Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone took us on a wide and deep journey.

From AI in government, bias, and trust…

to climate, cities, and planetary systems…

to mental health, creativity, education, healthcare, and even belief itself.

But this season wasn’t really about artificial intelligence.

It was about what happens when AI moves closer to power, people, and meaning.

In this final episode of Season 2, we step back to reflect on the patterns that emerged, the questions you raised, and the ideas that connected it all. We revisit the big themes, share listener perspectives, and explore what it means to live thoughtfully alongside increasingly intelligent systems.

Most importantly, we ask you:

--> What do you want us to explore next?

Your feedback shaped Season 2, and it will shape what comes after the break.

In this episode:

• The core ideas that defined Season 2.
• What governance, climate, and human-centred AI have in common.
• Listener questions and reflections from across the season.
• Why AI literacy today is about agency, not coding.
• What comes next for Decoded, and how you can be part of it.

We’ll be taking a short break over Christmas and the New Year, replaying some of the most listened-to moments from this season, before returning with fresh conversations in the new year.

Until then:

Stay aware.

Stay curious.

And stay human.

Show Links

• Podcast Website: https://decoded-podcast.com
• AI Strategy & Research: https://strategen-ai.com
• Prompts & Tools: https://promptengineeringcookbook.com
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI. Where Research Meets Execution.

Can a machine offer spiritual guidance, or only imitate the sacred?

Across the world, AI is entering one of humanity’s oldest and most intimate spaces: faith.

Robot monks chant scripture in Japan.
AI priests deliver blessings in Europe.
Chatbots interpret sacred texts, guide meditation, and even facilitate prayer.
For many people, AI has quietly become a source of comfort, counsel, and meaning.

But that raises a deeper question:

When machines enter the sacred… what remains uniquely human?

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore the emerging frontier where belief, identity, ritual, psychology, and artificial intelligence intersect.

We examine why people turn to AI for spiritual guidance, how AI can simulate wisdom without experiencing it, and the risks of synthetic authority in spaces built on trust, vulnerability, and tradition.

In this episode:

• Robot monks, AI priests, and the rise of digital spirituality
• Why humans seek comfort from non-judgmental machines
• How AI interprets sacred texts (and where it gets it wrong)
• The risk of “manufactured prophecy” and algorithmic certainty
• Whether AI can — or should — hold spiritual authority
• What this shift means for your values, identity, and community

Because belief is human.

Meaning is human.

And the sacred is something AI can describe, but never inhabit.

Referenced Projects & Resources

Robot Monks & AI Spiritual Leaders:

• Mindar Robot Monk (Kodaiji Temple, Japan)
  https://www.kodaiji.com/
• BlessU-2 Robot Priest (Germany)
  https://www.ekhn.de/aktuelles/detail/robot-priest-blessu-2.html
• Xian’er Robot Monk (Longquan Temple, China)
  http://longquanzs.org/

AI & Scriptural Interpretation / Spiritual Tools:

• OpenAI (AI interpretation & dialogue models)
  https://openai.com
• Buddhism AI Chat Tools
  https://buddhanet.net/
• Christian AI Sermon Experiments
  https://www.christianitytoday.com/

Show Links:

• Podcast Website: https://decoded-podcast.com
• AI Strategy & Research: https://strategen-ai.com
• Prompts & Tools: https://promptengineeringcookbook.com
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI, Where Research Meets Execution.

Artificial intelligence is entering the most intimate frontier of all, our bodies.

It predicts illness before symptoms appear, discovers new drugs in a fraction of the time, tracks the rhythms of our biology through wearables, and even models the science of ageing.

But as AI begins to diagnose, predict, and measure us with extraordinary precision, one question becomes unavoidable:

Is AI helping us live longer… or simply tracking our decline more accurately?

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore how AI is reshaping modern medicine through early diagnosis, rapid drug discovery, personalised health data, and emerging longevity science.

