Shows / The Trending Communicator
The Trending Communicator
In today's hyper-accelerated communications world, keeping up means juggling reputation, brand building, crisis management, storytelling, and more while adapting to new technologies like generative AI. The Trending Communicator, hosted by Dan Nestle, is your guide through this chaotic landscape. This podcast dives into the challenges of PR, communications, and marketing today, with experts sharing real stories and strategies for overcoming those challenges and more. It's the perfect resource…
Episodes
The Trending CommunicatorAI Changes How, When, and Where Work Gets Done - with Cali Williams Yost
When a company buys the licenses, posts the training videos, schedules a few lunch-and-learns, and then waits for productivity to show up, who is actually…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy Thought Leadership Deserves to Be a Discipline - with Bill Sherman
What if the phrase that makes so many of us wince was misunderstood from the start? For most people who use it, "thought leader" describes an output: a book, a…
The Trending CommunicatorDefy Organizational Gravity with Synthetic Personas - with Dr. Matt Wilkinson
What happens to a customer's words between the research readout and the campaign launch? Usually they survive in meaning and die in language. Every review…
The Trending CommunicatorThe Profession That Makes Everyone Else Look Great - with Heather Campbell
Try this at your next industry conference: ask a communicator when they last looked at a piece of work and said "that was good," and stopped there. No "but."…
The Trending CommunicatorAuthority Intelligence Is Built for People, GEO is for Brands - with Erin Lanuti
Who handles generative engine optimization for you? Not for your company - for you. A brand has an answer to that question: a team, a vendor, a budget line, a…
The Trending CommunicatorThe Research PR Couldn't Afford Until AI - with Rich Gallagher
Somewhere along the way, PR research came to mean a survey reverse-engineered to confirm whatever the client had already decided to say. Real research, the…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy Human Conversation is the OS for AI - with Sarah Neely
Can you build word of mouth on purpose? Few people are better equipped to answer it than Sarah Neely. She's spent two decades engineering the conversations…
The Trending CommunicatorYou're the Top of the AI Sandwich - with Brian Piper and Matt Wilkinson
If AI writes a better prompt than you can now, what are you still being paid for? In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle is joined by…
The Trending CommunicatorAI Forward, Not AI First - with Brian McHale
Plenty of companies have bolted AI onto how they already work and called it transformation. Far fewer have rebuilt the business around it. In this episode of…
The Trending CommunicatorOpen your AI Authenticity Loop - with Allison Shapira
Authenticity might be the most abused word in business today. Every AI tool promises to preserve it. Every leadership guru sells it as a brand pillar. And the…
The Trending CommunicatorThe AI-Enabled Archivist and the End of Corporate Amnesia - with Jason Dressel
Companies are racing to stuff AI into everything. They're also throwing away the only thing that would make their AI actually useful. Decades of institutional…
The Trending CommunicatorYour Adult Brain Is Your Last Unfair Advantage - with Dr. Michael Netzley
The story you've been told about your aging brain is wrong. Strategic attention peaks in your late 50s. Innovative cognition in your early 60s. Integrative…
The Trending CommunicatorJudgment Is the New Advantage - with Bo Breuklander
AI transformation isn't a strategy problem. It's a leadership problem. And until CEOs and boards stop asking for an AI strategy and start asking for a change…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy AI Risk Is a Communications Problem Now - with Alec Crawford
You don't roll out AI. It's not an ERP system. And yet most organizations are still treating it like a procurement decision, reaching for governance frameworks…
The Trending CommunicatorOrganic Isn't Dead, You Just Stopped Talking to People – with Dorien Morin-van Dam
People keep writing obituaries for organic content. And every time, communicators chase the paid shortcuts instead of doing the work. Now, as AI-generated…
The Trending CommunicatorNaming is Storytelling, Just Harder - with Scott Milano
Everyone thinks they can name things. Toss some words around in a brainstorm, pick the one that sounds right, hope it passes trademark. But naming done right…
The Trending CommunicatorAI Can't Call You Back - with Jennifer Kaplan
What if sustainable growth isn't about becoming the biggest player in the market? Agencies triple in size and lose their soul. They chase national footprints…
The Trending CommunicatorStockholm Syndrome in PR: The Boutique Uprising - with Barrie Cohen
Does PR have Stockholm syndrome? We're held captive by every disruption that promises to kill us—internet, social media, now AI—and what do we do? Fall in love…
The Trending CommunicatorThe Art and Science of Earned Attention - with Stephanie Grober
Authority-building has entered a new era—visibility hinges on context and credibility, and your expertise must be discoverable not just to humans but to…
