The TechEd Podcast

Static career maps, spreadsheets and disconnected HR systems can't keep pace with how quickly jobs are changing. Today’s leading employers are rebuilding their workforce architecture around skills.As companies rethink talent, career growth and workforce strategy, becoming a skills-based organization is emerging as a fundamental shift in how enterprises structure roles, create career pathways and develop their people.

In this e...

Imagine a future where healthcare consists of engineers working alongside medical researchers and clinicians to build better ways to measure the body, model disease, predict risk and design more effective diagnostics and treatments. That's what Dr. Kristin Myers is doing in the field of women's health.

Digital twins have transformed manufacturing by allowing engineers to simulate systems, predict failures and optimize performance be...

How do you redefine success when the dream you fought for is no longer your highest calling?

Rising from poverty and racism, Héctor Colón became a seven-time national boxing champion who competed around the world with Team USA, shared the international stage with some of the sport’s biggest names and defeated fighters who would later become professional world champions. Boxing taught him how to prepare under pressure, absorb s...

Movie theaters have taken hit after hit, from streaming to COVID to fewer studio releases. But this is a case study for any business leader: organizations can survive disruption by knowing what business you're really in, adapting the model around changing consumers, and holding onto the fundamentals that still create value.

Greg Marcus leads one of America’s largest theater circuits at a time when the entertainment business is...

On the eve of America 250, The TechEd Podcast steps away from its usual format to reflect on the American Dream, the values that built the nation, and the ideals that continue to bind us together.

In this special episode, Matt Kirchner revisits two of the greatest presidential speeches ever delivered: Ronald Reagan’s 1984 address at Pointe du Hoc, honoring the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. Army Rangers on D-Day, and John F...

As chairman and CEO of USG Corporation, Bill Foote led one of the most remarkable Chapter 11 restructurings in American business — an achievement Warren Buffett called “the most successful managerial performance in bankruptcy that I’ve ever seen.”

Bill’s career spans some of the most respected institutions in American business and finance. He spent 27 years at USG Corporation, including 15 years as chie...

A Wall Street Journal op-ed about the University of California’s SAT ban sparked a national conversation about college admissions, academic standards and whether students are arriving on campus ready for rigorous STEM coursework.

In this episode, Matt speaks with Svetlana Jitomirskaya, professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley and one of the faculty members behind an open letter calling on the University of California system to ...

Smart manufacturing has moved past the pilot phase, and manufacturers that still treat AI and automation like side projects are running out of time.

Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Blake Moret joins us to talk about the next era of smart manufacturing: AI-enabled operations, digital twins, autonomous mobile robots, cybersecurity, factory modernization and the workforce needed to enable it.

Blake breaks down what Rockwell means b...

What jobs will AI replace, and which ones will become more valuable?

Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, recently wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about how he chose which employees to replace with AI. His argument: AI is not coming equally for every role. It's coming first for the people inside organizations who measure, report, analyze, audit, manage, and process information.

In this solo episode of The TechE...

Exponential technologies, humanity-centric innovation, ethics in AI, passion and purpose, and the intersection of business and technology all point to one urgent question: How do we prepare the next generation to build solutions that are both economically viable and good for humanity?

This is a question we explore with Pete Dulcamara - scientist, former VP of Research at Kimberly-Clark and author of High-Tech Heroes.

We may be enteri...

Work-based learning is only as strong as the ecosystem around it, and this panel shows what happens when educators, employers, and students each do their part.

Recorded at ACTE’s National Work-Based Learning Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, this keynote panel features the perspective of an educator, industrial employer, and a student and shares their best insights and practical advice for making WBL impactful.

From the e...

As AI and emerging technologies reshape work, HR is being pushed into a bigger role: making sure the company’s workforce strategy keeps pace with its business strategy.

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In this episode, Matt Kirchner sits down with Dr. Peter Fasolo, former CHRO of Johnson & Johnson and now Director of the Institute for Leadership & Work at Boston University, to talk about the future workforce from one o...

Physical AI is the next major step for artificial intelligence, and FANUC’s collaboration with NVIDIA shows how that will look on the factory floor.

Mike Cicco, President and CEO of FANUC America, highlights the partnership’s two major applications: digital and physical. On the digital side, FANUC robots can be brought into NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim, alongside FANUC’s ROBOGUIDE software, for simulation, virtua...

What if the future of technical talent is not Silicon Valley or public service, but a career path that moves fluidly between both?

Arun Gupta sees that possibility from several angles: as a longtime venture capitalist, CEO of NobleReach Foundation, Stanford lecturer, and author of The Mission Generation. The strongest ideas and technologies only scale when they are matched with people who have resilience, curiosity, humility, and th...

What can organizational leaders learn from military-tested leadership practices to realign teams, sharpen execution, and move forward with greater clarity?

In this episode of The TechEd Podcast, Matt Kirchner sits down with Jay Richards, retired U.S. Navy Senior Chief, former Naval Special Warfare operator, CIA contractor, and author of The Standdown Framework: Advance Over Retreat. Richards brings a rare perspective shaped by elite...

Nikki Gonzales has built a career at the intersection of industrial automation, software, and systems thinking, and in this episode, she makes the case that the next chapter of manufacturing won’t be defined by AI alone. It will be defined by how well people understand process, data, machines, and the interfaces that connect them. The future of automation is as much about human judgment and lifelong learning as it is about sm...

What skills actually matter in technical careers now that the work is more digital, more automated, and more interconnected?

Industrial employers are not asking schools to choose between hard skills and soft skills. They're asking for both, and they still need the hard skills to come first. At Bosch, Justin Allen sees that every day: teamwork, drive, and professionalism matter, but technical problems don't get solved unless people u...

Imagine being able to track your brain health before serious decline sets in, understand your personal risk factors, and intervene early enough to help prevent dementia rather than simply react to it.

In this episode of The TechEd Podcast, Matt Kirchner talks with Christin Glorioso, MD, PhD, founder and CEO of NeuroAge Therapeutics, about one of the most intriguing frontiers in health and longevity right now: whether brain aging can...

Artificial intelligence is moving from novel feature to core infrastructure, and that shift is forcing companies, schools and regulators to confront a harder question than how to use the technology: how to govern it.

In this episode of The TechEd Podcast, Matt Kirchner talks with Patrick Sullivan, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at A-LIGN, about the emerging rules of the AI economy. From the EU AI Act and a patchwork of ...