In this 53rd episode of Bald Ambition, Mookie Spitz sits down with Shannon Watson — founder and Chief Executive of Majority in the Middle, an organization fighting to make bipartisanship more than a talking point. Together, they dissect the machinery of American polarization, from the “campaign industrial complex” to the dopamine-fed chaos of social media that rewards outrage over nuance.

Watson, a former political strategist turned bridge-builder, explains how Minnesota has become a laboratory for cooperation, where tied legislatures and quiet deal-makers prove that democracy can still function — even thrive — when compromise isn’t a dirty word. Mookie, ever the bald philosopher-ranter, challenges the algorithms, questions the spectacle of Trump-era ubiquity, and wrestles with the tension between attention and authenticity.

This conversation dives deep into:

• The economics of division — how conflict became currency.
• Institutional partisanship and how physical layouts in government buildings literally keep politicians apart.
• The media’s addiction to binaries — and how nuance gets punished online.
• Real-world examples of legislators working together behind the scenes.
• The moral and psychological toll of running for office in the age of social media mobs.
• What it would take for the “majority in the middle” to take back the conversation.

If you’re tired of the noise and crave a reminder that most Americans still want to solve problems, not scream about them, this episode is for you.

The Guest

Shannon Watson is the Founder and Executive Director of Majority in the Middle, and has worked in policy and public affairs roles for organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has 20+ years of experience in electoral politics, advising candidates and working on campaigns on both sides of the aisle in Kansas, Colorado, and Minnesota.

Shannon is a frequent op-ed writer and speaker, a member of the MYALP cohort in 2022 and a Humphrey Policy Fellow. She holds a bachelor's degree in English, Theatre, and Psychology from Wichita State University and a master's degree in Advocacy and Political Leadership from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She lives in Minneapolis.

The Org

Majority in the Middle is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to empower respectful and effective civic and political engagement. Headquartered in Minnesota, we elevate the knowledge, relationships, and spaces to work together across differences and strengthen our civic and political life.

The Resources

Website: www.majoritymiddle.org

Newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/YGwiZNG/MajorityMiddle

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/majoritymiddle

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Fifty-two Bald Ambition podcasts and counting, Mookie Spitz turns the mic on himself for a no-bullshit autopsy of his own brand. Drawing on 20 years in marketing, a lifetime of overthinking, and a library’s worth of blogs, books, and podcasts, he finally asks the question every creator avoids: Why the hell isn’t any of this exploding?

With a cocktail of cynicism, humor, and self-awareness, Mookie describes the paradox of today’s creator economy — an attention-addicted world bored by its own content — and admits he’s been mostly “Shem” (the obsessive creator) and not enough “Shaun” (the networker). He riffs on Anthony Trollope’s line that people “take you at your own reckoning,” connects it to Liquid Death’s punk-rock marketing genius, and lays out his own path to finally branding the chaos of Mookie-verse into something more immediately enticing and cohesive.

Less a motivational podcast than an autopsy with a laugh track, Mookie's pod is a meditation on self-reinvention, content addiction, and the seemingly impossible task of marketing yourself when you’d rather just create.

Highlights

• Why branding thyself is harder than branding anything else.
• The natural brotherly split: creators vs. communicators.
• How Liquid Death sold “meta-bullshit” bottled water — and what that teaches personal brands.
• Mookie’s inventory: 1,000 reels, 450 blogs, 200 podcasts, 5 books, and 1 identity crisis.
• What it means to fail fast, be bold, and maybe — just maybe — strike gold.
• Mookie takes a crack at his own brand identity...

Mookie's Audience

• Smart contrarians — people tired of dumbed-down discourse.
• Emotionally literate cynics — frustrated idealists looking for meaning.
• Thinkers and creators — people balancing intellect, creativity, and burnout.

Mooke's Personality

• Cynical but sincere — skewers everything, including himself, yet still chasing truth.
• Contrarian — refuses tribal thinking; attacks clichés and sacred cows.
• Irreverent — unfiltered, spontaneous, often comedic; no PR polish.
• Intellectual yet self-deprecating — smart as hell but allergic to pretension.
• Emotionally honest — embraces vulnerability, admits fear, burnout, and ego.
• Curious and analytical — turns over every rock, from Nietzsche to TikTok.
• Humorous philosopher vibe — blends comedy with existential reflection.

