American Dream Factory (ADF)

There are only about 76 daily newspapers left in America that are not owned by a major corporate chain or billionaire-backed private owner. Seventy-six. In a country with more than 19,000 cities, towns, and villages, that number should stop us in our tracks. Chapters 06:43 The State of Local Journalism 09:15 Challenges of Independent Voices 14:17 Reflecting Community Voices 16:01 The Role of Local...

In this episode of the American Dream Factory Podcast, Nick Smoot sits down with Morgan Linton, co-founder and CTO of Bold Metrics, early Sonos employee, AI builder, and one of the most compelling people experimenting at the edge of artificial intelligence. Morgan’s path is not linear, which is exactly what makes it valuable. He studied computer engineering and computer science at Carnegie Mellon,...

In this episode of the American Dream Factory Podcast, Nick Smoot sits down with Daron Babcock , Managing Director of Community Transformation at Stand Together Foundation and founder of Bonton Farms, for a powerful conversation about poverty, dignity, health, faith, entrepreneurship, and what it actually takes to transform a community. Daron’s story begins far from the nonprofit world. He started...

Nevada is putting real capital behind founders, manufacturers, builders, and companies ready to scale. In this episode of American Dream Factory , Nick Smoot sits down with Kyle Ferguson , head of Nevada’s Battle Born Growth Escalator venture program, to unpack how Nevada is deploying nearly $40 million into high-potential companies through venture capital, debt programs, and state-backed financin...

In this episode, Nick & Joe sit down with John Keisler, CEO of Sunstone Management and former Economic Development Director for the City of Long Beach, for a conversation about public-private partnerships, civic expertise, investment, and what it really takes to build stronger communities. John brings a rare perspective from both sides of the table. He spent more than 20 years in public servic...

In this episode of American Dream Factory , Nick Smoot sits down with Morgan Dixon, a 24-year-old PhD student in artificial intelligence and machine learning at the University of Idaho. Morgan represents a rare but replicable archetype: a young man preparing to launch into the world with technical competence, grounded character, and calm confidence. While many of his peers feel uncertain about the...

Nick Smoot sits down with Doug Erwin, the entrepreneurship lead at EDAWN in Northern Nevada, for a wide-ranging, high-energy conversation about two things happening at once: AI is moving from “chat” to “do.” Agents are booking meetings, running workflows, and changing the cost and speed of building. Reno is quietly turning into a real startup boomtown. And EDAWN is literally putting money behind t...

In this solo episode of the American Dream Factory podcast, Nick Smoot explores a simple but powerful idea that keeps people stuck. Waiting. Waiting for permission. Waiting for perfection. Waiting for someone else to go first. Nick shares a personal story about solving a ridiculous traffic problem with a bucket of yellow paint and a little courage, and how that small act quietly changed behavior f...

America is running out of workers and time. The baby boomers are retiring, birth rates are collapsing, and colleges are struggling to prove their value. In the middle of that chaos, a new movement is forming built on skills, not degrees. In this episode of The American Dream Factory , hosts Nick Smoot and Joseph Toney talk with Josh Wright , Head of Growth and Partnerships at Lightcast , one of th...

In this episode of The American Dream Factory , hosts Nick Smoot and Joseph Toney sit down with creative veteran Lee Davis , founder of Clean , a Raleigh-based agency known for its soulful approach to branding. Lee’s three-decade journey spans legendary firms like Wieden+Kennedy and J&J, giving him a rare vantage point on how brands—and cities—can rediscover their essence. Together, the trio u...

In this episode of American Dream Factory , Nick and Joe sit down with two transformative leaders in the world of politics, community, media, and capitalism: Matthew Barzun – Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. & Sweden, bestselling author of The Power of Giving Away Power , and architect of “constellation thinking.” Seth Levine – Venture capitalist, co-founder of Foundry ($4B under management)...

In this episode Nick Smoot sits down with Ernesto Sirolli of the Sirolli Institute. Chapters 09:42 Engagement with the Community 26:00 Lessons from International Aid 42:36 The Joy of Helping Others 46:24 Building Community Through Collaboration 56:21 The Importance of Passion in Business 01:00:22 The Role of Cooperatives in Society 01:06:08 The Nature of Entrepreneurship 01:08:57 The Debate of Nat...

