The Human Conversation with Doug Atkinson

What makes us so special? And why isn't AI just simply going to replace us all? I'm sitting down with educators, researchers, and practitioners to try to find out. With the rise of AI, it is more important than ever we need to have the Human Conversation.

The Human Conversation with Doug Atkinson is a technology podcast hosted by Solutions Review, with 18 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Solutions Review hosts The Human Conversation with Doug Atkinson, a technology show with 18 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #17

  AI Literacy, Human Skills, and the Workforce Transformation You Can't Afford to Ignore | Ben Tasker

  Jun 23, 202647 minS1

  Ben Tasker (AI capability and workforce transformation expert and former dean of AI at Southern New Hampshire University) calls the moment we're in "the AI between times": not yet out of the old way of working, not yet into the AI-enabled future, and moving faster than most organizations are prepared for. In this episode, he makes the case that the organizations winning at AI adoption are the ones shifting from job-role thinking to skills-based thinking, building learning plans before the change hits, and communicating to employees why the shift is happening rather than just mandating it. When agents can eventually replace an entire floor of workers, is the organization actually obligated to try to save them first?

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #16

  AI, Mental Health, and the Relational Bedrock of Society | Dr. Rachel Wood

  Jun 16, 202641 minS1

  Dr. Rachel Wood, founder of the AI Mental Health Collective, makes the case that AI is doing something far more subtle (and dangerous) than eliminating jobs: it's quietly eroding the relational muscles that make us human. When people turn to a chatbot for emotional support, they skip the friction that builds patience, reciprocity, and the capacity to hold space for another person. She argues the answer isn't to ban AI from the emotional space, but to redesign it: make it pro-social, make it a group sport, and treat it as a tool, not a relationship. A chatbot will never be able to say "me too, I get it," and that void is exactly where healing is supposed to happen.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #15

  Career Readiness, Squiggly Careers, and the Future of the Four-Year Degree | Dr. Justin Lawhead

  Jun 9, 202652 minS1

  Higher education has survived a lot, but it has never faced something that goes across the entire institution at once. Dr. Justin Lawhead, AVP for Career Readiness at the University of South Carolina, makes the case that the AI moment is different in kind. This time, it's commoditizing the thing universities have always sold: the faculty member as the purveyor of all information. In this episode, he walks through what career services actually does now, why the first year of college matters more than ever, and what three very different types of students are doing with the AI moment.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #14

  AI in K-12 and the Struggle for the Future of Education | Jerry Almendarez

  Jun 2, 202652 minS1

  <p>The conversation about AI in K-12 education keeps happening in the wrong room. Jerry Almendarez (former superintendent of Santa Ana Unified and founder of the Creative Futures Collaborative) argues that while districts debate classroom policies and homework rules, the real governance gap is sitting one floor up: in the executive cabinet, where the people who set AI policy often don't understand what the platforms can actually do. A K-12 AI conversation that starts with a kindergartner who couldn't sit still and ends with a warning about the future.***********Jerry Almendarezhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-almendarez/https://www.creative-future.com...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #13

  AI Adoption, Corporate Sloppification, and Why the Human Touch Is Becoming a Moat | Tim Sanders

  May 19, 202638 minS1

  <p>Tim Sanders has a term for what's filling inboxes and LinkedIn feeds: sloppification. He makes the case to Doug that, in a world drowning in AI-generated average, the only defensible position is being the person who still does the Rick Rubin step: implementing distinctly human taste at the end. He shares a decision he made ten years ago that has nothing to do with AI and everything to do with what this conversation is really about.</p><p><br /></p>

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on The Human Conversation with Doug Atkinson. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.