Top Of The Game

The tables get turned on me once more - from host to guest - this time with Jonathan Sposato, a remarkable person who is one of Seattle's loudest and most effective cheerleaders. This is a re-release of the original published on September 25, 2025. His podcast is the aptly named: The Seattle Podcast. Jonathan interviews the leaders and experts behind the innovative thinking that makes Seattle a wo...

ALEJANDRO GRAJAL  Alejandro has lived and breathed the amazing natural ecosystems that make up our beloved planet. He is also an accomplished  and prolific author that currently leads Woodland Park Zoo, one of the largest zoos in America with a legacy of 126 years and one of the most important cultural and most visited institutions in Seattle.  He is internationally known for his vision to define...

This week is America's 249th birthday and there are few things more quintessentially American than football. So we have a special treat for you, a conversation with Marissa Solis. She is the steward of the NFL brand and serves as SVP of Global Brand and Consumer Marketing. The National Football League is by far the most valuable sports league in the world. She has been instrumental in widening the...

TOD LEIWEKE Tod is a remarkable human being, full stop. His journey’s genesis is rooted in very humble beginnings in one of the poorest counties in Missouri, punctuated by two tragedies, to becoming one of the most prolific sports executives in the United States over the last four decades. He  is currently part-owner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Seattle Kraken and was instrumental...

LYNDEE FLETCHER Lyndee Fletcher is CEO of VCheck GLobal and she is one of the foremost experts in the public record and reputational due diligence industry. Since joining VCheck Global in 2016 as the company's sixth hire, she has been an integral part of Vcheck's operations and technology evolution enabling Vcheck to grow 2500%.  Lyndee is by far the youngest CEO in the industry (at 30 years old)...

ELISA ORLANSKI OURS Elisa Orlanski Ours is at the top of the architecture and design world game. She is a highly regarded designer, educator, and industry leader who currently serves as Chief Planning & Design Officer at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. A founder of the firm's Planning & Design department, Elisa has been instrumental in transforming the relationship between the design an...

TOM'S BIO  On March 5, 2025, Tom Llamas was named as Lester Holt’s successor as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News beginning in summer 2025. This episode is a re-released show originally released on October 26, 2023. Tom's life and career are remarkable and he is a master of truth telling and the news media. He is an American journalist who was the weekend anchor for World News Tonight...

ETHAN STOWELL We're diving into the story of Ethan Stowell—a name that’s become synonymous with the culinary world in Seattle. He comes from a family of artists, specifically ballet dancers. He’s not just a chef; he’s an innovator who’s left an indelible mark on his community. Ethan started with a vision back in 2003 when he opened Union, his first restaurant in downtown Seattle, praised for its s...

DIEGO RODRIGUEZ Diego’s remarkable experiences and brilliance has driven him to  work at the nexus of business, design, and technology. He is also a terrific human being, catalyst and educator. He has served as Intuit’s Chief Product & Design Officer, as a Senior Partner at IDEO, on the Harvard Board of Overseers, and on the founding team of Stanford’s d.school. He is an active startup advisor...

NINA TANDON Nina Tandon is a remarkable person, who is currently Co-Founder and CEO of EpiBone, a biotech company that grows bone and cartilage for skeletal reconstruction which just recently completed human trials reconstructing mandibles; the lower jaw is the largest and strongest bone in the face. Her life and accomplishments are inspiring and is deeply thoughtful, multi-dimensional and extreme...

POPE JOHN PAUL II Pope John Paul II visited the United States in 1979 and gave this speech in the Boston Common on October 1st  of that year. He was born in Poland as Karol Józef Wojtyła on May 18, 1920 and was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 1978 until his death in 2005. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian V1 in the 1500’s and   the thi...

NATHALIE RAYES Nathalie Rayes serves as  U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia. Ambassador Rayes has led a distinguished career in public service and served previously as the president and CEO of Latino Victory.  Prior to joining Latino Victory, Rayes was vice president of public affairs for Grupo Salinas in the United States and executive director of Fundación Azteca America.  Earlier in her...

TOTG EXPERIMENTAL SERIES BY A.I. // JAVIER MILEI 🇦🇷 This is the fifth of five from our “Experimental Series by A.I.”. The machine talks about three articles analyzing the presidency of Argentina's libertarian president, Javier Milei. The first article focuses on Milei's approval ratings amidst his austerity measures. Article two offers a detailed biography of Milei, exploring his eccentric persona...

