Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 15

Kurt Gray On Why Harm Is The Hidden Driver Of Political Outrage – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #978 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Dr. Kurt Gray is a social psychologist whose work couldn’t be more relevant to our times. As a professor at UNC Chapel Hill, director of the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding, and the author of the new book Outraged – Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground, he’s helping reshape how we understand conflict in a divided world. In this conversation, Kurt unpacked why it’s not that we’re wired differently across political lines – it’s that we perceive harm differently. He introduces ideas like the “exhausted majority,” the dangers of elite-driven outrage, and the evolutionary roots of our hypersensitivity to perceived threats. We also explore the surprising role of personal narratives in reducing division, the generational shift in how people approach morality, and how resilience – not avoidance – is what we really need when engaging across differences. His work dismantles the myth that we’re hopelessly divided and instead offers a path forward – one grounded in empathy, humility, and the science of human connection. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the volume of moral outrage around you, this episode just might restore a little hope. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose):  #978 – Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast .

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

SPOS #979 – Kurt Gray On Why Harm Is The Hidden Driver Of Political Outrage

Welcome to episode #979 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Dr. Kurt Gray is a social psychologist whose work couldn’t be more relevant to our times. As a professor at UNC Chapel Hill, director of the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding, and the author of the new book Outraged – Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground, he’s helping reshape how we understand conflict in a divided world. In this conversation, Kurt unpacked why it’s not that we’re wired differently across political lines – it’s that we perceive harm differently. He introduces ideas like the “exhausted majority,” the dangers of elite-driven outrage, and the evolutionary roots of our hypersensitivity to perceived threats. We also explore the surprising role of personal narratives in reducing division, the generational shift in how people approach morality, and how resilience – not avoidance – is what we really need when engaging across differences. His work dismantles the myth that we’re hopelessly divided and instead offers a path forward – one grounded in empathy, humility, and the science of human connection. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the volume of moral outrage around you, this episode just might restore a little hope. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 55:13.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.Check out ThinkersOne.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on X.Here is my conversation with Dr. Kurt Gray.Outraged – Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground.Deepest Beliefs Lab.Center for the Science of Moral Understanding.UNC Chapel HillFollow Kurt on X.Follow Kurt on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) – Introduction to Outrage and Its Relevance.
(03:07) – Understanding Political Outrage and Connection.
(05:55) – The Role of Elites in Political Discourse.
(09:14) – The Exhausted Majority and Misconceptions.
(12:05) – Moral Perception and Human Nature.
(15:04) – The Evolution of Morality and Fear.
(18:08) – Tribalism and Moral Progress.
(21:01) – The Impact of Words and Microaggressions.
(24:03) – Generational Perspectives on Discourse.
(28:18) – Understanding Generational Perspectives on Misinformation.
(30:02) – The Challenge of Political Centrism.
(31:58) – Navigating Independent Ideologies.
(33:53) – The Impact of Technological Change on Society.
(35:40) – The Role of Personal Stories in Bridging Divides.
(39:34) – The Power of Personal Experiences in Conversations.
(42:19) – The Competing Narratives of Victimhood.
(46:51) – Moral Ambiguity in Victimhood and Survival.
(49:18) – The Momentum of Change and Hope.
(55:27) – Building Resilience in Difficult Conversations.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #979.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Six Links That Make You Think #772

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Just Evil Enough, Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

