not about hype. It is about formation.

It is about how young men develop direction in an era of automation, distraction, and drift.

What This Episode Covers:

The Launch Path

Morgan shares how his path was shaped by:

• Early entrepreneurship in his teens

• Dual enrollment in high school

• Pivoting degrees after academic setbacks

• Walking resumes door-to-door in Seattle

• Working full-time while pursuing graduate studies

His story reinforces a simple truth: initiative compounds.

Proof of Work Over Credentials

A degree is common. Proof of execution is rare.

Morgan explains why many computer science graduates are struggling and why building real projects, writing models, and demonstrating competence now matter more than ever. In a world where AI lowers the barrier to entry, differentiation requires depth, discipline, and visible output.

AI Is Changing the Shape of Opportunity

The conversation explores:

• How AI has democratized software development

• Why domain expertise now matters more than surface coding ability

• Why Morgan is exploring hardware and security-heavy industries

• What he has learned from working inside healthcare data and reimbursement systems

Innovation follows incentives. Understanding those incentives creates leverage.

Healthcare and Government as Builder Environments

Morgan offers insight into working within healthcare and state systems:

• Data fragmentation and interoperability challenges

• Billing structures that shape innovation

• The need for simplicity in behavioral health and remote monitoring

• The patience required to work in public infrastructure

These are complex systems that reward serious builders.

Raising Men Who Build

Nick asks a direct question:

“What should I do so my kid’s not a turd?”

Morgan’s answer is direct:

Send them into the real world.

Have them job shadow.

Let them see real work.

Expose them to adults who build and solve problems.

Direction comes from exposure. Confidence comes from competence. Drift comes from isolation.

Key Takeaways

For young men:

• Stop waiting. Go build something.

• Meet people in person. Initiative creates luck.

• Develop technical depth and real-world exposure.

• Do hard things before you feel ready.

For parents:

• Exposure beats lectures.

• Responsibility builds identity.

• Encourage initiative, not comfort.

In an era where machines are accelerating and many young people feel unmoored, this episode offers a grounded alternative: calm confidence, technical competence, and the discipline to build.

Learn more at buildcities.com or Morgan Dixon

Nick Smoot sits down with Doug Erwin, the entrepreneurship lead at EDAWN in Northern Nevada, for a wide-ranging, high-energy conversation about two things happening at once:

1. AI is moving from “chat” to “do.” Agents are booking meetings, running workflows, and changing the cost and speed of building.

2. Reno is quietly turning into a real startup boomtown. And EDAWN is literally putting money behind the people who want to strengthen the ecosystem.

The punchline: Doug’s team has a grant program called BESTI that funds community-led events, meetups, and builder gatherings. Nick shows how to submit an idea through BuildCities.com by linking a project to the BESTI challenge.

What BESTIE Is (in plain English)

BESTI = EDAWN money to help you host ecosystem-building events.

Not top-down programming. Not “EDAWN's event.” It’s community-led.

• Typical awards: around $1,000

• Larger requests: up to $5,000

• Purpose: reduce friction, validate community leaders, and get more builders in the room together

Examples they want to fund: founder meetups, workshops, pitch nights, Startup Weekend, niche communities (AI, art, games, hardware), and simple gatherings that create collisions.

Why This Matters Right Now

Doug and Nick both make the same point in different language: the future is not coming. It is here.

AI is turning into an “autonomous assistant” era, which means anyone can build faster than ever. That is awesome. It is also chaotic. The communities that win will be the ones that create places for people to:

• meet consistently

• learn together

• get unstuck

• build real things people actually want

Nick’s frame: we’re splitting into two worlds.

• World A: amuse-yourself-to-death consumption

• World B: disciplined creation with friends

BESTI is a lever to help people choose World B.

The Best Stuff Doug Says

• Ecosystems are rainforests, not row crops. They need culture, collisions, and long-term consistency.

• The role of economic development is often to be the “ghost in the machine.” Reduce friction so the community can lead.

• BESTIE is partly funding, partly social validation. Sometimes people just need permission and support to lead.

The Best Stuff Nick Says

• If you want to run an event, do three, not one. Your first one will be awkward. Your third one will have momentum.

• The real shift is from consumption-based social life (restaurants, concerts) to creation-based social life (build nights, learning nights, show-and-tell).

• The winning community model is Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver. Gather people through those phases so building becomes a rhythm.

Reno’s “Wait, What?” Moment

Doug teases a big local milestone: Reno’s first homegrown unicorn announcement is imminent.

Nick uses it as a reminder: “overnight success” is usually two years plus a lifetime of experience, relationships, and timing

How to Apply for BESTIE (simple steps)

1. Go to BuildCities.com

2. Create a profile

3. Create a Project for your event idea (name it, describe it, add collaborators)

4. Search BESTIE and link your project to the challenge

5. EDAWN gets notified, and you are in the pipeline

Nick’s advice: keep it low lift. BBQ + builder conversation is valid. Pizza and folding chairs counts if the room is full of creators.

Talked About in the Episode

• Brad Feld and the “entrepreneurs lead” thesis

• Better ecosystem thinking

• AI agents, MCP, automation, and the new workflow era

• Startup Weekend as a proven collision engine

• The deeper reason communities matter: loneliness, purpose, belonging, and getting unstuck

Guest and Contact

Doug Erwin

Director of Entrepreneurship, EDAWN (Economic Development Association of Western Nevada)

Nick Smoot

Email: [email protected]