We also examine the ethical tension between empowerment and overdiagnosis, privacy and prediction, wellness and inequality.

In this episode:

• How AI detects cancers and cardiac risks years before human doctors
• How drug discovery is shifting from 10 years… to 10 weeks
  How wearables and health apps turn our bodies into datasets
• The rise of digital twins and personalised longevity plans
• The risks of overdiagnosis, health anxiety, data inequality, and “longevity privilege”
• What AI-powered healthcare means for you, your family, and your future

Because the future of medicine isn’t just technological.
It’s profoundly human.

Stream's Saturday at 12 pm AEST

Resources:

• decoded-podcast.com
• strategen-ai.com
• promptengineeringcookbook.com
• linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Referenced Research & Tools

• Google Health, Breast Cancer AI: health.google/clinical-research/breast-cancer-screening
• Mayo Clinic, ECG AI: mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/cardiovascular-diseases/news
• DeepMind, Retinal Diagnosis: deepmind.google/discover/blog/ai-for-50-eye-diseases
• AlphaFold, Protein Modelling: deepmind.google/discover/alphafold
• Insilico Medicine, AI Drug Discovery: insilico.com
• Apple Watch, Heart Health: apple.com/healthcare/apple-watch
• NIH, Biological Age Research: nia.nih.gov

Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI: Where Research Meets Execution.

What happens when learning stops being standardised, and becomes personal?

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore how AI is transforming education at every level. From primary school to universities to lifelong learning in the workplace, adaptive systems are beginning to tailor lessons to each learner’s pace, strengths, and needs.

We unpack both sides of the story: the extraordinary promise of personalised learning, and the risks of bias, surveillance, and unequal access.

In this episode:

• How Google Learn Your Way, Khanmigo, and Faculty-AI personalise learning in real time
• How AI supports dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and different learning styles
• The digital divide, who benefits, and who gets left behind
• Emotional data, academic integrity, and the ethics of AI-guided learning
• What AI-driven education means for students, parents, teachers, and the future workforce

Because AI can teach anyone, but will it teach everyone?

Premieres Saturday at 12 pm AEST

Resources:

• decoded-podcast.com
• strategen-ai.com
• promptengineeringcookbook.com
• linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Learning Tools & Platforms

Google’s education tools:

• https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-learnlm/
• https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_au/

Khan Academy, Khanmigo:

• https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-labs
• https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-labs/khanmigo

Faculty AI:

• https://www.faculty-ai.com/

Supporting AI in Education References 

• Khan Academy LearnStorm: https://www.khanacademy.org/learnstorm
• UNESCO AI in Education Framework: https://www.unesco.org/en/artificial-intelligence/education
• OECD AI in Learning & Skills: https://www.oecd.org/digital/ai/

Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI: Where Research Meets Execution.

What happens when a machine learns to imagine?

Across architecture, cuisine, and live performance, AI is no longer just analysing data; it’s creating. From designing sustainable buildings and inventing new recipes to co-writing music and theatre, artificial intelligence is becoming humanity’s newest creative partner.

But as AI begins to generate beauty, structure, and taste, we face a profound question: if machines can create, what remains uniquely human?

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, Joel Leslie explores how creativity is being reframed, and not replaced. We journey from data-driven design studios and Michelin-star kitchens to digital stages where artists and algorithms perform together.

Because creativity isn’t about perfection, it’s about connection.

In this episode:

• How AI is shaping the future of architecture through generative and sustainable design.
• How algorithmic cuisine is expanding flavour and rethinking waste.
• How artists and AI are collaborating live, from orchestras to interactive theatre.
• The ethics of authorship and imagination in a world of synthetic creativity.

Because when AI learns to imagine, it teaches us to reimagine what it means to create.

