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Oct 2026

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This isn't just another tech talk; it's a bridge connecting curious minds to the innovators, dreamers, and doers who are shaping the future of AI. In each episode, we'll dive deep with those at the forefront of AI work, from the thinkers to the tinkerers, to understand not just what's new but what's truly making a difference. This is your all-access pass to the conversations that matter, offering insights, inspiring stories, and a bit of fun along the way. Whether you're an AI aficionado or simply AI-curious, we're here to connect, learn, and explore together.

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33 recent

October 13, 2026Episode 3218 min

School Bus Field Trip + Slugs After Dark + Free Will on I-5

Fresh off AI Portland’s first-ever field trip, Megan and Nicole sit down to debrief about their day at Oregon State University with 45 AI Portlanders, one rented school bus, and more robots than Megan could have dreamed of. From computer vision that hunts slugs in the middle of the night to robots built to work like ants, they talk about what it felt like to spend a whole day seeing AI pointed at real problems, like how we grow the food we eat. It was a nice break from the usual AI discourse. Instead of tools cramming AI in where no one asked for it, OSU showed off research tackling pests, crops, forestry, and robotics with real stakes for Oregon and beyond. Plus, Nicole finds out OSU is about a lot more than agriculture. Along the way:🐜 Robots that act like ants, and why the useful ones beat the cute ones🐌 Computer vision that targets slugs and leaves earthworms alone🔋 What happens to your fancy AI when the field has no power and no Wi-Fi🫐 The tech behind Oregon’s blueberries and hazelnuts🏢 How OSU partners with Oregon businesses through its researchers 🚌 Plus, the case for chartering a school bus, the passenger who went looking for his water bottle, and the police lights that came after Also featuring: bus snacks, a philosophical debate about free will overheard in row one, a firm vow to never record on a Monday again, and big thanks to our OSU friends Burt, Rachel, Shelly, Owen, and all the faculty and staff who gave us their time. Related links OSU field trip write-up OSU College of Engineering AI Portland

September 27, 2026Episode 3139 min

Peak AI + AI Portland: The Musical?

It's 6:45 in the morning, it's dark out, and Megan and Nicole are pretty sure they have nothing to say about AI. Then they say a lot about it. This AI in the AM edition recaps two very different September events: the kickoff of In Dialogue with AI , a six-part lecture series with Roberto Santiago and the University of Portland, and a hands-on night about agents with the one and only Chen Chen Chen. Nicole walked into the first lecture tired of AI headlines and walked out feeling better, which says a lot. Roberto's take is simple: don't be afraid, let's figure this out together. From there, the conversation moves to the practical side. What an agent actually is, why you don't need one for everything, and who's on the hook when an autonomous agent messes up. Spoiler: it's you. Along the way: 🎭 How the word "robot" got its start in an early-1900s play (and why that plot still sounds familiar) 📈 Have we hit peak AI? Not the tech, just the "every Lyft driver wants to talk about it" kind 📚 A novel set during the late-90s internet boom that sounds a lot like today's AI promises 🤖 What "agent" really means, and why calling a Copilot project an agent doesn't count 🍾 The problem with agents: they burn tokens, the humans become the bottleneck, and nobody knows what anyone else has built 💸 The ROI question: how do you measure the value of just being better prepared for a meeting? 🧑‍⚖️ Who's accountable when an agent acts on its own? The domain expert. The human. You. Plus: A pitch for an AI Portland robot musical, Chen Chen Chen's excellent domain, and a friendly heads-up that the OSU field trip is on an actual school bus. Green seats and all. Related Links: AI Portland , where you'll find upcoming events and In Dialogue with AI registration In Dialogue with AI lecture series with Roberto Santiago Chen Chen

