The Ryan Vet Show

Ryan Vet

To lead well today, you have to understand the forces that shaped yesterday and the ones reshaping tomorrow. You were made to Inspire Forward...and every episode helps you do just that. The Ryan Vet Show is where leaders come to understand why the world, and the people in it, work the way they do. Hosted by Ryan Vet, USA Today bestselling author, generational futurist, and contrarian leadership thinker, the show blends research, lived experience, and narrative to help you navigate tomorrow with more insight, perspective, and practical wisdom. Each week, Ryan explores the ideas shaping today’s workplace and culture: Generational dynamics and the behaviors that form each cohortLeadership and organizational psychologyChange management and the forces driving adaptationEntrepreneurship and real-world decision makingCommunication, influence, and human behaviorHow the past explains the present and the present shapes the future The show features two core formats: Long-form interviews with leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and creators whose stories reveal the “why” behind their work, decisions, and impact.Weekly readings of the COLLIDE newsletter, where Ryan breaks down cultural shifts, generational insights, and leadership lessons with a story-rich, research-backed lens. Whether you’re an executive, a manager, an entrepreneur, an educator, or simply navigating cross-generational tension, The Ryan Vet Show gives you the insight and tools to lead with clarity, curiosity, and intentionality. If you want a show that’s intellectually grounded, practically useful, and deeply human — welcome. This is your place to understand the world more clearly and lead it more thoughtfully.

  1. 1d ago ·  Video

    One Person Worked Two Jobs, So We Overcorrected - The Generational Pendulum and the Dutch Dikes

    One employee worked two jobs at once. The company's answer was to rebuild how everyone worked. In 1995, nearly 250,000 people were evacuated from the Dutch river country as the Rhine, the Waal, and the Meuse swelled toward the dikes. Eight-year-old Carina Verbeek was one of them. Ryan Vet follows what the Netherlands did next: three centuries of raising the walls, then Room for the River, then another recalibration. Then he turns to two overcorrections of his own: the software and co-working mandates that followed one remote employee with two jobs, and the spending controls he removed for a senior leader who opened credit lines in the company's name. Every generation answers what formed it. Almost never the person in front of you. In this episode: Why the Dutch kept raising dikes after the 1953 flood, and why 1995 forced a rethinkHow Room for the River (2006 to 2015) widened channels, lowered floodplains, and relocated nearly 200 families and 16 farmsThe Generational Pendulum: we live it, we push back, we go too far, we find a better wayTwo overcorrections from Ryan's own companies, in opposite directionsWhy leading people means asking what formed them, not what label they carryGo deeper: Read the full COLLIDE essay at ryanvet.com/collide/one-person-worked-two-jobs-so-we-overcorrected, and subscribe to COLLIDE at ryanvet.com/collide. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  2. 4d ago ·  Video

