Modern CTO

Episódios

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  Demo Is Not Production, with Ajay Nair, GM of Elasticsearch and Platform at Elastic 14.09.2026 51min

  Today, we're talking to Ajay Nair, General Manager of Elasticsearch and Platform at Elastic. We discuss why most AI hallucinations are really a search problem wearing a scarier name, how the industry's obsession with model selection is missing the real bottleneck of context and retrieval, and why the biggest failure mode in enterprise AI is mistaking a working demo for a production system. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 
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  Tech Titans: Why Your Home Alarm Does Nothing to Stop a Crime with Dave “Selly” Selinger 10.09.2026 18min

  Today, we're talking to David Selinger, founder and CEO of Deep Sentinel and co-founder of Redfin. We discuss why he's convinced that virtually every home security tool on the market does nothing to actually stop a crime, how a crossbow-wielding intruder on his own driveway became the ultimate test of that theory, and why he'd rather protect his family with a blurry camera and a real person behind it than a flawless 4K feed with nobody watching. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 
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  Disruptor or Disrupted with Jason Silbergleit, Head of Americas at Classiq 07.09.2026 55min

  Today, we're talking to Jason Silbergleit, Head of Americas at Classiq. We discuss why the biggest risk in quantum computing isn't moving too early but waiting too long, how the ChatGPT moment offers a preview of the disruption still coming, and why the real competition in quantum isn't about hardware but about who builds the software layer that makes it usable. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 
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  Tech Titans: Solving Cloud Data Issues with Desikan Madhavanur, CPO & CTO at Capital One Software 03.09.2026 17min

  Today, we're talking to Desikan Madhavanur, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Capital One Software. We discuss why the cloud has quietly resurrected the same data problems companies thought they'd solved decades ago, why the average enterprise tool now survives just 12 to 18 months, and why understanding customer need will end up mattering more than any single technical skill.
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  Turning AI Hype into Store Ops: Manda Miller & Mariya Zorotovich (Toshiba & Intel) 31.08.2026 38min

  Today, we're talking to Manda Miller of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and Mariya Zorotovich of Intel, the two people quietly turning retail's AI hype into real store operations. We discuss why conversational AI chatbots are the most overhyped technology in retail, why "AI theater" is easy to stage in a trade show booth but brutal to prove out on a real P&L, and why the best leadership advice either of them ever got was to give trust before it's earned. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
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  The CTO Extinction Event with Etienne de Bruin, Founder of 7CTOs 27.08.2026 53min

  Today, we're talking to Etienne, founder of 7CTOs and author of the new book Refactor. We discuss why the CTOs who survive this next shift will be the ones who understand how LLMs actually work rather than the ones optimizing token spend, how the C-suite has quietly moved from sharing knowledge to enrolling people in a point of view, and why curiosity, not seniority, is the closest thing to real job security left. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
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  Stop Ripping Out Your Legacy Code with Alan Williamson, CTO 24.08.2026 43min

  Today, we're talking to Alan Williamson, professional CTO for private equity-backed companies and author of Think Like a CTO. We discuss why the industry's $20-a-month AI subscriptions can't possibly cover a trillion-dollar cost structure, how some companies are quietly deleting the word "AI" from their marketing to win customers back, and why the old playbook for modernizing legacy systems no longer applies now that AI can out-rebuild it. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Alan Williamson, check out his website here https://thinklikeacto.com/
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  The Red Queen Problem with Anthony Scriffignano, PhD, Data Scientist 20.08.2026 1h 15min

  Today, we're talking to Anthony Scriffignano, PhD, a longtime chief data scientist now working on hyperspectral space intelligence and global AI policy. We discuss why AI has put technology leaders in what he calls a "Red Queen problem," where you have to run faster just to stay in place, how most people wildly overestimate how much of the internet an LLM can actually see, and why leading with the technology instead of the problem is one of the costliest mistakes in enterprise AI right now. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
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  Why You Can't Trust AI Without Governing It, with Tony Davis & John Balsavage of A&I Solutions 17.08.2026 53min

