How Women Use AI is where women come to talk honestly about artificial intelligence in real life - at work, at home, in business, creativity, learning, and beyond. No jargon. No intimidation. Just real conversations, practical ideas, and a shared learning journey where nobody walks in already knowing all the answers... including the host.
Love the Job, Lose the Hours: A Band Director on AI, Burnout and Getting Time Back
What happens when the tool that gives you your time back is also the one people say makes you a bad teacher?
Lesley Moffat is a music educator and band director with nearly four decades in the classroom, whose bands have performed at Carnegie Hall. She’s the author of I Love My Job But It’s Killing Me and Love the Job, Lose the Stress, and the founder of mPowered Music Educator Academy.
In this episode, she talks with Mercy about how AI turned trip booklets that once took 40 hours into 40-minute projects, the moment a critic told her she must be a terrible teacher for relying on it, and how that pushback sent her back to think harder about the environmental impact and who owns the work AI learns from.
She and Mercy also get into Band Director Buddy, the custom GPT thousands of educators use, and why she says you have to understand your own work before handing it to AI. They also get her take as a music educator on AI-generated music and the Berklee College of Music students who pushed back on an AI songwriting course, plus her advice for women who feel intimidated: start with something you already do well.
If you’ve ever loved your work and still felt it wearing you down, this one’s for you
30 Sept 2026
Red, Yellow, Green: Teaching Kids to Think in the Age of AI
What happens when the technology moving fastest into your child's classroom is also the one nobody's fully agreed how to use yet?
Dr. Sarah Thomas is a career educator now in her 23rd year, a 2024 Women in AI Fellow, and the founder of EduMatch, an organization connecting educators around the world.
In this episode, she talks with Mercy about the framework she uses to help teachers decide when AI belongs in an assignment and when it doesn't, and the real story behind Sally, the humanoid classroom robot pulled from a New York school after parents raised the alarm over privacy.
She and Mercy also get into what she calls cognitive offloading, the risk of students and adults outsourcing thinking they still need to build, why she believes staying informed about AI is a professional duty for every educator, and the moment she scrapped an AI-written keynote the night before delivering it because it just didn't sound like her.
If you've ever wondered what questions to ask before AI shows up in your kid's classroom, this one's for you.
17 Sept 2026
Test What You're Listening To: Voice, Fairness and the Future of Music
What happens when you can no longer be sure the voice you're hearing is actually the person you think it is?
Shanta Johnson is a classically trained vocalist with degrees in music education and vocal performance, who's sung in opera companies, in ministry, and for memory care communities. In this episode, she talks with Mercy about what happened when she realized some of the sermons she loved listening to from her favorite pastors, including ones who've passed away, weren't actually them, but AI recreations of their voice.
She and Mercy also get into her honest take on AI-generated artists shaking up the music industry, why she still sees women struggling to be recognized for what they contribute to it, and why she believes schools teaching AI need to be teaching the legal side right alongside it.
If you've ever had to stop and ask whether what you're hearing is really real, this one's for you!
2 Sept 2026
What It Really Means to Build With AI
What happens when the tool built to help you create ends up reflecting someone else's blind spots?
Shaina is a builder at heart, the kind of person who can't resist testing what a new tool can actually do. In this episode, she talks with Mercy about weaving AI into her work in tech, and what happened when she used it for something deeply personal: a bilingual children's book meant to pass down her own Filipino heritage.
Along the way, she ran into a bias she didn't expect, in how AI imagined a Filipino child, and had to lean on her own judgment to catch it and correct for it. She and Mercy also get into where AI has earned a place in her toolbox, where it hasn't, and why she deliberately stays in the driver's seat with it, the same way she limits her own social media use.
If you've ever wondered what it takes to build with a new tool without letting it build you, this one's for you.
24 Aug 2026
In the Driver's Seat: My Relationship with AI After Season One
To kick off Season 2, the host, Mercy reflects on her own evolving relationship with AI. Along the way, she revisits what Season 1 taught her, and previews the bigger questions coming in Season 2.
3 Jul 2026
Thought Partner, Not Oracle: Using AI with Intention in Work, Life and Everything In Between
What does it look like to go from dismissing AI as just another hype cycle to calling it the biggest gamechanger of your career?
Deepika Channamolu is a tech leader, yoga teacher, and working mom who figured out how to use AI without losing herself in it. In this episode she shares why women are better positioned for AI than they think, what happened when she almost sent an email AI had no business writing, and why slowing down might be the most underrated AI strategy out there.
If you've been curious but cautious about AI, wondered whether your instincts still matter in a world moving this fast. They do. And Deepika is proof.
17 Jun 2026
Emotions Are Data: How to Use Your Feelings to Navigate AI
What if the overwhelm you feel about AI isn't a problem to solve, but data to pay attention to?
Zena Collins is an emotional intelligence practitioner, change strategist, author and co-founder of Grand Strategy Consulting. In this episode she introduces her SUMMS framework, explored further in her book Stop Wasting Time with AI, a science-based approach that treats your emotions as intelligent signals and shows exactly how to use them when AI feels like too much.