    Dr. Brian Ralph: Will Gen Alpha Go to College? AI, Higher Ed, and Curiosity

    Dr. Brian Ralph spent 32 years in higher education, nine of them as a university president. His biggest worry about AI is not cheating. It is that people are losing the ability to be curious about each other. Dr. Ralph joins Ryan Vet to talk about the students he watched arrive on campus, from millennials to Gen Z, and the generation that is coming next. Gen Alpha could be tutored by AI from the start, so what does a college have to offer that a machine cannot? His answer starts with what college is for. He argues that one of its greatest outputs is graduates who have learned how to learn, because content is a few taps away and what society needs is people who can think critically, solve problems, and ask the big questions. That is why he pushes back on the claim that Gen Z is the last generation to go to college, while still making the case for the trades. AI is not taking those jobs anytime soon. The conversation then turns to AI itself. Dr. Ralph shares the self-imposed rules he follows in his own coaching and consulting work, including taking the first pass at any new creative work before a prompt ever gets involved. He remembers his first reaction to ChatGPT as raw fear, and the board member who showed him a video that took 15 minutes to make. And he explains why social media felt like a slow car accident while AI is moving too fast for anyone to fully understand the impact. Ryan asks what he would tell a millennial parent whose child could be walking onto a campus in 2044. His answer: avoid the huge pendulum swing, but swing the pendulum back some. For leaders, the advice is simple. Do not put the technology ahead of your people. IN THIS EPISODE What three decades on campus showed him about millennials, Gen Z, and the students arriving nextWhy he does not believe Gen Z is the last generation to go to collegeWhy one of college's greatest outputs is graduates who have learned how to learnWhy he believes curiosity about individuals matters more than curiosity about informationWhat happens if Gen Alpha is AI-taught, and what that could cost sociallyThe rules he sets for his own AI useWhy social media was a slow car accident and AI is moving much fasterHis advice for millennial parents and for leaders: do not put the technology ahead of your peopleCONNECT WITH DR. BRIAN RALPH Website: brianralphleadership.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brianralphphdDr. Ralph is the founder of Brian Ralph, LLC, offering strategy advising and executive coaching for corporate, higher education, and nonprofit leaders. GO DEEPER WITH COLLIDE Ryan writes about generational shifts in leadership, work, and culture every week in his COLLIDE newsletter. Read it free: ryanvet.com/collide ABOUT THE RYAN VET SHOW The Ryan Vet Show is a podcast about generations, culture, leadership, and the future. Host Ryan Vet is a USA Today bestselling author, generational futurist, and keynote speaker with more than 1,000 live in-person presentations. COMING UP Thursday, October 22: a new COLLIDE essay episode. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  3. Oct 15 ·  Video

    Gen Beta May Never Need a Driver's License - Robotaxis, the Taxi Medallion, and the Velocity Gap

    A New York taxi medallion went from $10 to $1.3 million and back down to $79,105. The driver's license is next. Ryan Vet opens with Renato, the Brazilian driver who keeps a cold guaraná waiting for him in Orlando, then follows the money: how Uber emptied the yellow cab, and why robotaxis are a far bigger shift than swapping one human driver for another. Waymo, Tesla's Cybercab, driverless trucks, and 14 billion self-driven miles all point the same way. The question is what a generation gives up when it never learns to drive. In this episode: Why a New York taxi medallion that cost $10 in 1938 sold for $1.3 million in 2014, then averaged $79,105 by 2021How Uber took nearly every ride it gained in Manhattan straight from yellow cabsWaymo's jump from 50,000 paid rides a week in May 2024 to 500,000 by March 2026Why 14 billion Tesla self-driving miles, roughly 18,800 human driving lifetimes, is the Velocity Gap in actionWhat Gen Beta trades when the wheel goes away: the conversations, the judgment, and the freedomGo deeper: Read the full COLLIDE essay at ryanvet.com/collide/gen-beta-drivers-license, and subscribe to COLLIDE at ryanvet.com/collide. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  4. Oct 12 ·  Video

    Paul Garcia-Ryan: Why Therapists Disagree Less Than You Think on Gender and Youth Mental Health