Which Of Scott Aaronson’s Five AI Worlds Will Come To Pass? – Metaculus. “Back in March of 2018, before pandemics and AI and verb-article-noun politics, I gave a talk in Montreal about the most important decision tree in the world. It was a thought experiment: Will superintelligent AI come to pass? Will we be able to harness it? Will it help or hurt humanity? It was an interesting discussion. Turns out Scott Aaronson made a similar decision tree a bit later – but with way better names, like AI-Fizzle, Futurama, and Paperclipalypse. And then people started voting on them.” (Alistair for Hugh). Fight Health Insurance . “At Strata, the Big Data Conference I used to chair, Holden Karau was an absolute hero. Amazing talks on stage, and a zero-bullshit attitude everywhere. Her latest project is an AI tool that helps Americans appeal health insurance denials. We worry about the asymmetrical power that AI, surveillance, and autocracy gives the few but, but projects like this one give me hope that maybe the many can fight back.” (Alistair for Mitch). The MICrONS Project – Nature . “The MICrONS project mapped 200,000 neurons and 523 million synapses in a mouse’s visual cortex, recording the activity of 75,000 neurons. The project, build of course with the help of AI to analyze and map the massive amounts of data, links brain structure to function on an unprecedented scale, giving hints about how neural circuits actually compute. The project also created a ‘digital twin’ of the brain for virtual experiments. I’ll leave it for my next coffee with Alistair to figure out what a pithy conclusion to this paragraph is, but this feels monumental.” (Hugh for Alistair). The West Is Bored To Death – Stuart Whatley – The New Statesman . “I’m not sure that boredom is exactly the feeling I am experiencing today (hard to be board when brain keeps hopping between existential threats), however there is something compelling about the idea that the West is suffering from a lack of spiritual richness. We have, maybe, filled that with a religion politics, left and right.” (Hugh for Mitch). Jordan Rudess Destroys AI Clone In EPIC Battle – Rick Beato – YouTube . “If you have been thinking that AI can never really be creative like humans – espcially when it comes to music: Watch this. Full stop. Jordan Rudess is the keyboardist for famed progressive rockers, Dream Theater, and he is – without question – a music prodigy (he recently took up guitar and his videos are… staggering. With that, he also love technology – and pushing it futher. This is his latest project where he’s developed an AI to ‘jam’ with him. Understanding the notes, chords and structures and trained on Jordan’s style. If you close your eyes, can you honestly tell when Jordan or the AI is improvising… because I can’t… and I’m a fan/someone who knows his music. We are not prepared.” (Mitch for Hugh). Why Adults Are Spending Billions On Toys For Themselves – Big Business – Business Insider – YouTube . “I’m fascinated with nostalgia… especially as I get older. What makes me feel younger? What makes me think younger? What gives me a great feeling? And, most of the time, it comes from being a teenager… those initial discoveries of pop culture, music, literature and, yes, video games, comic books, toys, TV shows, cartoons, snacks and everything else in between. Things just taste better in your mind (how you remember them versus how they are today). I can spend hours watching grown adults dig through flea markets, meet-ups and local conventions trying to acquire their personal ‘holy grails’ from their childhoods, because in their adventure I am constantly reminded of my own journey and what gives me the feels. Now, of course, collectibles is a multi-billion dollar industry… and here’s a peek behind what’s going on…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

PowerPoint To The People – Fifty Years Of Microsoft

Let’s rewind the clock.

It’s 1975. 
Two guys – Bill Gates and Paul Allen – decide that writing code for the Altair 8800 is worth quitting Harvard over. 
That decision gave birth to Microsoft.

Their vision? “A computer on every desk and in every home.”

At the time, that was laughable.
Now… look around (in your pocket!).
For 50 years, Microsoft has somehow been everywhere and nowhere. 
The most valuable company that rarely feels like the coolest one. 
The brand that powers the back office, not the front row. 
The workhorse. 
The spreadsheet. 
The PowerPointer.
Still here. Still thriving.

A company of eras (with apologies to the Swifties)

We’ve seen Microsoft grow in arcs.  
There was the DOS-to-Windows rise – a rocket ship powered by licensing deals, bundled software and a point-and-click way for everyone to use a computer.  
Then came the Office revolution and the Windows 95 moment that turned computing into culture (remember the midnight lineups?).  
We endured what some have called the “Lost Years” – a time when Vista, Zune, and a mobile strategy didn’t click and nearly tanked the ship (not to mention ghosting social media).  

Then came the Satya Nadella reboot.  

