Shows / The Disruption Lab
The Disruption Lab
Step into the world of innovation with The Disruption Lab live podcast, where groundbreaking ideas and strategic insights come to life. Hosted by Kevin McGinnis and filmed in front of a live studio audience at Keystone Sessions, each episode brings you face-to-face with the visionaries reshaping industries and pioneering new paths in entrepreneurship. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, innovator, or professional eager to fuel your growth and unlock strategic collaboration, The Disruption Lab…
Episodes
- The Disruption Lab
The Hidden Global Industry: Why Kansas City Is Secretly Designing the World
Kansas City firms helped design 27 of 30 NFL stadiums, every 2026 World Cup venue and nearly a quarter of the world’s power systems. So why is KC’s biggest…
- The Disruption Lab
Kansas City Spent Years Preparing to Welcome the World. It Was Already Here.
Kansas City spent years preparing to welcome the world for the World Cup. Jessica Hong arrived as chief curator of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in the…
- The Disruption Lab
Farmers Grow 60% More Corn Than in 1974. They Keep 75% Less of It.
In 1974, Iowa farmers averaged 125 bushels of corn an acre and cleared about $80 on it. Fifty years later, yields are up 60%, and the return is $20. Jason…
- The Disruption Lab
There’s a Hospital Bed for the Child. Where’s the Bed for the Mom?
When a child gets a life-altering diagnosis, the hospital has a bed waiting. For the parent who drove through the night from Dodge City or Joplin, or got put…
- The Disruption Lab
She Sews for Super Bowl Halftime Shows; Then She Moved the Work to Kansas City.
For ten years, Paige Beltowski traveled with her sewing machines in her checked bags. She built costumes for Star Wars, Marvel, 1923, and Super Bowl halftime…
- The Disruption Lab
Kansas City Didn't Leave Out Its African Entrepreneurs. It Didn't Know They Existed.
What happens when a city's entrepreneurs aren't excluded from the economy, just invisible to it? On this episode of The Disruption Lab, recorded live in front…
- The Disruption Lab
Building a Business That Heals a Community
Troost Avenue is Kansas City's most infamous boundary — a redlining border named for a man who enslaved six people, and the same line congressional maps are…
- The Disruption Lab
The Masks Weren't the Business, The People Sewing Them Were
In March 2020, John Pryor was standing in a furniture studio he'd just spent a year renovating, watching his business teeter. He launched a face-mask line…
- The Disruption Lab
What the Network Enables (Part II)
Infrastructure without application strategy is just real estate with electricity. Sprint launched America’s first 4G network — and still lost the 4G era to the…
- The Disruption Lab
How Kansas City Won a World Cup It Wasn't Supposed to Get
Kansas City is the 33rd-largest metro area in America. It was competing against host cities ranked in the top fifteen nationally and it won anyway. Then FIFA…
- The Disruption Lab
The New Geography of Growth
Every era of economic growth organized around a connectivity infrastructure — water, rail, air, compute. The cities at the nodes captured generational value…
- The Disruption Lab
The Labor Shortage Is a Lie: How Two Immigrant Founders Built a 96% Retention Company
Reda came to Kansas City from Egypt with almost no English and a fear of heights and took a roofing job anyway. Elvis, a Nigerian immigrant and former R&D…
- The Disruption Lab
She Ran a $14M Beauty Department, Then Watched It Shut Black Founders Out
Montré Moore spent years managing a $14 million prestige cosmetics department at Neiman Marcus watching brand founders get shut out by red tape, gatekeeping…
- The Disruption Lab
You Can't Eat IRR: Why Venture Capital's Economics Are Broken
Venture capital loves to talk about returns, but what happens when the returns stop coming? Johnny, a venture investor who has deployed capital inside a $20…
- The Disruption Lab
She Grew Up Homeless in Lykins. Now She's Building Homes There
Rosana grew up in Kansas City's Lykins neighborhood, where she experienced housing insecurity as a single mother working double shifts to keep her kids afloat…
- The Disruption Lab
Easy To Work With
The difference between having standards and settling. Ecosystem building looks like collaboration from the outside everyone aligned, everyone winning together…
- The Disruption Lab
How One Attorney Turned a Broken Divorce System Into an Operating System for Families
Trina spent nearly two decades as a foster care social worker, then an attorney, watching families get "finalized" by the court system and then abandoned to…
- The Disruption Lab
The Chemical Keeping Your Fridge Cold Just Got Banned; Here's What Happens Next
There's a chemical in nearly every building, car, and grocery store in America and the world just agreed to phase it out. On this episode of The Disruption…
- The Disruption Lab
The Judge and the Data Scientist Rebuilding Justice From the Inside
Courtney hears 200 domestic violence cases a day. She has six months to work with, structurally, the maximum sentence her municipal court can impose, and she's…
- The Disruption Lab
85% Want Help. 5% Get It. This Founder Duo Is Closing the Gap.
