The Michael Peres Podcast

Michael Peres sits down with Craig Guarraci, a veteran product leader with 30+ years in tech spanning Microsoft, Amazon, startups, and his own coaching firm, Tech PM Career Path. In this episode, Craig breaks down the human side of AI product leadership and shares lessons from his new book, Beyond AI Models, on what strong product managers still need to do even as AI rapidly changes the landscape....

Michael Peres speaks with Yoon Auh, founder of Nuts and Bolts Technologies and holder of 37 patents in applied cryptography. Drawing from a background in physics, engineering, Wall Street trading systems, and privacy tech, Yoon explains how his work evolved toward building more resilient, flexible, and user-controlled digital systems for a post-quantum future. In this episode, you’ll learn:...

Michael Peres speaks with Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, astrophysicist, author, and science educator, about the scale of the universe, the search for life beyond Earth, and why helping kids stay curious may be one of the most important jobs in science. Drawing on a career that spans bestselling textbooks, award-winning children’s books, NASA work, and public science outreach, Jeff shares how Carl Sagan hel...

Michael Peres with Noah Kenney, Founder and Principal Consultant of Digital 520, about the real-world challenges of AI governance, privacy, and secure systems design. As a fractional CTO, global advisor, author of Governing Intelligence, and leader across multiple organizations focused on responsible AI, Noah brings a rare mix of technical depth, policy thinking, and economic insight to one of the...

Michael Peres sits down with Thomas Gaffney, COO of OFA Group, to unpack the future of tokenization, real-world assets, and blockchain infrastructure in finance and real estate. A former attorney turned technology strategist, Thomas brings a rare mix of legal, operational, and emerging tech experience to questions around AI, machine learning, and on-chain ownership systems. The uploaded transcript...

Michael Peres sits down with Jesse Berezovsky, professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University, to explore quantum mechanics, music, intelligence, and the strange foundations of reality. From building room-temperature quantum systems to creating CatLand and even developing a physics-based approach to music theory, Jesse brings an unusually wide lens to some of science’s deepest questions....

Michael Peres with Karen Leos, Vice President of Global Sales and Professional Services at Tellabs, about why network infrastructure deserves a bigger place in conversations around sustainability, cost, and long-term building strategy. With more than 20 years at Tellabs and a career spanning IT, global support, technical services, and customer success, Karen brings a practical, customer-first pers...

Michael Peres speaks with Cheryl Stauffer, founder and CEO of Crimson Design Group, a nationally recognized, WBENC-certified interior design firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Born in Paraguay and shaped by both South American warmth and Midwestern groundedness, Cheryl has spent more than 22 years building a design practice rooted in spaces that feel layered, intentional, and lived in. In this episode:...

Michael Peres sits down with Lee Hyde, North American Esports Specialist at Lenovo, about how schools are building meaningful esports programs that go far beyond gaming. With experience leading initiatives at Lenovo and previously helping create the Carolina Gaming Arena at UNC Chapel Hill, Lee brings a practical view of how esports, technology, and education are starting to intersect in powerful...

Michael Peres speaks with Goedele Mangelaars, solo founder of Pink Notebook, an AI-powered trip planning platform designed to make travel planning more visual, collaborative, and actually useful. With a life shaped by constant travel across the U.S. and London, plus experience at Skyscanner, Terra API, and Captify, Goedele brings a sharp perspective on why planning trips still feels more broken th...

Catching up on another episode with Jesse Shrader – environmental engineer turned Bitcoin infrastructure builder – as he unpacks how building sewer systems unexpectedly prepared him to build financial pipes for the future of money. From wastewater treatment to decentralized liquidity markets, Jesse shares how open-source technology, renewable mining, and the Lightning Network are reshaping what Bi...

Michael Peres sits down with Chip Carter — creator and host of Where the Food Comes From — to explore one of the most fascinating questions of our time: How will we grow food in space? After thousands of farm visits and decades in media, Chip’s journey has taken him from small-town farming roots to standing on a NASA launch pad — and now into conversations about feeding astronauts on the Moon and...

