From chip design at Bell Laboratories to…the world's #1 Venn diagram comedian??

Today, we're talking to Don McMillan, comedian and former chip designer at Bell Laboratories. We discuss how burning out in Silicon Valley led him to pursue stand-up comedy full time, why having an engineering mindset made him a better comedian, and how a random radio caller unknowingly changed the entire trajectory of his life.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Don and his tour schedule, check out his website here

The best managers are the ones who never wanted the job.

Today, we're talking to Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian. We discuss why developer joy outperforms productivity as an engineering goal, how the best managers are the ones who never wanted the job, and why every leadership playbook you've built stops working the moment your team grows.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Atlassian, check out their website here.

The biggest lie we were ever sold: hard work alone gets you the promotion.

Today, we're talking to Rob Kalwarowsky, bestselling author and leadership coach. We discuss why writing down your goal increases the probability of achieving it to 43%, how the people above you can't promote you for a job you've never told them you want, and why working hard and letting the results speak for themselves is the biggest lie you've ever been taught.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Rob's work, check out his website here.

Before you open another Google Docs, you need to hear this episode.

Today, we're talking to Anand Narasimhan, CTO at S Docs. We discuss why organizations pay $94,000 in compliance penalties due to documentation errors, how 57% of employees bypass official tools when under deadline pressure, and why automation must come before autonomous AI in enterprise workflows.



All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

Thank you to S-Docs for sponsoring this episode. To learn more, check out their website here.

This theory explains how AI agents can make promises and build trust… with other agents.

Today, we're talking to Doctor Mark Burgess, the originator of Promise Theory, and Tony Davis, Senior Director of Agentic Strategy at A&I Solutions. We discuss why command-and-control fails with autonomous AI agents, how agents respond to peer rejection instead of human disapproval, and why Promise Theory is the backbone of governing agentic workforces.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

Thank you to A&I Solutions for sponsoring this episode. To learn more, check out their website her

Why did he set off the code-red alarm at his company?

Today, we're talking to Wade Foster, co-founder and CEO of Zapier and host of the Agents of Scale podcast. We discuss how Zapier scaled to $5 billion with only one funding round, why 100% of new hires must be AI fluent, and how top companies are using hackathons to transform their organizations in the age of AI.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Zapier, check out their website here.

The man behind NVIDIA is unlike any other leader today.

Today, we're talking to Stephen Witt, author of The Thinking Machine. We discuss how he lied his way into six interviews with Jensen Huang, why NVIDIA operates like a company that's thirty days from bankruptcy despite being worth trillions, and how Jensen's decade-long bet on the $0 market created the backbone of the AI revolution.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Stephen Witt and to buy his book, check out his website here.

He’s seeing AI unfold at one of the oldest financial firms in the world.

Today, we're talking to Kevin Adams, CIO at Edward Jones. We discuss how AI is disrupting traditional organizational structures, why humans need to move up the stack while AI handles execution, and how to implement AI at the right speed in highly regulated industries.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

How is a travel giant like Booking.com leveraging AI?

Today, we're talking to Vipul Hingne, interim CTO at Booking.com. We discuss how AI is transforming the entire travel experience beyond just planning trips, why Booking.com launched their AI trip planner in just 14 weeks with OpenAI, and how two-thirds of their organization is already using GenAI to solve real customer problems.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Booking.com, check out their website here.

AI is flooding the cybersecurity space. So, how do we fight back?

Today, we're talking to Ariful Huq, co-founder at Exaforce. We discuss how to build AI defense systems against AI-powered attack waves, why 98% of security alerts are false positives, and how to turn a team of three analysts into a team of ten using AI agents.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Exaforce, check out their website here.