The Reset Salon Podcast

The Covid pandemic has greatly impacted the world of work, reshaping what it is we do and where, while challenging many of our core assumptions about our relationship with work and the workplace. Join for a fascinating discussion with our guest Sarah Boisvert, whose rethinking of the workforce includes digital badges, 3D printing, and distributed manufacturing.

We’d grown used to living with impunity -- doing whatever we want, when we want...

Yet Covid has changed all that, limiting our actions, our movements, our associations.

This “reset” moment has given all of us pause, and a moment to step back —- and question — what we’re doing. Join us and our guest, Deb Donig of Cal Poly SLO’s Ethical Technology Initiative, as we try to discover The Ethical Path Forward.

Hip hop is built upon rebuilding: On taking what was -- a lyric or a beat or even a sound…sampling it, remixing it… maybe changing the tempo or pitch... using what was as a building block -- for something new. And here we are -- faced with rebuilding society after both social unrest -- and over a year of lockdown has decimated our cities -- and many of our lives. Join us with our guest, author, and commentator on national policy, global and financial stability issues, Dennis Santiago, as we think about rebuilding from the spirit first, asking ourselves the question: Who do we want to be now?

On this episode, your hosts dive into the future, and other imagined futures, with our guest, Mr. Jay Alan Samit, the former Vice Chairman of Deloitte and author of the new book Future Proofing You. Science fiction is one way we imagine possible futures, for both technology and society. In this episode, we imagine how we might drive toward a more sustainable version of capitalism, through a sense of mission as we “solve for others.” Join us as we imagine -- our own futures, and the future of society around us, post-pandemic.

The pandemic has thrown many of us off the paths we thought we were on in these uncertain times. Global Innovation Evangelist for Salesforce, digital anthropologist and author Brian Solis joins us this week to talk about the path forward, encouraging us to be present, and to look inward, where we may find our own “prelude to innovation.”

As we emerge from this “cicada moment” -- AI expert and author of Inventing World 3.0, Matthew James Bailey, helps us to define the big questions -- and big decisions -- we need to grapple with, including around ethical Ai, as we move toward American Dream 3.0.

For many years, the trend in migration globally has been toward cities, or what sociologists call “urbanization,” as folks - particularly young people - move to cities to enjoy job opportunities, culture, sports, cuisine, and other amenities made possible by urban density. Yet Covid has shown us that density is not your friend in a pandemic; and that - coupled with the fact that live music, restaurants, bars, museums, spectator sports and other gatherings are closed or severely limited, many seem to be concluding that the risk sans amenities may no longer be worth the premium urban price tag. People are flooding out of the cities in droves. In this week’s Reset Salon Podcast, we have with us long-time commercial real estate expert Branson Edwards, and someone who re-imagines what cities could be, Chris Smedley, CXO of Digital Habitats Corporation. We’ll talk about the implications - for good and ill - of the Bursting Urban Bubble, as people disperse from cities, from workplaces - and in some ways, from each other during this Covid moment. Given this, what is the long-term outlook for cities? While taking stock of our lives, should we also be re-thinking cities -- what they mean, and how they function? Join us for a fascinating discussion, certainly only one of many we’ll have on the topic, as we seek to find our way through these challenging times.

This week’s Reset Salon Podcast is focused on the theme of Resilience and Mindset. Joining us is author, podcast host, and “mind hacker” Sean Webb, and front line worker, Los Angeles nursing home administrator Margarita Kechichian. Our conversation ranged from our co-host’s accidental visit to Mark Twain’s old stomping grounds during Covid where, in a dark time, he’d discovered new fortune through the “jumping frogs of Calaveras County, ” to recounting the uncertainty and fear Margarita ad her team faced as “the devil” of Covid penetrated her facility. We learned how -- even in moments of great uncertainty, adversity, or even despair, the seeds for coming good fortune can be planted, while experiencing tighter bonds, laughter -- and even joy -- not in spite of the circumstances, but because of them. We learned how to “mind hack happiness” by steering toward positivity; through maintaining an attitude of gratitude each day, and by helping others after putting on our oxygen masks first, allowing us to find meaning and purpose, and forging relationships that will carry us well beyond this Covid moment. We hope you’ll find this conversation helpful and inspiring, as we did.

We talk about a range of things - from the “false self” we’ve all been encouraged to present on social media, to personality types, to what it means to be “bored” during the pandemic. We also discuss how we might be able to reframe this time during Covid, from a setback to a golden opportunity to “go inward” -- to heal the hurts, to right perceived wrongs within ourselves, and to set a fresh path forward. Our priorities in order, going inward can help us develop a positive outlook on life. With us this week to help guide us is USC psychologist and professor Dr. Laura Baker, as we discuss this notion of wellness -- from the inside, out.

In this episode of The Great Reset Salon Podcast, we’ll explore the theme of Discovery. While we often think about discovery in terms of the classic adventurers crossing the sea in their boats, or scientific discovery, like that of Galileo or Madam Curie; but discoveries can be made at home, right where we are, within. Join us and our guest, technologist, futurist, board member, and philanthropist Nabeel Mahmood as he discusses how he rediscovered health, and developed a renewed sense of purpose after surviving life’s most challenging times.