On this episode, Laura and Kevin are joined by filmmaker, actor, technologist and entrepreneur Collin Pelton, whose unconventional career has taken him from theater and acting to the U.S. Air Force, IT, Hollywood and post-production at Marvel Studios. After earning more than 33 credits across Marvel and Disney productions, Collin went on to co-found Collaborative Entity, a multimedia production company focused on film, digital content and helping creators build their businesses.

We talk about AI’s growing impact on film and television and whether generative AI is really just the next step in a long line of filmmaking technologies, or something fundamentally different. We get into the questions around digital likenesses, who owns an actor’s face, voice or performance, and what happens when a digital version of an actor can be reused across movies, games and advertising.

We also look at what AI could mean for Hollywood’s economics, from digital background actors and de-aging to potentially generating entire performances. And ultimately, will audiences care how much of what they’re watching was created by a human?

Collin also tells us about his directorial debut, Recession of a Hollywood Princess, a long-lost 2009 film he recovered and released in an experimental format, played entirely in reverse. It’s a pretty great example of how technology can give creators new ways to bring old ideas back to life.

Collin Pelton is a filmmaker, actor, technologist and entrepreneur whose unconventional career has taken him from theater and acting to the U.S. Air Force, IT, Hollywood and post-production at Marvel Studios. During his time at Marvel, he earned more than 33 credits across films and streaming productions under the Disney umbrella, while bringing together his technical and production experience. He has also worked with actors, celebrities and showrunners on social media and fandom engagement. In 2023, Collin co-founded Collaborative Entity, a multimedia production company focused on film, digital content and helping creators build their businesses. He recently made his directorial debut with Recession of a Hollywood Princess, a long-lost film from 2009 that he recovered and released in an experimental format, played entirely in reverse. Check out CollinPelton.com.

On this episode of That Tech Pod, Kevin Albert talks with Yvette Renteria, Chief Program Officer at Common Sense Media, about how AI is changing the classroom and forcing parents, teachers and students to rethink what it actually means to learn.

As kids head back to school, the question is no longer whether technology belongs in education. It’s what education should look like when AI can explain concepts, quiz students, provide feedback and even help write the answers.

Kevin and Yvette dig into the growing AI arms race between students and teachers, including whether tactics designed to catch AI-assisted cheating are actually solving the problem or just creating a technological cat-and-mouse game. They also tackle a bigger question: What should students actually be required to do themselves?

The conversation goes beyond the classroom, exploring what happens when algorithms compete for kids’ attention, influence what they see and believe, and collect enormous amounts of personal data. Yvette also offers practical advice for parents trying to navigate phones, social media and AI with their kids as the new school year begins. It’s a conversation about AI, education, attention, privacy and raising kids in a world where technology is no longer something they simply “go online” to use.

Yvette Renteria is the Chief Program Officer for Common Sense Media. She leads the education, research, family and community engagement teams that help our kids thrive in a digital world. Yvette brings 20 years of experience working in schools and non-profit organizations. Within her years in education, she served as Deputy Chief of Innovation on the district level, school principal and elementary school teacher. Yvette has also worked in nonprofits as a Program Director for a workforce development organization and Chief Strategy Officer for an early childhood development organization. The focus of her career has always been about access, opportunity and growth for people.

Identity theft used to require a scammer to get your information. Today, they may only need a few pieces of it. On this episode of That Tech Pod, we sit down with James Lee, President of the Identity Theft Resource Center, and Eva Velasquez, CEO of the ITRC, to look at how identity theft, scams and fraud are evolving in the age of AI.

We talk about why scams are getting harder to recognize, how AI is making fraud more convincing and scalable, and how seemingly harmless activities, from social media posts to online purchases, can give criminals pieces of the puzzle they need to impersonate you. We also dig into the enormous amount of personal information exposed through data breaches and ask a bigger question: How much responsibility should really fall on individuals when so much of our data is collected and stored by businesses?

James and Eva also share what they think identity theft will look like five years from now, what businesses need to rethink about authentication and security, and what they personally do differently because they assume the threat is already here. If you've ever wondered what a scammer could actually do with the information you've casually shared online, this episode is worth a listen.

Learn more about the Identity Theft Resource Center and get free resources for preventing and recovering from identity crime. And check out Frozen Pii, a free resource from the ITRC that helps consumers protect themselves with credit freezes and other identity-protection tools.