Brandon has survived 12 strokes. Lindsay has been his care partner for 15 years. Together, they're the founders of Beyond This — a company that didn't exist 90…
- The Disruption Lab
11 Years and Counting: The Creative Chief Who Outlasted His Own Rule
After building some of advertising's most iconic campaigns — Sonic's "two guys," Southwest's "Now Free to Move" — Brian walked away from agency life to become…
- The Disruption Lab
From Haute Couture to Kombucha: How One Founder Is Growing the Future of Fashion
Nadia trained in haute couture at the Paris American Academy, the kind of centuries-old, precision-driven craftsmanship the fashion world has run on for…
- The Disruption Lab
The Innovation Nobody Can Measure
Why do the most promising innovation programs inside big companies keep getting killed — even when they're working? Host Kevin McGinnis shares the story of…
- The Disruption Lab
The Logistics Hub Hiding in Plain Sight: How Kansas City Quietly Powers America
Most people hear "Kansas City" and think warehouses and highways. That's about 10% of the real story. In this episode, Kevin sits down with Chris Gutierrez…
- The Disruption Lab
AI Broke the Grid; Nuclear Is How We Fix It
Everyone keeps saying nuclear is "having a moment." But Kevin McGinnis has heard that before — and this time, the pressure isn't coming from where you'd…
- The Disruption Lab
Designed, Not Counted
What if the thing everyone agrees we need more of is the thing that matters least? In this solo episode of The Disruption Lab, host Kevin McGinnis turns a…
- The Disruption Lab
Ideas Are Cheap; This Is What Actually Builds a City
Jeff spent fifteen years inside one of America's most celebrated startup ecosystems. Then he left Austin for Kansas City — to run a program handing out $20,000…
- The Disruption Lab
Doing Well by Doing Good: The Lesson That Took 15 Years to Land
This is a different kind of episode. Every solo I've done has been about a framework — a thesis, a system, an argument. This one is about a person. Dan Hesse…
- The Disruption Lab
The Kids Who Never Got to Practice: How VR Is Teaching Social Skills Schools Forgot to Teach
For decades, social skills training in schools meant one thing: a teacher singling out a student in front of their peers to practice something they don't yet…
- The Disruption Lab
The Hidden Influencers: What Analysts Know, What AI Just Changed, and What It Really Costs to Build Something Worth Stepping Away From
Andrew Hsu spent more than a decade building Spotlight, a market intelligence and analyst relations firm that helped some of the most recognized names in…
- The Disruption Lab
The Corporate Antibody: How Big Companies Kill Innovation (And What Actually Works)
Every Fortune 500 company says they want to work with startups. Almost none of them actually can. The problem isn't intention. It's infrastructure. When a…
- The Disruption Lab
The Quiet Revolution: Why Animal Health Is America's Overlooked Superpower
Most people don't realize that the food on their table and the medicine keeping their pets alive flow through a system few understand. Kim Young, President of…
- The Disruption Lab
The Growth That Counts
Why high-growth entrepreneurship is a different kind of economic infrastructure — and why most regions don’t have a strategy for it. I recently published an…
- The Disruption Lab
They Were Wrong by 50% Every Time — Inside the Invisible Crisis Running America's Food Supply Chain
Across agriculture, mining, and construction, billion-dollar supply chains still run on a phone call and a guess. Someone walks outside, eyeballs a pile of…
- The Disruption Lab
From the Capitol to the Startup: Why a State Senator Quit Politics to Fund Founders
Travis Fitzwater spent 12 years in the Missouri legislature building the policy infrastructure behind the state's innovation economy — the Right to Start Act…
- The Disruption Lab
The Mayor Who Refuses to Play Small: Rebuilding Trust in an Underestimated City
What does it take to lead a community that's spent decades being treated like a stepchild? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, host Kevin McGinnis sits down…
- The Disruption Lab
Inside the Food Access Model Cities Are Getting Wrong: Corner Stores, Redlining, and Feeding a City
Most people who see a broken food system either accept it or complain about it. Max Kaniger did something different — he walked into 70 corner stores and got…
- The Disruption Lab
Stop Calling It Charity. Affordable Housing Is Infrastructure.
