A Journalist’s Guide to AI helps journalists, PR pros and media creators use AI without losing their voice.
Hosted by professor and coach Yumi Wilson, each episode offers practical tips, real prompts, and ethical strategies using tools like ChatGPT, Otter.ai, and Perplexity.
Learn how to write smarter, research faster, and stay human in a tech-driven world.
Produced in partnership with Saspod. Subscribe for weekly insights that keep you sharp, creative, and ahead of the curve.
Local News, AI and the Fight for Trust | Eric Johnston
AI isn’t just a technology story for journalism. It’s a leadership story, a business story and increasingly, a question of whether local news organizations can remain sustainable.
In this episode of A Journalist’s Guide to AI, Yumi Wilson talks with Eric Johnston, former CEO of Sonoma Media Investments, about what happens when AI enters an industry already dealing with shrinking margins, changing audience behavior, declining website traffic and growing challenges to public trust.
Eric has spent decades working through technological change in journalism, beginning as a photojournalist and eventually leading media organizations through digital transformation and acquisition.
He and Yumi discuss the rise of zero-click news, media literacy in an age of convincing AI-generated content, the economics of community journalism and why journalists should remain skeptical of AI without refusing to learn how to use it.
Eric also introduces LiquidAmber, an AI-powered platform that lets journalists search and interact with their publication’s archives, helping reporters uncover history, sources and context while keeping publishers in control of their content.
Topics include:
• AI and the economics of local journalism
• Zero-click search and declining referral traffic
• Trust, misinformation and media literacy
• Sustainable models for community news
• Using newsroom archives as a reporting resource
• LiquidAmber and AI-assisted research
• Privacy, hallucinations and human oversight
• Ethical boundaries for AI-generated journalism
• Why skepticism remains one of journalism’s greatest strengths
• Adaptability, curiosity and the next generation of journalists
Learn more
Eric Johnston on LinkedIn
LiquidAmber
California Press Foundation
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NOTE: AI tools, including Riverside and ChatGPT, were used for transcription and to help draft and edit these show notes. Final content was reviewed by Yumi Wilson.
7 Sept 2026
AI Agents, News, Regulation & Verification with Nat Rubio-Licht of The Deep View
What happens when AI tools move faster than the rules meant to govern them, and what does that mean for journalists?
Yumi Wilson talks with Nat Rubio-Licht, senior reporter at The Deep View, about AI safety, regulation, agents, misinformation and the growing pressure artificial intelligence is putting on news organizations.
Nat covers AI through the lenses of ethics, safety and accountability. She explains why journalists need to understand not only what these tools can do, but also what happens when AI agents gain access to data, systems and permissions, and why human judgment remains essential.
In this episode:
How AI agents can help and create new risks
Why regulation and oversight are struggling to keep pace
Permissions, data access and agent security
Zero-click search and what it means for publishers
Responsible uses of AI for reporting, research and transcription
Why journalists must verify AI-generated claims and sources
The takeaway:
AI can help journalists work faster, but it cannot take responsibility for the work. Journalists still have to check sources, challenge outputs, protect sensitive information and make the final judgment.
About Nat Rubio-Licht
Nat Rubio-Licht is a senior reporter at The Deep View, covering artificial intelligence, enterprise technology, ethics, safety and the real-world impact of AI.
Learn more
The Deep View:
https://www.thedeepview.com/
Read Nat’s article, “The race for power behind AI’s utopian story”:
https://www.thedeepview.com/articles/the-race-for-power-behind-ai-s-utopian-story
About the show
A Journalist’s Guide to AI explores how artificial intelligence is changing journalism while keeping human judgment, ethics and trust at the center. Follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
1 Jul 2026
Nikitha Lokareddy on Building Unspun AI, Zero-Click Search and the Future of Visibility
In this episode of A Journalist’s Guide to AI, Yumi Wilson talks with communications strategist and Unspun AI founder Nikitha Lokareddy about what happens when communicators move from using AI to building with it.
Nikitha shares how she built Unspun AI, an AI-powered news intelligence tool that delivers daily briefings, compares sources, analyzes media bias and tracks social signals. She also explains why subject-matter expertise matters, how AI summaries are changing search and why journalists, students and communications teams need to understand SEO, AEO, GEO and zero-click discovery.
This conversation is for journalists, educators, communicators and organizations trying to use AI responsibly without losing trust, voice or editorial judgment.
Topics include:
Building with AI without a formal coding background
Unspun AI and news intelligence
AI summaries and zero-click search
SEO, AEO and GEO
Source comparison and media bias analysis
AI fluency for students and early-career communicators
Why human judgment still matters
Learn more about Nikitha Lokareddy:
https://www.nikithalokareddy.com/
Check out Unspun AI:
https://unspun-ai.com
Learn more about Yumi Wilson’s AI workshops, webinars and consulting:
https://www.yumiwilson.me
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
4,400
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 59 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
79
Social presence
0
YouTube
68
Engagement
32
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