Mookie's Values

• Anti-victimization — no pity, no whining; owns the struggle.
• Celebrates confusion — embraces uncertainty as creative fuel.
• Values critical thinking — refuses slogans, embraces nuance.
• Driven by truth-seeking — “Clutching and fighting and scraping and shouting to get at some kind of truth.”
• Self-aware — sees his contradictions as part of the brand, not flaws.

Mookie's Style

• Raw honesty — nothing is filtered for comfort.
• Meta-humor — often critiques his own process mid-rant.
• Darkly comic — uses satire and gallows humor to reveal deeper truths.
• Philosophical punk energy — Liquid Death meets Nietzsche.
• Authentically chaotic — embraces imperfection as identity.

What's yours?

For creators, writers, and contrarians who live for meaning, not metrics, here's a candid, irreverent, and philosophical pod — and laugh at their own ambition.

Want in on the experiment? Follow Mookie Spitz across Medium, Substack, TikTok (@mookiewriter), and The Mookie S

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The 51st episode of Bald Ambition features Mookie Spitz sitting down with David Mondgock, founder of Catalyst IQ, to discuss how AI is reshaping pharmaceutical marketing and patient engagement from the ground up. They share a deep dive into how data, content, and automation collide to form a new marketing reality for healthcare.

Key Insights

• From Personalization to Prediction: Why “customer journeys” in pharma have been insufficient—and how Catalyst IQ’s AI-driven signal mapping and content tagging are finally making them real.
• Breaking the Walled Gardens: How pharma can reclaim control of its data from third-party platforms like Doximity, Medscape, and the AMA.
• Next-Best Everything: Forget “Next Best Action.” Mondgock explains “Next Best Content” and “Next Best Experience,” where adaptive, modular content anticipates the HCP or patient before they click.
• AI Optimization ≠ SEO: Mookie coins the new term—AI Optimization—the next-gen equivalent of SEO for a world where bots, not spiders, decide what gets seen.
• Ethics and Oversight: Why human governance remains the thin line between innovation and chaos—and why Mondgock doesn’t believe in fully autonomous AI.
• The Coming Ad Collapse: How today’s banner ads and metrics will look Yahoo.com 1998 once “token prioritization” replaces clicks and impressions.

Key Takewawys

• Pharma’s data problem isn’t access—it’s alignment.
• AI in content creation isn’t about replacement—it’s about relevance.
• Human oversight is the new regulatory compliance frontier.
• The marketing war won’t be fought on Google—it’ll be fought in the prompts of ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

If you’re a pharma marketer, healthcare strategist, or AI skeptic trying to make sense of this new digital order, this episode is your roadmap—and your reality check.

About David Mondgock

I founded Catalyst IQ because I saw a critical gap in global pharma where omnichannel failed to translate into measurable business impact. My mission is to cut through the complexity and focus sales and marketing on patient and HCP outcomes. My team and I don’t just consult; we build and deploy a practical, end-to-end AI stack purpose-built for the life sciences ecosystem. This stack is designed for orchestration, seamlessly generating explainable, MLR-ready propensity models and micro-segments that feed directly into dynamic content sequencing.

About Catalyst IQ

Catalyst IQ helps global pharma convert AI-driven omnichannel into business impact improving relevant HCP and Patient journeys, faster access, and measurable growth without compromising compliance. We align commercial, medical, and market access teams around outcomes, not algorithms.

We stand up a practical AI stack including propensity models and micro-segments that inform next-best-action, with dynamic content sequencing across email, rep-triggered flows, CLM/remote detailing, portals, and patient services. The stack plugs into Veeva and SFMC, with Snowflake/Databricks/Looker for unified data. Consent and privacy-by-design are embedded (HIPAA/GDPR), and models are explainable for MLR. We operate with rigorous experimentation and transparent measurement so wins scale quickly. Selected engagements include: Merck, Novo Nordisk, Takeda, Biogen, Pfizer, AbbVie, Amgen.

www.ciq-enterprise.com

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In this 50th episode of Bald Ambition, three indie science fiction authors — Mookie Spitz, Ingrid Moon, and Greg Sorber — break down the mayhem, lessons, and human magic of LA Comic Con 2025, held at the LA Coliseum. Over three exhausting, exhilarating days, they shared tables, stories, and caffeine, surrounded by 120,000 fans, stormtroopers, holograms, and hopeful artists trying to make their mark in a city built on imagination.

