Shows / Sidecar Sync
Sidecar Sync
Welcome to Sidecar Sync: Your Weekly Dose of Innovation for Associations. Hosted by Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias, this podcast is your definitive source for the latest news, insights, and trends in the association world with a special emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its pivotal role in shaping the future. Each week, we delve into the most pressing topics, spotlighting the transformative role of emerging technologies and their profound impact on associations. With a commitment…
Episodes
Sidecar SyncBill Gates on the Turbulent AI Era | 158
Send us Fan Mail Bill Gates believes the move into the AI era will be one of the most turbulent stretches in human history, and that there's still no real plan…
Sidecar SyncWhy Gemini 4 Argon Puts Google Back at the Frontier | 157
Send us Fan Mail Most model releases don't earn a full episode, but Google's Gemini 4 Argon makes a strong case for one. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias…
Sidecar SyncMicrosoft Pays Anthropic to Fix Copilot, Meta Returns to the Frontier, & Courts Put a Price on Your Content | 156
Send us Fan Mail Microsoft spent years building Copilot around a single model maker, and the fix turned out to be paying for a competitor's. Amith Nagarajan…
Sidecar SyncFundamentals of AI, Part 3 | 155
Send us Fan Mail A chatbot can tell you what to do, but an agent can actually do it. In part three of the refreshed Foundations of AI series, Amith Nagarajan…
Sidecar SyncJev Kicks Off the Decision Model Era, OpenAI Pulls GPT-6.1 Astra, & Waymo Outdrives Us | 154
Send us Fan Mail A surprising amount of the work we hand to AI isn't writing at all—it's deciding. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias sort through a busy…
Sidecar SyncWhy Vibe Coding Still Needs Engineers with Han-Shen Yuan | 153
Send us Fan Mail Vibe coding can patch almost anything, but a duct-tape fix only holds until the water pressure changes. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias…
Sidecar SyncWill AI End Us All? | 152
Send us Fan Mail The people building AI are starting to sound scared of what they're building. Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias take on the AI safety debate…
Sidecar SyncFundamentals of AI, Part 2 | 151
Send us Fan Mail Intelligence is turning into a resource you can scale like electricity, and that shift changes what's actually worth your attention in the AI…
Sidecar SyncHow Pfizer thinks about AI, Thomson 1.0, & Who's Behind Ox Alpha? | 150
Send us Fan Mail A drug company CEO just made the best case yet for why platform choice matters less than most associations think. Marking three years of…
Sidecar SyncSpirit Airlines' Data Sale, the Model Too Powerful to Ship, & the Landlords of AI | 149
Send us Fan Mail When Spirit Airlines went bankrupt, its planes and gates weren't the only assets on the auction block — Google paid $10 million for its data…
Sidecar SyncFundamentals of AI, Part 1 | 148
Send us Fan Mail AI may feel like it arrived overnight, but its foundations have been decades in the making. In part one of a refreshed Foundations of AI…
Sidecar SyncOpen-Weight Models, AI Watermarks, and How to Run Your Own Hackathon | 147
Send us Fan Mail Meta and NVIDIA are turning up the heat in the open-weight AI race, while Anthropic is taking a very different approach by watermarking…
Sidecar SyncAI-Powered Service for Landscape Architects with Torey Carter-Conneen | 146
Send us Fan Mail In this interview episode, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan sit down with Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape…
Sidecar SyncRogue Agents, the Open-Weight Revolt, & Claude Gets Cheaper | 145
Send us Fan Mail This week, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack a whirlwind of AI developments shaping the future of associations. From Anthropic’s…
Sidecar SyncThe Open-Weight Wave & the Push for AI Referees | 144
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack a rapidly shifting AI landscape where powerful, low-cost open-weight models from…
Sidecar SyncSuspenders & Double Dutch: Scaling AI Without Losing the Human Touch with Vicki Deal-Williams | 143
Send us Fan Mail In this interview episode, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan sit down with Vicki Deal-Williams, CEO of the American Speech-Language-Hearing…
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The Data Episode | 142
Send us Fan Mail It’s been 130 episodes since Sidecar Sync last did a true deep dive on data—and a lot has changed. In this refreshed 2026 perspective, Amith…
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Anthropic’s Rapid Model Releases, GPT 5.6’s Gated Launch, and The Real AI Jobs Story | 141
Send us Fan Mail This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down a whirlwind week in AI, from Anthropic’s rapid-fire Claude releases…
Sidecar SyncArgentina, ARD, & AI’s Environmental Footprint | 140