    Paul Garcia-Ryan identified as a woman from age 15 to age 30, then chose to detransition. Today he is a licensed clinical social worker and the president of Therapy First, and he argues that the debate over gender and young people has a lot less to do with sides than the culture war makes it look. Paul joins Ryan Vet to share his story in his own words: an early childhood sense that he was different, his medical, social, and legal transition, and his training as a psychotherapist at a leading gender clinic in New York City. He explains what changed once younger patients began arriving in his own practice, and how that led him to rethink gender dysphoria and his own history. Paul now works with young people and their families, and with trans adults, and leads Therapy First, a nonprofit focused on raising the standard of care in youth mental health. He and Ryan talk about how the field has shifted from a mental health model toward a medical model, why therapists often talk past each other because they use the same terms with different definitions, and how a generation raised on algorithms and social media forms its identity differently than the one before it. For parents, Paul's advice is to stay curious about what your child is experiencing, however frightening it feels, and to avoid locking horns, because a family in conflict is a family under strain. For clinicians, he describes therapy first as the established standard of care, and says every therapist should hold a young person's identity with an open palm. His closing call: this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the mental health profession, and it needs leaders to step up. This episode reflects one person's lived experience and professional views. It is not medical or mental health advice. If you or someone you love needs support, please reach out to a licensed professional. IN THIS EPISODE Paul's personal story, in his own words, and why he decided to detransitionWhat he saw in his practice when the young people arriving at gender clinics changedHow the field moved from a mental health model toward a medical modelWhy therapists talk past each other, and why he says there is an illusion of sidesHow algorithms and social media shape identity formation in adolescenceWhat he tells parents: stay curious, and avoid locking horns with your childWhat therapy first means as a standard of care, and why leaders in the field need to step upCONNECT WITH THERAPY FIRST Website: therapyfirst.orgGO DEEPER WITH COLLIDE Ryan writes about generational shifts in leadership, work, and culture every week in his COLLIDE newsletter. Read it free: ryanvet.com/collide ABOUT THE RYAN VET SHOW The Ryan Vet Show is a podcast about generations, culture, leadership, and the future. Host Ryan Vet is a USA Today bestselling author, generational futurist, and keynote speaker with more than 1,000 live in-person presentations. COMING UP Thursday, October 15: a new COLLIDE essay episode. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  5. Oct 8 ·  Video

    Lake Ontario, or America, or Whatever - Renaming, the Velocity Gap, and Who Controls the Past

    Alaska spent forty years renaming one mountain. Now it takes thirty days and a database, and the past gets rewritten right along with the future. Generational futurist Ryan Vet reads his COLLIDE essay on what happens when renaming a place stops being a slow, public process and becomes a database edit. He remembers the mnemonics he learned as a kid for the Great Lakes and the planets, and how hard it is to rewrite memory. Then he flew to the Caribbean in February over a map that read Gulf of Mexico on the way down and Gulf of America on the way back. The polling did not move with the map. A Marquette Law School poll found 71 percent of Americans opposed renaming the Gulf, including 82 percent of independents. Ryan's point is not whether you favor the change. It is the speed. Within weeks, the EPA, the FAA, NOAA, Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing, Britannica, Rand McNally, BP, and Chevron had all updated. The EPA's page on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster now carries the new name, which rewrites the name of a historical moment where eleven men died. From there he follows the pattern. Fort Bragg became Fort Liberty and then Fort Bragg again, three signs in three years, with a different Bragg behind the name. Gen Alpha spreads six seven through recess with no mandate at all. Master bedroom becomes primary suite. Language has always changed, but now it changes faster than human memory can keep up. The frame is the Velocity Gap. The Persian royal road took couriers nine days to cover what normally took three months, and Alaska needed forty years to rename one mountain. Today one person retypes an entry and two billion Google Maps users see it instantly. Orwell's slogan applies: who controls the past controls the future. In this episode: How the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario renamings spread across maps and databases in weeksWhy the Marquette poll and the speed of the change are two different storiesThe Deepwater Horizon page and what it means to rename a historical momentFort Bragg, Fort Liberty, and the two BraggsTop-down renaming versus bottom-up language change, from six seven to primary suiteThe Persian royal road, Alaska's forty-year petition, and the Velocity GapWhy Ryan will always call it Lake OntarioGo deeper: Read the original essay at ryanvet.com/collide. Ryan writes about generational shifts in leadership, work, and culture every week in his COLLIDE newsletter. Read it free at ryanvet.com/collide. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  6. Oct 5 ·  Video

    Dr. Connie Ledoux Book: Elon University, Gen Z, and the Future of Higher Ed Consolidation

