Love Conquers Fear

#59: The Big Differentiator: How to Stand Out When Everyone Has the Power of AI — Mitch Joel

Pre-Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - Why AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a test of how human you stay - The answer-engine trap vs. keeping your agency and sharpening your thinking - Why “pretty good” becomes the baseline and what actually makes you stand out - Brand and story as the real moat in an AI-saturated world - The power question behind AI: energy, infrastructure, and control - Meditation as an exhaust valve for anxiety, overthinking, and screen-driven attention overload About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Mitch Joel: Mitch Joel is a digital strategist, author, keynote speaker, and host of the “Thinking With Mitch Joel” podcast, where he’s interviewed business and culture leaders for nearly two decades. He founded the agency Twist Image, and wrote “Six Pixels of Separation” and “Ctrl Alt Delete”. Today, as co-founder of ThinkersOne, he advises leaders on navigating tech shifts through the lens of culture, humanity, and trust. Timestamps: 0:01:08 — Preview 0:02:02 — Intro: TED2026, Anthropic, Brett’s new book 0:10:48 — Welcome Mitch Joel 0:13:21 — Love as business advantage, AI as answer engine vs. thinking tool, brand as differentiator 0:49:17 — Open source vs. monopoly control, real progress vs. hype, abundance, scarcity, trust 1:25:11 — AI hope + risk, redistribution, UBI, meditation, sleep hypnosis, books 2:02:43 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - Sam Walton: Made in America — Sam Walton - Six Pixels of Separation — Mitch Joel - Ctrl Alt Delete — Mitch Joel - In the Beginning… was the Command Line — Neal Stephenson - Enshittification — Cory Doctorow - The AI Ten Commandments — Jamie Metzl - The Seat of the Soul — Gary Zukav - The Cluetrain Manifesto — C. Locke, D. Searls, D. Weinberger - Purple Cow — Seth Godin - Atomic Habits — James Clear - The War of Art — Steven Pressfield - Bird by Bird — Anne Lamott - Aflame — Pico Iyer - Work — James Suzman - Trust — Hernan Diaz - 11 Days in May — JD Messinger - An End to Upside Down Thinking — Mark Gober - LSD and the Mind of the Universe — Christopher M. Bache - Proof of Heaven — Eben Alexander - The Map of Heaven — Eben Alexander Links: AI-generated TED Talk on humanity’s past and future: https://tinyurl.com/34cfbpaw [https://tinyurl.com/34cfbpaw] “Free Hugs” video by Sick Puppies: https://tinyurl.com/3jruswnb [https://tinyurl.com/3jruswnb] Culturati Summit: https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9 [https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9] “Thinking With Mitch Joel” podcast: https://tinyurl.com/4nb8addh [https://tinyurl.com/4nb8addh] Demis Hassabis on the quest for the nature of our reality: TED Talk: https://tinyurl.com/mmabm42d [https://tinyurl.com/mmabm42d] X post: https://tinyurl.com/yc4fcfnw [https://tinyurl.com/yc4fcfnw] Ethan Mollick’s LinkedIn post on AI water use: https://tinyurl.com/34hyu4ss [https://tinyurl.com/34hyu4ss] Dario Amodei’s essays: “Machines of Loving Grace”: https://tinyurl.com/mvteumf2 [https://tinyurl.com/mvteumf2] “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] Chris Hyams’ “Responsible AI” course: https://tinyurl.com/46vn3cy7 [https://tinyurl.com/46vn3cy7] “The AI Doc” documentary: https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct [https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct] Rory Sutherland on Alex O’Connor’s podcast: https://tinyurl.com/5ekp5rzy [https://tinyurl.com/5ekp5rzy] Sleep hypnosis videos recommended by Mitch: https://tinyurl.com/3axc9v92 [https://tinyurl.com/3axc9v92] https://tinyurl.com/tu7jv5nr [https://tinyurl.com/tu7jv5nr]

#58: AI as the Great Equalizer: Entrepreneurship and the Coming Small Business Boom — Ross Buhrdorf

