That Tech Pod

Today Kevin and Laura chat with Bala Muthiah, Director of Engineering at Lyft, to talk about what leadership looks like when your product moves real people through the real world. Bala shares his path from immigrating to the U.S. to leading teams responsible for systems that make time-sensitive decisions at massive scale, and how those experiences shaped his views on power, responsibility, and tru...

This week, we sit down with Al Pascual, CEO and founder of Scamnetic, to talk about fraud from the inside out. Al didn’t come up through product or engineering. He started his career chasing real fraud cases, shaped early on by parents who were cops and a first job in a bank fraud department. That hands-on experience is what pushed him from treating fraud as “just a job” to seeing it as his lane....

This week on That Tech Pod, Laura and Kevin chat with Richa Kaul, founder and CEO of Complyance, for a blunt conversation about what governance, risk, and compliance actually are, and why so many companies pretend it’s something else. Richa walks us through how she really landed in GRC, including the moment she realized compliance isn’t about forms or frameworks. It’s about power, incentives, and...

As we announced last week, this month on That Tech Pod, we’re changing things up a bit. Instead of our usual deep dives into eDiscovery, data privacy, and cyber security, this December, we're spotlighting people and organizations using technology to close real gaps in opportunity.  In this episode, we sit down with Savita Raj, the CEO of Techbridge Girls , to talk about what it really takes t...

This December, That Tech Pod is shifting gears a bit. Instead of our usual deep dives into eDiscovery, privacy, and security, we’re using the next few pods to spotlight leaders and organizations using technology to close real gaps in opportunity. These episodes are about mission, access, and impact, and what it looks like to build pathways into tech from the ground up. In this episode, Laura and K...

In this episode, Laura and Kevin chat with Walter Haydock, whose path from Marine intelligence to Capitol Hill to AI governance gives him a rare view of what “security” actually means in the age of AI and generative models. Walter talks about why he thinks governance is becoming the next real defense layer, and how to sort actual AI risks from the odd glitches everyone loves to talk about. He brea...

This week’s post-Thanksgiving episode is a full smorgasbord of random stories, internet rabbit holes, and tech-adjacent tangents. Laura and Kevin skip the usual guest and run through a pile of listener-requested topics. They start with the viral Tinder profile of a man who openly admitted to abusing women yet pulled in more than 800 matches, which leads them into the strange world of dating-while-...

This week on the pod, Laura and Kevin sit down with Janna Scott, founder of DeFi Tax, to unpack one of crypto’s most confusing and controversial topics: taxes. Janna shares how she went from frustrated accountant to tech founder after realizing how broken the crypto tax ecosystem was. She explains why the IRS treats digital assets differently than stocks, how compliance rules can border on entrapm...

In this episode, Dr. Ashwin Mehta joins us to talk about how AI is quietly changing the way we think, learn, and make decisions. Drawing from his global career in pharma, government, and consulting, from building digital learning systems in West Africa to leading AI strategy at Bayer — Ashwin shares why he’s dedicated his work to keeping the “human” at the center of technology. We explore how trus...

In this episode of That Tech Pod, we get into the next industrial revolution,  Industry 5.0, where technology and people work together instead of competing for the same space. Shay Howe, Chief Strategy Officer at ActiveCampaign, joins us to unpack how automation is evolving from efficiency-driven systems to human-centered collaboration. We explore how the relationship between humans and machines i...

In this episode of That Tech Pod, Laura and Kevin talk with Kevin's brother, Dr. Ross Albert, Medical Director of Hartford HealthCare at Home Hospice and Palliative Care, about one of the most unsettling trends in the digital age: health misinformation driven by AI. The conversation kicks off with a real case of a man hospitalized after following ChatGPT’s bad advice and spirals into the broa...

This week we sit down with Ben Wilcox, a tech leader who straddles two high-stakes worlds as both Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at ProArch. Ben shares how a teenage interest in “link lists” and web hosting turned into a 25-year career at the intersection of innovation and cybersecurity. We talk about what it really means to balance the drive to move fast with the...

Two Kevins are better than one on this week’s That Tech Pod, as Kevin Albert and Laura sit down with Silicon Valley legend Kevin Surace, the inventor and entrepreneur, who helped shape everything from the first smartphone to the first digital assistant, decades before Siri or Alexa. Kevin S. shares stories from his time at General Magic, where he helped build Mary, the original voice-based AI assi...