FLORIAN’S BIO Florian Faber has one of the coolest jobs in the world, he is CEO and on the Board of Directors of MCH Group, which among many endeavors owns, hosts, curates and puts together the incredible spectacles the four Art Basel shows deliver to millions. In June 2024, they concluded Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, as he calls it “the mothership” and Art Basel Miami Beach is happening this...

JONATHAN KANTER This episode was recorded on November 18, 2024,  the day when it was reported that Senior antitrust officials at the Justice Department plan to ask a judge to order Google to divest its Chrome web browser, Bloomberg reported citing anonymous sources. The department also intends to ask federal judge Amit Mehta, who declared Google's search engine a monopoly in August, to mandate act...

LIZ HUEBNER Liz currently serves on the boards of REI and Curology where she chairs the audit committee(s).  She is a past board member and audit committee chair for three companies that are disrupting their respective industries:  Blue Apron, Jumia Technologies and Boom Supersonic.  She brings many years of executive finance experience and expertise to these roles, having served as CFO for severa...

MARCELO DE SANTIS Marcelo is as thoughtful, accomplished and smart as he is a terrific human being. Born and raised in Argentina, he is a seasoned C-suite executive with over 25 years of global experience. He also happens to be a world-class mountain climber that has summited some of the highest peaks on earth. He is former Chief Digital Officer at Thoughtworks, Group Chief Information Officer at...

ANILU VAZQUEZ-UBARRI Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri is a Partner and Chief Operating Officer at TPG, based in San Francisco. She is a member of the firm’s board of directors and executive committee. As COO, Anilu leads TPG’s operational functions globally and is responsible for aligning these functions and strategy with the firm’s strategic business and investment priorities. She previously served as the fi...

TOTG EXPERIMENTAL SERIES BY A.I. // POLICY, POLITICS, POLLS This is the fourth of five (4/5) from our “Experimental Series by A.I.”. The machine talks about policy, politics and the upcoming election.. We gave NotebookLM a few disparate inputs and the machine created this great conversation.  GENERAL INFO| TOP OF THE GAME: Official website: https://topofthegame-thepod.com/ RSS Feed: https://feed.p...

SETH LEVINE Seth is co-founder and general partner at Boulder-based Foundry. He and his firm have invested in hundreds of companies and funds around the world. A driving force for Seth has always been the power at the intersection of community and business. He co-founded Pledge 1% , a global network of companies who have pledged equity, time, and product back to their local communities. He is on t...

BISMARCK LEPE Bismarck is Founder and Executive Chairman at Wizeline. He is a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor. He founded Wizeline in 2014 with the mission to help companies build better products faster by making innovation accessible to all organizations. Bismarck is Mexican-American and the son of two immigrants from a small town in Jalisco, Mexico. He left a successful career...

TOTG EXPERIMENTAL SERIES BY A.I. // FOOD & WORLD CUISINES This is the third of five from our “Experimental Series by A.I.” The machine talks about different cuisines and dishes from around the world and why it’s so hard to pick a favorite, but it tries its best to digest all the articles and perspectives. We gave NotebookLM the inputs below and A.I. created this great conversation.  RELATED LI...

TOTG EXPERIMENTAL SERIES BY A.I. // ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE This is the second of five from our “Experimental Series by A.I.” It is particularly interesting because it’s an A.I. generated conversation about A.I., the promise and peril of our relentless march towards AI → AGI (general) → eventually ASI (super).  Top Of The Game  fed Google’s NotebookLM five documents, links to the White House, MIT,...

TOTG EXPERIMENTAL SERIES BY A.I. // CAPITALISM Top Of The Game (TOTG)  fed Google’s NotebookLM a few documents, one of them: Milton Friedman's September 1970 essay, "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.". We also fed it a few published recently looking at the viability of the profit maximization a.k.a. shareholder primacy premise in the context of capitalism evolving a...

TOM SOTO BIO Tom has been in the impact investing game for a long time. He  was born and raised in East LA to two of the state’s most well-respected Latino Civil Rights leaders. His dad was Assemblyman Phil Soto, the first Latino elected to the state legislature in 1962. His mom  was Nell Soto, she too served the last ten years of her life as a member and leader in the California State Senate. Imp...