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Sometimes you become a part of the thing you're trying to fix. And as the internet content world crashes around us, pulled to the floorboards by AI, Brad and Nick reflect on the work of podcasting and content creation, focusing on some hard lessons learned in the last year.

But beyond just ruminating on what's gone wrong (and how that, in a very meta way, is what has gone wrong with this and many podcasts), the hosts pivot to big changes coming for Working/Broken and what that means for people who want to make a difference in the world we're making together.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to Working Broken Podcast

00:56
Reflections on Podcasting Journey

03:10
Identifying What's Working and What's Broken

05:54
Shifting Perspectives on Content Creation

08:45
Exploring Agency and Cultural Impact

11:51
The Need for Change in Podcast Structure

14:43
Introducing the New Direction: Dams Given

19:51
The Attention Economy and Its Impact

23:48
Reframing Our Approach to Attention

27:42
Understanding Internet Poisoning

31:32
Detoxing from Algorithmic Thinking

34:16
The Future of the Podcast and Community Engagement

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In this episode, Brad and Nick dive into what marketing is becoming now that we live in a post-trust, post-algorithm, post-authenticity world. They’re not interested in tactics—they’re interested in how the deep cultural forces reshaping trust, commerce, and identity are scrambling what it even means to “market” something.

Together, they explore:

• Why traditional marketing frameworks no longer apply
• How the best marketing today isn’t marketing at all—it’s signal
• What happens when attention becomes too expensive for most businesses to buy
• Why people aren’t buying messages—they’re buying alignment
• How real resonance begins when you quit trying to prove and start trying to be

This is a powerful conversation for anyone who senses that our current approach to audience, storytelling, and persuasion has gone stale—but hasn’t quite found language for what’s next.

As always, the episode lives up to the Working/Broken premise: challenging listeners who followed the rules of the game, only to discover the game changed mid-play.

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In this episode, host Nick Richtsmeier sits down with Lexi Pasi, a PhD in Communication and expert in the field of AI, to unpack what’s actually happening to our attention, language, and selves in today’s online environments. Lexi brings academic depth, cultural critique, and personal insight to the conversation—exposing how platforms not only distort what we say, but who we become in the process.

Lexi and the hosts explore questions at the heart of the Working/Broken project:

What if the reason work—and life—feels so off is because the very mediums we communicate through are bending us into shapes we didn’t choose.

They tackle how social media trains us to self-narrate constantly, creates performance-driven personalities, and incentivizes simplistic, binary, hot-take thinking over honest, complex, and often uncertain expression.

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This episode isn’t about AI. Not really. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves about technology, power, and what we’re allowed to feel.

Nick and Brad take apart the myth of inevitability around artificial intelligence—specifically large language models (LLMs)—and ask who benefits from that myth. Spoiler: it’s not you.

Nick’s viral post about saying “no” to wearable AI at the dinner table sets the stage. What followed? A flood of people thanking him for drawing a line—and another flood accusing him of condemning his children to a lifetime of ruin. The episode explores what it means to lead with agency, discernment, and humility in a culture obsessed with optimization.

Brad reminds us that the promises of tech are almost always overblown—and the consequences are rarely predicted. (Remember when the internet was going to make us all smarter?) Together, they call B.S. on the assumption that every AI advancement is a step toward progress.

They don’t offer easy answers—but they do offer a better question: “What are we becoming as we adopt these tools?”

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On this episode, we tackle a longstanding battle that has nearly boiled over: the role of college in career-preparation. Or, more specifically, why do hiring managers still require degrees for new roles? And should they? 

The old biases persist: many hiring managers still view a degree as a shorthand for maturity, responsibility, and readiness. But with roles evolving fast and the shelf life of job-specific skills shrinking, is that shortcut doing more harm than good?

In the end, Brad and Nick are do what they always do, plunging us into the fundamental question of what higher ed's job is and should be in a functioning society... and is this a functioning society at all?

Together, they explore:

• Why “entry-level” doesn’t mean what it used to
• How automation and AI are softening the bottom of the job market
• The tension between hiring for the current role vs. hiring for a path
• The challenge of finding people who can evolve with the organization
• Whether freelance might be a better fit than full-time in many cases
• How the university system became a cultural scapegoat—and what we lose when we misunderstand it

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In this introspective and timely episode, Brad and Nick take on a deceptively simple question: Do we really own our ideas anymore?

Prompted by Nick’s recent experience of having his writing lifted and reposted—sometimes respectfully, sometimes not—the conversation weaves through authorship, digital ethics, AI scraping, and the deeper emotional terrain of publishing on the internet. What begins as a conversation about plagiarism quickly becomes something bigger: a meditation on intellectual generosity, attribution, and the meaning of creative work in a remix culture.

Nick wrestles with the tension between wanting his writing to matter and his desire to be part of the conversation his work sparks. Brad adds reflections on how creative inspiration often flows from one source to another and how acknowledging that is more art than science.

In this jam-packed discussion, they also hit:

• How human creativity works (messy, layered, integrative)
• The rise of AI and its flattening effect on original voice
• The emotional whiplash of going viral
• Why traditional publishing may be a spiritual balm in an age of digital entropy

At the core: the internet changed how we think about ownership. AI is changing it again. So where does that leave creators, thinkers, and leaders trying to say something real?

