Episodes

People keep writing obituaries for organic content. And every time, communicators chase the paid shortcuts instead of doing the work. Now, as AI-generated content floods every platform, those who abandoned organic are realizi...

Everyone thinks they can name things. Toss some words around in a brainstorm, pick the one that sounds right, hope it passes trademark. But naming done right is storytelling compressed to its most essential form, and getting ...

What if sustainable growth isn't about becoming the biggest player in the market? Agencies triple in size and lose their soul. They chase national footprints and abandon the community relationships that made them valuable. Me...

Does PR have Stockholm syndrome? We're held captive by every disruption that promises to kill us—internet, social media, now AI—and what do we do? Fall in love with each threat, scramble to prove relevance, then wait for the ...

Authority-building has entered a new era—visibility hinges on context and credibility, and your expertise must be discoverable not just to humans but to machines. In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle ...

**NotebookLM HAS TAKEN OVER THE TRENDING COMMUNICATOR. AGAIN.** Generative AI is shaking up the world of communications—and the debate is on. In this special takeover episode of The Trending Communicator, Abel and Iris weigh ...

Companies love to talk about AI transformation. They've created policies, distributed tools, checked boxes. But behind closed doors, overwhelmed employees are phoning it in with AI slop, leaders can't tell the difference, and...

Companies keep approaching AI the way they approached every other tech rollout: install it, train on it, expect immediate returns. But AI isn't software. It's imperfect by design, doesn't follow a predictable implementation c...

You can't communicate your way out of a values problem. Yet every day, communications leaders are expected to do precisely that. In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle sits down with ⁠ Emil Hill⁠ , prin...

Your customers are changing because of AI. But so are you—whether you realize it or not. Host Dan Nestle welcomes back Mark Schaefer , whose new book How AI Changes Your Customers reveals a transformation most people aren't p...

You can be the smartest person in the room, but if no one knows you or your point of view, you don't have authority. This "authority gap" is why most professionals struggle to earn attention, build trust, and gain influence. ...

What happens when the communications function stops being about messaging and starts being about business transformation? When your stakeholders include 10,000 employees, 94,000 students, 350,000 alumni, plus investors, polic...

MIT just dropped a bomb : 95% of corporate AI initiatives are failing. Not struggling. Failing. And Sandy Carter knows exactly why. In this episode of The Trending Communicator, I sit down with Sandy, currently Chief Business...

Gab Ferree led global communications at Slack, Bumble, and OneTrust, reaching every traditional summit in our profession. Then she walked away to build Off The Record , where communications professionals can finally admit the...

Can you juggle? If you're a communications pro today, you'd better learn how. Just when you think you've got a good rhythm going, someone tosses you another responsibility. Maybe it's a new social platform. Maybe it's a cultu...

How many of us are stuck playing media relations hits-and-misses while the real opportunities to drive business transformation seem to be just out of reach? In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle sits d...

We can navigate a crisis, position a CEO, and craft messaging for millions of people. So why do so many brilliant communications professionals struggle when it comes to talking about themselves? In this episode of The Trendin...

What if empathy isn't just about being nice, but your secret weapon for building systems that actually work? Lizabeth Wesely-Casella , CEO of L12 Services , spent her early career in construction wearing hard hats and reading...

Here they are again—marketers and communicators worried that AI is about to eliminate storytelling altogether. But what if the exact opposite is happening? What if AI is actually making authentic human storytelling the ultima...

Humans are in a tough spot right now. But one thing remains certain: business transformation will fail without a human-centric approach.

If you're thinking "cultural communications" is another way to say "DEI," you may want to broaden your perspective. Culture comms might just be the key to building trust when the stakes are high - especially in healthcare. In...

AI is forcing a real moment of decision for communicators. Make it count.

Is AI a miracle, heralding an age of invention, or the harbinger of a dystopian civilizational collapse? The rise of short-form video on social platforms - empowering creators, or undermining society? The only certainty these days is uncertainty. But...

Are we going in the right direction as communicators? In an era of dramatic policy shifts, cultural upheaval, and a fractured media landscape, how do we trudge onward through the muck without losing our way? Weighty questions indeed. In this episode...