The trio came away with a shared revelation: the real power of Comic Con isn’t the sales, but the tribe. Amid the chaos they found a rare kind of harmony. Everyone belonged. The crowd was wildly diverse, with no politics or ego, just pure participation. The authors describe the event as a temporary city built on acceptance, imagination, and freaky joy — a place where being weird wasn’t tolerated, but celebrated.

Best Practices from the Floor

• Engage or Vanish: Don’t wait for buyers. Talk, laugh, wave. The con floor rewards momentum, not modesty.
• Layout Sells: Your booth is your battlefield. Arrange books and signage for maximum approachability from all angles.
• Covers Over Everything: Visuals are currency. A great cover is worth more than a thousand clever blurbs.
• Ask Before You Pitch: Use consultative selling. Find out what readers crave, then connect your story to their hunger.
• Personalize Every Sale: Add the event name (LA Comic Con 2025) when signing — it turns a purchase into a keepsake.
• Create a Crowd: People attract people. Fill your booth, even if it’s with friends pretending to shop.
• Network Like a Pro: Swap cards, talk to artists, talk to editors, talk to cosplayers — you never know who’s watching.
• Experiment with AI: Use it where it amplifies your vision, not where it erases your voice. The line between tool and theft is drawn by intention.
• Celebrate the Tribe: Remember why you’re there — to be part of something bigger, stranger, and more human than commerce.

The group also tackles how artificial intelligence is reshaping creative production, from marketing visuals to potential full-fledged story adaptations. Together, they conclude that AI is inevitable — not a replacement for creativity, but another tool in the evolving arsenal of the modern storyteller.

Ingrid Moon

Ingrid Moon is an author, editor, and science teacher. She currently has four science fiction novels, three audiobooks, and three science reference books for worldbuilding, with more on the way. Ingrid is a Southern California native who can't surf because she spent most of her youth navigating mountains and watching sci-fi television, all of which inspired her writing career.

https://bit.ly/biohunter

https://ingridmoon.com

https://bit.ly/moon-news

Greg Sorbel

"I’m a lifelong fan of science fiction, fantasy, and comic books. Some of my earliest memories are of Land of the Lost, Speed Racer, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Seeing Star Wars in the theater for the first time in 1977 was a life-changing experience. An avid reader from an early age, I’ve always loved books that engaged my imagination. Reading The Hobbit in 7th grade English class and writing a short story that same year set me down the path of becoming a writer. I live in Riverside, California with my family and two dogs."

greg@gregerationx.com

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What does it really take to jump off the cliff without a parachute and call it entrepreneurship? In this episode of Bald Ambition, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Kelvin Abrams—a zero-BS, get-it-done, grassroots entrepreneur and author of Get Uncomfortable or Change Course—to break down the often brutal, always compelling truth about building something real.

Kelvin isn’t pitching apps or chasing investors. He’s the guy who builds businesses that last—local ventures grounded in community, delivering real services to real people, and earning the loyalty of customers the old-fashioned way: through hustle, reinvention, and showing up every damn day.

Together, Mookie and Kelvin dig into:

• Why comfort kills ambition—and why you need to embrace discomfort like a boxer taking hits in the ring.
• The danger of leaning on family and friends instead of surrounding yourself with professionals who have your back.
• How failure, setbacks, and even bad nights are fuel for growth—not signs to quit.
• Why entrepreneurs must keep reinventing themselves, adapting to change, and staying hungry.
• The rush of risk-taking, and why true satisfaction comes not from the money but from living fully and leaving nothing on the table.

They consider the unglamorous side of entrepreneurship: long nights, personal sacrifices, emotional rollercoasters—and the deep reward of knowing you went all in. If you’ve ever wondered whether you have what it takes to put it all on the line, this conversation will dare you to stop waiting and start moving.

Listen in, share it, and get ready to get uncomfortable. Because if you’re not a little crazy, this path isn’t for you.

The Guest

Kelvin Abrams is a no-nonsense entrepreneur and community builder who has spent nearly two decades proving that grit and persistence beat shortcuts and hype. Known for his practical approach, Kelvin built his career on taking risks, embracing discomfort, and refusing to shy away from failure. His story isn’t one of overnight success—it’s about long nights, tough setbacks, and the relentless drive to keep moving forward. With a reputation as a straight-talking mentor and speaker, Kelvin inspires others to trust their vision, face challenges head-on, and commit to leaving it all on the field.