Pre-Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - Why choosing love over fear is the difference between healthy culture and toxic leadership - How Ross uses Zen Buddhism and Stoicism as daily inner-work for leadership decisions - Ross’ “Fear Is a Liar” mantra (and upcoming book) and how it shaped his leadership mindset - How ZenBusiness went all-in on AI early and pushed adoption across the whole company - Ditching the product roadmap building from live customer signals in this AI era - Agentic AI for small business and what ZenBusiness’ AI agent “Velo” changes for founders - How AI gives entrepreneurs time back and delivers advisor-level guidance on demand - Implementing a strong remote culture, with radical clarity and customer support as a core pillar About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Ross Buhrdorf: Ross Buhrdorf is the CEO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, a public-benefit company unicorn that helps entrepreneurs start, run, and grow a business through a single platform that combines technology with human support. A longtime builder and operator in tech, Ross is known for championing small business owners and making entrepreneurship more accessible. Ross emphasizes building trust-first teams and is especially focused on how agentic AI can act like a co-pilot for founders who can’t afford a big team. Timestamps: 0:01:08 — Preview 0:01:47 — Intro: Brett’s thoughts on “The AI Doc” documentary 0:06:19 — Welcome Ross Buhrdorf 0:08:57 — Entrepreneur roots, "Fear Is a Liar" framework, choosing the startup path 0:18:59 — Leading with love, self-awareness, building the right team, trauma, attachment, grit 0:29:03 — Employee-first culture, customer success, feedback loops, company rituals 0:38:19 — AI-first execution, using Velo for real-time customer feedback, leveraging unified data 0:49:17 — ZenBusiness hires Builders, bespoke software, small business boom, AI gives time back 1:03:13 — Learning from mistakes, AGI race, abundance potential, cautious optimism 1:11:25 — How fast AI is moving, Stoic balance and thinking, cooperation and restraint 1:19:33 — Accountability, justice, trillionaire dystopias, inner work, choosing love over fear 1:35:42 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - Fear Is A Liar (forthcoming) — Ross Buhrdorf - The Celestine Prophecy — James Redfield - Guns, Germs, and Steel — Jared Diamond - The Worlds I See — Dr. Fei-Fei Li Links: ZenBusiness: https://www.zenbusiness.com/ [https://www.zenbusiness.com/] ZenBusiness’ AI agent “Velo”: https://tinyurl.com/4cexa38h [https://tinyurl.com/4cexa38h] Chris Hyams’ “Responsible AI” course: https://tinyurl.com/46vn3cy7 [https://tinyurl.com/46vn3cy7] “The AI Doc” documentary: https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct [https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct] Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech: https://tinyurl.com/2dcxf33n [https://tinyurl.com/2dcxf33n] Do More Good’s “ROI of Why” conference: https://tinyurl.com/4jjc8kk7 [https://tinyurl.com/4jjc8kk7] Santa Fe Institute: https://www.santafe.edu/ [https://www.santafe.edu/] Culturati Summit: https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9 [https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9] Dario Amodei’s essay “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] Demis Hassabis on “60 Minutes”: https://tinyurl.com/3hu2jdwm [https://tinyurl.com/3hu2jdwm] Brett’s piece on Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s book: https://tinyurl.com/5henkxx5 [https://tinyurl.com/5henkxx5]

#57: Why AI Responsibility Is the New Human and Civil Rights Issue — Chris Hyams

Pre-Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - Why AI is the human and civil rights issue of this decade because of how much power it concentrates - The AGI race and why “who gets there first” could lock in values and ideology - Hallucinations and bias as built-in failure modes you have to design around - Why Chris is pushing public-interest tech so AI benefits more than just a few - The AI responsibility course Chris teaches for everyone - Why AI literacy isn’t enough without a wider human awakening - Chris’ psychedelic and meditation experiences and how they informed his view of reality About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Chris Hyams: Chris Hyams is the former CEO of Indeed and now focuses on responsible AI, including teaching an AI responsibility course at Huston-Tillotson University, where he also serves on the board. He’s also on the board of DivInc, an Austin-based nonprofit startup accelerator supporting underrepresented founders. Before Indeed, Chris co-founded music and event tech company B-Side, and worked in adolescent addiction recovery and special education before returning to tech. Timestamps: 0:00:58 — Preview 0:01:40 — Intro: Path to abundance 0:03:56 — Welcome Chris Hyams 0:07:44 — Recovery, purpose, teaching, human-centered tech, unequal opportunity and justice 0:27:00 — Grit, luck, uncertainty, synchronicity, AI responsibility as human rights issue 0:52:04 — AI isn't magic or God, AI's power to worsen social inequity, humility, governance 1:16:37 — Tech unlocking abundance, lessons from the past, consciousness awakening 1:40:52 — Hallucinations, bias, disinformation, public-interest tech, relieving suffering for all 2:10:01 — Buddhism, direct experience over dogma, discernment, integration, humility 2:16:49 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - Gödel, Escher, Bach — Douglas Hofstadter - The Celestine Prophecy — James Redfield - Bhagavad Gita — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell - Profiles of the Future — Arthur C. Clarke - Elon Musk — Walter Isaacson - Enlightenment Now — Steven Pinker - Deep Future — Pablos Holman - The Secret of Secrets — Dan Brown - Lights On — Annaka Harris - A World Appears — Michael Pollan - The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho - Life 3.0 — Max Tegmark - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig Links: Chris Hyams’ “Responsible AI” course: https://tinyurl.com/46vn3cy7 [https://tinyurl.com/46vn3cy7] Americans for Ibogaine: https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs [https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs] Jensen Huang on “Lex Fridman Podcast”: https://tinyurl.com/uyezex5c [https://tinyurl.com/uyezex5c] Claude’s Constitution: https://tinyurl.com/3342jxn5 [https://tinyurl.com/3342jxn5] Dario Amodei’s essay “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] “The AI Doc” documentary: https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct [https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct] Elon Musk’s interview with Larry Fink at Davos 2026: https://tinyurl.com/nhj4uef7 [https://tinyurl.com/nhj4uef7] “Particle Fever” doc about Higgs boson: https://tinyurl.com/yh28n8wy [https://tinyurl.com/yh28n8wy] The Telepathy Tapes: (S1): https://tinyurl.com/4pyansfe [https://tinyurl.com/4pyansfe] (S2): https://tinyurl.com/2khfa57m [https://tinyurl.com/2khfa57m] Sam Altman on “Mostly Human” podcast: https://tinyurl.com/hestadeu [https://tinyurl.com/hestadeu] Future of Life Institute: ⁠https://futureoflife.org/⁠ [https://futureoflife.org/]

