Inside Job

In this episode, Matt Sunbulli (Host) steps inside the hidden world of AI work through two different stories. First, we meet Krista, a longtime AI data worker who has spent more than a decade doing the invisible labor behind recommendation systems, chatbots, generative AI, facial recognition, and data labeling. From her living room in Michigan, Krista explains what it really means to chase tasks across platforms, weigh pay rates against ethics, and live with the instability of work that most people never see.

Then we meet Isaiah, a Northwestern student who stumbled into a $50-an-hour job training AI. What began as a vague recruiter message turned into rent money, long hours, and a front-row seat to how quickly AI models learn. For Isaiah, AI wasn’t just a headline or a threat. It was a job.

Together, their stories reveal the human workforce behind artificial intelligence: the data workers, AI trainers, taskers, reviewers, and invisible laborers teaching machines how to talk, reason, see, and respond.

*Inside Job is a podcast about work told by the people who actually do it. The show is Hosted by Matt Sunbulli, Executive Produced by Aaron Calafato and is a proud member of the YAP Media Network.

Host Matt Sunbulli and Executive Producer Aaron Calafato introduce this new podcast series.

Reach us at: https://www.insidejobpodcast.com/

Inside Jobs Reacts: Host Matt Sunbulli and Executive Producer Aaron Calafato unpack the emotional, ethical, and economic questions emerging from the worker stories behind today’s rapidly changing AI economy — and the headlines reshaping modern work in real time.

One worker made nearly $70,000 a year training AI models while still in college. Another spent nearly two decades inside the hidden world of AI data annotation. Together, their stories expose the largely invisible human labor helping build today’s artificial intelligence systems — and the unsettling reality that many of those same workers may now be vulnerable to disruption themselves.

In this episode:

A college student takes a $50-an-hour job training artificial intelligence and ends up making $70,000 in a single year. But behind the money is a hidden world of digital labor, where real people shape how AI thinks, responds, and sounds—and where the work is already starting to disappear.

In this episode of Inside Job, host Matt Sunbulli profiles Isaiah, a college-age AI trainer, and together they take listeners inside a hidden layer of the tech economy. What they uncover reveals the human force behind AI—and raises urgent questions about where this work is headed and what it means for all of us.

Inside Job host and creator Matt Sunbulli and executive producer Aaron Calafato set the stage for the new series, preview upcoming stories, and explain why starting with listening first and honoring the real experiences of job seekers and workers matters more than ever as AI reshapes the future of work. In doing so, they show what sets this podcast apart from others in the career space today.

*If you have a story to share, an episode idea or want to join our community visit: insidejobpodcast.com

Hosted by Matt Sunbulli and executive produced by Aaron Calafato, this pilot episode of the Inside Job Podcast pulls back the curtain on one of the fastest-growing and least understood roles in the economy: AI data work.

We hear from Krista, a longtime data worker in Michigan, whose job is to quietly shape the intelligence behind the tools millions of people use every day.

“I’m teaching AI how to talk… how to see… how to think.”

But behind the promise of AI is something far more human:

What sounds like cutting-edge technology is, in reality, a marketplace of clicks, decisions, and human judgment.

This episode introduces a new kind of storytelling about work, inspired by Working by Studs Terkel, capturing not just how people make a living, but how they make sense of it.

Because behind every “intelligent” system…there’s still a person.

The team digs through the archives of The Lonely Office and notices a pattern: even as work keeps changing, human nature doesn’t. From AI-driven layoffs to the strange new reality of job searching, Aaron, Matt, Leah, and Ken revisit some of the show’s most revealing conversations about meaning, work, and what might come next.

Also, 50 years working at a 7/11, bro gets an email

“Follow your passion” sounds great until you are burned out, laid off, or stuck in the same role for years. In this Ask a Recruiter bonus episode, Leah Ova sits down with career coach and Finding Brave host Kathy Caprino to unpack what is missing when vision boards and inspirational quotes stop working. They break down the bravery and power gaps that keep people stuck, plus practical moves to get clear, get visible, and make a realistic career pivot in today’s job market.

Important Note from the TLO team:

Interviews are not just about what you know. They are about how you think on your feet, respond under pressure, and show up with confidence when you do not have a perfect script. In this episode of Ask a Recruiter, Leah Ova sits down with improv coach and communication expert Holly Mandel to explore how improv techniques like “yes, and,” presence, and active listening can transform your job interview performance.

Holly Mandel is the founder of iMergence and a former Main Company member and instructor at The Groundlings. She works with professionals and Fortune 500 teams to build confidence, clarity, and real time communication skills that translate directly into high stakes conversations.

Together, Leah and Holly tackle tough interview questions from the Glassdoor community, from “Tell me about yourself” to curveballs like “How would you sell ice cream in the Arctic?” They break down practical tools you can use immediately, including how to pivot mid answer, manage interview anxiety, project warmth and energy on Zoom, and build the kind of charisma that gets you to the next round.

If you are job hunting, preparing for a promotion, or simply want to communicate with more authority and authenticity, this episode gives you actionable strategies you can try this week.