What does it take to lead a city when everything is on fire... literally and figuratively? In this episode, Nick Smoot sits down with longtime friend and civic leader Joe Toney , who has spent nearly two decades inside city government, including serving as City Manager of Malibu during the recent catastrophic wildfires. Together, they dive deep into what’s breaking modern cities—and what might sti...

07:43 High School Experience and Preparedness 12:29 The Skills Gap in Education 15:04 Value of College in Today's World 21:32 Reimagining High School Education 29:33 The Role of AI in Education and Work 30:57 Perspectives on the Future of Work 32:56 The Impact of AI on Job Roles 36:13 The Evolution of Education and Experience 38:16 Redefining the Value of Education 41:20 Personal Experiences a...

Think AI is just for tech bros, coders, or billionaires building robot empires? Think again. In this episode, Nick Smoot sits down with AI expert Josh Freckleton to break down what artificial intelligence really is, what it actually does today, and how "normal people" can start using it to make work easier, faster, and better. Josh went from studying the human brain to building digital o...

What if the most powerful new protocol in AI wasn’t being shaped in Silicon Valley… but in a basement in North Idaho? Enter ⁠ Paul Swaim ⁠ and ⁠ Garrett Oetken ⁠, two innovators who went from community college hallway conversations to becoming key architects of ⁠BitTensor ⁠, a $3B+ decentralized AI network reshaping the future of work, research, and economic contribution. Garrett dropped out of co...

This episode challenges the broken narrative around the American Dream and reframes it as a mindset , not a marketing slogan. He dives into the importance of creation over consumption , the undervalued wisdom of older generations, and the truth that you’re never too old (or too young) to build something of real value. Nick shares stories of his friend and aerospace legend Burt Rutan: the man who i...

Before Google Maps. Before smartphones. Before Silicon Valley gave mobile a second thought — the Blumberg brothers were strapping GPS units to PalmPilots and piping real estate data through them. In this episode, Nick Smoot sits down with Brad and Eric Blumberg , the underdog inventors who quietly pioneered location-based real estate search and filed the first patents that would later shape the mo...

In this episode, Nick Smoot sits down with Susan Paley, the powerhouse behind the early days of Beats by Dre. Before Beats became a global icon, it was Susan — employee one, founding CEO — who brokered the partnerships, built the business model, and turned the brand from an idea into a global force. Susan shares how she navigated the chaos of startup life at the highest stakes, made the deals that...

In this episode, Nick Smoot sits down with Javis Cornett , Audience Development Director at Hagadone Media , to announce a groundbreaking partnership between Build_ and The Coeur d’Alene Press . This isn’t just a media collab. It’s the birth of a modern business community —where local news, startups, mentorship, and creativity converge to reshape the future of North Idaho. Whether you’ve got a dre...

🎙 Show Notes: In this solo drop, Nick Smoot lays down a rapid-fire take on the real American Dream, the cultural war around who gets to speak, and why reading is the ultimate act of rebellion in the algorithm age. Here’s what you’ll hear: Why the American Dream isn’t dead, it’s just been hijacked by consumerism and lazy marketing Joe Rogan, Ro Khanna, Douglas Murray, and the future of middle-class...

In this inspiring and wide-ranging episode, Nick sits down with Julian Guthrie , a Pulitzer-nominated journalist, bestselling author , and now AI startup founder , who calls Hayden, Idaho home. Julian opens up about: Her path to the San Francisco Chronicle , covering the tech boom, interviewing billionaires and astronauts, and telling underdog stories that matter. How her deep empathy, resilience,...

Welcome to The American Dream Factory , where we don’t sugarcoat reality — we design for it . In this spicy solo episode, Nick Smoot serves up a no-BS framework for building better systems, companies, communities, and lives by embracing one hard truth: 👉 Humans are selfish. Stop expecting otherwise. Instead of hoping for good behavior, plan for predictable behavior. Create rules and incentives th...

Nick sits down with Tom Lucas and Morgan Dixon, co-founders of a startup that brought together an unlikely team—a 15-year-old, a 75-year-old, and PhDs—united in their mission to partner with disabled inventor Robert Brady to develop a tool for the hard of hearing and ultimately save a marriage. This episode explores: • How personal struggles fuel innovation • The power of intergenerational collabo...

In this urgent talk, Nick dismantles the illusion that most jobs in the recent past are actual sources of meaning and purpose. With AI and automation rapidly replacing traditional labor, he argues that we must stop clinging to outdated notions of work and instead embrace the next phase of human potential: creation. For too long, society has placed meaning in the exchange of money rather than the w...