#56: The End of Busywork: The AI Operations Playbook to Unlock Capacity and Abundance — Rachel Woods

Pre-Order the Book! ► http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - How AI speeds up work cycles by turning weeks of planning and execution into days - Rachel’s business and technical background and how that became her edge in applied AI - AI Operations as the unlock for turning repeatable work into playbooks AI can run - What “overnight output” looks like in practice and how teams should redesign around new capacity - Why Rachel thinks “AI Operator” will become a real role as companies scale - The “three hats” model and why subject-matter experts get more valuable in an AI world - How to reduce hallucinations with workflows, checks, and grounded use cases - AI as an abundance accelerator if we scale discernment instead of fear About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Rachel Woods: Rachel Woods invented the now widely-used term “AI Operations”. She’s an AI practitioner and entrepreneur known for translating fast-moving AI into practical execution. As the founder of The AI Exchange and the creator of AI Momentum Protocols (AMP), her work centers on teaching “AI Ops” methods that enable companies to use AI in repeatable, reliable ways. She’s especially focused on helping teams move from one-off prompts to durable workflows that scale quality, speed, and accountability. Timestamps: 0:01:09 — Preview 0:01:54 — Intro: Jensen Huang on Lex Fridman Podcast, consciousness 0:04:31 — Welcome Rachel Woods 0:07:20 — Early entrepreneurship, blending marketing + coding, riding generative AI wave 0:16:30 — Monetizing AI know-how, AI operations, playbooks, three hats model 0:31:26 — New markets, making AI usable, democratizing participation 0:46:21 — AI as operating system, hallucinations, slow adoption, AGI hype 1:01:18 — Abundance, exponential tech, human limits, spiritual reckoning 1:16:31 — Open source as democratizing force, low-signal noise, AI freeing up time 1:28:47 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - A World Appears — Michael Pollan - The Secret of Secrets — Dan Brown - Lights On — Annaka Harris - The Order of Time — Carlo Rovelli - Guardians of the Forest — Rachel Hurt - If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies — Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nate Soares - Bhagavad Gita — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Life 3.0 — Max Tegmark Links: AI Momentum Protocols (AMP): https://runonamp.com/ [https://runonamp.com/] The AI Exchange: https://tinyurl.com/vmzefnb7 [https://tinyurl.com/vmzefnb7] Jensen Huang on “Lex Fridman Podcast”: https://tinyurl.com/uyezex5c [https://tinyurl.com/uyezex5c] Michael Pollan speaking at New Orleans Book Festival: https://tinyurl.com/ybwnch83 [https://tinyurl.com/ybwnch83] The Telepathy Tapes: S1: https://tinyurl.com/4pyansfe [https://tinyurl.com/4pyansfe] S2: https://tinyurl.com/2khfa57m [https://tinyurl.com/2khfa57m] Satya Nadella’s LinkedIn post on Copilot’s ability to run multiple models for single prompt: https://tinyurl.com/3yp9wafj [https://tinyurl.com/3yp9wafj] March 2023 letter calling for pause in AI: https://tinyurl.com/42se6998 [https://tinyurl.com/42se6998] Brett + Whurley on “Austin Next” podcast: https://tinyurl.com/4hfuk7fw [https://tinyurl.com/4hfuk7fw] Eliezer Yudkowsky’s TED Talk: https://tinyurl.com/5e5nryth [https://tinyurl.com/5e5nryth] Dario Amodei’s essay “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] Dario Amodei on “60 Minutes”: https://tinyurl.com/3fresdsy [https://tinyurl.com/3fresdsy] Anthropic’s report on AI’s impact on labor markets: https://tinyurl.com/bdeyj75w [https://tinyurl.com/bdeyj75w]

