Power & Impact

In this week's Power & Impact, I spoke with Dr. Nathan Bryan, a scientist whose life's work centers on a molecule that most of us have never heard of — but one he believes may hold important clues to how we age and why we get sick. Nitric oxide helps regulate blood flow, oxygen delivery, and cellular communication throughout the body. Dr. Bryan says we produce plenty of it when we're young, but much less as we get older. He believes that decline may contribute to many of the conditions we associate with aging, from cardiovascular disease to diminished energy and cognitive performance. Our conversation explores why modern medicine often focuses on treating disease after it appears rather than preventing it in the first place. Dr. Bryan argues that many of the habits we've come to accept as normal — from what we eat to how we care for our oral health — may have unintended consequences for our long-term well-being. He also shares the research that led him from a university laboratory to founding his own company in an effort to bring those discoveries to a broader audience. Whether you agree with all of Dr. Bryan's conclusions or not, I think you'll find this conversation thought-provoking. After all, progress often begins when someone is willing to question conventional wisdom and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

In this week's episode of Power & Impact, I sat down with William Villanova, president of the iconic Frank E. Campbell funeral home in New York City. After more than 25 years in funeral service, William has guided families through some of life's most difficult moments while helping preserve traditions that have endured across generations. Our conversation explored how those rituals are adapting to a changing world. Technology now allows services to reach loved ones across continents, but the purpose remains the same: creating a space where people can come together and honor a life. If anything, the disruptions of the pandemic reinforced how deeply people need those moments of connection. We also discussed a subject many of us tend to put off indefinitely: planning for the end of life. We make plans for our careers, our finances, and our families, yet often avoid conversations about our own wishes, leaving loved ones to make difficult decisions without guidance. William has seen how powerful those conversations can be. Far from being morbid, they can provide clarity, reduce uncertainty, and reflect what matters most to us. In that sense, preparing for the inevitable is less about death than it is about giving a final gift to the people we leave behind.

In this episode of _Power & Impact_, Eric Ries, creator of Lean Startup, joins Jim McCann to reveal why even the most successful businesses can lose sight of the core values that first propelled them to greatness—insights found in his new book, Incorruptible. From Costco and Johnson & Johnson to AI, venture capital, Wall Street pressure, and the future of leadership, Eric breaks down the hidden forces that push companies toward short-term thinking, corruption, and cultural collapse. He explains why metrics can become dangerous, why trust is disappearing in modern business, and why the next generation of leaders must rethink what success actually means. The conversation takes a fascinating turn into artificial intelligence, where Eric warns that society may be moving faster than it understands — and why the world could be headed toward a "Chernobyl moment" for AI if innovation outpaces responsibility.

In this week's Power & Impact, I speak with John Donovan, the former CEO of AT&T Communications, about what it takes to lead when technology is changing the ground beneath your feet. John had a front-row seat to some of the most important technological shifts of the past several decades, including the rise of fiber communications, smartphones, and cloud computing. One of his most important insights is that real innovation happens when an idea reaches customers at the right time and helps them do something better. That lesson feels especially relevant today. As AI reshapes the workplace, leaders cannot promise that every job will stay the same. What we can do is invest in people, help them learn, and build cultures where curiosity and continuous improvement are part of the daily rhythm. John offers a simple formula: Try to do your job a little better each day, do something kind for a teammate without expecting credit, and steal a little time each day to get better. Change may be unavoidable, but how we meet it is still up to us. As John says, the future will belong not only to those who understand the technology, but also those who keep learning and bringing others along.

In this week's Power & Impact, I sit down with Kelly Williamson, a senior leader at the global advisory firm APCO to talk about what actually sustains a career and a company when the world keeps rewriting the rules. Kelly shares her path from intern to executive at APCO, and why trust and relationships have mattered more than any five-year plan. We talk about leading through uncertainty, navigating AI and geopolitical change, and why empathy, values, and critical thinking are no longer soft now essential leadership skills but soft ones. The discussion spans the future of work, the disappearance of traditional entry-level roles, and what young people need to learn now for jobs that don't yet exist. Kelly explains how organizations make decisions under pressure, why trust has to be built before a crisis hits, and how leaders who stay grounded in values are better equipped to guide teams through disruption. If you're leading a team, hiring talent, or rethinking what a "career path" even looks like today, this conversation offers clarity and a reminder that in a fast-moving world, relationships still matter most.

Crypto and blockchain come up everywhere these days — at work, in the news, in conversations that seem to assume everyone else already understands what's going on. If you don't, you're not alone. In this episode of Power & Impact, I sat down with two people I trust and learn from: Agnes Budzyn, founder of Bluedge Ventures, and David Schamis, co-founder and CIO of Atlas Merchant Capital. Both have spent years inside the world of crypto, and both are unusually good at explaining it without hype or jargon. What struck me most is how practical the conversation became. This isn't about get-rich-quick stories. It's about how money moves, how trust is created, and how new financial "rails" are being built outside the systems we've relied on for decades. We talked about why stablecoins matter, the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum, and how blockchain works as a shared, transparent record. We also touch on why banks and governments that once dismissed crypto are now taking it seriously. If you're curious about crypto but don't quite understand it, you're exactly who this episode is for. Think of it as a thoughtful walk through a complicated subject, with an eye toward what's real, what's noise, and what might shape the future of finance in the years ahead.

In this week's episode of Power & Impact, I sit down with Azeem Azhar, a leading expert on the rapid growth of technology, to explore how acceleration itself is shaping the way we work and make decisions. As AI becomes part of everyday life, its influence now extends well beyond business, reaching into education, family life, and the expectations we place on institutions. Azeem's perspective is shaped by an education at Oxford and years spent studying how technological progress compounds over time. He explains why change often feels sudden, even when it's been building for years, and why the pace we're experiencing today is closer to exponential than linear. We discuss what this shift means in practical terms, from AI-native companies redefining work to the growing importance of adaptability and judgment for young people entering the workforce. This episode offers a clear-eyed look at how to stay oriented in a world that keeps speeding up, and how to lead with intention when the future refuses to move in a straight line.