Quiet. Focused. Cloud-first.  
And the rebound? Impressive. From a $269 billion company in 2014 to nearly $3 trillion today. 
That’s not a pivot – that’s resurrection.

What’s fascinating is how Microsoft has remained relevant – not by being first, but by being big and patient.

The browser? They didn’t invent it. But Internet Explorer crushed Netscape.
Gaming? Xbox was late to the party. Still here.
Cloud? Amazon won the first round. Microsoft came back swinging with Azure and Microsoft 365.
AI? Well… we’ll see… but it’s looking vibrant.
The future is being framed around Copilot – Microsoft’s AI push that touches everything from Word to Windows to cybersecurity.

Microsoft is betting $80 billion this year alone on building AI infrastructure. 

Add in its multi-billion-dollar stake in OpenAI and its ability to get Copilot embedded everywhere, and you start to see a familiar strategy: don’t own the future – license it… connect it.
The thing about Microsoft is this: They’ve always been a utility brand trying to act like a lifestyle brand. 

But the world runs on Microsoft (sorry Dunkin Donuts).

Banks. Hospitals. Governments. Enterprises.
And with tools like Teams, Office, and Azure deeply entrenched, they don’t need to “delight” consumers in the way Apple or Google does. 
They just need to be indispensable.

And – with all of their stumbles – they’ve made it to 50.

Like some of the great entrepreneurs and businesses of our time… risk is everywhere and always… failure is always an option.
So, here we are.
Fifty years in, and Microsoft is still trying to prove they’re relevant – not just reliable. 
Still trying to make “enterprise” feel exciting. 

If Microsoft’s history has taught us anything, it’s this: Never bet against the company that made Excel addictive.

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM. Listen in right here.

Mitch Joel · Fifty Years Of Microsoft

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Christopher DiCarlo On AI, Ethics, And The Hope We Get It Right – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #978 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Dr. Christopher DiCarlo is a philosopher, educator, author, and ethicist whose work lives at the intersection of human values, science, and emerging technology. Over the years, Christopher has built a reputation as a Socratic nonconformist, equally at home lecturing at Harvard during his postdoctoral years as he is teaching critical thinking in correctional institutions or corporate boardrooms. He’s the author of several important books on logic and rational discourse, including How To Become A Really Good Pain In The Ass – A Critical Thinker’s Guide To Asking The Right Questions and So You Think You Can Think?, as well as the host of the podcast, All Thinks Considered. In this conversation, we dig into his latest book, Building A God – The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence And The Race To Control It, which takes a sobering yet practical look at the ethical governance of AI as we accelerate toward the possibility of artificial general intelligence. Drawing on years of study in philosophy of science and ethics, Christopher lays out the risks – manipulation, misalignment, lack of transparency – and the urgent need for international cooperation to set safeguards now. We talk about everything from the potential of AI to revolutionize healthcare and sustainability to the darker realities of deepfakes, algorithmic control, and the erosion of democratic processes. His proposal? A kind of AI “Geneva Conventions,” or something akin to the IAEA – but for algorithms. In a world rushing toward techno-utopianism, Christopher is a clear-eyed voice asking: “What kind of Gods are we building… and can we still choose their values?” If you’re thinking about the intersection of ethics and AI (and we should all be focused on this!), this is essential listening. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose):  #978 – Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast .

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

SPOS #978 – Christopher DiCarlo On AI, Ethics, And The Hope We Get It Right

Welcome to episode #978 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Dr. Christopher DiCarlo is a philosopher, educator, author, and ethicist whose work lives at the intersection of human values, science, and emerging technology. Over the years, Christopher has built a reputation as a Socratic nonconformist, equally at home lecturing at Harvard during his postdoctoral years as he is teaching critical thinking in correctional institutions or corporate boardrooms. He’s the author of several important books on logic and rational discourse, including How To Become A Really Good Pain In The Ass – A Critical Thinker’s Guide To Asking The Right Questions and So You Think You Can Think?, as well as the host of the podcast, All Thinks Considered. In this conversation, we dig into his latest book, Building A God – The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence And The Race To Control It, which takes a sobering yet practical look at the ethical governance of AI as we accelerate toward the possibility of artificial general intelligence. Drawing on years of study in philosophy of science and ethics, Christopher lays out the risks – manipulation, misalignment, lack of transparency – and the urgent need for international cooperation to set safeguards now. We talk about everything from the potential of AI to revolutionize healthcare and sustainability to the darker realities of deepfakes, algorithmic control, and the erosion of democratic processes. His proposal? A kind of AI “Geneva Conventions,” or something akin to the IAEA – but for algorithms. In a world rushing toward techno-utopianism, Christopher is a clear-eyed voice asking: “What kind of Gods are we building… and can we still choose their values?” If you’re thinking about the intersection of ethics and AI (and we should all be focused on this!), this is essential listening. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 58:55.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.Check out ThinkersOne.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on X.Here is my conversation with Dr. Christopher DiCarlo.Building A God – The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence And The Race To Control It.How To Become A Really Good Pain In The Ass – A Critical Thinker’s Guide To Asking The Right Questions.So You Think You Can Think?.All Thinks Considered.Convergence Analysis.Follow Christopher on LinkedIn.Follow Christopher on X.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Chapters:

(00:00) – Introduction to AI Ethics and Philosophy.
(03:14) – The Interconnectedness of Systems.
(05:56) – The Race for AGI and Its Implications.
(09:04) – Risks of Advanced AI: Misuse and Misalignment.
(11:54) – The Need for Ethical Guidelines in AI Development.
(15:05) – Global Cooperation and the AI Arms Race.
(18:03) – Values and Ethics in AI Alignment.
(20:51) – The Role of Government in AI Regulation.
(24:14) – The Future of AI: Hope and Concerns.
(31:02) – The Dichotomy of Regulation and Innovation.
(34:57) – The Drive Behind AI Pioneers.
(37:12) – Skepticism and the Tech Bubble Debate.
(39:39) – The Potential of AI and Its Risks.
(43:20) – Techno-Selection and Control Over AI.
(48:53) – The Future of Medicine and AI’s Role.
(51:42) – Empowering the Public in AI Governance.
(54:37) – Building a God: Ethical Considerations in AI.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #978.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Six Links That Make You Think #771

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Just Evil Enough, Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