James Lee is the President of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) , the nation’s premier non-profit dedicated to providing free support and education to victims of identity crimes. A nationally recognized expert on data breaches, cybercrime, and fraud, James is a sought-after speaker who translates complex security topics into actionable advice for consumers and businesses alike. He frequently provides expert commentary to top media outlets and contributes to public policy discussions on privacy and security before state legislatures, regulatory agencies, and the U.S Congress.

Eva Velasquez is CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and a nationally recognized expert on identity theft, cybercrime and fraud. She spent 21 years with the San Diego District Attorney’s Office before serving as VP of Operations for the San Diego Better Business Bureau. Eva is a frequent media commentator and speaker, appearing in outlets including CBS Mornings, NBC Nightly News, CNBC, The New York Times and NPR. She has briefed federal agencies and policymakers on identity crime and privacy and serves on industry advisory boards and working groups. Eva is also a recipient of the U.S. Department of Justice National Crime Victim Service Award and is committed to helping victims, educating the public and driving meaningful change around identity crime.

What if you could search your own life the way you search the internet?

On this episode, we explore what happens when AI turns years of your digital history into a searchable record of your life. From Spotify and Instagram to Google, Facebook and Uber, our data captures pieces of who we were, often in ways we don't remember and may never have seen.

Clinton Hazel Jr. is building Ori, a personal AI memory app that helps users rediscover those forgotten moments and uncover patterns in their own history. But the technology raises a much bigger question: what happens when our digital footprints become a more complete record of who we were than our own memories? We talk about the future of personal memory, why owning and controlling your own data matters, where AI should draw the line when interpreting our past, and whether technology could eventually become an external memory that knows our lives better than we do.

Because we forget. Our data doesn't.

Clinton Hazel Jr. is a solo founder and software developer originally from New York City, now based in Melbourne, Australia. He's the creator of Ori, a personal AI memory app that turns your own data exports into a daily feed of rediscovered moments. Clinton has been building digital products for more than a decade, including an earlier social platform that taught him a hard lesson about owning your own data. Ori is the product that came from that lesson.

Trent Livingston is back on That Tech Pod. When Trent first joined the pod for Episode 3 in 2021, he was leading ESI Analyst, a pioneering SaaS company focused on data discovery for the legal industry. Today, after selling ESI Analyst, he’s tackling a very different problem: America’s housing crisis. As co-founder and CEO of ZoneLex, Trent is focused on one of the least visible but most consequential pieces of the housing puzzle: zoning law. Fragmented, constantly changing local regulations can determine what gets built, where it gets built, and whether the housing Americans need can actually get approved.

We talk about Trent’s journey from legal tech to housing, why zoning is such a massive technology problem, and how his experience working with complex legal and data systems led him to this new challenge. We also dig into his philosophy around Applied AI and Small Language Models, and why bigger models aren't necessarily better for enterprise applications.

From the limits of today's AI systems to the possibility that technology is beginning to outpace the laws governing it, Trent makes the case for a different approach to AI: know the land. Know the laws. And, naturally, we end with the question: after taking on zoning, housing, and some of America's most complicated regulatory data, what's the next impossible problem Trent might decide to tackle?

Trent Livingston is a two-time founder who specializes in bringing macro-level technology visions to life. After founding and selling ESI Analyst, a pioneering SaaS data discovery solution in the legal tech space, Trent turned his attention to a massive new challenge: U.S. zoning law and the nation's housing crisis. His motivation to tackle this space is directly tied to his deep foundation in legal technology and his work as a testifying expert in complex data analytics. Recognizing that the "missing middle" housing shortage ultimately starts and stops with fragmented, ever-changing laws, he co-founded ZoneLex. As CEO, Trent drives the strategic vision for an enterprise platform powered by Applied AI and Small Language Models designed to decode and structure this complex legal landscape. With over two decades of experience, Trent excels at identifying massive, unaddressed bottlenecks and building market-defining B2B businesses that drive real-world impact.

AI agents are moving from experimentation to execution, but what does that actually mean for the future of work? In this episode of That Tech Pod, Laura and Kevin sit down with Raj Chandrasekar, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Consilio, returning to the show after more than two years to discuss how the AI conversation has evolved from "Can we trust AI?" to "Can AI actually do the work?"

Raj shares his perspective on the current state of AI agents, what separates true agentic systems from advanced chatbots, and why successful AI adoption depends as much on people and processes as it does on technology. The conversation explores the challenges organizations face as AI becomes more autonomous, including human oversight, hallucinations, AI governance, and the emerging question of whether AI agents will eventually need other AI agents to validate their work.

