Clay Routledge is an existential psychologist, author, and leading researcher on meaning, purpose, and nostalgia. His work explores a fundamental human need: the need to feel that our lives matter.

In this conversation, we unpack why so many people today feel caught in a modern crisis of meaning, even when they’re productive, successful, or doing everything they were told would lead to fulfillment. We explore how social media, rapid technological change, and the rise of artificial intelligence are bringing deeper questions to the surface about identity, work, and what truly gives life meaning.

Clay reflects on why so many of our assumptions about success, productivity, and purpose fall short, and how someone can go about finding meaning and purpose if they are feeling lost.

We also discuss the surprising role nostalgia plays in helping us navigate change, and why questions of meaning and purpose may become even more important in an AI-driven world.

You can grab a copy of Clay’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Past-Forward-Nostalgia-Help-Meaningful/dp/1683648641

00:00 – What Does It Mean to Find Purpose?

05:00 – Why Humans Need to Feel Like They Matter

10:00 – Are We Living Through a Crisis of Meaning?

15:00 – Work, Identity, and the Fear of Being Replaced

20:00 – How AI Is Forcing Us to Rethink Human Value

25:00 – Decoupling Job Titles From Who We Are

30:00 – A World Without Work: Utopia or Dystopia?

35:00 – Nostalgia as a Guide to the Future

40:00 – Technology, Presence, and What Makes Life Meaningful

45:00 – How Humans Reclaim Meaning in Times of Change

Follow my work here:

Substack: ⁠⁠https://sineadbovell.substack.com⁠⁠

In this episode, I share my eight AI predictions for 2026, not just where the technology is heading, but how it will change daily life, culture, politics, and the systems we live inside.

00:00 – Intro

Follow my work here:

Substack: ⁠https://sineadbovell.substack.com⁠

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I break down the impact AI will have on the workforce.

Substack: https://sineadbovell.substack.com

Nicholas Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic, author of The Running Ground, former editor in chief of Wired Magazine, and one of the most influential voices at the intersection of journalism and technology. He’s leading a legacy media institution through an era defined by information overload, disrupted business models, and the rise of AI systems that could both empower and destabilize the entire industry.

Dr. Alysson Muotri is a world-leading geneticist and pioneering neuroscientist whose work pushes the boundaries of how we understand the human brain. His lab grows brain organoids—living “mini-brains” created from stem cells—to study how the human mind develops, ages, breaks down, and how it might one day be repaired.

In this episode, we get into why he’s trying to reconstruct the human brain in a lab, how brain organoids are transforming our ability to study and potentially reverse brain-based illnesses, and the emerging field of biocomputing and “organoid intelligence.”

We explore how these living neural systems could shape the next era of AI, what it would mean for AI to be powered by biological tissue, and how this convergence of biology and computation could reshape our future.

Follow my work here:Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.sineadbovell.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I break down whether AI is in a bubble. Headlines insist AI is wildly overhyped and about to pop, while others claim there’s no bubble at all.

What these headlines are missing though, is that the financial cycle and the technological cycle are not the same thing.

A bubble may burst, AND the technology we have right now is already disruptive enough to change society, and we need to be prepared for both.

0:00 – Is AI in a bubble? Why this moment is more nuanced
2:00 – The financial story moving faster than the real technology
3:00 – The investment gap and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets
5:00 – Fragile financing, circular investing, and expectations
6:00 – Why a bubble might pop around data centers or a new breakthrough
9:40 – What history shows about general purpose technologies
12:35 – Why a correction matters for savings and retirement plans
13:55 – Why we still need to learn how to work with AI

Follow my work here:

Professor Nita Farahany, author of The Battle for Your Brain, is one of the world’s leading experts on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of emerging technologies and their impact on our brains.

We discuss how every major tech company is racing to build devices that could replace keyboards and smartphones with your neural signals — with AI glasses, smart rings, wristbands, and earbuds as the first step.

Professor Farahany breaks down why the brain is the holy grail for tech companies, what these devices may soon decode, and the massive privacy implications. We get into what brain data can reveal and why “freedom of thought” is suddenly up for debate.

Grab Nita's book - https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Your-Brain-Defending-Neurotechnology/dp/1250272955

5:00 – What Brain Data Can Reveal About You
10:00 – The Rise of Neural Interfaces and Thought-Based Communication
15:00 – Attention, Stress, and How Sensors Read Your Inner Signals
20:00 – The Privacy Crisis: Why Brain Data Is the Final Frontier
25:00 – Manipulation, Nudging, and AI Predictions of Your Behavior
30:00 – Cognitive Liberty and the Fight for Mental Autonomy
35:00 – Workplaces, Schools, and the Coming Mental Privacy Battles
40:00 – How Algorithms Build a Complete Psychological Profile
45:00 – Vertical Integration and the Risk of Full-Stack Brain Data
50:00 – New Rights for the Brain: What Legal Protection Should Look Like
55:00 – Communication Beyond Language: Sharing Thoughts and Feelings
1:00:00 – Brain Health, Seizure Prediction, and the Medical Promise
1:05:00 – What a Future With Thought-Sharing Could Unlock
1:10:00 – AI, Free Speech, and the Blurring of Human Expression
1:14:00 – Designing a Future That Respects the Mind

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I break down the rise in mass layoffs and organizations restructuring. Many headlines claim this is AI starting to take jobs, but that’s not really true. AI is involved in these decisions, just not for the reasons people think.

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I sit down with Anna Makanju, Vice President of Global Affairs at OpenAI, to explore how governments around the world are racing to understand AI’s implications, the geopolitical tensions shaping its regulation, and what it will take to ensure this technology benefits every nation.

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I sit down with futurist, author, and strategic foresight professor Alexander Manu to explore how AI is reshaping the meaning of work, creativity, and identity.

He explains how technology has always been a bridge to new forms of human expression, and how AI may usher in the most creative, personalized era of human history.

Manu argues that we need to transcend the idea that our identity is tied to our jobs because

AI is not just another tool that will change the workforce, but it’s also a mirror forcing us to ask, “What else can I become?”

0:00 – Introduction