Airs Saturday, November 22, 2025, at 12 pm AEST

RESOURCES

• Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.com
• Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.com
• AI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Mentioned Projects & Frameworks:

• Spacemaker AI
  
• 
  Hypar
  
• 
  Midjourney
  
• 
  Chef Watson (IBM Research)
  
• 
  Plant Jammer
  
• 
  Hatsune Miku
  
• 
  DeepMind Music Generation
  
• 
  UNESCO AI & Culture Reports

Hosted by Joel Leslie
Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI. Where Research Meets Execution.

Can a machine truly understand how you feel?

From therapy bots that listen at 2 am to sentiment-analysis systems that can detect stress in your voice before you even notice it, artificial intelligence is entering one of the most delicate spaces of human life, mental health.

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore the rise of Emotional AI; technology designed to interpret, respond to, and even anticipate human emotion.

We unpack how these systems work, where they help, and what happens when empathy is simulated rather than felt.

Because when care becomes code, trust becomes everything.

In this episode:

• How therapy bots like Woebot and Wysa are reshaping access to mental health support.
• The science behind sentiment analysis — and how AI detects anxiety before it starts.
• The ethics of engineered empathy and who owns your emotional data.
• What happens when the line between comfort and code begins to blur?

Because technology can listen, but understanding is still a human skill.

Airs Saturday, November 15, 2025, at 12 pm AEST

RESOURCES

AI Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.com
AI Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.com
AI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Mentioned Frameworks & Resources:

• WHO Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence forHealth
  
• 
  Australian Privacy Act 2024 – Emotional Data Provisions
  
• 
  Stanford AI & Mental Health Research Lab
• MindStrong Health Platform
• Woebot Health
  
• 
  Wysa
  
• 
  Replika AI
  

• If you’re in Australia, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
• In the United States, reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
• In the United Kingdom, you can contact Samaritans on 116 123.
• And wherever you are in the world, you can find local crisis services at findahelpline.com, an international directory of mental-health support lines.

findahelpline.com: global mental health support directory

When artificial intelligence starts managing the essentials of life (energy, water, and food), efficiency becomes more than a technical problem. It becomes an ethical one.

From stabilising Australia’s power grid to allocating water in drought and forecasting global crop yields, AI is quietly shaping the systems that sustain us. But every optimisation has a cost.

• Because when every watt counts, ethics matters.
• When data drives scarcity, someone always ends up last in line.
• AI may feed more people, but whose table does it prioritise?

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore how intelligence is being built into the planet’s vital networks, and what happens when algorithms decide what stays on, what gets switched off… and why.

Episode themes:

• Energy: AI-driven grids balancing demand, storage, and fairness.

• Water: Digital scarcity and why the future of water isn’t just technical... It’s ethical.

• Food: Feeding 10 billion people through automation and its inequalities.

• Trade-offs: Optimisation vs. equity in systems that decide who wins and who waits.

Because every smart system is a social system first.

Airs Saturday | November 8 | 2025 at 12 pm AEST

RESOURCES

• Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.com
• Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.com
• AI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Mentioned Frameworks & Projects:
• Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)
• Tesla Autobidder
• Google DeepMind for Energy
• Murray–Darling Basin Authority AI Programs
• UNESCO AI for Water Security
• John Deere Precision Ag Tech
• IBM Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture
• AgriDigital
• National AI Assurance Framework (Australia)
• OECD AI Principles

Referenced Research:
Leslie, J. (2025). Resource Optimisation AI: Governance and Trade-offs in Energy, Water & Food Systems. Strategen AI Research Publications.

Imagine a city that can see itself, predicting floods before the first raindrop, rerouting garbage trucks before bins overflow, and testing emergency responses before disasters strike.

From Maroochydore to Singapore, cities around the world are building AI-powered Digital Twins, virtual replicas that model the rhythm of urban life in real time. These “city brains” can simulate millions of scenarios every second, helping planners, governments, and communities make smarter, safer, and more sustainable decisions.

But with every new sense comes new responsibility. Who owns the data that powers these models? Who decides what’s tested, and what’s ignored? And when a city starts thinking, who ensures it’s thinking ethically?

