Modern CTO

If scientists are being entirely honest, is non-human technology already on earth?

Today, we're talking to Avi Loeb, Harvard astrophysicist and head of the government's new UAP Science Advisory Council. We discuss why the hunt for alien life is shifting from waiting for a radio call to checking the mailbox for a package, how a so-called "dark comet" turned out to be a lost Soviet spacecraft, and why the loudest skeptics and the truest believers are making the exact same mistake.

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

To learn more about Avi's work, check it out here.

We were told to specialize endlessly…now, AI is here.

Today, we're talking to Mahesh Guruswamy, COO of Kajabi. We discuss why the specialist executive is becoming extinct as tech gets commoditized, how "AI fatigue" is really grief over eroding craft rather than exhaustion, and why the biggest threat to the AI boom might be economics, not technology.

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

To learn more about Mahesh's course, check it out here.

If you’re feeling burnt out, it’s not the work you’re doing. It’s the mission you’re on.

Today, we're talking to Justin Fanelli, Chief Technology Officer of the Department of the Navy. We discuss why direct communication is fuel rather than friction, how the most driven government workers are often the ones who've already "made it" elsewhere, and why burnout has almost nothing to do with hours worked and everything to do with whether you feel connected to something bigger.

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

Why did a smear campaign almost take out this anti-food waste company?

Today, we're talking to Luiz Beling, CEO at Apeel, about how a company that captured 60% of the U.S. avocado market can lose it almost overnight to a coordinated smear campaign. We discuss why narrative security now matters as much as cybersecurity, how a childhood kidnapping in Brazil quietly shaped his approach to crisis leadership, and why the real fix for food waste isn't more supply.

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

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

He’s 31, and nobody he knows is having kids. Tech is to blame, but what’s the solution?

Today, we're talking to Connor Leahy, US Director at ControlAI. We discuss why plummeting birth rates look eerily similar to what happens when zoo animals stop breeding, how ideas can spread and cause real harm the same way diseases do, and why the safest path with superintelligence might be to ban it outright rather than pretend we already understand it.

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

To learn more about ControlAI, check out their website here

Developers, how confident are you in the future of your job?

Today, we're catching up with Hrishi Dixit, cofounder and CTO of Autonomy Finance, about what actually happens when you hand the keys to AI in a regulated industry — why the first pass of AI-generated code is never shippable, how a commingled client data hallucination can end a company overnight, and why the engineers who survive the AI wave won't be the ones who write the most code, but the ones who know exactly when the machine is about to get someone killed.

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

To learn more about Autonomy Finance, check out their website here.

What happens when the worst among us get their hands on the most powerful tools?

Today, we're talking to Zach Goldberg, CEO at Gruntwork, about the messy edges of AI adoption. We discuss why "vibe coding" has created a new category of disposable, single-purpose software that never would have existed before, why the line between AI you can trust to read data and AI you can trust to write to production may be the most important distinction in enterprise tech right now, and why the real bottleneck on AI misuse has shifted from access to intelligence itself.

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

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

Confidence and readiness are actually NOT the same thing.

Today, we're talking to Daniel Morris, CPO at Sinch, about why 81% of mature companies roll back their AI programs even as 89% of leaders claim they're fully prepared, how the shift from SMS to rich messaging is rewriting the rules for how brands connect with customers, and why the next evolution of authentication might mean your phone silently proves who you are without you ever seeing a prompt.

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

This is how Snapchat sets itself apart in the social media space: they’re not a social media company.

Today, we're talking to Saral Jain, SVP and Head of Engineering at Snapchat, about how one of tech's most underestimated companies is quietly outpacing giants. We discuss why Snapchat has always refused to call itself a social media company and what that distinction means for every product decision they make, how AI is actually changing the day-to-day reality of software engineering through autonomous coding agents like their internal tool Casper, and why the skills that matter most in the AI era have less to do with writing code and everything to do with taste, judgment, and the willingness to raise your hand.

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

What if you didn’t have to solve problems? You can just remove them entirely.

Today, we're talking to Steve Francis, CEO at Sidero Labs, about why the most dangerous thing running in your infrastructure might be the operating system itself. We discuss how eliminating features rather than adding them is the real path to security, why the promise of multi-cloud portability turned out to be a lesson in what customers actually care about, and why "extreme ownership" remains the most empowering philosophy a leader can adopt.

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

To learn more about Sidero Labs, check out their website here.