Marketing lecturer & former Fortune 100 exec Melise Panetta discusses how AI is reshaping entry-level jobs, Gen Z’s career prospects, and the future of skills and education.

GUEST BIO: Melise Panetta, a lecturer in marketing at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and former Fortune 100 executive with over 20 years of global leadership experience, is the founder of Brand U and an expert in consumer behavior, corporate strategy, and preparing the next generation of business leaders.

Topics discussed (no timestamps)

• Descript vs. Final Cut Pro for podcast editing workflows
• AI’s disruption of entry-level jobs and internships
• Which skills are automatable vs. “AI-resistant” (emotional intelligence, critical thinking, ethics)
• Gen Z’s fears and strategies around entering the workforce
• WEF jobs report: 92M jobs lost, 170M created, net 78M gain
• Growth fields: energy, cybersecurity, engineering, creative strategy
• Career planning for Gen Z: choosing majors, skillsets, ROI of degrees
• Oversupply in tech degrees vs. shortage in healthcare/education
• Outsourcing vs. AI replacement and global job reshuffling
• Broader impacts on inequality, branding oneself, and mid-level career development

Main points

• AI will shrink but not erase entry-level roles; competition will increase.
• The most at-risk skills are routine, programmable, and repetitive tasks; more resistant skills involve human judgment and collaboration.
• The real shift is a “reshuffling” of work, with job creation in energy, cybersecurity, and creative strategy.
• Students must weigh ROI when choosing majors, using labor market trends to guide decisions.
• Outsourcing and oversupply (especially in tech) may matter more than AI replacement.
• Gen Z should focus on adaptability, branding, and skill-building to stay competitive.

Top 3 quotes

• “Roles that require skills that are highly automatic, programmable—those are the ones at higher risk. The opposite are what we call AI-resistant skills: emotional intelligence, complex critical thinking, interpersonal collaboration.”
• “It’s not that jobs are going away—it’s a major reshuffling. Entry-level roles are retracting, while fields like energy production, cybersecurity, and creative design expand.”
• “Don’t make an $80,000 investment without a very clear idea of what your ROI is going to be coming out of it.”

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
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A deep dive with Dr. Jeffrey Funk on AI hype, startup bubbles, Gen Z’s job struggles, and the broken higher education system.

Dr. Jeffrey Funk is a retired technology economist and former university professor in Japan and Singapore. He specializes in innovation, startup bubbles, and the economic effects of emerging technologies, and is the author of Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles: A Guide to Spotting, Avoiding, and Exploiting Bubbles in Tech.

• The hype and financial unsustainability of OpenAI, Anthropic, and cloud providers
• Microsoft and Anthropic’s pricing strategies and looming AI bubble collapse
• Gen Z job market struggles, declining college enrollment, and university failures
• AI “boosters vs. doomers” vs. skeptics on the “edge of the coin”
• AI hype, fraud, and legal risks of “AI washing”
• Why AI fails at coding, medicine, and self-driving cars
• Zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and its role in fueling startup and AI bubbles
• The dead internet theory, bots, and the collapse of online authenticity
• Higher education’s decline, misplaced incentives, and need for reform

• AI hype is financially unsustainable—companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are pricing their products below cost, subsidizing massive cloud bills.
• College graduates, especially Gen Z, are struggling in the job market due to declining education quality, reliance on ChatGPT, and employer skepticism.
• The AI “booster vs. doomer” debate misses the point; most real-world applications are limited, overhyped, and decades away from true impact.
• Many supposed “AI breakthroughs” (self-driving cars, AI doctors, coding copilots) hide human intervention or show slower results than advertised.
• Universities focus on publishing papers rather than solving problems, producing entitled graduates unprepared for real-world work.
• The internet itself is degrading, with bots, fake engagement, and algorithm manipulation creating a hollow online experience.
• The future belongs to those who solve problems, not those who hype technology.

• “Altman wants to talk about how everybody uses it—well, everybody uses it because he’s pricing it below cost.”
• “AI isn’t replacing coders; it’s making them 19% slower because debugging AI’s mistakes takes longer than fixing your own.”
• “Don’t just talk about problems—solve them. If you focus on solving problems, you will succeed, because most people aren’t.”

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

An in-depth discussion with legal scholar Jeffrey Seaman debunking popular myths about mass incarceration, examining crime clearance rates, sentencing trends, and exploring justice-focused reforms.

Guest bio:
Jeffrey Seaman is a Levy Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, researcher, and co-author of Confronting Failures of Justice. His work focuses on criminal justice policy, sentencing reform, and aligning the system with community standards of justice.

Topics discussed:

• Myths vs. facts about U.S. incarceration rates
• The small role of low-level drug offenders in prison populations
• Declining crime clearance rates and their public safety impact
• Sentencing trends since the 1960s and public opinion on appropriate punishment
• Repeat offenders, leniency, and juvenile justice failures
• International comparisons and moral credibility of the law
• Potential of “electronic prison” as a cost-effective alternative to incarceration
• Balancing defendants’ rights with victims’ rights
• Political shifts in crime policy and public opinion
• Historical parallels with Prohibition and lessons for modern reform

Three best quotes:

• “The average offender doesn’t feel deterred until they perceive a 30% chance of being caught—and for most crimes, we’re nowhere near that.”
• “Most people in prison today have had five, ten, even fifteen prior chances; the idea that they’re first-time offenders is a myth.”
• “If the law gets out of sync with what the community believes is just, you lose moral credibility—and with it, compliance, cooperation, and safety.”

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!