Dad the Influencer — a podcast about travel, technology and innovation

About Dad the Influencer — a podcast about travel, technology and innovation

Dad the Influencer — a podcast about travel, technology and innovation broad enough to encompass history, art, religion, and politics in ways that will stimulate the neurodivergent and amaze the neurotypical. With interviews, dialogues and the occasional monologue, we explore our humanity through travel, the technology that enables it, and ecosystems that encourage elastic thinking and innovation. **The opinions expressed in this podcast are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers**

Publisher

Dad the Influencer

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jan 2026

Latest episode

25 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   25 Sept 2026

   Paul Sweeney - Limerick, Poetry and Startups

   'My advice is: don't. Do not. You'd be insane.' That's Paul Sweeney — thirty years in startups, built Webio, sold it to Aryza — on what he tells anyone who wants to start a company. Same advice he gives aspiring writers. The rest of the conversation is about why he did it anyway.

2. 

   23 Aug 2026

   Roy Ruddle and the 6 Step Data Quality Method

   In this episode, Roy, a data quality expert and professor, shares insights on the complexities of data quality, its impact on AI, and practical methods to improve data integrity. Discover how visualization, checklists, and real-world examples can transform your approach to data management. See the Six Step programme here: https://github.com/royruddle/6-step-data-quality-method (https://github.com/royruddle/6-step-data-quality-method)

3. 

   31 Jul 2026

   Lurk Skywalker and Vancouver Underground Bass Scene

   Cigars lit and roughly lost somewhere in East Vancouver, Ben walks and talks with Lurk Skywalker — Vancouver MC, DJ and producer, half of Vibe Selectaz and part of the Digital Motion squad. Lurk explains what 'storytelling bass music' actually means, and how a decade of DJing led him through the long slog of learning production: blending dubstep, grime, UK garage, drum and bass and downtempo into a sound of his own, with a soft spot for old soul, electric organs and boom bap hip hop. Along the way: how Plastician's Rinse FM sets inspired his grime-over-dubstep double drops, why Red Room's Saturday nights (home of Digital Motion, and of Caribbean Nights, Vancouver's longest-running club night) are the beating heart of the city's bass scene, and where the underground is heading — from Bass Coast and Shambhala to after-hours spots like Baesterdam. Plus the artists to start with if bass music is new to you: Zeds Dead, Flume, Rezz and Bristol's Koan Sound. Lurk's own podcast, Lurk Alley Chats, launches this autumn with recordings from Shambhala. Find him on Instagram and SoundCloud at Lurk Skywalker_VS.

4. 

   17 Jul 2026

   Episode 11 - Takunda Chingonzo, data privacy and business transformation

   This episode puts Takunda Chingonzo — entrepreneur, researcher, and self-described builder at the intersection of data, AI, and African innovation — in front of a fairly uncomfortable mirror of his own making. He's the creator of the AI Fluency Spectrum, a 15-level framework for how people actually use AI, and much of the conversation tests whether he lives up to it. His central argument is that AI has quietly stripped out the friction — the searching, struggling, and choosing — that used to be the mechanism by which thinking got built into us. Skip the struggle, he argues, and you skip the learning: people become "intellectual tourists," downloading skills from AI rather than acquiring them, until a summary of a summary of a summary circulates with nobody having read the source. His proposed fix is blunt and personal: write an atomic note, in your own words, every time you use AI to think through something that matters. If you can't write it without the AI output in front of you, you haven't learned it — and he poses the audience a genuinely uncomfortable test, that if AI and their notes vanished overnight, could they still explain what they claim to know? The interview doesn't let him off easy on the contradictions. He's a Lovable Ambassador — evangelising a product whose entire pitch is removing friction — while arguing friction is precisely what shouldn't be removed, and he used Lovable to build the very 56-slide deck for this talk. He's also a PhD candidate researching data privacy while telling people to pour their thinking into Obsidian, Claude, and AI agents. The back half broadens out to his development work across Africa (UNDP, UNICEF, TechVillage) versus a local Nottingham meetup, and closes on a lighter but pointed note for the "Dad the Influencer" crowd: a 30-second exercise asking people where the reasoning behind a recent family decision actually lives, and whether they could reconstruct it without help. https://lovable.dev/

5. 

   24 Jun 2026

   Episdoe 10 - AI Isn't Always the Answer

   Bryan Oak joins the show to argue that most AI projects fail not because the technology is flawed, but because organisations lack the commercial and operational discipline to choose the right tool for the right problem. He shares a practical classification framework for cutting through the hype and making better technology decisions.

6. 

   25 Apr 2026

   Episode 9 - The other 80% of a Developer's Time

   AI skeptic meets AI enablement lead — and they're the same person. Alexander Koukovistas reveals why everyone's obsessing over the wrong 20% of what developers do, and what smart organisations should actually be doing with AI instead.

7. 

   17 Apr 2026

   Episode 8 - Programme Management, Job Search, AI and Diversity

   We speak to Rani Hussain, a seasoned programme leader who is looking for her next role, about what it is like to search for work in the age of AI. We also explore some of the pitfalls of diversity and why it matters so much to good technology.

8. 

   28 Mar 2026

   Episodie 7 - Travel Tech Jobs and Recruitment In Times of OOSD and AI

   In this episode we talk with Rachael Thornton about jobs and recruitment in travel tech during times of OOSD and AI. Rachel Thornton shares insights on the travel technology job market, industry trends, and the impact of AI, offering practical advice for professionals aiming to stay relevant and succeed in this evolving sector.

