Aggressively Human: Online Business in the Age of AI, Algorithms & Automations

Happy new year! For our first episode of 2026, we’re sharing the behind the scenes of two milestones from 2025. This episode originally appeared on the Off the Grid Clubhouse for paid subscribers, so we’re thrilled Amelia Hruby, PhD has shared this episode with us, so we could share it with you! Go behind the scenes of two book launches: Amelia’s Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media and...

In this episode, we talk with Helen Tremethick about the somatic experience of building and running a business. Helen shares how her work shifted from copywriting into regenerative business design, and how somatic education changed the way she thinks about change, responsibility, and client work. We spend time on the gray areas that don’t get talked about much: how to tell the difference between r...

Most people think they have a strategy problem. What they actually have is an implementation problem. In this episode, the two of us talk honestly about something we see over and over again—in our clients, in our businesses, and sometimes in ourselves: the difference between having a strategy and having the support to actually do the work. We both love a good plan, but we’ve watched plenty of perf...

It’s the one-year anniversary of Aggressively Human! In this milestone episode, we look back at the first fifty-two episodes of the show—what surprised us, how the podcast has performed (and what does performance even mean?), and how podcasting has shaped both our friendship and our businesses. We talk about what makes co-hosting work: shared accountability, complementary energy cycles, and overla...

It’s our first US Thanksgiving episode! And while many podcasts are paused today, we wanted to bring some Aggressively Human to you while you’re cooking, carving, or just getting out of the house in between football games. We want to say thank you to our listeners. Thank you to anyone that has rated the podcast on your preferred podcast player! Thank you to our commenters, the ones who tell us wha...

What if the most human decision in your business is your offer structure? In this episode, Jessica and Meg are joined by Nick Bennett and Erica Schneider , the duo behind Duo Consulting , for a conversation about business models, burnout, and what’s really behind scale. They trace their journey from the course boom and “productized” advice back toward deeply human, high-touch service work—and the...

After years of focusing on podcasts, teaching, and newsletters, Meg just released her first blog in three years . In this episode, Meg and Jessica talk about why it’s time to come (back) to blogging—and why it matters more than ever in a world of shifting platforms and AI-driven search results. They share the practical and philosophical reasons behind the shift: protecting your intellectual proper...

The platforms we built our businesses on are breaking down—and not by accident. In this episode, Jessica and Meg take on ensh*ttification , the term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe how digital platforms inevitably decay over time. From Facebook and LinkedIn to Substack and AI, they discuss the predictable four-phase cycle that turns once-useful tools into algorithmic wastelands. Book released...

While AI still can’t fold your laundry, it can help you build a business that runs smarter—and a life that runs smoother. In this episode, Jessica and Meg talk with Mary Williams , the librarian-turned-tech director behind Sensible Woo and the new Sasquatch Media Grounds studio in Portland. From haunted recording spaces and tarot cards to spreadsheets and AI bots, Mary shows what it looks like to...

What happens when every business book tells you what to think—but never explains what or how to do it? In this episode, Meg interviews Jessica about her new book, Leaving the Casino: Stop Betting on Tactics and Start Building a Business That Works . The conversation traces how the book came to life—from frustration with hollow business advice to the creation of a grounded, systems-based framework...

What happens when our usual ways of dealing with conflict stop working (if they ever worked)? In this episode, Shivani Mehta Bhatia joins Aggressively Human to talk about the changing nature of conflict—especially in a world shaped by grief, uncertainty, and fraying trust. We explore how conflict has shifted post-2020, how our nervous systems are adapting (or not), and why repair feels harder than...

What happens when your content calendar makes you want to set your business on fire? In this episode, Megan Dowd joins Aggressively Human to talk about what it actually looks like to build a business that respects your creative cycles—and what happens when you don’t. From the pressure to always be visible to the collapse that can follow, we explore what it’s like to build a business while also bei...

We often talk about launches as big, flashy events. But what happens behind the scenes when you’re not just releasing something new—but becoming someone new in the process? In this episode, Meg takes us inside the creation and launch of Findable Everywhere —not as a polished “launch debrief,” but as a real-time reflection on what it means to declare a new chapter in your work. We dig into the deci...

