The Chad & Cheese Podcast

Joel and Maureen are back, slightly singed from RecFest, to argue about whether the industry is a warm community or a room full of under-resourced people begging an AI agent to reinvent the email alert.

Also on the menu: LinkedIn cosplaying as TikTok, Meta finally peeling the cameras off the glasses Maureen still will not buy.

The job market gets the usual treatment — sturdy headlines, miserable humans, bots applying as nurses for $150 a pop. Then Madonna shows up at 68 in fishnets, and the episode somehow gets weirder.

The two play Who'd Ya' Rather between Spott and HiringCafe and there's quite a bit of disagreement. Imagine that?

Startups, ghost jobs, ageism, and a bad dad joke. The usual dangerous hour.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Episode Overview

00:05 - Introduction to the current job market challenges

02:25 - RecFest Community and Conference Highlights

04:00 - Impact of AI and automation on recruitment processes

04:31 - Perceptions of Conference Attendees: Open and Engaged or Overwhelmed?

08:13 - The Removal of Cameras and Privacy Concerns

10:05 - The rise of new startups in the hiring ecosystem

12:19 - AI Hallucinations and Trust Issues in Technology

15:01 - Challenges faced by Gen Z and Millennials in job applications

17:27 - LinkedIn's New Features and Platform Changes

19:58 - Cultural perceptions of aging and beauty in entertainment

22:32 - Travel Plans and Industry Events

24:27 - Current Economic Indicators and Public Sentiment

25:00 - Madonna's VMAs performance and ageism in media

26:53 - Government Data, Trust, and Economic Confidence

30:09 - The creator economy and opportunities for new entrepreneurs

30:15 - The Impact of Inflation and Job Security on Mental Health

35:04 - The influence of social media and content creation in job search

40:05 - Disruption of traditional hiring models by startups

44:51 - The importance of networking and referrals in employment

49:59 - The future outlook: optimism and challenges in the job market

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

How do just 20 recruiters handle over 150,000 hires and 7 million annual applications? On this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman chat with Shay Johnson, VP of Strategic HR Partnerships at Compass Group, to explore the future of high-volume hiring.

Shay breaks down how the global food service leader modernized its talent pipeline to eliminate candidate drop-off, targeted candidate re-engagement, and a full conversational ATS experience.

Catch this episode to hear how AI interviewing agents, smart bot detection, and candidate coaching are turning tedious administrative tasks into high-value human connections.

What do a big couch, a can of Stella, and four of the biggest personalities in recruitment have in common? They’re all live from RecFest this week, covering the hottest topics in the world of hiring.

Chad, Joel, Mo’, and J.T. are on hand to talk about everything from an HR tech founder facing up to 20 years behind bars to the great iced-latte-in-job-interviews debate sweeping the land.

First up, the crew covers all things RecFest USA live from the Shaker Recruitment Marketing booth, each offering a unique take on the world’s hottest recruitment conference. You may have heard about the recent controversy over an iced latte that made its way into an interview—and then drew criticism from a practitioner. Yeah, that gets covered.

Then it’s news time. The team discusses the recent guilty plea by the former CEO and founder of Joonko, who is looking at as much as 20 years in prison after allegedly ripping off investors to the tune of $27 million.

Next, the gang turns to Harver’s acquisition of Symphony Talent, a move destined to rattle recruitment ad agencies for years to come. Does the future favor the agency? The group weighs in.

Then comes a Chad & Cheese first: a representative from Findem makes a sponsored announcement about the company’s latest product drop, Findem Studio.

To wrap things up, the crew looks at ZoomInfo’s newly launched Talent Autopilot, a sourcing tool the company hopes will shake up the industry by tapping a dataset it calls second to none.It’s a fun wrap-up from Nashville at the end of RecFest’s first big day. Now pass the hot chicken.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

Is the resume dying — or is it just lying and on life support while AI agents pump out 11,000 fake-looking apps a minute.

On this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Joel and Chad sit down with Etan Bernstein of the Velocity Network Foundation, an HR lifer who wants to stop the whack-a-mole and put a chip in the talent system the way banks killed mag-stripe fraud.

Self-reported CVs, ghost jobs, North Korean bots, and vendors who get paid for the chaos all get roasted. Etan’s pitch: one open protocol, worker-owned credentials, and trust at the source instead of another detector.