Catching up with Les Johnson, former Chief Technology Officer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and veteran space technologist with a forty year career in aerospace, as he digs into the real engineering behind interplanetary travel, solar sails, nuclear rockets, and the future of humanity in space. From leading advanced propulsion programs at NASA to writing both hard science and science fict...

Michael Peres is joined by Markus Levin, co-founder of XYO and a veteran entrepreneur with 15+ years building and scaling tech companies around the world. After mining his first Bitcoin in 2013, Markus became deeply involved in blockchain, data infrastructure, and new business models at the edge of Web3, AI, and robotics. Today, he’s focused on decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN...

Catching up on another episode with Lisa Linkowsky, CEO and founder of Milestone Franchising — as she delivers a refreshingly honest, no-fluff look at what franchising really is (and definitely isn’t). From working full-time while earning her business degree to becoming a multi-unit franchise owner, Lisa shares how franchising found her at a pivotal moment and why realistic expectations are the di...

Michael Peres is joined by Chris Kline — co-founder and COO of Bitcoin IRA — as we dive deep into the evolution of crypto retirement investing, the psychology of Bitcoin adoption, and why long-term thinking may be the most powerful strategy in volatile markets. From launching the world’s first cryptocurrency IRA to overseeing more than $14 billion in assets under custody, Chris shares how alternat...

Catching up with Dr. Nidhi Gupta — pediatric endocrinologist turned leading voice in digital wellness — for a conversation that gets real about screen addiction, dopamine, and what it actually takes to reclaim your attention. Dr. Gupta is a bestselling author (Calm the Noise), TEDx speaker, and the founder of the Phreedom Foundation, where she helps families and organizations rebuild healthier rel...

Michael Peres is joined by Ayush Jain, tech entrepreneur, author, and CEO/co-founder of Mindbowser, an award-winning digital transformation services company. With a hands-on approach to building and launching software products, Ayush has helped enterprises across sectors harness applied AI, modern architectures, and practical innovation to thrive in an increasingly digital world. Today, a major fo...

Stepping into the future of healthcare with Moghis Uddin – founder of Alethian AI – as he shares how personal tragedy, financial leadership, and frontline pandemic experience led him to build one of the most ambitious AI healthcare platforms on the market today. From managing investment funds to developing a HIPAA-compliant, agentic AI system designed to automate clinical workflows end-to-end, Mog...

Michael Peres sits down with Leo Wang, Vice President of Capital Markets and Corporate Development at Canaan Inc., where he leads investor relations, capital markets strategy, and strategic transactions for the publicly listed Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer. From growing up in a small city in China to earning law and economics degrees at Peking University, passing the New York Bar after Columbia Law Sc...

Michael Peres sits down with Dr. Danielle Kelvas, a physician-entrepreneur who has worked in level-one trauma centers, volunteered in global health across 40+ countries, and built a career in concierge medicine. Today, she brings that frontline clinical experience into the world of medical marketing, helping health tech and medical device brands translate complex science into patient-centered stor...

Michael Peres sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Hoefer, a leading Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractor, founder of Well-Connected Chiropractic in Mission Viejo, and Chair of the California Chiropractic Association House of Delegates. A former musical theater kid who became a single mom before finding her calling in chiropractic, Dr. Hoefer now specializes in gentle, precision-based care for neurological h...

Catching up on another episode with Dr. Tuan Cao, Cornell-trained computer scientist turned biotech visionary, as he shares how a childhood steeped in Eastern medicine and a career building petabyte-scale systems at Google led him to reimagine global healthcare through AI. From growing up in Vietnam helping his physician father prepare traditional remedies to architecting some of the world’s most...

Catching up on another powerful episode with Christian Espinosa, founder & CEO of Blue Goat Cyber, U.S. Air Force veteran, and one of the leading voices in medical device cybersecurity — as he breaks down the real-world risks behind life-critical technology and what happens when security fails. From growing up in chaos to protecting devices that literally keep people alive, Christian shares ho...

Catching up on another deep-dive episode with Hunter Rogers, co-founder of TeraHash and a decade-long crypto veteran, as he breaks down what actually matters in Bitcoin and why most hype-driven narratives don’t survive the long term. From traveling the world with Tron and speaking at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton to building Bitcoin-native yield infrastructure, Hunter shares hard-earned lessons from...