Michael Peres sits down with Lee Hyde, North American Esports Specialist at Lenovo, about how schools are building meaningful esports programs that go far beyond gaming. With experience leading initiatives at Lenovo and previously helping create the Carolina Gaming Arena at UNC Chapel Hill, Lee brings a practical view of how esports, technology, and education are starting to intersect in powerful ways.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• What “esports solutions for education” really means and why Lenovo is investing in the space
• The biggest challenges schools face when launching esports programs
• How K-12 and higher education esports differ, and what they can learn from each other
• The role of AI, immersive technology, and hybrid learning in the future of student engagement
• Why esports can open up real educational, social, and career opportunities for students

Michael Peres speaks with Goedele Mangelaars, solo founder of Pink Notebook, an AI-powered trip planning platform designed to make travel planning more visual, collaborative, and actually useful. With a life shaped by constant travel across the U.S. and London, plus experience at Skyscanner, Terra API, and Captify, Goedele brings a sharp perspective on why planning trips still feels more broken than it should.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How growing up across countries shaped Goedele’s relationship with travel and problem-solving
• What it’s really like building as a solo, female, non-technical founder
• Why she rejects the “move fast and break things” startup mindset
• The challenge of building across both U.S. and European markets
• What most AI travel planners still get wrong, and how Pink Notebook approaches it differently

Catching up on another episode with Jesse Shrader – environmental engineer turned Bitcoin infrastructure builder – as he unpacks how building sewer systems unexpectedly prepared him to build financial pipes for the future of money. From wastewater treatment to decentralized liquidity markets, Jesse shares how open-source technology, renewable mining, and the Lightning Network are reshaping what Bitcoin can actually do.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Jesse’s background in environmental engineering led him to co-found Amboss and build infrastructure for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
• Why Bitcoin mining isn’t as “dirty” as critics claim—and how renewable energy and stranded power (like hydro in Africa) are part of the story.
• What makes Bitcoin different from altcoins—and why “the next Bitcoin is Bitcoin.”
• How the Lightning Network adds speed and privacy without compromising Bitcoin’s 21-million supply and auditability.
• Whether quantum computing and SHA-256 encryption are real threats—or just headline-grabbing narratives.

Michael Peres sits down with Chip Carter — creator and host of Where the Food Comes From — to explore one of the most fascinating questions of our time: How will we grow food in space? After thousands of farm visits and decades in media, Chip’s journey has taken him from small-town farming roots to standing on a NASA launch pad — and now into conversations about feeding astronauts on the Moon and beyond. Together, they dive into lunar soil experiments, zero-gravity farming, the Artemis program, and what it really takes to grow lettuce where DoorDash doesn’t deliver.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Chip went from wanting to “get out of farming” to telling agriculture’s untold tech stories
• Why modern farming is powered by robotics, AI, drones, and blockchain
• How scientists successfully grew plants in actual lunar regolith
• The challenge of watering crops in zero-gravity
• Why the Moon is becoming a launch platform for deep space exploration
• How bio-unit lunar farms could create breathable atmosphere and grow food on the Moon
• What growing plants in space reveals about life beyond Earth

Catching up with Les Johnson, former Chief Technology Officer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and veteran space technologist with a forty year career in aerospace, as he digs into the real engineering behind interplanetary travel, solar sails, nuclear rockets, and the future of humanity in space. From leading advanced propulsion programs at NASA to writing both hard science and science fiction, Les brings a rare mix of technical depth and big picture perspective.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Les went from a 12 year old kid dreaming of NASA to Chief Technology Officer at Marshall Space Flight Center
• How solar sails and nuclear thermal rockets really work – and why they may be key to deep space and Mars missions
• What makes sustaining life on Mars so difficult, especially when it comes to radiation and long term survival
• How Les thinks about existential risks like AI, nuclear war, and quantum computing as “slow catastrophes” rather than movie style disasters
• Why he’s skeptical we must have a single “theory of everything” and how his liberal arts background helps him explain complex physics to everyday people

Michael Peres is joined by Markus Levin, co-founder of XYO and a veteran entrepreneur with 15+ years building and scaling tech companies around the world. After mining his first Bitcoin in 2013, Markus became deeply involved in blockchain, data infrastructure, and new business models at the edge of Web3, AI, and robotics. Today, he’s focused on decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and how they can unlock the next generation of real-world automation.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) could become the missing verification layer robots need to operate safely outside controlled environments
• Why AI-driven, blockchain-backed sensor networks may be critical for helping robots confirm that what they “see” is actually real
• How DePIN-based consensus systems could tackle one of robotics’ biggest limitations: filtering, ranking, and challenging unreliable sensory data in dynamic environments
• Ways decentralized networks can add transparency, resilience, and trust to robot decision-making without relying on a single vendor or cloud provider
• Why the combination of edge AI, DePIN sensors, and distributed verification might become the foundation for truly scalable, real-world autonomous machines

Catching up on another episode with Lisa Linkowsky, CEO and founder of Milestone Franchising — as she delivers a refreshingly honest, no-fluff look at what franchising really is (and definitely isn’t). From working full-time while earning her business degree to becoming a multi-unit franchise owner, Lisa shares how franchising found her at a pivotal moment and why realistic expectations are the difference between success and failure.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Lisa transitioned from marketing, project management, and brand ambassadorship into franchising—without ever planning to.
• Why franchising can offer powerful work-life balance and built-in support, but only for people who can truly follow a system.
• The real cost-benefit breakdown of franchising, including royalties, control, and what happens when corporate ownership changes.
• The most common reasons franchises fail—from ego and lack of due diligence to having no real differentiator.
• Why Lisa believes franchising could be a smart alternative for families facing rising college costs and an AI-disrupted job market.

Michael Peres is joined by Chris Kline — co-founder and COO of Bitcoin IRA — as we dive deep into the evolution of crypto retirement investing, the psychology of Bitcoin adoption, and why long-term thinking may be the most powerful strategy in volatile markets. From launching the world’s first cryptocurrency IRA to overseeing more than $14 billion in assets under custody, Chris shares how alternative assets, tax strategy, and conviction investing intersect in the future of finance.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Chris went from graduating during the 2008 financial crisis to building Bitcoin IRA.
• Why Bitcoin’s long-term performance and scarcity make it compelling for retirement portfolios.
• The difference between Traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs and how crypto fits into each.
• How taxes silently erode crypto gains and why tax-advantaged accounts matter.
• The role institutional adoption, ETFs, and macroeconomics play in Bitcoin’s future.
• Why the retirement crisis is growing and what individuals can do today to prepare.
• How AI, blockchain, and digital payments could reshape the global financial system.
• The psychology behind Bitcoin investing, volatility, and long-term conviction.