Collapse OS. “Okay, sure, if the world collapses, we won’t have enough plows to go around. But once we learn how to weave baskets and make arrows and divert water, how do we get tech up and running? I don’t mean Facebook  – I mean stuff like automated sprinklers and valves and the low-level machinery on which civilization relies? And how do we do this when we’re using the computer equivalent of an army surplus store: Mismatched machinery that’s mostly out of date? Turns out, there’s an operating system for that, a ‘collection of tools and documentation with a single purpose: preserve the ability to program microcontrollers through civilizational collapse.’ And once the sprinklers are running, there’s a hardware-tolerant desktop (Dusk OS) to go with it.” (Alistair for Hugh). It’s Time To Choose Canada – Canadian Armed Forces – YouTube . “Canada’s media game is strong these days. It seems like overnight, our stores put flags on everything and took bourbon off the shelves. Strange times make for strange bedfellows, but I did not expect to see the Canadian Armed Forces making what looks like a tourism video. I guess when we move from kinetic to memetic warfare, everything is a battlefront.” (Alistair for Hugh). Text To Bark – Eleven Labs . “If ever there was a time, a need, for smile-inducing April Fool’s jokes, now is that time.” (Hugh for Alistair). Wikipedia Built The Internet’s Brain. Now Its Leaders Want Credit. – Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly – Observer . “Wikipedia‘s sprawling, free encyclopedia trained all those AI models, and, surprise surprise(!), they aren’t getting anything in return. No credit, no money, few if any links. On top of that, AI crawlers are all over Wikipedia, which is a cost for them. Will OpenAI and the rest do the right thing? Don’t bet on it.” (Hugh for Mitch).   Watching Writing Die: An English Teacher’s Perspective – Normi Coto, PhD – Age Of Awareness – Medium . “We’re watching both the erosion of writing and the loss of language skills. That’s what’s happening in this article from a teacher relecting on her extensive career since 1992. She is observing a decline in students’ writing skills and the outcomes from that. She attributes this to the diminishing emphasis on grammar instruction and the rise of digital communication tools. I think we would all still agree that process-oriented writing methods (such as drafting and peer reviews) are valuable, but they are often supplanted by traditional grammar lessons. She laments the loss of sentence diagramming and in-depth discussions about word functions, which she believes are crucial for developing strong writing abilities. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you don’t have a strong communications game, you won’t have a strong success game. It starts with learning how to read and write… and that’s how we get to good thinking… and better ideas.” (Mitch for Alistair). I’m 73. Heavy Metal Just Changed My Life – Mikal Gilmore – Rolling Stone . “Being angry is normal… loving heavy metal is a great way to deal with it. You don’t have to wait until your 70s… you can start today. It’s a genre that I was drawn to from my earliest of musical influences and it still drives me. Sure, I’m not an angry (rebellious) teen anymore, but the music is a great ‘exhaust valve’ for me… and even the craziest of speeds, tempo changes and gurgling vocals can both make me laugh and get me going. It’s a great form of escapism as well. And the journalist’s conclusion? ‘It is everywhere, and it is vast. In fact, it makes for oceans. In all my years of listening to music, I’ve never encountered a genre and its subgenres — except jazz — that is so massively populated and creative. For all that we properly revere about alternative and indie-music scenes, it’s important to note that there are none more alternative or indie than metal’s scenes. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of metal bands the world over, though few get enough music press attention and none of them get much — actually, any — airplay.’ It’s always been this way… and the true fans don’t care… they listen… they go to concerts… they keep waving the flag. Horn’s up!” (Mitch for Hugh). 

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Alphonso Johnson On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

“Wait… did I miss something? Why is there an article about a bass podcast on Six Pixels of Separation?”

Here’s why:
In the late nineties my first job was as a music journalist (actually, my first interview was with Tommy Lee from Motley Crue right before the band released Dr. Feelgood).
I spent many years interviewing musicians and artists for local weekly alternative newspapers, national and international magazines (and even published three music magazines – before we had the Internet).
I also studied and played the electric bass (in high school and post-secondary) and always felt like bass players never really had a chance to tell their stories.
So, about ten years ago, Seth Godin introduced me to Corey Brown (founder of No Treble – one of the world’s biggest bass platforms – and he also worked on Squidoo with Seth).
From there, Corey and I decided to try this monthly podcast where I would interview bass players and talk about their music, art, creativity and more.
I’m hopeful that these conversations will inspire your work, creativity and innovation as much as they do for me…

Alphonso Johnson is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #124 – Alphonso Johnson.

If you’ve ever picked up a bass and wondered what it could really do – beyond root notes and groove – then Alphonso Johnson’s story is your North Star. In this deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation, Alphonso, best known for his groundbreaking work with Weather Report, Phil Collins, Santana, and more, unpacks a career that has quietly shaped the modern soundscape of electric bass. From picking up the upright bass as a kid in South Philly (after being steered away from a cello by a very persuasive teacher) to becoming a pioneer of the Chapman Stick and fretless bass, Alphonso’s journey is part timing, part discipline, and entirely soul. You’ll hear how his audition for Weather Report wasn’t an audition at all. You’ll learn how Phil Collins recognized him on sight in an elevator and how his spontaneous groove caught Joe Zawinul’s ear before Alphonso even knew he had the gig. But what makes this episode resonate isn’t just the jazz lore or jaw-dropping resume – it’s Alphonso’s mindset. He talks about the importance of serving the melody, of staying in the moment, and the humility that comes with not always having great practice days, even after decades of mastery. From his days with Woody Herman and Chuck Mangione to jamming on Grateful Dead songs (check out Jazz Is Dead), Alphonso has remained a chameleon – not by changing who he is, but by knowing exactly how to support the music around him. We also dig into his creative process, dynamic control, and improvisational approach that relies not on formulas, but feeling. You’ll get a front-row seat to how great musicians think about tone, rhythm, composition, and their place in the sonic spectrum. Whether he’s playing with a string quintet or laying it down with fusion legends, Alphonso proves that the bass isn’t just an instrument – it’s a voice. Enjoy the conversation…

What is Groove – The No Treble Podcast?

