Podcast
Pragmatic AI with Matt Stauffer
Hosted by Matt Stauffer · EN
Pragmatic AI is a podcast about practical AI for business leaders, developers, and thinkers—the stuff that actually works, not the hate or the hype. We cover using AI tools day-to-day across the spectrum of human experience.
21episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Conversations AI Forces Us to Have
5d ago01:09:11Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.In this episode, Matt Stauffer talks with Justin Jackson, co-founder of Transistor.fm, about what AI is really doing to creators, careers, and company culture — and why so little of it is actually about the technology itself.They get into the generational backlash against AI, the myth that "all the layoffs are because of AI," how building with AI sparked a hard conversation with Justin's own co-founder, and the practical ways Justin uses ChatGPT and Claude in daily life, from meal planning to packing for a trip to London.The through-line is a challenge for an AI world: as the easy work gets automated, all that's left is the hard stuff — so do the hard thing, increase your "luck surface area," and lean into the human connection AI keeps surfacing.Matt Stauffer on X - https://x.com/mattstaufferTighten Website - https://tighten.com/Justin Jackson Website - https://justinjackson.ca/Transistor.fm - https://transistor.fm/Inception Point AI - https://www.inceptionpoint.ai/The Panel Podcast - https://panelpodcast.com/-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/Big thanks to the companies that support the show:Mailtrap - https://l.rw.rw/pragmaticai_3
Transcribe →
Relevance Engineering: How to Show Up in AI Search
2w ago00:38:17Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.Matt Stauffer talks with Michael King, founder and CEO of iPullRank, about what he calls relevance engineering — the work of getting brands and people seen inside AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews.Mike explains why he reads patents and white papers instead of public docs, how he built his own retrieval-augmented generation prototype to understand how these systems actually work, and why visibility now comes from building "surface area" across your whole content ecosystem — Reddit, LinkedIn, digital PR — rather than from links alone. They get into the disappearing line between white hat and black hat, and why AI search has no rulebook yet.The conversation also turns personal: how Mike mandated his team get faster with AI, how he empowers people from the bottom up instead of issuing ultimatums, and how AI frees him to spend more time on the creative work — including music — that he actually wants to do.Matt Stauffer on X - https://x.com/mattstaufferTighten Website - https://tighten.com/Michael on X - https://x.com/VeryWellVersedMichael on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkingphilly/iPullRank Website - https://ipullrank.com/iPullRank on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/ipullrank/iPullRank on X - https://x.com/iPullRank-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/Big thanks to the companies that support the show:Mailtrap - https://l.rw.rw/pragmaticai_2
Transcribe →
Building a Self-Directed PhD With Claude AI
3w ago01:15:44Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.In this episode, Matt Stauffer talks with software engineer and self-described "Renegade Historian" Dave Stanton, who has built an entire AI-driven workflow that lets him program — and write a 400-page history book — almost entirely by voice from his phone.They get into the nuts and bolts: an always-on Mac Mini running stacked Claude Code sessions in tmux, SSH access from anywhere, voice-to-text tools, and a self-designed "PhD" where Sonnet plays research assistant and Opus plays a hypercritical dissertation chair, with every critique tracked as a GitHub issue. Dave explains why the book itself was never really the goal.The conversation widens into the bigger questions — what gets lost when AI handles the rote work, whether to retain human connection on purpose, and Dave's honest 80/20 split between optimism and unease about where all of this is heading.Matt Stauffer on X Dave Stanton’s Website Dave on X Tighten Website Blink for iOSSuperwhisper Geography as Destiny on GitHub ngrok TailscaletmuxSolo Please Use AI by Sean Smucker -----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.Big thanks to the companies that support the show:Mailtrap
Transcribe →
Human Marketing in an AI Search World
4w ago00:50:35Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.In this episode, Matt Stauffer sits down with Meg Clarke, owner of Clapping Dog Media, to talk about how getting found online has shifted from gaming search engines to being discovered by AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.They get practical fast: why keywords are giving way to 23-word prompts, why your About page suddenly matters, why LinkedIn beats Reddit as a source AI tools trust, and how Meg now runs tech audits and analysis through Claude skills and Cowork to cut payroll and take real vacations.The conversation also opens up into something bigger — how AI lowers the barrier to starting a business, why it changes the math differently for owners than for employees, and Meg's passion for helping more women step into entrepreneurship.Matt Stauffer on X Tighten Website Meg Clarke on LinkedInMeg’s Website Dan Martel BookAllie K. Miller on YouTube-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.