Referenced Resources:

• Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
• Definition of “Palimpsest” 

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In this wide-ranging interview style episode, host Nick Richtsmeier sits down with one of the most unexpected and impactful voices on LinkedIn in 2025: Nick Power, the marketer and writer behind a wave of unfiltered, politically-aware, and often hilarious posts that challenged the business-as-usual tone of the platform.

What began as a creative shift away from conventional “thought leadership” turned into something larger: a community movement, a form of resistance, and an experiment in what truth-telling looks like on a platform built for polished personal brands.

In this episode, we unpack the unexpected intersection between late-stage capitalism, artful forms of digital protest, and rethinking the religion of personal brand. The Nicks take us through their takes on what the #weirdLinkedIn movement meant, and what happens next.

Resources Referenced

• 📚 Ezra Klein on the Temptation to Assume the End
  Referenced for insight on acting in the present rather than assuming outcomes are predetermined.
• 📱 Sharon McMahon / @sharonsaysso on Instagram
  Praised by Nick Power for making complex news stories accessible and balanced.
• 💡 The Noun Project
  Nick Power is Head of Marketing at this resource for design icons and visual taxonomies.

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In this timely and unfiltered episode, Brad and Nick explore the increasingly tangled relationship between politics and work culture. They ask the central question: Has politics become so pervasive that it’s breaking our ability to lead, work, and think clearly?

Key Themes:

• The Blurring Line Between Culture and Politics: Brad and Nick debate whether culture is now downstream from politics or whether it's still the other way around. Nick argues that cultural trends, even fringe ones, often precede political movements (e.g., mommy bloggers influencing public health debates).
• The Role of Algorithms: The hosts criticize how algorithmic thinking is shaping what we consume, from news headlines to music to political discourse, and how it narrows our perspectives. 
• Fear and Existential Framing: Every political issue today is presented in existential terms, which creates emotional fatigue and disrupts our ability to engage meaningfully in leadership and life.
• Leadership, Brands, and Point of View: In today’s climate, leaders and companies can’t afford to be neutral. Nick makes the case that if you’re not willing to state a point of view—on the issues that matter to your work—you lose trust and relevance. 
• Creating Better Culture: Iif we want better politics, we must first invest in better culture—through storytelling, creativity, and human connection. He criticizes cultural homogeneity (driven by platforms like Spotify or Netflix) as a breeding ground for bland politics and weak leadership.

Notable Quotes:

• "Bad culture makes bad politics." – Nick
• "Politics feels like a tax on my attention—it's stealing time from the things I care about." – Brad
• "Culture is a product of human relationships. You can't make good culture with machines." – Nick
• "If you're going to be in business today, you need a point of view. Period." – Nick

Referenced Resources:

The Cult of Creativity by Samuel W. Franklin
A deep dive into how “creativity” became central to modern work and business culture.

Tangle Newsletter
A politically balanced daily newsletter that presents left, right, and center perspectives on current events.

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In this thought-provoking episode, Nick and Brad unpack how fear has traditionally been used as a primary tool in marketing and communication—from political campaigns and media to brand messaging. Drawing on personal experience in marketing and spiritual development, they challenge whether fear-based messaging is still effective or ethical in a world that's rapidly waking up.

Key Takeaways:

• Fear is a primal motivator, and marketers have long exploited it to capture attention and drive action.
• There's a growing awareness in society that fear-based narratives lead to chronic stress, anxiety, and disconnection.
• Conscious consumers are increasingly seeking hope, empowerment, and authenticity, not manipulation.
• The hosts reflect on how marketing rooted in truth, love, and transparency is more aligned with inner work and long-term success, but is often treated as less successful from a sales perspective.
• They challenge listeners to notice how often fear is used to push a product, idea, or political stance—and to ask: Is this true? Is this necessary?

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In this powerful and timely episode, Nick Richtsmeier and Brad Farris dive into the pervasive undercurrent of fear that’s shaping both politics and the workplace. From the physiological and psychological roots of fear to its impact on leadership, decision-making, and organizational culture, the conversation explores how fear manifests in leaders and teams alike.

Nick breaks down the classic "Four F's" of fear—fight, flight, freeze, and fawn—and how these instinctive reactions show up in modern leadership contexts. Brad adds depth by highlighting how fear hijacks our ability to think clearly, and how leaders can regulate themselves to respond rather than react.

This episode is packed with real-life leadership tensions, practical self-regulation strategies (aka “the ice pack”), and some sharp reflections on how fear gets coded into everyday business language. It’s a must-listen for anyone navigating uncertainty, leading in turbulent times, or just trying to stay grounded.

We live in a time where leadership is both at risk and never more needed. And the line will be drawn based on how leaders deal with fear.

📚 References & Mentions

Books, Articles, and Ideas:

• "On Bullshit" by Harry Frankfurt

Movies:

• Children of Men (2006)
• Minecraft: The Movie

Psychological Concepts:

• The Four F’s of Fear:
  • Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn
    Quick overview

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Have a business topic you want us to decide if it's working or broken? Have a question about the episode? You can email us at [email protected].