This is an ambitious effort. This will be a fascinating conversation. Our goal at Groove is to build the largest oral history of bass players. Why Groove? Most of the content about the bass revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. For us, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. They are a force to be reckon with. These are the stories and conversation that we will capture. To create this oral history of why these artists chose the bass, what their creative lives are like, and where inspiration can be found.

Listen in:  Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #124- Alphonso Johnson .

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends). 

Let’s Decode The Future Together

I spend a lot of time on stages speak to organizations about today… and tomorrow. 

From packed arenas to hotel ballrooms to intimate leadership retreats and boardrooms – my goal has always been the same: to provoke thought, spark action, and leave your team understanding a better path forward. 
But here’s the thing: a keynote isn’t just about giving people answers. 

It’s about giving them better questions. 

Questions that help them rethink the way they lead, communicate, innovate, and show up in a world that’s changing faster than most organizations can adapt.
Below is a window into the types of conversations I believe we need to be having at our business events. 

It’s about the Intimacy Economy – the shift from mass attention to deep connection. 

It’s about how AI isn’t coming for your job, but your thinking. 
It’s about why sameness is a threat, and how brands can still be original in a world drowning in derivative content. 
It’s about the new rules of engagement for businesses who want to stay relevant when the algorithms keep changing. 

My new keynote speaking reel just gives you a taste. 

If it resonates, great (please let me know). 
If not, no worries – I’m still going to keep showing up, writing, podcasting, and speaking, because I believe the right ideas, in the right hands, can change everything.
And maybe – just maybe – your team or event needs a little provocation like this.

Take a look… and let me know…

CTRL ALT PANIC – Is It Time To Delete (Almost) Everything?

No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.

It might actually be time to delete everything.
The social media posts. 
The hot takes. 
The political opinions. 
Even your DNA test results… especially your DNA test results.

23andMe – yes, the company you spit into a tube for – just filed for bankruptcy. 

And they’re planning to sell your genetic data. 
Fifteen million people handed over the most intimate information possible in exchange for some ancestry info. 
Now, that data could be sold to the highest bidder. 
Legally.
Scary?
Maybe… but also expected.
This is the real cost of data permanence. 
Once it’s out there… it’s out there.

Welcome to the Delete Everything Era?

We’re not just talking about a toxic tweet from 2015 or that photo from Vegas. 
The new reality is one where your digital past are stored, sold, and scrutinized.
And that scrutiny? It’s not hypothetical anymore.
This is why more and more privacy experts are pushing for digital minimalism. 
A reset. A cleanse.
Or, better yet, don’t post it to begin with.

There’s something to be learned from Snapchat here. 

The ephemeral way. 
Post, view, vanish. 
Disappear by design. 
Not for secrecy. 
For sanity. 
It was 2011 when Snapchat launched and made disappearing messages cool. 
Now, in 2025, that feels prophetic.

We’re in a strange moment. 

People are scrubbing their feeds, archiving posts, deleting old thoughts. 
Not because they regret them. 
But because they’re scared. 
Because freedom of speech doesn’t equal freedom from consequences. 
And increasingly, the consequences are coming for all of us.
It’s time to take the controls back.
Because the best privacy policy is the one you create for yourself.

Maybe you should delete everything… and don’t look back?

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM. Listen in right here.

Mitch Joel · CTRL ALT PANIC – Is It Time To Delete (Almost) Everything?

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.