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias explore one of the most provocative ideas in AI yet: companies owned and…
Sidecar SyncThe $400 AI Startup with Jon Cheney | 139
Send us Fan Mail What if building a million-dollar business no longer required a team, funding rounds, or even technical expertise? In this episode of Sidecar…
Sidecar SyncAI Solves an 80-Year Mystery, Microsoft Agents Take Over, & Anthropic’s Claude Mythos vs. Fable | 138
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith and Mallory explore three major developments shaping the future of AI. First, they unpack how an OpenAI…
Sidecar SyncThe 4 Modes of Working with AI, The Transformation Paradox, & Building a Learning Organization | 137
Send us Fan Mail In this jam-packed “mini” episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down a whirlwind of recent AI model releases—from Anthropic…
Sidecar SyncHow AI Is Changing Scientific Publishing with Dr. Jessica Miles | 136
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias welcomes Dr. Jessica Miles, founder of The Informed Frontier, former VP of Strategy and…
Sidecar SyncProactive Gemini Workflows, AI Mode’s Search Overhaul, & Antigravity-Powered Wearables | 135
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack Google I/O 2026 and what it signals for the future of AI-powered…
Sidecar SyncEnterprise Platforms Prepare for AI Agents & Diffusion LLMs Prove Their Production Value | 134
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dig into two major shifts happening beneath the surface of AI: how…
Sidecar SyncDark Databases & the State of AI Video | 133
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dig into the hidden world of “dark databases”—messy, undocumented systems…
Sidecar SyncClaude's Design Coup & The Curse of Work Slop | 132
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into Anthropic’s latest moves with Claude Opus 4.7 and the new Claude…
Sidecar SyncHow Siri’s Co-Creator Predicts the Next AI Wave with Adam & Noah Cheyer | 131
Send us Fan Mail What happens when you put a Siri co-creator and longtime AI pioneer together with a next-generation events strategist? Adam Cheyer—co-creator…
Sidecar SyncThe Little AI Models That Could | 130
Send us Fan Mail This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias trace one of the biggest stories in AI: how cutting-edge intelligence keeps…
Sidecar SyncAn FBI Operative’s Guide to Cybersecurity, Deepfakes, and Modern Spycraft with Eric O’Neill | 129
Send us Fan Mail In this interview edition of Sidecar Sync, Mallory sits down with Eric O’Neill—former FBI counterintelligence operative, attorney…
Sidecar SyncThe Claude Mythos Leak & the Reality of Computer-Using Agents | 128
Send us Fan Mail This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack a whirlwind of Claude news, from Anthropic’s accidental “Mythos” leak and…
Sidecar SyncA New Era of AI Education with the ‘AI Learning Hub’ & The Rise of OpenClaw | 127
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into the explosive rise of OpenClaw—an open-source AI agent…
Sidecar SyncMeet Grace: Sidecar’s New AI Agent Takes the Stage | 126
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias pull back the curtain on one of Sidecar’s most ambitious experiments yet…
Sidecar SyncAI Agents Shake Up the Software Market, Cybersecurity's Arms Race, & Future-Proofing Your Stack | 125
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack three major developments shaping the AI landscape for associations…
Sidecar SyncThe State of AI Agents in 2026 | 124
Send us Fan Mail In this special solo edition of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias unpacks Anthropic’s 2026 State of AI Agents report and translates what it…
Sidecar SyncAgent Tollgates & MCP Mayhem: Who Really Owns Your Data? | 123
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Sidecar Sync, Mallory and Amith dive deep into two seismic shifts rocking the AI landscape for associations: the rise…
Sidecar SyncThe Maia 200 Breakthrough, Project Genie’s Living Worlds, & The New Rules of Work | 122
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias zoom out to explore the AI infrastructure quietly reshaping everything…
Sidecar SyncFrom Deep Learning Indaba to Algorithmic Sovereignty with Benjamin Rosman | 121
Send us Fan Mail If you think the future of AI is being decided only in Silicon Valley or Beijing, this conversation will stretch your perspective. Amith…
Sidecar SyncKimi K2.5’s Swarm of Agents, Claude Goes Vertical, and AI Data Centers in Space | 120
Send us Fan Mail In this high-octane episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith and Mallory cover an ambitious trio of AI developments with massive implications for…
Sidecar SyncFrom White House Strategy to Youth Safety Tools: Navigating AI’s Risks and Rewards with Bruce Reed | 119
Send us Fan Mail What do AI companions, deepfakes, and White House briefings have in common? Bruce Reed. In this episode, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan…