The Trending CommunicatorAI Debates The Future of Comms - with NotebookLM
**NotebookLM HAS TAKEN OVER THE TRENDING COMMUNICATOR. AGAIN.** Generative AI is shaking up the world of communications—and the debate is on. In this special…
The Trending CommunicatorAI Transformation, or AI Theater? - with Anne Green
Companies love to talk about AI transformation. They've created policies, distributed tools, checked boxes. But behind closed doors, overwhelmed employees are…
The Trending CommunicatorStop Treating AI Like an ERP Implementation - with Chris Gee
Companies keep approaching AI the way they approached every other tech rollout: install it, train on it, expect immediate returns. But AI isn't software. It's…
The Trending CommunicatorWhen Communications Can't Close the Values Gap - with Emil Hill
You can't communicate your way out of a values problem. Yet every day, communications leaders are expected to do precisely that. In this episode of The…
The Trending CommunicatorHow AI Changes Your Customers and Why You Must Change Too - with Mark Schaefer
Your customers are changing because of AI. But so are you—whether you realize it or not. Host Dan Nestle welcomes back Mark Schaefer, whose new book How AI…
The Trending CommunicatorExpertise is Not Authority: Authority is the Expertise People Seek You Out For - with Amanda Russell
You can be the smartest person in the room, but if no one knows you or your point of view, you don't have authority. This "authority gap" is why most…
The Trending CommunicatorBeyond the Seat at the Table: Leading Corporate Affairs at Scale - with Megan Noel
What happens when the communications function stops being about messaging and starts being about business transformation? When your stakeholders include 10,000…
The Trending CommunicatorPlaystorm: Why Your CEO Needs to Get Dirty with AI - with Sandy Carter
MIT just dropped a bomb: 95% of corporate AI initiatives are failing. Not struggling. Failing. And Sandy Carter knows exactly why. In this episode of The…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy This Former CCO Became Your Comms BFF Instead - with Gab Ferree
Gab Ferree led global communications at Slack, Bumble, and OneTrust, reaching every traditional summit in our profession. Then she walked away to build Off The…
The Trending CommunicatorPR is Juggling Knives on Fire While Riding a Unicycle - with Abenaa Hayes
Can you juggle? If you're a communications pro today, you'd better learn how. Just when you think you've got a good rhythm going, someone tosses you another…
The Trending CommunicatorPR is a Leadership Strategy - with Kristel Valaydon
How many of us are stuck playing media relations hits-and-misses while the real opportunities to drive business transformation seem to be just out of reach? In…
The Trending CommunicatorThe Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes But AI Can Help - with Natalie Moran
We can navigate a crisis, position a CEO, and craft messaging for millions of people. So why do so many brilliant communications professionals struggle when it…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy Communicators Need to Think Like Operations Experts - with Lizabeth Wesely-Casella
What if empathy isn't just about being nice, but your secret weapon for building systems that actually work? Lizabeth Wesely-Casella, CEO of L12 Services…
The Trending CommunicatorYour Storytelling Genie is in an AI Bottle – with Park Howell
Here they are again—marketers and communicators worried that AI is about to eliminate storytelling altogether. But what if the exact opposite is happening?…
The Trending CommunicatorHarmonizing AI and Human-Centric Approaches in Business Transformation - with Kate Bullinger
Humans are in a tough spot right now. Seems like everyone's talking about AI disruption, how to "stay human," why humans will be more or less important, and on…
The Trending CommunicatorBeyond DEI: Redefining Cultural Communications - with Aleisia Gibson Wright
If you're thinking "cultural communications" is another way to say "DEI," you may want to broaden your perspective. Culture comms might just be the key to…
The Trending CommunicatorDisrupting Yourself Before AI Does - with Steve Rubel
How do we work with AI in a way that keeps the human part intact? Because while AI can handle the process, it’s still on us to bring the perspective, the…
The Trending CommunicatorChaos, AI, and the Future of Work - with Emanuel Rose
Is AI a miracle, heralding an age of invention, or the harbinger of a dystopian civilizational collapse? The rise of short-form video on social platforms -…
The Trending CommunicatorFrom Clinton's Wrath to AI's Rise: Navigating through the Perma-crisis - with Elie Jacobs
Are we going in the right direction as communicators? In an era of dramatic policy shifts, cultural upheaval, and a fractured media landscape, how do we trudge…
The Trending CommunicatorDistinctive Discoverability: Search Rules the Reputation Roost - with Rob Jekielek
Faced with today's fractured mess of audiences and media, it's tempting to unleash a deluge of content and overwhelm social channels with content, hoping to…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy Audits Should Delight Communicators - with Lynn Zimmerman