They also revisit predictions from their previous conversation, discuss how AI is changing software development, and explore how leaders can determine when an AI agent is the right solution versus when traditional automation is the better answer.

You can listen to Raj's previous episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-valentines-day-fall-in-love-with-consilio-and-ai/id1559586772?i=1000645127580

Raj Chandrasekar is Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Consilio where he oversees Consilio’s technology and innovation functions – merging Development and Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, Product Management, Business Intelligence, and Corporate Services functions. In his role, Raj frequently interfaces with clients to understand and accommodate processing, security and uptime needs and is also responsible for the day-to-day operations of their industry-leading eDiscovery and legal industry software solutions.

Raj has over 25 years of experience in the field of Software Development and Infrastructure Management and has held technology leadership positions in various large corporations.

Artificial intelligence is making people faster, but is it actually making organizations better?

On this episode of That Tech Pod, we sit down with Dr. Mik Kersten, one of the world's leading thinkers on technology transformation and organizational change. From groundbreaking computer science research at PARC to founding Tasktop and helping some of the world's largest enterprises modernize software delivery, Mik has spent his career studying how technology reshapes the way we work.

We dive into the ideas behind his new book, Output to Outcome, and explore why AI is much more than another productivity tool. Mik explains why many organizations are approaching AI the wrong way, why simply producing more work doesn't necessarily create more value, and why the operating models that defined the last century may no longer be fit for the AI era.

We also discuss how leaders can measure the real return on AI investments, avoid chasing productivity for its own sake, and build organizations that combine human judgment with increasingly capable AI systems. Whether you're a technology leader, executive, founder, or simply trying to understand where work is headed next, this conversation offers a thoughtful roadmap for navigating one of the biggest shifts in modern business.

Dr. Mik Kersten is a computer scientist, technology strategist, and one of the leading voices on how organizations adapt to technological change. Mik is the founder and former CEO of Tasktop, and currently serves as Executive in Residence at Planview following Tasktop's acquisition in 2022. His career has spanned pioneering software research at PARC, leadership roles in the open-source community through the Eclipse Foundation, and helping enterprises modernize the way they deliver technology. Mik is also the bestselling author of Project to Product, and his new book, Output to Outcome, explores why AI isn't just changing how work gets done, but fundamentally reshaping the operating models organizations were built upon.

This week on That Tech Pod, we look up. We're joined by Dr. Franck Marchis, CEO and co-founder of SkyMapper, co-founder of Unistellar, Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute, and one of the world's leading planetary astronomers. From discovering triple-asteroid systems to helping build the next generation of citizen science, Franck has spent his career making space exploration more accessible to everyone.

In this episode, we dive into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, what astronomers actually do at SETI, and whether AI is changing the way we explore the universe. Franck shares his thoughts on whether intelligent alien life is likely to exist, what would happen if humanity received a credible signal from another civilization, and whether we're more likely to find microbes in our own solar system before discovering an advanced civilization light-years away. We also discuss how astronomy is no longer reserved for professional observatories. Thanks to advances in smart telescopes, AI, and global collaboration, everyday enthusiasts can now make meaningful contributions to scientific discovery. Franck explains how SkyMapper is building a worldwide network of connected telescopes and all-sky cameras designed to continuously monitor the skies and create trusted, verifiable observations for researchers and citizen scientists alike.

Finally, we explore SkySphere, SkyMapper's new intelligent all-sky camera that captures a continuous 180-degree view of the sky using on-device AI to detect meteors, satellites, drones, aircraft, and other phenomena in real time. We talk about how the project could reshape both amateur astronomy and scientific research, and how listeners can get involved through its successful Kickstarter campaign.

Learn more about SkyMapper and check out the SkySphere Kickstarter. You can also learn more about Franck’s work with the SETI Institute.

Dr. Franck Marchis is the CEO and co-founder of SkyMapper, co-founder of Unistellar, and the Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute. A planetary astronomer by training, his research spans exoplanets, asteroid systems, and high-resolution imaging. He is widely known for co-discovering multiple triple-asteroid systems and for pioneering technologies and programs that bring astronomical discovery to the public. Through his efforts at SkyMapper and his work at SETI, Franck is helping build a global community of citizen scientists empowered to explore and understand the universe.