Transcribe →
Using AI As a Thinking Partner, Not a Vending Machine
May 2701:07:51Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.In this episode, Matt Stauffer talks with Greg Storey — author of Creative Intelligence: Don’t Ask AI, Think With It — about why most people are using AI like a productivity vending machine instead of a true thinking partner. Greg shares how AI can become a creative and strategic collaborator, exploring design thinking, divergent vs. convergent thinking, and the three questions he asks every time he starts a conversation with AI.They also dive into the bigger picture: why AI maximalism misses the point, how to stay creative as the tools become more capable, and what it means to preserve human creativity and curiosity in a rapidly changing world.Matt Stauffer on X - https://x.com/mattstaufferTighten Website - https://tighten.com/Greg’s Website - https://brilliantcrank.comGreg’s Book - https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence/Creative Intelligence Everyday Field Guides - https://brilliantcrank.com/creative-intelligence-field-guides/-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/
Transcribe →
AI Researcher Michelle Yi on Watson, World Models, and Why AI Should Be for Everyone
May 2001:06:07Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.Matt Stauffer is joined by Michelle Yi — co-founder of Generationship, board member of Women in Data, and AI Researcher at Basis Research Institute — who shares her 20-year journey across AI research, industry, and startups.Michelle traces the evolution of AI from her early days working on IBM Watson through to modern language models, reflecting on what's changed, what's been lost, and what's finally becoming possible. She and Matt dig into the importance of democratizing AI and making it genuinely useful beyond big tech.The conversation closes on Michelle's vision for a more equitable and responsible AI future — one being built through initiatives like Generationship and Basis Research Institute, and powered by people who choose to engage with AI rather than sit it out.Matt Stauffer on X Tighten Website Michelle on LinkedIn Basis Research InstituteNYC Rat Research in the News Pyro.ai Women in Data Generationship Decile Group Bobiverse Series Becky Chambers Book Andrej Karpathy YouTube Community Usage Tweet Setlist FM -----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.
Transcribe →
AI in Elementary Schools: A Principal’s Take
May 1300:48:08Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.In this episode, Matt Stauffer is joined by Amie McCaw, an elementary school principal in Southwest Michigan with 19 years of experience leading K-5 buildings. Together they explore what AI actually looks like inside a real elementary school and how teachers, principals, and students are navigating it.Amie shares how she uses AI for communications, observation feedback, and behavior planning, while always vetting the output and never passing it off as her own. She talks about the surprising generational divide on her staff, where younger Gen Z teachers are often the most skeptical of AI, and why she still wants her K-5 kids learning to write a sentence before reaching for a chatbot.The conversation widens into bigger questions: how AI is reshaping teacher burnout, why critical thinking has to come before trust, and why no tool will ever replace the human connection between a teacher and a child.Matt Stauffer on X - https://x.com/mattstaufferTighten Website - https://tighten.com/Amie on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/amiemccaw.bsky.socialAmie on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amie-mccaw-53633464/-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/
Transcribe →
Teaching Non-Developers to Build Real Apps With AI
May 601:07:56Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.Matt Stauffer talks with Brian Casel about what it means to be a “builder” in 2026—and how that definition is rapidly expanding beyond traditional developers.They explore Brian’s work with Builder Methods and his YouTube channel, alongside the broader shift from writing code to spending the majority of time in planning, specs, and product thinking. The conversation highlights how AI is reshaping software development, enabling both technical and non-technical builders to create real, production-ready tools—not just experiments.They also dig into the rise of internal tools across all types of businesses, the growing importance of building in public, and why product thinking may now be the most valuable skill in the AI era.Matt Stauffer on X Tighten Website Brian Casel on X Builder Methods WebsiteBrian Casel on YouTubeProductize Course-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten - https://tighten.com/
Transcribe →
Is AI Replacing Developers or Just Changing the Job?
Apr 2901:28:08Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.Matt Stauffer talks with Ian Landsman — 20-year SaaS founder, bootstrapper, and the person many credit with making the Laravel ecosystem possible — about what it actually looks like to build software with AI when you're not a full-time developer.Ian shares how AI removed the biggest bottleneck in his workflow — the code itself — letting him think like a product builder instead of a programmer. They dig into running multiple AI models simultaneously to debug hard problems, using AI to tackle security audits, building competitive comparison pages for Help Spot, and why writer's block may be solved.The conversation also gets into the harder questions: how much code should founders actually read? What happens when junior developers lean too heavily on AI without oversight? And what does it mean for small software businesses when the internet starts opening up again through MCP?Matt Stauffer on X Tighten WebsiteIan Landsman on X Ian Landsman on Bluesky Ian Landman’s Website HelpSpot Aaron Francis Counselors Solo ahrefs Outro -----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.
Transcribe →
Kent C. Dodds on MCP and How Product Engineering Might Outlast Coding
Apr 2201:19:07Tap to summarizeThe Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.Matt Stauffer talks with Kent C. Dodds — educator, JavaScript expert, and creator of Epic Web, Epic React, and Epic AI — about what it actually looks like to use AI at the frontier of software development.They dig into how Kent ships thousands of lines of AI-generated code without reviewing most of it, why he believes "product engineering" is the most durable skill left in the industry, and what MCP (Model Context Protocol) is and why it matters far beyond the developer world. Kent also walks through Kody, his personal AI assistant that controls his home, journals his life story, and can integrate with virtually anything.The conversation gets real on education, the future of jobs, the role of human empathy in an AI-dominated world, and why Kent thinks the parts of our jobs AI is taking are usually the parts we hated most anyway.Matt Stauffer on X Tighten Website Kent’s Website Kent on XKent on GitHub Epic WebEpic React Epic AI VS Code Cursor CodeRabbit Cursor Bugbot Practical TypeScript Course Justin Jackson Post EpicProduct.Engineer Community Usage from Bogdan Kharchenko Jesse Genet on X Kent C. Dodds AI Engineer Miami Talk-----Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.
Transcribe →