August 23, 2026Episode 3057 min

Are there even jobs? + Made-up titles + Stay hydrated, friends

A recruiter with 20 years in the business has never heard of a forward deployed engineer. A job title called "rehash manager" exists and nobody can explain it. And a French bulldog named Gary is still standing at a cracked door, trying to open it with his mind. It's another classic episode: part community update, part job market reality check, part group therapy for anyone who's submitted 200 applications and heard absolutely nothing back. Megan and Nicole sit down with Kelsey New of Mainz Brady Group , a boutique Portland recruiting firm, to find out what's actually happening on the other side of the application portal. Fake resumes, deepfake interviews, auto-apply bots dumping a thousand candidates into a posting in the first twelve hours, and companies who thought AI meant they'd never need a recruiter again. Spoiler: they're finding out the hard way that human expertise matters. Along the way: 🏷️ Why job titles turned into the Wild West, and how recruiters play detective to decode them👻 Where ghost jobs actually come from (the boring explanation is sadder than the conspiracy)🦄 Why "most of the requirements" no longer cuts it, and some companies will wait a year for a perfect candidate💔 The part where candidate experience quietly disappears while it's an employer's market🌱 Kelsey's advice: water the garden before you need the harvest🚌 Why we're putting the entire community on a school bus to OSU's robotics and AI lab Plus: Nicole tells you directly to stop blindly mass applying. Kelsey confirms there are, in fact, real jobs. Nicole built us a whole new website with AI and owes us a case study. And the final, definitive job search strategy turns out to be: drink water.

July 14, 2026Episode 2949 min

Resumes that Work + Using AI in your Job Search

Fresh off Friday's AI Portland event for job seekers , Megan and Nicole bring AI Portland's favorite resume expert, Andrea Gerson, onto the podcast for round two. This one goes deep on what actually moves an ATS score, why LinkedIn should work more like a dartboard than a diary, and why the fundamentals of a good resume haven't really changed much—even as everything else has. Andrea, founder of Resume Scripter, has read tens of thousands of resumes over her career and is watching AI reshape both sides of hiring in real time. She breaks down what took one resume from a 40 to a 100 on an ATS screen without any keyword stuffing, why "context, scope, outcome" beats a list of tasks every time, and why showing a little more humanity on a resume is starting to work in people's favor again. Along the way: 🎯 Why "context, scope, outcome" beats a bullet list of tasks, every time 📊 How Andrea took one resume from a 40 to a 100 ATS score without keyword stuffing 🪞 Why LinkedIn should work like a dartboard, not a diary 🚪 Why the shift toward self-employment and entrepreneurship might be the next real change in how we work Plus: the great car-vs-walking-and-talking LinkedIn influencer video debate, Nicole's dream job checking people out at New Seasons, and a full-circle return to manifesting as a legitimate job search strategy. Breaking news: Andrea's new pathfinder tool is NOW LIVE! Try it out here: PathFinder Related links: Andrea Gerson / Resume Scripter Oregon AI Accelerator

June 26, 2026Episode 2852 min

"Burtual" Reality: AI in healthcare panel redux

"Burtual" Reality: AI in Healthcare Redux Megan and Nicole reunite the experts from their AI + Healthcare panel for the conversation they didn't get to have in front of the live crowd: no time limits, no audience questions, just Megan and Nicole finally getting to ask what they actually wanted to know. Joining them: Janet Johnson , founder of the AI Governance Group ; Dr. Arpi Chalian , a physician and systems-thinker; and Burt Rosen , who manages his own cancer care as a true partnership between himself, his doctors, and AI. Join our meaty conversation about what AI is already doing to healthcare — the real benefits, the privacy trade-offs, and the questions of access and equity that don't get nearly enough airtime. Along the way: Why the "always-on" nature of AI might matter more than we think The privacy trade-offs we keep pretending we haven't already made Why the real equity story is rural and underserved communities, not early adopters Burt's new obsession: building a "digital twin" to test-drive his own healthcare decisions

April 20, 2026Episode 2732 min

Healthcare + AI + Just the Right Amount of Cheese

Last week was a full week. Like, genuinely full: mayors, panels, happy hours, and a revelation about cheese portions. Megan and Nicole are back to unpack a stretch that somehow included a civic tech incubation lab with the City of Portland and Oregon State University, a sold-out healthcare panel that had people fired up enough to walk out (we mean that as a compliment), and a happy hour collaboration with Prosper Portland that brought knife makers and violin professors into the same room to talk AI. The healthcare conversation hit different: featuring Janet Johnson from the AI Governance Group, cancer patient and AI power-user Burt Rosen, and pediatrician Dr. Arpi Chalian, the panel dove into the real, messy, genuinely unresolved questions around AI in medicine. Along the way: 🏙️ How a civic incubation lab at Big Pink is setting the stage for Portland Startup Week's hackathon in May 🩺 The "three-legged stool" model: you, your doctor, and your AI 🧬 N=1 medicine vs. population-level care — and why Burt cares most about one of those ⚖️ The uncomfortable space between AI's promise in healthcare and the very real risks of getting it wrong 🧀 The just-right amount of cheese (no, really — it was a breakthrough) Plus: the mayor shakes hands and cleans up trash, a Nighthawk connection that somehow ties into the panel, and Nicole finally nailing the snack situation after years of cheese surplus. Related links: Janet Johnson Burt Rosen Dr. Arpi Chalian Oregon State University AI Week Prosper Portland Upstart Collective Civic Incubation Lab AI Portland Calendar of Events

March 21, 2026Episode 2633 min

Film Premieres + Figma Friends + A Really Cool Redemption Arc

It's been a week! A really, genuinely cool one: premieres, packed rooms, a hot tub time machine reference, and one very satisfying redemption story. Megan and Nicole are back to recap a stretch of AI Portland events that somehow all landed in the same seven days: an advanced screening of *The AI Doc* (yes, the Sundance documentary — yes, Nicole left halfway through, no judgment), a sold-out design-focused collab with Friends of Figma where Alex from Paramount Plus dug into Figma Make, and a triumphant return to the Silicon Forest Tech Summit stage. Along the way: 🎬 What *The AI Doc* gets right and why it's not a vacation watch 🎨 How a Paramount Plus design leader is actually (and honestly) using Figma Make 💡 Why showing > telling when it comes to getting your team on board with AI 🎤 The redemption arc we didn't plan to put in the podcast but absolutely had to 📅 What's coming up: healthcare panels, a civic hackathon, a scholarship, and more Plus: why Portland designers are a little hungry for events right now, a psychedelics mixer that accidentally captured some AI Portland attendees, and a $11,500 scholarship through Willamette University that you should absolutely go apply for. Related links: The AI Doc and the Case Against Cynicism (Megan’s Substack article) The AI Doc: Or I How I Became an Apocaloptimist Friends of Figma Portland The Willamette University MS in Data Science – AI Portland Scholarship Co-creAIt, an unconference about Human/AI collaboration - Save 15% with Code AIPDX15% AI Portland episode about 2025 tech summit AI: Start Here — Scott Hanselman Chapters: 00:00 – N8N or Natan? Starting strong01:00 – Why we don't record our events (and what you get instead)03:30 – The AI Doc: apocaloptimists, empty chairs, and polar bears09:00 – What we took away from the film11:20 – Design night with Alex from Paramount Plus14:00 – The Figma Make workflow that actually works17:00 – Showing vs. telling: getting your team curious about AI19:30 – What Figma Make is (and isn't) good for right now22:00 – Willamette University scholarship announcement25:30 – Co-CreAIte conference + discount code27:30 – Nicole's redemption arc (we had to)32:00 – Silicon Forest Tech Summit: the sequel34:30 – Upcoming events

November 20, 2025Episode 2552 min

Living in the Messy Middle + Hype fatigue + What is an Agent again?

