Leapfrogging the Headlines with Soren Kaplan

A new Gallup study shows the people running your organization are its most isolated employees, and it's costing more than morale.  Subscribe and listen on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU3e5k8HJeOGEa7AGA97kvVjtpi6uqG0t  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033iseLQje3RnPGqUlh2I8?si=cb19276a3c68459d  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leapfrogging-the-he...

Survivorship bias is rewriting the American Dream — and reshaping the workforce leaders are trying to build.    Subscribe and listen on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU3e5k8HJeOGEa7AGA97kvVjtpi6uqG0t  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033iseLQje3RnPGqUlh2I8?si=cb19276a3c68459d  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leapfrogging-the-headlines-with-soren-kapl...

LinkedIn’s 2026 Skills on the Rise report shows the fastest-growing skills in America splitting into two parallel tracks: technical AI capabilities and human-centered skills — accelerating at nearly the same pace. A Harvard Business School study confirms it. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are already showing it in their org charts. The question isn’t whether AI is changing the workforce. It’s wh...

A new study analyzed six decades of research and nearly 800,000 workers. The number one cause of burnout, stress, and intent to quit isn’t workload or conflict. It’s unclear expectations. The fix is simpler than most leaders think — and the three converging forces making it worse right now are things every organization is navigating today.  Subscribe and listen on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.co...

New Associated Press data shows the average CEO of a top U.S. company earns 285 times the pay of a median employee. At Starbucks, that ratio hit 6,666-to-1. The number isn’t the problem. What it signals to your employees is — and the leaders getting this right aren’t explaining the ratio. They’re making it irrelevant.  Subscribe and listen on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU3e5...

A new study of 26,000 students reveals that AI is quietly eroding the thinking skills of your best performers — and the outputs still look great.  Subscribe and listen on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU3e5k8HJeOGEa7AGA97kvVjtpi6uqG0t  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033iseLQje3RnPGqUlh2I8?si=cb19276a3c68459d  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leapfro...

A University of California, Santa Cruz study tracked what actually happened after California raised the fast food minimum wage to $20. The five structural responses it triggered are a leadership masterclass in what happens when you impose rapid cost change on a complex system — and why every leader needs to map them before issuing any mandate. 

On June 11, NOAA officially confirmed El Niño has formed in the tropical Pacific. Sea surface temperatures have broken daily warm records for more than 20 consecutive days. If projections hold, this would rank among the three most powerful El Niño events in modern history. Dartmouth researchers found the 1997-98 event caused $5.7 trillion in lost global GDP over five years. The window to prepare i...

Gartner says half of all AI workforce cuts will reverse by 2027. The reason tells you exactly what AI still can’t do — and what that means for every leader making workforce decisions right now. 

A new study in the journal Science found your childhood neighborhood is literally wired into your brain. Here’s what that means for how you lead — and why your lived experience is a competitive advantage no AI can replicate.  Subscribe and listen on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU3e5k8HJeOGEa7AGA97kvVjtpi6uqG0t  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033iseLQje3RnPGqUlh2I8?si=...

Denver unanimously voted to halt new AI data center construction for a year. More than 20 proposed facilities were canceled in the first quarter of 2026 alone — over $40 billion in stalled investment. A March 2026 Gallup poll found that 70% of Americans would oppose a data center near them, a higher rate than nuclear plants. The reason isn’t bad PR. Three distinct and compounding forces are drivin...

Lake Powell is 24 percent full. Lake Mead is 32 percent full. Seven states can’t agree on new operating rules even though the federal deadline has passed. The leadership lesson isn’t about water. It’s about what happens when rational actors each make self-interested decisions and collectively produce an outcome that hurts everyone — and why the same dynamic is almost certainly happening inside you...

The 2026 Social Security Trustees Report isn't just a retirement story. It's a case study in why leaders defer the decisions they already know they need to make — and what it costs. ⁠Subscribe on Youtube⁠ Learn more at ⁠https://sorenkaplan.com⁠

On June 18, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the American Artificial Intelligence Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, proposing a 50% tax on the largest AI companies to create a $7 trillion public fund. Whether it passes or not, the movement it reflects is already reshaping how workers view their companies’ AI direction. The real question for every leader is whether your employees see AI as something desi...

The Wall Street Journal reported on Stanford research showing entry-level software engineering hiring at major tech companies dropped more than 50 percent over three years. Salesforce hired zero new engineers in fiscal year 2026. Amazon eliminated more than 14,000 corporate roles in late 2025. Stanford's Digital Economy Lab found employment for software developers aged 22 to 25 fell nearly 20...