Sidecar SyncGlobal Gaps in AI Use & What Happens When Capital Doesn’t Need Labor? | 118
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan unpack two powerful narratives shaping our AI future: the surprising…
Sidecar SyncThe Physical AI Moment: Dispatches from CES 2026 | 117
Send us Fan Mail CES 2026 brought the heat—and the robots. In this episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down the biggest stories from the Consumer…
Sidecar SyncThe 95% Problem: Fixing What’s Broken in Enterprise AI | 116
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dig into the startling findings of a recent MIT study: 95% of enterprise…
Sidecar SyncThe New Year AI Checkup: What We Got Right in 2025 and What’s Coming in 2026 | 115
Send us Fan Mail In this annual predictions spectacular, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias kick off 2026 by looking back at how well their 2025 AI forecasts…
Sidecar SyncSupersonic Moments: The NFL’s Flight Problem & 100 Trillion Tokens | 114
Send us Fan Mail In this special holiday edition of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unwrap two stories that feel wildly different—but point to…
Sidecar SyncDomain-Specific AI : How Legal, Medical, and Engineering Are Being Reimagined | 113
Send us Fan Mail Domain-specific AI is having its ‘main character’ moment—and Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias break down three sharp examples. They unpack…
Sidecar SyncCulture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: AI & Legal Relevance with Ernie the Attorney | 112
Send us Fan Mail In this eye-opening episode, Mallory Mejias sits down with Ernie Svenson—better known as Ernie the Attorney—to talk tech, tradition, and the…
Sidecar SyncThe November Model Wave: DeepSeek 3.2, Gemini 3, Claude 4.5, Mistral 3, and OpenAI's Code Red Moment | 111
Send us Fan Mail This week on Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan unpack one of the most explosive weeks in AI so far—from the stunning debut of…
Sidecar SyncClaiming the Right to Win: How IFT Built CoDeveloper with Jay Gilbert | 110
Send us Fan Mail When an association with 85 years of food science knowledge decides to launch an AI product, what happens? In this episode, Mallory Mejias…
Sidecar SyncThe Race for AI Speed, Efficiency, & Infrastructure: Haiku 4.5, Diffusion Models, & Project Suncatcher | 109
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan dive into three high-octane AI developments reshaping the landscape of…
Sidecar SyncLive from digitalNow 2025: Inside the Association Evolution | 108
Send us Fan Mail Live from digitalNow 2025 in Chicago, this special edition of Sidecar Sync brings together voices from across the association world, sharing…
Sidecar SyncDolphins & DeepMind: Cracking the Code of Animal Language with Dr. Denise Herzing | 107
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias is joined by marine biologist and behavioral researcher Dr. Denise Herzing for a one-of-a-kind…
Sidecar SyncWhat to Expect at digitalNow 2025 & the App That Picks Your Sessions (Built Live!) | 106
Send us Fan Mail In this solo episode, Mallory Mejias takes the reins to unveil what digitalNow 2025 reveals about the current state of AI in…
Sidecar SyncRethinking UX for the 50+ Crowd with Bryan Kelly | 105
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mallory Mejias sits down with UX and content strategy expert Bryan Kelly to explore how the longevity economy—a massive shift…
Sidecar SyncWuji’s Gripping Breakthrough, AI Literacy Goes Mandatory, & The AI Adoption Divide | 104
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan dive into three seemingly distinct but tightly connected topics: a…
Sidecar SyncDevDay 2025: No-Code App Development, ChatGPT Pulse, & The Trillion Dollar Infrastructure Play | 103
Send us Fan Mail This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive deep into OpenAI’s biggest moves of the year—starting with how ChatGPT has…
Sidecar SyncClaude Sonnet 4.5 Redefines Workflows, Sora 2 Transforms Video, & Early Movers Build the Future | 102
Send us Fan Mail In this jam-packed episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias tackle five cutting-edge AI developments, all (mostly)…
Sidecar SyncScaling AI for Social Good with Wadhwani AI | 101
Send us Fan Mail In this special interview edition of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias sits down with Shekar Sivasubramanian, Head of the Wadhwani Institute for…
Sidecar Sync100 Episodes Later: A Look Back at What We’ve Learned—and What’s Coming | 100
Send us Fan Mail In this special 100th episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias take a celebratory stroll down memory lane…
Sidecar SyncWhen Influencers Disrupt Institutions with Jackson Boyar | 99
Send us Fan Mail Is the future of associations being rewritten by influencers? In this episode, Mallory Mejias is joined by Jackson Boyar, co-founder and CEO…