If change is inevitable, why are we typically so bad at managing it? As businesses navigate digital shifts, mergers, and AI advancements, one crucial group…
The Trending CommunicatorFrom Alexa to Agentic AI: Conversational AI and the Future of Brand Communication - with Susan and Scott Westwater
As AI disrupts and reshapes our interactions with brands and people alike, how do we genuinely connect with the voices around us? Conversational AI challenges…
The Trending CommunicatorThe Rise of the Multidimensional Communicator - with Jim O'Leary
The future of communications is fractured, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. How can leaders navigate this new landscape where audiences are scattered…
The Trending CommunicatorFractured Reality or Real Opportunity: With AI, It Can Go Either Way - with Martin Waxman
Is AI the superglue that can repair our fractured media universe? Or is it just another tool that could further splinter our audiences? In this episode of The…
The Trending CommunicatorReinventing Newsrooms: AI as Friend, Not Foe - with Pete Pachal
Is AI the savior or the destroyer of journalism? As media outlets grapple with dwindling trust and audiences, could artificial intelligence be the key to…
The Trending CommunicatorThe Future of Work is Community (with a touch of AI) - with Ashley Dennison
Over the last few years, at least since 2020, in the marketing and communications professions, remote work has become more of the norm than the exception…
The Trending CommunicatorAI TAKES CONTROL OF THE TRENDING COMMUNICATOR - with Google NotebookLM
NOTEBOOK LM HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF THE TRENDING COMMUNICATOR. EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS IS AI-GENERATED. Are you ready to supercharge your communication skills for…
The Trending CommunicatorSpin sucks, The PESO Model is the answer, and AI can help - with Gini Dietrich
Walk into any PR conference these days, and it's all but guaranteed that you'll see a session or two about how communicators can effect real business impact…
The Trending CommunicatorDown with Fluff: Executive Storytelling in the AI Era - with Anuneha Mewawalla
I think it's fair to say that most of us in communications and marketing, at one point or another (and probably recently), have been accused of the most awful…
The Trending CommunicatorUnlocking the Communications Career Cage - with Emily York
How many times have you heard that career paths in PR and Communications are full of options and opportunities? Maybe that's true when you're just getting…
The Trending CommunicatorCorporate Culture Disruption in the AI Era - with Pinaki Kathiari
Take a look at any job description today--either in your organization or posted to a job board--and you might notice that it's not entirely accurate…
The Trending CommunicatorEQ, AI, and the Influential Communicator - with Deirdre Breakenridge
So many of us--especially communicators--struggle to make the case when it counts. Sure, you may have all the facts at your fingertips, and there's no doubt…
The Trending CommunicatorWhy Business-Savvy Communicators Can Lead in the Age of AI - with David Albritton
What do corporate communications leaders know about the businesses they serve? Chances are they know quite a lot. They know the stories, the narratives, and…
The Trending CommunicatorWeird Unicorns, AI, and the TBD Career: The Future of Work - with David Armano
Is it wrong to be future-focused in your career? At what price should you pursue innovation or push boundaries in your organization? Are you aware that there…
The Trending CommunicatorHow AI is Changing the Content Dynamic (And What We Should Do About It) - with Rob Davis
Let's face it, dealing with the future isn't something we can kick down the road. And at the intersection of people, technology, and brand, change is coming…
The Trending CommunicatorSpectacular Communications Requires Audacious Communicators - with Mark Schaefer
All of us know we're in an age of disruption. If you want to thrive and grow as a communicator or marketer, it's not AI you have to worry about. What should…
The Trending CommunicatorHow Communications Drives Organizational Health - with Ethan McCarty
Is the Communications function, as many in our profession claim, an organization's nerve center? Where messages and stories are the electric impulses that…
The Trending CommunicatorHow to Fight Digital Threats and Build a Culture of Trust - with Lisa Kaplan
Let's face it: it's getting worse out there. Trust in institutions, brands, and even people seems to be spiraling ever downward. What can we, as communicators…
The Trending CommunicatorBuilding and Leading the AI-Enabled Enterprise Comms Team - with Megan DiSciullo
For years, we've been talking about upgrading the communications function - or at least modernizing it, bringing comms into parity with their Marketing…
The Trending CommunicatorAI, Bots, and Disinformation, Oh My - with Rafi Mendelsohn
When your brand, company, country, or even you are the target of social media attacks, what if you can't even identify the source of the problem? What if the…
The Trending CommunicatorAI Recipes, Critical Thinking, and the Imperfect Human - with Kami Huyse
Is AI the greatest gift ever for lazy people? I've often said that if you want to find a better way to do something, ask a lazy person. Laziness, as it turns…