In this episode, we explore:

• How digital twins help governments test infrastructure, transport, and emergency systems

• The benefits and costs of smart city adoption from your local council to global megacities

• Governance and data sovereignty... who controls the “brain” of a smart city?

• Ethical frameworks ensuring AI-driven cities remain accountable to people, not algorithms

Because if Climate AI reads the planet’s pulse, Digital Twins test its reflexes, and how we guide them will shape the cities of tomorrow.

Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI. Where Research Meets Execution.

Release Date: Saturday | November 1 | 2025

RESOURCES

• Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.com
  
• Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.com
• AI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Mentioned Frameworks & Projects:
• Digital Twin Victoria Program
• Switching on Darwin
• Maroochydore Smart City Framework
• Townsville Smart City Strategy (Draft)
• Virtual Singapore
• Helsinki 3D City / Digital Twin
• OECD AI Principles
• National AI Assurance Framework (Australia)
• UN AI for Good Lab

Referenced Research:
Leslie, J. (2025). Digital Twin Adoption in Government: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Governance of AI-Powered City Brains. Strategen AI Research Publications.

For the first time in history, we have technology that can read the planet like a pulse, but are we listening?

In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore how AI is transforming the way we understand and protect Earth. From predicting cyclones and modelling bushfires to mapping carbon and testing emergency systems inside digital twins, Climate AI is where data meets survival.

You’ll hear how:

• Weather models powered by AI are forecasting storms before they form.
• Digital Twins let cities stress-test infrastructure and disaster responses safely in simulation.
• Carbon-accounting AI is verifying sustainability claims in real time.
• Governance and assurance frameworks ensure these systems remain transparent and ethical.

Because the goal isn’t to control nature — it’s to understand it before it understands us.

Hosted by Joel Leslie, Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI, Where Research Meets Execution. Release Date: Saturday, October 25, 2025

RESOURCES

Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.com

Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.com

AI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Mentioned Frameworks & Projects:

• Google DeepMind GraphCast
• CSIRO & Bureau of Meteorology AI Models
• Spark by CSIRO
• Digital Twin Victoria Program
• Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
• Google Carbon Sense Suite
• Pachama Carbon Verification
• ISO/IEC 42001 AI Management System & Australia’s National AI Assurance Framework
• UN AI for Good Lab

What happens when the truth itself can be faked?In this episode, we explore how synthetic media, AI-generated audio, video, and imagery, is reshaping our perception of reality. From harmless filters to malicious fraud, the line between what’s real and what’s engineered has never been thinner.We unpack one of Australia’s first major AI-enabled fraud cases: Noosa Council’s $2.3 million deception, where international criminals allegedly used AI-powered impersonation to trick staff into transferring funds. This isn’t a hacking story, it’s a story about trust, and what happens when human systems can no longer tell real from synthetic.What we'll cover:

1. What synthetic media and deepfakes really are, and how they’re created
2. How deception is now being industrialised through AI-driven social engineering
3. The rise of detection and provenance tools like C2PA, FakeCatcher, and Reality Defender
4. How global frameworks, from ISO/IEC 42001 to Australia’s AI Assurance Framework, are building accountability into truth itself
5. Simple steps you can take to verify, detect, and protect yourself in an age where seeing is no longer believing

Hosted by Joel Leslie, Season 2 of Decoded: AI for Everyone is powered by Strategen AI. Where Research Meets Execution.Release: Saturday, October 18, 2025

RESOURCES

Podcast Website: decoded-podcast.com
Prompts & Tools: promptengineeringcookbook.com
AI Strategy & Research: strategen-ai.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/decoded-ai-for-everyone

Referenced Frameworks & Tools:
C2PA • Adobe Content Authenticity Initiative • Intel FakeCatcher • Reality Defender • ISO/IEC 42001 • NIST AI RMF • National AI Assurance Framework (Australia)

Case Study:
Leslie, J. (2025). AI-Enabled Fraud in Australian Organisations. Strategen AI Research Publications.