His Businesses

Kelvin has launched and grown multiple local businesses that thrive by delivering personalized services and cultivating loyal clients. From small ventures that meet everyday needs to innovative expansions that reinvent the customer experience, his work reflects the power of grassroots entrepreneurship done right.

He is also the author of Get Uncomfortable or Change Course: Understanding What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur, a blunt, motivational guide and coaching course that strips away the illusions of easy success. Building on the lessons of his own journey, Kelvin now shares his framework through speaking engagements, consulting, and a hands-on entrepreneurial course designed to equip the next wave of business owners with the resilience and mindset needed to succeed.

Learn More

K-9 and Coffee: https://www.k9andcoffee.com/
Tiki’s Playhouse Doggie Daycare: https://www.tikisplayhouse.com/
American Fitness Express: https://americanfitnessexpress.com/
Kelvin Abrams, author: http://www.kelvinabrams.com/

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What if life insurance actually gave you life? In the 48th episode of Bald Ambition, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Craig Du Bruyn, serial entrepreneur and founder of Kaleido Life, a company re-engineering the very foundations of the 150-year-old life insurance industry.

Craig shares his personal and professional journey from early battles convincing architects to abandon drafting tables for CAD systems, to the heartbreaking loss of a business partner that sparked his deep dive into how life insurance really works. That search uncovered a system stuck in the past, built on archaic models and impersonal actuarial tables.

Kaleido Life’s radical vision is to flip the model on its head: using AI, biometrics, psychometrics, and behavioral modeling to create a 360° wellness matrix—a dynamic profile that determines not just your premiums, but how much of your death benefit you can access while you’re alive. Instead of paying premiums for decades only to benefit your heirs, Kaleido lets you “inherit from your future self,” unlocking up to 25% of your policy upfront to fund the things that matter most—whether that’s health, family, or just living fully now.

The conversation dives deep into:

• The pain points of disruption—why people cling to the old way even when better tech exists.
• Death insurance vs. life insurance—and why Craig insists on reframing the entire lexicon.
• Gamification of wellness—how lifestyle improvements can literally increase your liquidity.
• Transparency and trust—giving customers direct access to the very data that determines their benefits.
• Regulatory realities—navigating the red tape as Kaleido gears up for its official 2026 launch.

Mookie brings his trademark mix of humor and sharp questioning, pressing on skepticism, teasing about spoiled heirs, and cutting to the heart of the matter: can Kaleido turn an archaic, impersonal industry into a living, personalized partnership? Craig's answers will intrigue you.

The Guest

Craig Du Bruyn doesn’t fit the mold—and never tried to. He’s built and led companies through market upheaval, regulatory gridlock, and cultural landmines. What most call chaos, Craig calls Tuesday.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Kaleido Life, he’s reimagining life insurance as living capital—helping people inherit from their future selves using AI, behavioral science, and a radically human approach to financial empowerment. It’s bold. It’s regulated. It’s working—and it’s just getting started.

Craig’s journey has taken him from solo motorbike expeditions across Africa and the Himalayas to boardrooms more dangerous than the jungle. He’s raised millions, rebuilt companies from collapse, and endured more due diligence than most auditors could stomach. Along the way, he’s built a life he loves—with his family at the center and a deep, unwavering commitment to giving back.

His Company

Kaleido Life is the third financial rail—beyond cash or credit. We let people inherit from their future selves, unlocking up to 25% of their life insurance upfront with no debt, no interest, and no waiting. With trillions trapped in legacy systems, Kaleido is liberating wealth for the living and igniting a movement to redefine what money means for humanity.

Learn More

www.kaleido-life.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-du-bruyn/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/kaleidolife

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In the 47th episode of Bald Ambition, Mookie sits down with Robert Grzesik, CEO of LumiWealth and the mind behind BotSpot—a cutting-edge AI platform that lets you “vibe-code” your own trading strategies. Forget the clunky Bloomberg terminals and line-by-line coding. BotSpot is positioning itself as the Lovable of trading: a conversational, AI-powered assistant that builds, backtests, and deploys strategies directly to your broker through secure APIs.