If you’re still screening slop with more slop, this one’s going to sting.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to the industry's trust issues

02:23 - The shift from traditional resumes to AI-generated profiles

04:11 - The impact of AI on fraud and exaggeration in resumes

06:10 - The problem with fragmented HR data systems

08:33 - Building trust through verifiable data

10:48 - The economic impact of chaos in HR tech

15:36 - The flood of resumes and legal compliance challenges

19:38 - The vision of an open, shared protocol for HR data

21:27 - The role of LinkedIn and other platforms in verification

24:24 - The digital footprint and future of verification

This week on Chad and Cheese, Joel and JT unpack four stories that actually matter if you hire, manage, or look for work. Buckle-up buttercup!

Meta just reversed two of its most controversial internal bets: pushing individual contributors back into middle-management seats after the layoffs, and pausing a monitoring program employees believed was training their AI replacements. The hosts dig into what the internal data showed, why “no managers, full surveillance” keeps failing at scale, and what it does to a brand that used to be a résumé flex.

Then they hit a Business Insider piece on “LinkedIn lunatics”—the people who post like their career depends on it. JT is in the article. They talk about why the platform now rewards proof of knowledge over old job titles, why companies that police employee posting may have a bigger problem than they think, and where LinkedIn’s real money might be heading next.

Who’d You Rather pits two freshly funded plays against each other: Jack and Jill, a conversational-AI recruiter that just raised $40 million, versus Boomerang HR, an alumni-network platform that raised $12.7 million. One host goes big and conversational. The other bets the niche player survives the giants.

They close on Bernie Sanders and Mark Takano’s bill to phase the work week from 40 hours to 32 with no pay cut. JT has already run a shorter week. Joel likes the theory and questions whether Slack and after-hours email would let anyone actually unplug.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and episode overview

04:03 - AI's real threats and opportunities

07:58 - The political landscape of AI regulation

10:08 - The future of AI agents and their impact

12:05 - The evolution of social media and LinkedIn

13:56 - The concept of LinkedIn as a platform for validation

16:10 - The changing nature of employee branding and social media

18:00 - Controversial advertising and brand strategy

20:01 - Upcoming events and travel plans

21:54 - Fantasy football league update

24:03 - Meta's internal policy reversals and lessons

25:57 - The future of work and AI in HR

28:10 - The importance of human oversight in AI systems

29:56 - The potential of AI to monetize individual expertise

31:58 - Who'd you rather? Company comparisons

33:59 - Historical lessons on technology and automation

36:09 - The importance of employee activity on social media

37:58 - The role of AI in recruitment and job seeking

39:55 - The shift from corporate control to individual branding

42:00 - The untapped potential of employee advocacy

43:55 - Legal and ethical considerations in AI and surveillance

46:03 - The coming digital renaissance and new monetization models

48:01 - Predictions for the future of AI and work

50:05 - The impact of new legislation on work hours

52:12 - The benefits of a shorter workweek and flexible work policies

54:03 - The cultural shift towards work-life balance

56:06 - The importance of boundaries and boundaries management

58:03 - Humor and light-hearted moments in the discussion

59:56 - Close

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

SmarterX founder and CEO Paul Roetzer joins the boys for a chat about how AI is reshaping the workforce in ways most don't suspect. Paul sold his marketing agency in 2021 as AI was already writing at near-human level—then ChatGPT showed up and things went into hyperdrive.

Bentley and Gallup’s 2026 numbers say most Americans, especially young ones, don’t trust companies that use AI, while Microsoft, Google, and every CRM already do.

Paul talks human-centered adoption, Jobs GPT, Copilot/Gemini/Claude stall-outs, why IT shouldn’t own this, and what IBM, Deloitte, and McKinsey actually sell.

He walks through his Co-CEO GPT, a nine-month Anthropic/Claude build, HubSpot Breeze, Monday data agents, “human in the loop” versus a phrase he coins live, the 100-person split that becomes an HR problem, recruiting through a flood of AI applications, liberal-arts hires, and what he tells parents when asked about AI and entry level jobs.

Joel, Chad , and Emi break down the intersection of AI recruitment technology, global labor markets, and industry regulation, alongside pop culture banter and sports highlights.

Key Topics Covered:
Pop Culture & Fantasy Football: Reactions to Steve Ballmer's retro Microsoft commercials and NBA ban, US Open tennis highlights, and fantasy football draft grades.

HR Tech & Startups: Spotlights on Sonic Jobs' LLM integrations, Hackajob's Archer agent rebranding following a 3x ARR increase, and previews of global HR events.

The H-1B & Union Debate: A look at how H-1B visa restrictions drive different hiring behaviors.

Jobs Report Reality Check: An analysis of August's 162,000 job additions, against structural economic shifts, immigration, and tariff impacts.

AI Compliance & Job Board Evolution: The European crackdown on fully automated management illustrated by Uber's €825 million Dutch fine, and what the closure of Guardian Jobs signals for traditional recruitment advertising.