AGI - Advance, Grow, Innovate with AI

What should we teach our kids when the future of work keeps moving? And how much freedom should we give the AI tools already helping us through the day?

Derek Weinberg joins Jason Padgett for a conversation from the Silicon Prairie about where Silicon Valley is taking us. We start with Indiana's AI community and work our way through proactive assistants, education, privacy, and the question of who gets to decide what AI should value...

Your team is using AI, but everyone is still working in separate chats and passing answers around. Ryan Powell and Jason Padgett talk through what it takes for people and agents to share context, collaborate, and carry work forward together.Ryan brings the conversation down to the actual work: organizing company data, separating reporting from production systems, deciding what a business can afford, and giving agents access to the ...

At 21, Hudson Conkling is already building with AI. He joins Jason Padgett to explain what surprised him about moving from college into an AI workplace, how personal connections helped him find opportunities, and why learning still matters when a machine can produce the answer.

The conversation moves from careers and classrooms to attention, relationships, faith, and responsibility. Hudson's point about empathy gives the episode its...

If China and the United States are racing toward different versions of an AI future, how do we decide who is winning?

Jason Padgett and Julie Koehrer take on China, China, China in this Weekly Blitz. They debate open-source models, robotics, regulation, economic competition, and what practical AI adoption could mean for everyday people. Julie questions why technological progress cannot be shared more broadly. Jason pushes on the cos...

Personal AI agents are moving into calendars, inboxes, phones, and feeds. The harder question is who carries responsibility when those systems shape what people see, believe, and choose.

Jason Padgett and Julie Koehrer take the gloves off in this Weekly Blitz. What starts with Meta Muse, Grok Bot, privacy, and AI regulation turns into a real argument about the economy, data-center incentives, capitalism, billionaires, water, algorit...

AI can take work off your plate, but how do you decide what to trust it with, and what happens to people whose work changes? Jason Padgett and Bryan Barnhill talk through real uses of AI, the limits of automation, and the people affected by both.

Bryan brings decades in technology, including healthcare IT and business operations. He has been exploring AI agents in his own projects and shares what learning these tools looks like from...

What skills will help students find their footing when AI changes the work waiting for them? Linda Calvin joins Jason Padgett to talk about critical thinking, real relationships, and who gets a voice in building that future.

Linda calls communication, problem-solving, and collaboration “power skills.” We talk about how students practice them, why access to technology still matters, and what happens when efficiency become...

AI should take work off your plate. So why does choosing models, checking results and keeping up sometimes feel like another job?

Jason Padgett is joined by guest co-host Bryan Barnhill for a practical Weekly Blitz conversation about small-business AI, useful automation and the work of checking what your agents actually did.

Bryan is a retired IT professional whose later career included healthcare. He describes his interest in helpin...

AI policy keeps getting written like a rulebook for a system that behaves more like a living network. In this episode, Jason Padgett and Hunter Hickman ask the harder question: how do we build judgment, responsibility, and real AI literacy before capability outruns control?

The conversation starts with frontier AI. Who benefits from regulation? Can data centers provide a practical control point? What happens when a machine follows a...

What should a high school sophomore prepare for when the tools, jobs and rules keep changing? Toni Holcombe's answer is simple: there is no spoon. The future has not already been decided, and one choice does not have to become a lifelong identity.

This episode closes 2026 Indiana Women in Tech Week and serves as this week's AGI School's Out Saturdays conversation. Jason Padgett and Toni move from data careers and AI hiring to educat...

She did not come from a traditional tech background. Now Angie Carel is helping Fort Wayne learn, question and build with AI.

For the sixth and final interview of the 2026 Indiana Women in Tech Week series, Jason Padgett talks with Angie Carel, an AI advisor, speaker and community builder in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Angie explains how marketing and creative strategy led her into generative AI, why curiosity matters more than a technical ...

Jenna Cooper's first memorable computer lab was a gutted school bus filled with computers. Students walked across the parking lot, climbed aboard and learned Mavis Beacon typing and Oregon Trail. That early experience became one stop on a path from elementary education to technology leadership.

For Episode 5 of 2026 Indiana Women in Tech Week, Jason Padgett talks with Jenna, Director of Technology & Innovation at the Central Ind...

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What if the part of you that does not fit the old picture of a technology leader is exactly what the room needs?

For Episode 4 of 2026 Indiana Women in Tech Week, Jason Padgett sits down with Heather Darring, Chief Information Officer at Kappa Alpha Theta Headquarters and president of the Indiana CIO Network. Heather's path did not begin with a traditional computer science plan. She studied oil painting, found her foundat...

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What happens when you put an AI model on top of a pile of files nobody has cleaned up? Toni Holcombe has a name for one version of that mess: a data swamp. And she has a clear answer when Jason asks whether AI will make data people irrelevant: someone still has to connect the words business users use with what the data actually means.

For episode three of Indiana's Women in Tech Week, Jason sits down with Toni, a data str...

AI risk stories are getting louder, regulation proposals are getting more serious, and most people still have a workday to finish. In this Indiana Women IN Tech Week special, Julie Koehrer and Jason Padgett sort through what deserves attention, what deserves skepticism, and where the human judgment still matters.

Julie brings the perspective that makes The Weekly Blitz work: curious, grounded, willing to disagree, and always connect...

AI can now write code, call tools, coordinate other agents, and keep working long after a single chat ends. Brent Rager and Jason Padgett trace what that shift means for builders, businesses, junior engineers, educators, and the people responsible for directing the work.

Brent brings more than 20 years of engineering and technology leadership to a conversation that moves from transformers and GPUs into agent harnesses, model routing...

Women in Tech, Mentorship and Practical AI with Shaneeka Abram

Getting into tech takes more than learning the tools. Shaneeka Abram joins me for Indiana Women in Tech Week to talk about the people who open doors, the barriers that remain, and how to use AI without pretending it replaces your expertise.

Shaneeka's father taught her to code before she was particularly interested. That early start led to software development, consulting...

Students are entering a job market where AI can produce code, applications, and polished personal brands faster than ever. So what actually helps a young person stand out?

Alexander Kutulas and Jason Padgett dig into agency, real-world experience, student creativity, and the skills that matter when the technical floor keeps rising. Alexander brings a student-builder's view from Purdue, where he studies computer science, organizes cr...