#55: Awakening With Ayahuasca: From a Single Journey to a Lifetime of Healing — Maxi Cohen

What you’ll hear in this episode: - Maxi’s family Holocaust survival roots and her lifelong search for the Divine - The ayahuasca ceremony that shifted Maxi to direct spiritual experience - Ayahuasca and deep nervous-system rewiring - A hit-and-run healing story that reshaped what Maxi thinks the medicine can do - Integration as the real work and what goes wrong when people skip it - Maxi’s bigger mission: documentaries, real-world healing, culture change, and protecting the Amazon About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Maxi Cohen: Maxi Cohen is an award-winning NYC-based artist and filmmaker whose work explores consciousness, healing, and social change — and has been collected by MoMA and The Met. She’s also an executive producer of “From Shock to Awe”, a documentary on psychedelic healing for veterans with PTSD. Blending lived experience with advocacy, Maxi focuses on what happens after the “peak” experience: integration, responsibility, and turning spiritual insight into a more grounded, compassionate life. Timestamps: 0:00:00 — Preview 0:00:38 — Intro: Autobiography of a Yogi, Brett's soul quest, Sol Rashidi 0:03:45 — Welcome Maxi Cohen 0:07:03 — Ayahuasca awakening, divine communion, educating therapists on integration 0:22:01 — From Shock to Awe, indigenous wisdom, the Amazon, plant-medicine healing 0:30:15 — Many paths to awakening, safe ceremony, integration, tech responsibility 0:44:01 — From scarcity to abundance, higher consciousness, love over fear 0:52:07 — Rise of B Corps, community health, ancient texts, abundance as a collective choice 1:04:47 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - Autobiography of a Yogi — Paramahansa Yogananda - The Immortality Key — Brian C. Muraresku - Proof of Heaven — Eben Alexander - The Map of Heaven — Eben Alexander, Ptolemy Tompkins - Believing Is Seeing — Michael Guillen - Bhagavad Gita — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Tao Te Ching — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Psychedelic Medicine & Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy — Richard C. Schwartz, David Lovas, Martha Sweezy, Sunny Strasburg Links: Eben Alexander on episode 46 of Love Conquers Fear: https://tinyurl.com/bdzh5ueu [https://tinyurl.com/bdzh5ueu] “Inner Worlds Outer Worlds” doc: https://tinyurl.com/yd8ae57h [https://tinyurl.com/yd8ae57h] Maxi Cohen’s films: - “The Holy Give Me”: https://tinyurl.com/6s5aeeyr [https://tinyurl.com/6s5aeeyr] - “Ayahuasca Diaries”: https://tinyurl.com/mwzawvy5 [https://tinyurl.com/mwzawvy5] - “From Shock to Awe”: https://tinyurl.com/3sd6xcjj [https://tinyurl.com/3sd6xcjj] Americans for Ibogaine: https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs [https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs] “In Waves and War” doc: https://tinyurl.com/456mf76w [https://tinyurl.com/456mf76w] Do More Good’s “ROI of Why” conference: https://tinyurl.com/4jjc8kk7 [https://tinyurl.com/4jjc8kk7] Dario Amodei’s essay “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] The Progress Network: https://tinyurl.com/4sdm8ddf [https://tinyurl.com/4sdm8ddf] Fix the News: https://fixthenews.com/ [https://fixthenews.com/] Study linking practice of TM to reduced crime: https://tinyurl.com/y37aprnx [https://tinyurl.com/y37aprnx] Sign up for Maxi Cohen’s free monthly “Ask Me Anything” events: https://tinyurl.com/3xx4ztrb [https://tinyurl.com/3xx4ztrb] Leor Roseman’s study on Israelis and Palestinians drinking ayahuasca together: https://tinyurl.com/mrx2exr4 [https://tinyurl.com/mrx2exr4]