Let’s be honest, we started this podcast as AI skeptics — skeptical of AI to write and sound like us without falling into language homogeny, AI pitch slaps in the DMs, and using AI to replace our thinking. But how are business owners using AI in creative ways that honor the voice of our businesses while being more effective? Enter Prerna Malik and Content Bistro. Prerna caught our eye with the Ske...

What happens after you leave a business you built? How do you relate to work, money, systems, and your nervous system when your entire identity has changed? In Part 2 of our conversation with Erika Tebbens, we go deeper—into the murky middle of business ethics, entrepreneurship under capitalism, and how we’re operating in the political climate of 2025. We talk about the ethics of selling transform...

What does it take to walk away from something that’s “working”—even if it’s not working for you anymore? In this episode, Erika Tebbens joins us to talk about her career pivot out of entrepreneurship and into employment. After years of running a successful, values-driven consulting business, Erika realized that being her own boss no longer served her well. So she made a bold move: she got a job, a...

When you're building something with a co-founder or even partners (like, say this podcast), it’s not just your business that needs tending—your relationship is the business. In this episode, we talk with psychologist and leadership coach Dr. Matthew Jones to talk about the often-overlooked emotional labor of working in partnership. We explore the dynamics that make co-founding relationships thrive...

Instead of the polished Meta ads and the seamless email sequences, get the real behind the scenes of our businesses over the summer: the good, the hard, and the realities of summers in our businesses. * Why Jessica is running Meta ads and why she feels she’s doing it wrong * How Meg has leaned into retainer work this summer and it’s been exactly what she needed * The soothing activities of repeata...

“It's not, you know, oh, ‘I was working with these clients and then I was in the shower and while I was washing my hair, I had this great idea and I made a website.’ Like it's never that way, but that's how it looks on the outside.” - Meg We always see the polished outcome of change. The business owner who goes on sabbatical… to emerge with newly-refined offers and a perfect website. The offer ide...

Entrepreneurship is hard. And it’s even harder when your nervous system is stuck in a mode that’s not serving you. In this episode, we sit down with The Entrepreneurs’s Therapist Shulamit Ber Levtov to talk about the nervous system realities of entrepreneurship—especially for those who didn’t become entrepreneurs by opportunity but by necessity. We talk about what it means to choose our nervous sy...

“Do you want to show up in those AI search results? Because AI is searching the internet now. AI is a search engine and it's looking at all those same things that Google is. So if you're not doing the [content] work, then you're being left out of that search.” - Meg What role does content play in our businesses? And how does that shift over time? We may not have consciously chosen this as a duo, b...

Everyone has been in bad meetings—and for many of you, being trapped in terrible meetings is one reason you became an entrepreneur in the first place. But what if meetings, and workplace culture generally, didn’t have to be awful? What if we could bring energy and collaboration, like the kind we get from a well-facilitated workshop, into our day-to-day culture? In this episode, Alison Coward joins...

Jessica goes to conferences a lot, especially more now that she’s not employed full time. This is her eighth creator conference (4 World Domination Summits, 2 Craft and Commerces , 1 Neurodiversion summit, The Lab Offline , and a number of small mastermind and coaching retreats). So today’s episode is both a debrief on going to conferences and also a recap of the 4 takeaways from Craft and Commerc...

Partnerships are everywhere in small business: business partners, project collaborators, behind-the-scenes co-creators, podcast co-hosts ( hear our origin story! ). But we don’t talk enough about what makes them actually work. If managing yourself is hard, imagine navigating the commitment (and the scheduling tetris) of two people. Emma Whittard (mindset coach) and Karen Worthy (executive career t...

In this episode, we dig into the realities of running a relationship-led business in a market that’s no longer in beginner mode. Michelle Warner joins us to talk about what’s changed (and what hasn’t) in a world where quick wins and easy opportunities are drying up, and why now more than ever, the boring stuff—fundamentals, relationships, offers that fit—really matters. We cover how to adapt to a...