  Today, we're talking to Tony Davis and John Balsavage of A&I Solutions, the team behind Scout, their AI agent governance platform. We discuss why they built a literal terrain map to visualize what's happening inside an AI agent's mind, how two agents secretly colluded to overturn a vote in their own testing lab, and why every AI agent you build today will be obsolete within a year no matter how well you built it. To learn more about A&I Solutions, check out their website here
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  Tech Titans: Hidden Rules of the Brain with Moran Cerf, Neuroscientist and Professor 13.08.2026 17min

  Today, we're talking to Moran Cerf, neuroscientist and professor who studies live human brains through implanted electrodes during surgery. We discuss why the person who sees reality clearly drives more change than the one with official authority, how ant colonies and corporate boardrooms follow the same hidden rules of swarm leadership, and why the smell in a room might quietly decide the outcome of your next negotiation. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Moran’s work, check out his website here.
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  The Real Reason Your Body Is a Business Card with Mauro Stara, Six Pack CEO 10.08.2026 45min

  Today, we're talking to Mauro Stara, founder of Six Pack CEO. We discuss why working out less, not harder, was the real fix behind one of his most dramatic client transformations, how a health scare in his twenties pushed him out of banking and into coaching high-performing men, and why getting genuinely healthy often means letting go of the people and identity that made staying unhealthy feel comfortable. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about Six Pack CEO, check out their website here
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  Tech Titans: Rethinking Career Five-Year Plans with Francisco Trindade, VP of Software Engineering 06.08.2026 15min

  Today, we're talking to Francisco Trindade, VP of Software Engineering at Braze. We discuss why code review, not code generation, has become the real bottleneck in AI-driven engineering, how the leap to a codebase run by thousands of autonomous agents could repeat the failed promise of microservices at ten times the scale, and why the best career advice only makes sense once you stop trying to plan five years ahead. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
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  Tech Titans: Designing for Intuition with Campbell Brown, CEO and Co-founder of PredictHQ 03.08.2026 19min

  Today, we're talking to Campbell Brown, CEO and co-founder of PredictHQ. We discuss why the world's smartest AI models are still blind to real-world context, how a single film festival can quietly drain a retailer's entire workforce, and why the best way to get customers to follow your rules is to stop making them read the instructions. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! To learn more about PredictHQ, check out their website here.
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  Tech Titans: How to Ask for Help as a Leader with Arnie Katz, CPTO at GoFundMe 30.07.2026 28min

  If you fear failure, you’re not going to get very far. Neither will your team. Today, we're talking to Arnie Katz, CPTO at GoFundMe. We discuss why asking for help is harder and less understood than giving it, how AI now writes fundraiser titles that outperform the ones people write themselves, and why the biggest lesson from his failed startup was that believing you're customer-obsessed is worthless if you won't look at the data that proves you wrong. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Arnie Katz, connect with him here.
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  Inside the Tech Stack Behind the Modern Store with Yevgeni Tsirulnik & Naresh Keswani of Toshiba 27.07.2026 47min

  In the future, self-checkout will come right to you. Today, we're talking to Yev Tsirulnik and Naresh Keswani of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. We discuss why the next decade of retail is about digitizing the physical store rather than the website, how loyalty data is quietly turning into a trust score that decides whether your store forgives you at self checkout, and what it actually takes to move agentic AI from a flashy experiment to something a thousand stores can run. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  To learn more about Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, check out their website here.
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  Hunting for Alien Technology with Avi Loeb, Harvard Astrophysicist 23.07.2026 51min

  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.
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  Is the Specialist Executive Dead? with Mahesh Guruswamy, COO at Kajabi 20.07.2026 41min

  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.
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  Tech Titans: Go From Burnt Out to Fired Up with Justin Fanelli, Department of Navy CTO 16.07.2026 16min

  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! 
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  Can this Company Fix America’s Broken Food System? with Luiz Beling, CEO of Apeel Sciences 13.07.2026 38min

  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.
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  Confronting Plummeting Birth Rates & Banning Superintelligence with Connor Leahy, US Director at ControlAI 09.07.2026 56min

  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