If you’ve been feeling a little gaslit by your AI tools lately—one minute brilliant, the next minute chaos—you’re not alone. In this episode, Megan and Nicole sit down with longtime friend-of-AI-Portland Nicolle Merrill to talk about the real state of AI in late 2025: the mandates, the messiness, the disillusionment, and why everyone secretly wishes AI would just manage their calendar already. Nicolle’s been in the conversational AI world since before generative AI was cool, and she brings the kind of clarity that only comes from talking to hundreds of teams who are all trying to navigate the same fog. Along the way: 🌀 Why “AI-first” mandates are breaking middle managers 🧹 What “AI workplace slop” is—and how to avoid producing it 🔍 The skills people _actually_ need before anyone starts talking about agents 🧩 Why “no-code” tools are still… code 📉 And why disillusionment might be the breath of fresh air we all needed Plus: The agent hype cycle and Nicolle’s case for starting small, asking better questions, and treating AI like the messy coworker it currently is, not the magical productivity elf the marketing pages promise. Related Links: - Boring AI - Nicolle Merrill on LinkedIn Chapters 00:00 – Baby carrots and near-anniversaries 01:16 – Who is Nicolle Merrill? 03:35 – The messy middle of organizational AI 07:41 – Mandates, pressure, and the illusion of expertise 11:49 – Disillusionment as a feature, not a bug 20:49 – Agents: what they are vs. what the marketing says 27:25 – AI literacy, data fluency, and responsible use 36:57 – Social norms, transparency, and the “workplace slop” era 43:43 – The chaos machine and the shiny-object spiral 47:19 – What we’re curious about heading into 2026 51:24 – How small teams can actually get started

November 17, 2025Episode 2427 min

Real-World AI: Trail Blazers Innovation + A Deep Dive Into MCP

If you ever hear someone yell “WHAT SUCKS ABOUT YOUR JOB?” at a meetup, there’s a good chance it’s us. In this episode, Megan and Nicole finally sit down after a long podcast break to debrief two big AI Portland events: an October session with David Long, VP of Digital and Innovation for the Portland Trail Blazers, and a very nerdy, very packed November deep dive into MCP (Model Context Protocol). Along the way, there’s a birthday, some early-morning chaos, and a few strong opinions about agents, hype, and where AI very much does not belong. They dig into how the Blazers are actually using AI (and when they deliberately don’t), why “what sucks about your job?” is a surprisingly powerful innovation question, and what MCP really is for the non-engineers in the back. Then they recap live demos from DevSwarm, shout out Radek from Keboola for the emergency hero fill-in, and talk about why good engineering fundamentals matter more than ever when you give the robots access to your codebase. Along the way: 🏀 How the Portland Trail Blazers are using AI to solve real problems, not invented ones 🧠 The Einstellung effect and why “this is just how we do it” is killing innovation 🛠️ MCP 101: what it is, why it matters, and why even non-devs were taking notes 🧩 DevSwarm’s demos: from Confluence specs to JIRA tickets to Figma-to-code flows 📏 Why human-in-the-loop, architecture, style guides, and documentation matter _more_ with AI, not less Plus: Stacklok’s token-saving magic for MCP integrations, the never-ending trough of disillusionment, and why 2025 still feels like “the year of trying to actually get productive with AI.” Related links: Einstellung Effect Megan's ProFocus AI 2025 prediction Nicole's ProFocus AI 2025 prediction Special thanks to our speakers: David Long Radek Tomasek Mike Biglan Trevor Dilley And to our event sponsors: Apify Stacklok | Token optimization tool Keboola AC Hotel Spork Bytes Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Personal Reflections 02:50 AI Portland October Event Recap 04:02 Innovation in Organizations 10:54 AI Portland November Event Recap (MCP) 21:23 Closing Thoughts and Future Directions 25:48 Stacklok Token Optimization

June 16, 2025Episode 2324 min

Sandwich Math Is Hard + AI for Good + Small Groups, Big Impact

We had too many sandwiches. We had too few proper nights of sleep. But we had just the right amount of AI Portland energy. In this episode, Megan and Nicole debrief a jam-packed week featuring AI Launchpad Northwest and AI Portland's AI for Public Good meet up. They cover the chaos and success of organizing their first definitely-not-a-conference, from small group Q&As with local experts to the very real challenge of predicting catering. They also dig into highlights from speakers Jordan Plawner, Cassie Scyphers, and Dr. Richard Bruno - each bringing a different but equally powerful take on what responsible AI looks like in 2025. Along the way: 🥪 How AI Launchpad nearly became the Sandwich Crisis of 2025 🧠 Why Jordan says you only need to be three days ahead of your team 🚑 The life-saving power of AI in public health Plus: Big shoutouts to our sponsors (thank you forever), a wrap hangover, live music teasers, and the exact moment Megan realized she’d made it through the week: holding an ice cream cone at the end of a long week.