WOW. The response to my first post (you can catch up here) has been overwhelming. Hearing from so many of you has made this community feel real. I’m glad you’re here.

It feels good to be writing again. With the shift to short-form and video, I think I forgot that writing has always been my most authentic medium. So on that note, here’s what’s on my mind:

It’s been an incredible eight months of Tea in Tech, and things are moving fast. What started as content is clearly becoming something bigger. Through the DMs I get, the partnerships, the events….it’s obvious the platform is starting to serve more than one purpose:

The Tea has become a point of view on the world of Tech and AI. A source of signal amid the noise. A growing community of curious, engaged professionals. And increasingly, a new media platform.

That’s my job-to-be-done. And if you keep reading, you’ll see that the industry is ripe for disruption.

Anyways, enough about me. Let’s get you the Tea.

I’ve been working on a format for the newsletter to make it predictable and easy to read. Here’s what you can expect:

Did you know that only 28% of Americans trust mainstream media? (That number drops to 8% for Republicans).

Or that the average CNN or Fox News watcher is 70 years old?

Media is deeply changing. And somehow, I’ve found myself in the middle of it all.

As the Tea in Tech has evolved, so has my own role in the media landscape. Last quarter, I started getting invites to press conferences, receiving embargoed news from major tech companies, and being asked to interview executives for major product launches.

I didn’t start making Tea in Tech videos to become a journalist. But somehow, somewhere, I was being asked to embody the role.

People’s trust in institutions has hit a record low; and they’ve instead shifted that trust to other people: namely, creators.

And on the backend, I’m seeing corporations adapt in real-time: marketing teams reallocating budget from ads to UGC; PR teams reorganizing to cover “new media” — creators, podcasts, newsletters. In this new media reality, the line between paid, earned, and owned media is slowly starting to blur.

My bet is that marketing and PR teams will start to merge as budgets (and eyeballs) get reallocated. And media networks as we know them will be fully reimagined: decentralized, built from the ground-up…

…and, creator-led. 👀☕️

The past few weeks have had some real pinch-me moments. Here’s the Tea:

Meeting former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to discuss Tech and AI—and how to democratize access—was one of the most meaningful experiences I’ve had. I’m not going to lie - there was a lot of imposter syndrome going on there…but also, a deeper feeling that I was exactly where I needed to be.

Interviewing Slack’s CEO to announce the launch of the new Slackbot last week was a milestone moment. I don’t know exactly when I became the person called to interview executives about product launches, but I’m loving this new angle. Bringing a human lens to moments like this in tech is exactly the work I want to be doing—and I can’t wait to do more like this.

Working with General Motors to kick off this video series was a standout moment. There’s something about the GM brand that feels special to me - classic, iconic, all-American. Being asked to tell their story through a Silicon Valley lens as they build and grow in Tech & AI felt so authentic and, exactly right.

What does it mean to be smart in an AI world?

Jensen Huang was recently asked on a podcast who is the smartest person that he knows; and his answer really stuck with me. He said that our very understanding of what it means to be “smart” is changing.

Software engineers used to be the obvious answer. And then, AI came for the field immediately.

So what does “smart v2” actually look like?

I think it will belong to the people who can creatively deploy AI—a very different skillset than coding alone. I unpack this idea in the video above.