Host E.B. Moss shares a personal scoop, and a re-scoop: a favorite episode with Rishad Tobaccowala, futurist and author of Rethinking Work, whose ideas just got a fresh round of buzz via a new Fortune Magazine interview.

Rishad does everything big; he starts with two doppios (four espresso shots!) He also goes big in challenging the premise of everything we think we know about work. He's a voice of authority. named a top business leader by Business Week a top five marketing innovator by Time, and he's in the Advertising Hall of Fame. In "Rethinking Work" he's candid that companies are fixated on the wrong question ("How many days a week should people be in the office?") instead of the right one ("How do we rethink our strategy, our org design, and the difference between managing and leading?").

And that Bossing is bad. Influencing is good. Rishad breaks down how "bossing" needs to morph into mentoring, predicts the plus side of fractional employment, the rise of the "company of one," and why AI means more work but fewer traditional jobs. Yes, as he puts it, "Change sucks. But irrelevance is worse."

Also in this episode: why storytelling is the whole point of the data age (not a casualty of it) And E.B. shares her own scoop about her new role telling stories for Nielsen's Global Brand Marketing team.

Also mentioned in this episode: Rishad's Rethinking Work podcast, and his conversation with fellow Insider Interviews alum Lou Paskalis.

Insider Interviews delivers the insider's scoop on the business of media, marketing, and advertising.

Key Moments include:
10:30 – Why "return to office" is asking the wrong question entirely
11:40 – "Keyword bingo": future, agile, personalized, talent
14:00 – "Change sucks. But irrelevance is worse."
19:50 – Bossing bad, influencing good: the fractional employee model
28:00 – Boss vs. leader (and the musical interlude begins)
44:20 – AI + HI: why storytelling is "data with a soul"
47:50 – The playlist metaphor: the future of work, music, and marketing in one image

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Theme music by John Clayton.