Robert walks us through his journey from teaching finance students on a trading floor, to building software companies, to being an early employee at Voyager (once a billion-dollar Coinbase competitor). He explains how the rise of large language models transformed his vision into a tool where anyone—not just coders—can design bots that trade options, stocks, or even biotech plays based on real-world signals like clinical trials.

We tackle the big questions head-on:

• Risk vs. Reward: How this startup differentiates from scammy robo-investors
• Money Flow: Where your cash actually goes, and why doesn’t BotSpot touch it
• Security & Trust: How your brokerage account stays protected even while bots execute trades.
• Innovation: From discrete rules-based strategies to wild predictive models powered by Perplexity AI.
• Benefits for Traders:
  • Model trades with backtesting across years of data.
  • Use a simple, intuitive chat-style interface—no coding required.
  • Deploy bots seamlessly to your existing broker accounts.
  • Explore pre-built strategies in a marketplace or customize your own.
  • Gain an “analyst on demand” without paying hedge fund prices.

The conversation shifts from skepticism to genuine excitement, highlighting why BotSpot may be one of the most intriguing tools in the wild west of FinTech GPT. Whether you’re an experienced trader, a skeptic wary of crypto-hype, or just someone curious about the future of AI in finance, this episode presents an intriguing way the LLMs can be used to help make your investing easier, and even fun.

The Guest

Robert Grzesik is the CEO and Lead Instructor at LumiWealth, a fintech education platform focused on algorithmic trading and investing. With over 25 years of experience in software development — spanning languages like Python, JavaScript, C, C++, Go, and Ruby — he has built trading systems that handle everything from equities and options to crypto and forex. He holds a Master’s in Finance (Schulich) and has prior roles in fintech firms such as Voyager and Greystone, bringing deep domain expertise to LumiWealth’s mission of teaching traders to build, backtest, and deploy automated strategies.

The Platform

BotSpot is LumiWealth’s AI-powered platform that lets users turn natural-language ideas into live trading bots—no coding required. You can backtest strategies on historical data, deploy them live to trade automatically, and monitor performance in real time.

Resources

• LumiWealth: https://lumiwealth.com/
• BotSpot: https://botspot.trade/

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In this 46th episode of Bald Ambition, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Roger Washington, MD, and Scarlet Nickhol, MPP of the Sleep To Live Well Foundation (STLW), to uncover why sleep isn’t just rest—it’s the vital work of human health and resilience.

From the science of how insufficient sleep corrodes immune systems and accelerates disease, to the cultural myths that glamorize sleepless productivity, this conversation dives deep into the epidemic of sleep deprivation. Dr. Washington shares his pioneering insights on “Sleep Wellness,” a holistic framework that goes beyond sleep hygiene to address trauma, resistant behaviors, and the immune toll of lost hours. Scarlet Nickhol explains how STLW is intervening early—through children’s books, family guides, and clinical screening tools—to help families build nurturing bedtime rituals and reframe sleep as a source of power, safety, and healing.

The discussion doesn’t stay abstract. From Bill Clinton’s four-hour nights to the “super sleeper” habits of children, Mookie and his guests explore real-world examples that reveal both the perils of neglecting sleep and the life-changing potential of embracing it. If you’ve ever stayed up late scrolling, struggled with insomnia, or noticed your kids become hyper instead of tired when they miss bedtime, this episode will change how you see sleep—and why it might be the best act of self-care and public health reform.

The Guests

Dr. Roger Washington, MD, FAAFP, STLW Medical Director
A Stanford-trained physician, Dr. Washington has over 35 years of experience in integrative family medicine. He is the author of Lack of Sufficient Sleep Matters and the pioneer of Sleep Wellness, which combines cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma-informed care, and holistic practices to combat the epidemic of insufficient sleep.

Scarlet Nickhol, MPP, MBA, STLW Executive Director
Co-author of Doctor Bedtime’s Sleep Magic: SuperPowers for Super-Sleepers, Embracing Sleep Wellness: A Family Guide to Transforming Bedtime Resistance into a Nurturing Ritual, and Sleep Wellness Screening Protocol and Digest.

The Organization

Sleep To Live Well is a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation transforming public health through Sleep Wellness by addressing the resistant behaviors, trauma, and toxic stress that disrupt natural sleep.

The Resources

Children's book - https://www.sleeptolivewell.org/for-children

Dr. Washington bio online - https://www.sleeptolivewell.org/meet-dr-washington

About STLW -

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