The Sway Effect

For our latest episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, continues her live coverage at Cannes Lions 2026 and sits down with Rhonesha Byng, Founder and CEO of Her Agenda, the media platform dedicated to helping ambitious women turn their goals into reality through storytelling, resources, and community. For their chat, Jen and Rhonesha talked about how Her Agenda was built and the mission...

For our latest episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, is live at Cannes Lions 2026 and caught up with Frank Starling, VP and Chief DEI Officer at Cannes Lions. For their chat, Jen and Frank discussed his talent and DEI goals from last year's festival, his thoughts on new research on how engaging and including disabled/neurodivergent talent is a creative and business unlock, as well...

For our latest episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, is live at Appian World 2026 and sat down with Isaac Sacolick, tech influencer and regular contributor to CIO.com and InfoWorld and the President of StarCIO. For their chat, Jen and Isaac discussed the major takeaways from Appian's research with Harvard Business Review, what Isaac learned from this year's conference and how...

For our latest episode, we are continuing our conversations from SXSW. Our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, caught up with Valerie Chapman, Founder and CEO of Ruth AI, the AI-powered career platform built to help close the $1.6 trillion gender wage gap. For their chat, Jen and Valerie talk about the Fortune op-ed that led to their connection, what Ruth AI is on a mission to do when it comes t...

For our latest episode, we are live at SXSW and our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, caught up with Vox Media's Astead Herndon who is an editorial director and frequent host of outlet's Today, Explained podcast. Tied to SXSW 2026, Astead shares what he is hearing and seeing on the ground at the conference, how he and the team choose the topics to cover on the podcast and what communic...

For our first episode of 2026, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with Pete Pachal, Founder of The Media Copilot, a platform, podcast and newsletter all about how AI is changing the media. Off the back of CES, Pete shared his biggest takeaways and what's next for AI across the marketing, communications and media industries. Jen and Pete also discussed how newsrooms are managing AI...

In this episode, our Founder and President Jennifer Risi chats with two of the industry's top editors - Jill Manoff, EIC at Glossy and Modern Retail and Marie Albiges, Managing Editor at Total Retail - ahead of the busy holiday shopping season to understand what to expect this Black Friday and Cyber Monday including the standout trends, as well as the forces shaping the retail industry today a...

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with Forbes' Alex Knapp, who is a senior editor covering healthcare and science, to discuss the state of healthcare in the U.S. with a focus on how AI has become a major player across every field in medicine as well as how the industry has shifted over the last year, and what he expects to see in the future.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with Earned First's Founding Editor Arun Sudhaman, to discuss the continued importance of earned media, the controversial topic – #DEI – as well as all the continued changes across our industry as we see more holding groups merge and major players step down.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, sits down with Cannes Lions' VP and Chief DEI Officer Frank Starling, live at Cannes to chat about how we - as an industry and as leaders - are going to keep diversity, equity and inclusion front and center at the festival, how Frank and the wider team are prioritizing impact as well as what’s next for DEI against the current and political...

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, sat down with Julia Herbst, Senior Editor for Fast Company's Work Life section, to discuss some observations made last month at SXSW, specifically tied to the future of work and how it's being impacted by technologies like AI and 'taboo' topics like DEI.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, sits down with The Associated Press' Aimee Rinehart live at SXSW to chat about her upcoming SXSW session that looked at how AI is transforming today’s newsroom and how reporters deliver the news today.  

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with BBC's Anthony Zurcher ahead of next week's inauguration and official start of a second Trump presidency. During their chat, Jen and Anthony discuss why Trump 2.0 feels 'different,' how his beat on U.S. politics and culture is changing and what's in store for 2025.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with Axios' Kerry Flynn on the good, the bad and ugly of the recent Omnicom and IPG merger as well as who benefits from this deal and other potential M&A news on the horizon for 2025.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with ABC News' Beatrice Peterson on the noticeable shift of how we consume and report the news, especially coming out of this last election, as well as what she expects to see in 2025 from this new administration.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with The Hill's Miranda Nazzaro on the upcoming U.S. presidential election and AI, the future of political journalism and what's on her radar post-election.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, chats with Lola Bakare on the DEI cutbacks that are dominating the headlines, winners and losers and what brands can do right now to bring DEI and responsible marketing to life.

In this episode, our Founder and President Jennifer Risi chats with Jabari on his experiences this past year leading ForbesBLK, what he is hearing across the business community today and expected impact of the upcoming election.

In this episode, our Founder and President Jennifer Risi chats with Antonia at Cannes Lions on take aways from this year's festival, how AI is disrupting the PR game, and how Nextdoor's generative AI tool is benefiting local communities.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, sat down with Alexis live at SXSW to discuss how to empower women leaders, what it means to be an inclusive leader, the changing landscape of media and why purposeful partnerships are vital in 2024.

In this episode, our Founder and President, Jennifer Risi, sits down with Eleanor live at SXSW to about the increasing importance of the communications function, how PR leaders are incorporating AI into their workflows, and the outlook for the rest of the year.

In the latest episode, Founder and President Jennifer Risi caught up with Aisha Counts, tech reporter at Bloomberg News, who covers the latest in social media and Big Tech. Jen and Aisha discuss the recent Super Bowl, why more people are turning to TikTok for their news and what's in store for Big Tech.

As we kickoff 2024, Founder and President Jennifer Risi chats with Kathy Baird, Chief Communications Officer for The Washington Post, following their time at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss all things AI, what readers can expect from the Post in the run up to the U.S. election, and why the outlet is increasingly utilizing TikTok to share the news today.

On this month's episode, Founder and President Jennifer Risi reconnects with Resh Sidhu, Global Director of Arcadia Studio for Snap Inc, following their time together at Cannes Lions to discuss two key topics - the increasing impact of AI on the creative industry, and the importance of creating lasting personal connections especially during these challenging times.

In honor of The Sway Effect’s 4th birthday, our Founder Jennifer Risi sat down with network partners Tanya De Poli, Founders Agency, and Alvaro Melendez, CRANT, to discuss how they started, entrepreneurship, and how they are collectively navigating today’s challenging environment. #FourYearsofTSE