Episodes

In this episode of Business Brain, you’ll rethink everything you assumed about failure. Shannon and Dave dig into why America’s culture of embracing failure, from bankruptcy protection to at-will employment, fuels entrepreneurship in a way most other countries can’t match. You’ll hear how low switching costs mean low experimentation costs, Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we break down Anthropic’s surprise release of Claude Sonnet 5, a leaner, more agentic model built for the daily grind of coding, automation, and multi-step tool use, and why we’re shifting our default from Opus to save tokens without sacrificing quality. We also dig Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into the power of intentional language and why unnecessary change can quietly wreck a good team. We kick things off with a customer service moment that stuck with us: a tuxedo rental shop promised to call “if we have any questions,” not Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we tackle a question that hits closer to home than anyone wants to admit: is AI quietly stealing your creative time the same way social media does? We dig into “faux-ductivity” — the trap of endlessly building, prompting, and tinkering in AI under the Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, Shannon Jean and Dave Hamilton tackle a topic that hits every wallet: tipping culture, and how far the pendulum has swung. We dig into why the standing-up-means-no-tip rule makes sense, how COVID-era generosity quietly became the new default, and why getting prompted to tip Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into the question of who really controls AI. We trade notes on Anthropic’s new Mythos model and its Fable guardrails — including a jaw-dropping account of how relentlessly capable these tools have become — and we wrestle with the bigger issue lurking Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into how a little personality goes a long way in business. We talk about turning our interests into businesses (and yes, making a chunk of our lives tax-deductible while we’re at it), then unpack the underrated power of the email autoresponder — Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into why data centers and AI have suddenly become public enemy number one. Shannon unpacks the wave of negative press and protests, and the fascinating thread connecting some of the loudest anti-data-center voices to foreign funding—China in particular. We talk through “bring Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we get into the balance between digital and analog life. Shannon makes the case that being “too online” dulls us, and that we need a real mix of screen time and hands-on, analog work to stay fulfilled. Whether we’re chipping branches with a chainsaw, Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we tackle a question every entrepreneur is starting to face: how do you tame your AI expenses before they tame you? It starts with a confession — burning through $15 worth of credits in a single morning by running everything on the priciest model Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we dig into why every business is now in the experience business. It starts with a tangent on tailors and cobblers — trades that feel like they’re vanishing — and lands on a bigger truth for entrepreneurs: when products and services get commoditized, the Read more

In this episode of Business Brain, we get practical about putting AI to work on the everyday stuff, not just the big business plays. Shannon walks through building a custom food log with Claude after a doctor’s visit — snap a photo, let the AI ID the ingredients, get a Read more