What if everything you think you know about homelessness is wrong? Forty to fifty percent of people experiencing homelessness in America are employed. They're…
- The Disruption Lab
The Money Isn’t the Problem
Everyone assumes that underinvested communities, early-stage ecosystems, and emerging innovation hubs need more money. More grants. More venture. More…
- The Disruption Lab
From Grammy Stages to Kansas City Creative Economy
Jo Blaq left Kansas City because the infrastructure for a music career didn't exist. He went to LA, built one anyway — Grammy nominations, Ariana Grande…
- The Disruption Lab
The Bottleneck Is Never What You Think It Is
After 50+ conversations on The Disruption Lab, one pattern keeps surfacing: the thing that slows down innovation is almost never the technology. It’s the…
- The Disruption Lab
95% of It Goes Through China — And We Can't Do Anything About It
The U.S. offshored its critical minerals processing decades ago. Now 95% of the world's nickel runs through China — regardless of where it comes out of the…
- The Disruption Lab
The #1 Bottleneck in Drug Development Isn’t Science
Why do new drugs and medical breakthroughs take so long to reach real people? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Kyle McAllister, founder…
- The Disruption Lab
The Overlooked Mental Health Barrier No One Talks About: Pets, Trauma & A 100% Return-Home Solutionn
What if one of the biggest barriers to escaping abuse or entering mental health treatment wasn’t money, fear, or access? In this live episode of The Disruption…
- The Disruption Lab
Building in Public: How Radical Transparency Is Changing Real Estate, Cities, and Power
What if the fastest way to build better cities wasn’t behind closed doors—but out in the open? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Zach…
- The Disruption Lab
What Happens to Work When AI Knows Almost Everything? (And What That Means for You)
What happens to work, dignity, and human purpose in a world where AI can write, diagnose, advise, and automate faster than most people ever could? In this…
- The Disruption Lab
Building Autonomy and AI for National Security in Kansas City
Artificial intelligence and autonomy are no longer future concepts in national security—they’re shaping real-world decisions, operations, and outcomes today…
- The Disruption Lab
If Your Team Isn’t Listening, It’s Not Them—It’s This One Leadership Mistake
We have more ways to communicate than ever… so why does it feel like nobody is actually hearing each other? In this live episode of The Disruption Lab, Kevin…
- The Disruption Lab
The Truth About Gentrification: Can Development Help Without Displacement?
What if gentrification isn’t the real problem? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, host Kevin McGinnis sits down with Erik Murray, founder of Eastside…
- The Disruption Lab
From Grants to Growth: How KC GIFT Is Rewriting the Rules of Economic Development
What happens when community capital and culture move in lockstep? In this live episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Brandon Calloway to unpack how…
- The Disruption Lab
AI Isn’t Killing Us—We Are: How to Use Robots Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Community)
Are robots and AI actually making us smarter—or just outsourcing our brains? In this conversation with John McElligott, we unpack why technology isn’t the…
- The Disruption Lab
The Power of People: How Benny Lee Built Global Companies—and a Legacy of Giving
What does it take to build a life — and a legacy — from scratch? In this live episode of The Disruption Lab, Kevin McGinnis sits down with Benny Lee, engineer…
- The Disruption Lab
Smart Cities 101: How Tech, Safety & Equity Are Redefining Urban Life
What if a city could completely reimagine how technology shapes daily life—not just for convenience, but for public safety, economic growth, and citizen trust?…
- The Disruption Lab
Inside the Nation’s First Wellness Court - From Punishment to Possibility
What if “public safety” didn’t start with punishment—but with support? In this episode, Judge Courtney pulls back the curtain on how a municipal court in…
- The Disruption Lab
The Viral Razor from Shark Tank: How Go Nuts Is Changing Men’s Grooming Forever
What happens when you take a taboo topic, flip the script, and turn it into a global lifestyle brand? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, Craig Moore sits…
- The Disruption Lab
Turning 381 Million Tons of Plastic Waste Into Fashion: The Salubata Story
Can sneakers really solve plastic pollution? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, guest host Craig Moore sits down with Yewande Akinse, co-founder and COO of…
- The Disruption Lab
The Future of Voting: Can Civic Tech and AI Save Democracy?
Can technology actually rebuild trust in democracy—or is it just making things worse? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Mychal Shaw…
- The Disruption Lab
From Wall Street Dreams to Regenerating Cities: How Capital Can Heal Communities and the Planet
This week on The Disruption Lab, we dive into the question: What if money could do more than just make profit? What if it could restore communities and…
- The Disruption Lab
The Startup Taking On the Autism Resource Crisis (And Winning)
When Antoinette’s children were diagnosed with autism—four years apart—she was handed the same outdated “resource packet” both times. Nothing had changed…
- The Disruption Lab
How a Streetcar, a Park, and a Crazy Idea Changed a Whole City
What does it really take to turn a struggling downtown into a vibrant, diverse, and connected economic engine? In this episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit…