Nevada Means Business is the official podcast of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, hosted by Director Kristopher Sanchez, highlighting the people, policies, and partnerships driving Nevada’s economic vitality. Through conversations with business leaders, state officials, and industry experts, the podcast explores workforce development, economic diversification, innovation, and the programs shaping opportunity across the Silver State.
What Actually Works for Nevada's Economy Beyond the Las Vegas Strip With Thomas Burns
Nevada economic development is shifting beyond hospitality and gaming into critical minerals processing, advanced manufacturing, and data centers. Tom Burns, Director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, breaks down the state's strategic plan for economic diversification in a conversation with Kristopher Sanchez, Director of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, on the Nevada Means Business Podcast.
Nevada holds 36 of 60 critical minerals essential to the national defense and economic supply chains — more than any other state — yet almost none are processed domestically. Burns explains the push to bring environmentally responsible mineral processing back from China, drawing a direct comparison to the 1860s Comstock Lode era when the state's mineral wealth built San Francisco instead of Nevada. The conversation covers Haas Automation's new Southern Nevada facility, which will create over 2,500 advanced manufacturing jobs at wages reaching $45 to $50 per hour, supported by the Debra March Center of Excellence and College of Southern Nevada workforce training partnership.
Data centers are addressed head-on: Burns outlines how modern closed-loop cooling systems have reduced water usage to swimming-pool levels, why power demand remains the real challenge, and why local communities should retain the authority to decide whether data centers belong in their area. The discussion also covers SSBCI, a $130 million federal funding program that helped Nevada make early-stage investments in companies like TensorWave, the state's first billion-dollar unicorn.
Burns details Nevada's network of seven Regional Development Authorities, the Knowledge Fund's role in commercializing university research, and how the upcoming legislative session will focus on adjusting economic incentives to keep the state competitive against neighbors like Utah. The Office of Entrepreneurship, established in 2023, rounds out a statewide ecosystem designed to support startups and small businesses from concept through commercialization.
12 Oct 2026
What Actually Works for Nevada Farmers & Ranchers with JJ Goicoechea
Nevada farming faces a generational crisis as the state's beef herd nears all-time lows, sheep numbers have dropped from millions to roughly 90,000, and fewer young producers are entering the industry. JJ Goicoechea, Director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture and a fourth-generation Eureka County rancher, breaks down the forces reshaping livestock farming on 87% federally owned land — and the specific programs his agency is deploying to reverse the decline.
Goicoechea details how the Department of Agriculture absorbed food safety inspections from the former Department of Health and Human Services, now overseeing restaurant inspections, shellfish inspection in Las Vegas with a single inspector, and 13 of 15 USDA food programs including school lunch distribution and food bank coordination with Three Square and Food Bank of Northern Nevada. The agency pulled federal grant funds ahead of the 2023 government shutdown to ensure Nevada school districts were reimbursed without interruption.
The conversation covers the return of the Nevada State Fair to the Reno fairgrounds after a 16-year absence, a $10.5 million renovation of the 1867-era property that also serves as the large animal evacuation center during wildfire season, and the agency's push to close a regulatory loophole allowing intoxicating synthetic hemp products to be sold in convenience stores. Goicoechea also addresses water rights across oversubscribed groundwater basins like Diamond Valley and the Humboldt River system, where producers are transitioning from flood irrigation to precision bubblers and soil-moisture monitoring to stretch diminishing allocations.
From USDA low-interest loans for first-time ranchers to ag literacy coordinators working in urban classrooms, the episode maps every lever the state is pulling to keep rural Nevada communities — and the agriculture economy that sustains them — alive.
5 Oct 2026
Nevada Parents: 5 Priorities to Fix K-12 Education Statewide with Victor Wakefield
Nevada's Superintendent of Public Instruction Victor Wakefield sits down with Kristopher Sanchez to address a question that haunts every parent and employer in the state: why does Nevada rank near the bottom in education, and what is the Department of Education actually doing about it? The conversation covers everything from a 99% graduation rate among CTE completers to a sobering reality where only one-third of students reach math proficiency by eighth grade.
Wakefield breaks down the five strategic priorities now guiding the Nevada Department of Education — strong academic foundations, empowering pathways, equipped educators, informed families, and aligned systems. Half of Nevada's high school students now participate in career technical education, and the state recently shifted from a three-year to a two-year CTE sequence so students have room for internships and advanced coursework. Meanwhile, 15% to 16% of Nevada's 16-to-24-year-olds remain neither in school nor employed, a rate that outpaces the national average by nearly five percentage points.
The discussion turns pointed on AI in schools and educational technology. Wakefield describes visiting a second-grade classroom where a student on a literacy program was learning to beat the game rather than learning to read — a moment he calls emblematic of a 15-year failed experiment with screens in classrooms. Carson City's teacher-led stoplight model for AI use in assignments offers a counterpoint, grounding technology decisions in learning objectives rather than novelty.
Wakefield arrived in Nevada 15 years ago to lead Teach for America's Clark County program across 50 Title I schools, later served on the State Board of Education, and completed doctoral research on Nevada education reform. Governor Lombardo appointed him as the state's superintendent, and he spent his first six months touring 13 of 17 school districts. The statewide strategic improvement plan, known as the STIP, is set for a six-week public comment period before formal adoption.
Nevada's education system serves more than 450,000 public school students across 17 county districts and one charter school authority, and the conversation makes clear that the gap between pockets of excellence and statewide scale remains the central challenge of Wakefield's tenure.
Who has been a guest on Nevada Means Business
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Vaughn Hartung
Bill Briggs
Phyllis Gurgevich
Marcel Schaerer
Danielle Casey
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Questions about Nevada Means Business
Who hosts Nevada Means Business?
Kristopher Sanchez host the show. Published by Nevada Department of Business and Industry.
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The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
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