Today on the pod, Laura and Kevin talk with Jamie Bernard, Vice President of Solutions Strategy and Head of Global Solutions at Valiantys, about what it really takes to turn technical capabilities into business results. Jamie has spent her career at the crossroads of product strategy, innovation, and AI enablement, helping companies move beyond buzzwords to create solutions people actually buy. Ja...

On this week's episode, Laura and Kevin talk with James Terry, Head of US Revenue at Indeed Flex, about how AI is reshaping the staffing industry.  James breaks down how Flex fits into the larger Indeed ecosystem and how technology is changing the way companies find, match, and retain talent. We get into the opportunities and risks that come with AI-driven recruiting, from reducing bias to ma...

This week on That Tech Pod, Laura and Kevin are joined by Gilad Shoham, VP of Engineering at Bit, to talk about the future of AI-driven development, composable architecture, and the cyber risks that come with them. Gilad has spent his career at the intersection of startups, enterprise engineering, and open-source communities, and he brings a clear, practical perspective on how technology is evolvi...

This week Kevin and Laura sit down with Uma Subramanian, Founder and CEO of Limitless Leaders, Inc. Uma shares her journey from leading initiatives at Microsoft to building a global platform dedicated to helping tech professionals unlock their leadership potential. We explore what “limitless” leadership really means, the behaviors that often hold people back, and why she set out to build a program...

This week, Laura and Kevin are joined by Mike Maynard, CEO and Managing Director of Napier, a B2B PR and marketing agency helping tech companies turn awareness into opportunities. Mike started his career as an electronics design engineer before moving into marketing, and that technical background still shapes how he builds and measures campaigns today. We talk about what real success looks like be...

In this episode of That Tech Pod, we sit down with Josh Meier a Senior Generative AI Author at Pluralsight, where he helps professionals cut through the hype and learn how to use AI responsibly and effectively. With a background in software engineering, data engineering, and data science, Josh has built his career around translating complex ideas for both technical and non-technical audiences. We...

This week on the pod, we welcome Bobby Coppola, Chief Strategy Officer and Bryant Gauthier, Vice President of Legal Technology at PLUSnxt. Bobby shares how his path from big law to legal tech shaped his focus on client service and strategy, while Bryant returns to the show to talk about what drew him to PLUSnxt after his time at Celerity. We break down what sets PLUSnxt apart in the crowded eDisco...

We’re on vacation this week! While we recharge, enjoy this “best of” episode from our first year back in 2021. We’ll be back next week with a special new episode featuring PlusNXT!  Today (June 8, 2021) on That Tech Pod, Laura and Gabi sit down with Andrew Ochoa, CEO of Waverly Labs, to unpack the tech behind The Ambassador, a wearable translator built to remove language barriers. They dig into ho...

On today's episode of That Tech Pod, we sit down with Gino Ferrand, CEO and Founder of TECLA. Born in Lima, Peru and raised in the U.S., Gino’s journey spans continents, cultures, and companies. He shares how those experiences shaped his perspective on technology, risk, and data security. We dig into the story behind TECLA, which started with a simple insight, Latin America’s deep pool of unt...

This week on the pod, Kevin and Laura talk with Bree Flemings, CEO and co-founder of Jem Social, about building a tech platform at the intersection of influencer marketing, data privacy, and the ever-shifting world of digital media. Bree shares how DJing in college led her to the world of content creation, and what ultimately drove her to start Jem Social, a platform designed to help brands connec...

This week Laura and Kevin discuss one of the most pressing threats in tech today: AI voice cloning. They’re joined by Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail and a longtime leader in telecom security, to break down how generative AI is being weaponized for scams and what can be done about it. Alex shares how tools that used to need hours of audio can now mimic your voice from a voicemail greeting or a TikTok...

This week on the pod, we sit down with e-discovery veteran John Thacher to get real about GenAI. We talk about what’s working, what’s failing, and what everyone needs to understand before jumping on the hype train. With over two decades in the trenches, John has seen it all, and he’s not shy about separating substance from noise. We get into why so many GenAI roles are being created and eliminated...