She also shares the story behind Naha (naha.love), a natural hair AI concierge she and her collaborators built from the ground up after discovering that AI image datasets were repeating harmful narratives about Afro hair.
4 Jun 2026
Be a Node: AI Ethics, Governance and You
What happens when AI is built without women in the room?
Host Mercy sits down with Louise Humpington, lawyer, international development specialist and AI ethics advocate, for a conversation that is equal parts eye-opening and surprisingly practical. Louise brings a perspective too often missing from AI spaces: one shaped by human rights, lived experience, and a firm belief that this conversation belongs to all of us.
They cover AI bias, real-world harms, the healthcare tool that almost got it dangerously wrong, and a concept called the mycelium network that will change the way you think about AI governance. Louise also shares how she uses AI every day to manage ADHD, navigate parenting, and stay accountable in her work. Plus, what every woman building with AI tools needs to know about IP and code ownership before it's too late.
If you've ever felt like AI is happening to you rather than for you, this one is for you. And Louise's parting message? You're already part of this network whether you know it or not.
So be a node!
21 May 2026
The Electric Grid, Data Centers & Your Voice: An Honest AI Conversation
What does it look like to use AI on your own terms, as a starting point, not a final answer?
In this episode, Mercy sits down with Romita, an energy professional and advocate who has been around AI longer than most of us and still has a healthy love-hate relationship with it. She uses it for research, but always goes back to the source. She appreciates what it can do, but won't let it touch her voice. And when asked about her biggest concern? It's the energy and water that AI data centers quietly consume from the same electric grid powering our homes and what that says about whose needs we're actually putting first.
This one is grounded, honest, and a little bit eye-opening. Just the way we like it.
7 May 2026
From Overwhelm to Experimentation: Learning AI One Small Step at a Time
What happens when AI goes from something distant and intimidating to something you can actually experiment with in your own hands? In this episode of How Women Use AI, Mercy sits down with Kavita for a candid conversation about navigating overwhelm, job uncertainty, and the surprising confidence that comes from simply trying things out.
Kavita shares how no‑code tools, small experiments, and a willingness to “just play” helped her move from fear to curiosity, and why understanding the basics matters.
Together, they explore the tension so many women feel right now: the pressure to keep up with a fast‑changing world, and the relief of realizing you don’t need to be technical to begin.This episode is for any woman who’s been wondering whether AI has a place in her world, and what it might look like to start small. No spoilers, no jargon... just a thoughtful invitation to listen in and see what resonates.
22 Apr 2026
From Business Plans to City Tours: Practical AI in Real Life
What happens when AI stops feeling theoretical and starts showing up in the everyday moments that actually matter? In this episode of How Women Use AI, Mercy sits down with Sohna for a candid conversation about the real‑life ways women are using AI, from updating a long‑stalled business plan to planning a seamless city tour.
Together, they explore the mix of curiosity and caution many women feel right now: the excitement of using AI for research, travel planning, and decision‑making, alongside real concerns about privacy, security, and over‑reliance. Sohna’s story offers a grounded look at how AI can save time, spark ideas, and support everyday life without requiring technical expertise.
This episode is for every woman searching for practical AI use cases, honest reflections, and a judgment‑free space to explore what this technology can and cannot do for her.
7 Apr 2026
Seeking Equity in the Algorithms
What happens when a healthcare advocate and "AI-curious" consultant starts peeling back the curtain on the algorithms shaping our careers and our care? In this episode of How Women Use AI, Mercy sits down with her friend Elisa for a refreshingly candid look at the intersection of high-tech tools and human advocacy.
Elisa shares her journey of navigating a "saturated" job market and questioning the data used in clinical delivery systems, moving past the intimidating jargon to find where these tools truly fit. Together, they explore the tension between AI as a powerful creative "enhancer" and the lingering ethical shadows that keep many of us hesitant.
This conversation is for every woman wondering how to maintain her "human touch" while standing at the edge of the AI wave. No expertise required, just two friends getting honest about why transparency is the ultimate key to trust and how finding your "people" can turn hesitation into a path forward
23 Mar 2026
Curious But Cautious: Honest Conversations Before We Dive In
What does it actually feel like to stand at the edge of the AI wave - interested, but not quite ready to jump? In this inaugural episode of How Women Use AI, the host, Mercy, sits down with her good friend Yasmine for a refreshingly candid conversation about what it's like to be an AI skeptic in a world that can't stop talking about it.
Yasmine, a data professional and self-described minimalist shares why she's curious about AI but still holding back, and why that hesitation might be more reasonable than the hype would have you believe. Together, the host and Yasmine explore the questions many of us are quietly sitting with but rarely say out loud.
This episode is for every woman who has nodded along in an AI conversation while secretly wondering where to even begin. No jargon, no judgment, just two friends getting honest about the brave new world we're all navigating together.
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