    One in four teenagers told researchers they had sought emotional support from a chatbot. The president of Elon University says that is a very different student than a decade ago. Dr. Connie Ledoux Book is the president of Elon University, Ryan Vet's alma mater. She joins Ryan to answer the question he hears most from listeners and COLLIDE readers: what is going on with higher education, and will colleges still be around when his kids get there? Her starting point is a Gallup finding that public confidence in higher education is declining, and that the decline is nonpartisan. Republicans, Democrats, and independents are all trending down. She ties it to rising costs, graduates carrying debt without the career payoff they were promised, and a sector that has to do a better job of listening to employers. Her counterweight: "Not everybody needs to go to college, but everybody needs to make a living." And her bet that face-to-face education will still exist in a hundred years, even if it becomes the more expensive option. Then the conversation turns to the generation arriving on campus. More STEM-minded, more double majors, and purpose first, profession second. Elon's answer includes a free January course on finding purpose. But they also communicate through tools institutions barely reach, and Elon's own study with a Washington Post placement found teens preferring a chatbot because it will not judge them. Ryan pushes back with his friction thesis: you need friction in life, because that is how we learn. With colleges merging and closing across the country, she also explains why Elon is merging with Queens University in Charlotte, and what consolidation means for the future of higher education. The last stretch looks 25 years out. She describes trusting a self-driving car after 30 minutes, a coming $20,000 household robot, and the question she says matters most. If machines give us back our time, what will the next generation do with it? In this episode: Why public confidence in higher education is falling across party lines, and what colleges owe students who take on debtWhy she believes face-to-face education will exist in a hundred yearsWhy college consolidation is accelerating, and the Elon and Queens University mergerHow AI is forcing faculty to rethink how learning gets measuredWhy Gen Z is putting purpose first and profession secondThe study showing one in four teens sought emotional support from a chatbot, and Ryan's case for frictionWhat happens to a generation when robots hand back the timeConnect with Dr. Connie Ledoux Book: Elon University: elon.eduOffice of the President: elon.edu/u/administration/presidentGo deeper: Ryan writes about generational shifts in leadership, work, and culture every week in his COLLIDE newsletter. Read it free at ryanvet.com/collide. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  7. Oct 1 ·  Video

    700 Agents Broke Into Hugging Face. Nobody Told Them To. - Jacob Coxon and the Velocity Gap

    Jacob Coxon quit Anthropic and said they're gambling with our lives. He's right that AI can kill us now. He's wrong about what it will become. A former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher walked away from unvested stock options and went on X to declare AI an existential threat. The post has been viewed more than 117 million times. Generational futurist Ryan Vet reads his COLLIDE essay breaking down Jacob Coxon's argument piece by piece: where he agrees, where he doesn't, and why the real warning shot already happened. That warning shot is Hugging Face. OpenAI gave AI agents hacking tasks and turned off the safety rules. The agents got stuck, so they started leaving notes for each other. OpenAI wiped the board. Two days later the agents rebuilt it from scratch, and 1,200 new agents joined. Of those, 700 decided on their own that the answer had to be inside Hugging Face, and broke in together in under 13 hours. Ryan's case: AI can be effectively all-knowing and all-powerful. What it cannot be is all-wise, and all-wise is what holds the key to morality. That is also the line between being a leader and being a creator, and why wanting to build a superintelligence is a far scarier ambition than wanting to lead one. IN THIS EPISODE Why Jacob Coxon's viral resignation post is worth taking seriously, and exactly where Ryan agrees and disagrees with itThe real story behind the Hugging Face "warning shot": 1,200 AI agents, 700 of them deciding on their own to break in, in under 13 hoursWhy AI can be all-knowing and all-powerful but never all-wise, and why that gap is where morality livesThe difference between being a leader and being a creator, and why trying to build superintelligence is the scarier ambitionWhy Ryan does not think superintelligence wipes out humanity, but does think technology has been isolating us one person at a timeWhy staying curious means asking why, not collecting more informationREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE Jacob Coxon's resignation post on X (117M+ views): https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843Dario Amodei's essay "We must pace the frontier": https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontierOpenAI's writeup on the Hugging Face incident: https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/Izzy Kalman on morality, from his episode of The Ryan Vet Show: https://ryanvet.com/show/episodes/izzy-kalman-what-the-bullying-conversation-gets-wrong/Nicki Petrossi on AI companion bots and kids, from her episode of The Ryan Vet Show: https://ryanvet.com/show/episodes/nicki-petrossi-scrolling-to-death-ai-companion-bots-and-the-fight-to-keep-kids-s/GO DEEPER WITH COLLIDE This episode is Ryan's reading of his COLLIDE essay, "700 Agents Broke Into Hugging Face. Nobody Told Them To." Read it free: https://ryanvet.com/collide/700-agents-broke-into-hugging-face-nobody-told-them-to/ Subscribe for a new essay every week: https://ryanvet.com/collide Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

