Barbara Peng spent years running one of the most recognizable brands in business media. Newly out of the CEO seat at Business Insider, she joins Rapid Response for a candid conversation about the state of journalism, the future of trust, and what leaders in every industry need to understand about operating in an AI world. She reflects on her tenure at Business Insider — the pivot back to the brand’s core, the layoffs, the AI-powered paywall that actually worked — and makes the case that media’s resistance to AI isn’t a journalism problem, it’s a business problem. Peng also lands on the insight that may be the most important thing any leader needs to hear right now: it doesn’t matter how fast the technology moves if your organization is too afraid to experiment with it. The sweet spot isn’t the capability. It’s the rate of digestion.

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Renee Wegrzyn spent her career building the future of American science — including ARPA-H, the White House agency created to accelerate health breakthroughs. Then the Trump administration showed her the door. Wegrzyn co-founded Transfyr to tackle what she calls one of the most overlooked issues in science: the magic hands problem. She joins Rapid Response to explain why fixing this unglamorous bottleneck is the prerequisite for everything AI promises to deliver in medicine, what the federal funding cuts are really costing science, and why she can feel the next Sputnik moment coming — even if she can’t quite name it yet.

Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode of Rapid Response first aired in 2025.

Live on stage at Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky explores what role business could and should play in building the future. He shares his candid perspective on politics, creativity, and AI — taking listeners from Airbnb’s humble beginnings to bold plans for the company’s future. Through a designer’s lens, Chesky also reveals the single question leaders must ask themselves, and explores how best to make tricky decisions in a volatile climate.

For more conversations like this, join us at this year’s Masters of Scale Summit, coming up October 20-22 in San Francisco.

Visit the Rapid Response website here: rapidresponseshow.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.