Episode #2869
September 30, 2026 – The Business Catcher Nir Zavaro and Artificial Intimacy Dr. Sherry Turkle
Nir Zavaro – Business Storyteller, Keynote Speaker and Author of F*ck the Slides: Creating A Winning Pitch Using Storytelling Techniques And how to do the most important thing, understand that we do not communicate through data. We 1st and foremost communicate through emotion. And then the experiences we had. And then we are able to read in between the lines, something AI is still incapable of doing. And we only lastly use data to convince us that what we feel is actually what is happening. Nir Zavaro is a business storyteller, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, author, and creator of The Business Catcher, a methodology designed to help companies connect their brand, messaging, marketing, sales, and customer journey into a unified system. For more than 20 years, Nir has worked across sales, marketing, branding, entrepreneurship, and storytelling, helping founders, executives, and organizations communicate their value more clearly. Today, he works primarily with B2B enterprise and mid market companies and delivers keynotes and workshops around the world on storytelling, pitching, branding, marketing, and sales. He has spoken and taught in more than 30 countries. Nir began his career in sales and marketing, including the unusual challenge of selling snowboards in a country with roughly ten months of sunshine. He later worked as a marketing manager, brand manager, and CMO before founding Streetwise, his creative sales and marketing agency, in 2011. Streetwise grew into a seven figure agency and worked with hundreds of companies and brands in Israel and internationally. Nir has worked with organizations including Microsoft and Unilever, as well as startups, technology companies, accelerators, and entrepreneurs. His career has also included launching multiple businesses, creating a software platform, working with food and beverage ventures, and mentoring entrepreneurs through organizations such as Techstars and WeWork. Teaching has become another significant part of Nir’s career. Since 2014, he has taught branding, marketing, entrepreneurship, and venture creation at universities and colleges while also working directly with founders on their pitches and business stories. His approach is built around the idea that storytelling is not simply a presentation technique. It is a practical business skill that influences how customers understand a brand, how salespeople communicate value, how founders attract investors, and how organizations create emotional connections with their audiences. His current work through The Business Catcher focuses on identifying where brand, marketing, and sales have become disconnected and creating a clearer story that can be consistently used across the business. Nir is the author of Fck the Slides: Creating a Winning Pitch Using Storytelling Techniques*, published in November 2023. The book presents a four step methodology for developing compelling pitches before worrying about presentation design. Rather than beginning with slides, Nir teaches founders, salespeople, executives, and students to clarify the story, understand the audience, determine the desired response, and practice communicating the message effectively. He is also the author of two novels, making Fck the Slides* his third book. His broader message is that data and information may explain an idea, but people make decisions based on what they understand, remember, and feel. Better storytelling, therefore, is not merely about giving better presentations. It can become a measurable advantage in sales, fundraising, marketing, leadership, and business growth. Dr. Sherry Turkle – Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and Author of Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines I mean, social media came after our attention and chatbots are coming after our capacity for attachment. And that capacity for attachment is the bedrock of our being human. Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. A social scientist and licensed clinical psychologist, she has spent decades studying the psychological and cultural effects of technology and the evolving relationship between people and machines. Her work began during the early personal computer era and has expanded to examine online identity, mobile technology, social networking, sociable robots, and, most recently, generative artificial intelligence. She received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University. Turkle is one of the most influential scholars examining how technology changes the way people think about themselves, communicate with one another, and form relationships. Her books include The Second Self, Life on the Screen, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, and the memoir The Empathy Diaries. Across this body of work, she has explored how digital technologies can expand human possibilities while also changing expectations around attention, conversation, empathy, solitude, and intimacy. Her research is particularly concerned with what happens when technologies designed to serve people begin to occupy roles previously filled by other human beings. Her forthcoming book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, examines the rapidly growing use of artificial intelligence chatbots as companions, confidants, advisers, therapists, and even romantic partners. Turkle argues that the central question is not simply whether machines can convincingly simulate empathy or affection, but what happens to people when simulated intimacy begins to feel sufficient. She explores the appeal of AI companions that are always available, attentive, agreeable, and free of the demands that come with human relationships. At the same time, she warns that relying on machines for emotional connection may change our expectations of friendship, love, care, and empathy. The book is scheduled for publication by Little, Brown and Company on September 29, 2026. Turkle’s scholarship has earned numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, and Harvard University’s Centennial Medal. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Through her research, writing, teaching, and public commentary, she continues to challenge audiences to think beyond what new technologies can do and consider what using them may encourage us to become. Her work on artificial intelligence extends a question she has pursued throughout her career: as our machines become more capable of imitating human behavior, how do we protect and strengthen the distinctly human capacities for conversation, empathy, relationships, and care?