9. 

   28 Feb 2026

   Episode 6 - Agency and AI- You can just do things now

   In this episode, Dad the Influencer sits down with AI consultant Eric Bye to unpack the idea of 'high-agency AI' and why the real bottleneck in AI adoption isn’t technology, but culture. They explore how businesses can move faster by shifting from long planning cycles to rapid experimentation using a build-measure-learn approach. The conversation also digs into where AI genuinely adds value today, where it still struggles, and why curiosity, critical thinking, and agency are becoming essential skills for the future of work. Along the way, they touch on hiring, vibe coding, legacy systems, and what leaders should be asking as AI reshapes entire industries.

10. 

    14 Feb 2026

    Episode 5 - Redundancy A Blessing in Disguise Part 3

    Part 3: The Final Chapter (Nottingham) In the final episode of Redundancy: A Blessing in Disguise?, Ben and David meet in Nottingham for a wide-ranging, reflective conversation that goes beyond the experience of redundancy itself. With time, distance, and perspective on our side, we look back at what redundancy took from us — and what it unexpectedly gave us. This is a more philosophical episode, where we explore how the world of work is changing, and what that means for identity, purpose, and security. We talk openly about AI and its growing impact on jobs, creativity, and the future of employment, as well as the shifting relationship between art, value, and human effort. Along the way, we share what job hunting has really been like in the current climate — the frustrations, the small wins, and the lessons we didn’t expect to learn. Thoughtful, honest, and occasionally hopeful, this episode brings the series to a close with questions that don’t always have simple answers — but feel more important than ever.

11. 

    7 Feb 2026

    Episode 4 - Redundancy A Blessing in Disguise Part 2

    Part 2: One Year On A year after losing our jobs to redundancy at the end of 2023, we sit down for a candid and unfiltered conversation about what life has really been like since everything changed. In this penultimate episode of Redundancy: A Blessing in Disguise?, we reflect on the emotions that linger long after the initial shock has passed — the uncertainty, the relief, the grief, and the unexpected moments of clarity. We also talk openly about the year leading up to this recording: how we coped, what we learned, and the ways redundancy continued to shape our confidence, identity, and outlook. Honest, reflective, and sometimes uncomfortable, this episode captures the reality of rebuilding after a professional upheaval — not with neat conclusions, but with real feelings and hard-won perspective. This is the second episode in a three-part series, with the final instalment recorded a year later.

12. 

    3 Feb 2026

    Episode 3 - Redundancy A Blessing in Disguise Part 1

    Redundancy: Blessing in Disguise? (Part 1 of 3) — Recorded in Dublin In this first episode of a three-part series, we explore redundancy from a tech job — and whether it might actually be a blessing in disguise. Recorded in Dublin imi 2023 in the immediate aftermath of being made redundant, I’m joined by Dave Power and Piotr Olszewski for an honest, real-time conversation about what we were thinking and feeling in those first days. We share our initial reactions, the uncertainty that comes with sudden change, and the different ways each of us is trying to make sense of what happens next. It’s raw, reflective, and grounded in the reality of that moment — not a polished “success story,” but a genuine look at the shock, the perspective shifts, and the possibility that redundancy can become the start of something new.

13. 

    30 Jan 2026

    Episode 2 - AI Solopreneur

    In this episode, Ben sits down with Kalyan Jampana to unpack his talk from the Nottingham Data Science & AI Meetup, “The AI Solopreneur: How to Bootstrap a Startup Using Generative AI.” Kalyan explains how generative AI is changing what it means to build a product solo — shifting from “hustle” to leverage — and why the modern solopreneur is more like an architect orchestrating AI systems than a lone developer writing every line of code. Using his real-world story of building an app to solve the admin chaos of running a badminton club, he shares a practical workflow (intent → thinking → structure → execution → tight loops), the importance of owning the problem, and why AI performs best when broken into atomic tasks. The conversation explores building without copy-paste prompting, reducing hallucinations with strong specs and artifacts, and how a personal tool can evolve into “accidental SaaS” — with insights relevant to anyone building startups, especially in complex industries like travel tech. To see the presentation slides go to: https://ai-solopreneur.pages.dev/24 (https://ai-solopreneur.pages.dev/24)

14. 

    12 Jan 2026

    Episode 0 - Trailer 2

    This is a calm and sensible introduction to Dad the Influencers and it explains the vision for the podcast. I am still mostly just playing with my new kit and testing things out.

15. 

    12 Jan 2026

    Trailer 1 - the first ever!

    Introduction, also me going overtop playing with settings. This is awful and I'd apologise for it if I was that type that did stuff. I'll probably have to find a sound editor.

16. 

    1 Jan 2026

    Episode 1 - Accessibility and Technology

    Episode 1 explores the relationship between accessibility and technology through a conversation with Roberta Beattie, Product Manager for the All In access scheme at Arts Council England. We talk about how digital tools are reshaping access to the arts, what meaningful inclusion actually looks like in practice, and where organisations often get it wrong. Roberta shares insights from her work supporting more equitable approaches across the sector, with practical reflections on progress, challenges and why accessibility should never be an afterthought. A thoughtful starting point for anyone interested in making culture work better for everyone.

Contact Dad the Influencer — a podcast about travel, technology and innovation

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.