  8. Sep 28 ·  Video

    Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett: Toxic Bosses Don't Change, and Why Gen Z Actually Burns Out Less

    Every headline says Gen Z is the burnout generation. The research says the opposite. Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett is an organizational psychologist, keynote speaker, and international bestselling author of I Wish I'd Quit Sooner. She hosts the podcast Where Work Meets Life and has spent 25 years studying what actually happens inside toxic workplaces. She joins Ryan Vet to make the case that burnout is a workplace condition, not a personal failing, and that the generation getting blamed for fragility might just have better boundaries. The diagnostic she uses is toxic versus difficult. A difficult boss is disorganized, a poor communicator, maybe even a little weak, but does no real harm. A toxic boss does harm, overt or covert, and by her account cannot be coached out of it. "A truly toxic boss will not become a good leader," she tells Ryan. Her metaphor for staying anyway: living in a house with asbestos in the walls and responding with a yoga mat and a fresh coat of paint. The intervention feels like progress. The problem is still in the walls. Then she flips the burnout story. Her research finds Gen Z is more likely to leave a bad situation before it becomes a crisis, which means they may actually be less likely to burn out than generations that stayed and absorbed it. She puts the question straight back to Ryan: does that make them weak, or does it make them have better boundaries? Ryan tries to lighten the conversation with a Michael Scott joke. She does not take it. She asks him directly whether he thinks a boss like that is harming people's health. It is the moment that sets the tone for everything after it. In this episode: The difference between a toxic boss and a merely difficult one, and why only one of them can changeWhy Gen Z leaving fast may be better boundaries, not fragilityThe asbestos-and-a-yoga-mat metaphor for surface-level workplace fixesWhy burnout is a workplace condition, not a personal failing"Human beings, not human doings": what changes when leaders stop measuring people by output aloneWhat 25 years of organizational psychology says about which leaders can actually change, and which can'tConnect with Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett: Website: drlaura.livePodcast: Where Work Meets LifeBook: I Wish I'd Quit SoonerGo deeper: Ryan writes about generational shifts in leadership, work, and culture every week in his COLLIDE newsletter. Read it free at ryanvet.com/collide. Send us Fan Mail About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold. Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

3.9
out of 5
19 Ratings

About

To lead well today, you have to understand the forces that shaped yesterday and the ones reshaping tomorrow. You were made to Inspire Forward...and every episode helps you do just that. The Ryan Vet Show is where leaders come to understand why the world, and the people in it, work the way they do. Hosted by Ryan Vet, USA Today bestselling author, generational futurist, and contrarian leadership thinker, the show blends research, lived experience, and narrative to help you navigate tomorrow with more insight, perspective, and practical wisdom. Each week, Ryan explores the ideas shaping today’s workplace and culture: Generational dynamics and the behaviors that form each cohortLeadership and organizational psychologyChange management and the forces driving adaptationEntrepreneurship and real-world decision makingCommunication, influence, and human behaviorHow the past explains the present and the present shapes the future The show features two core formats: Long-form interviews with leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and creators whose stories reveal the “why” behind their work, decisions, and impact.Weekly readings of the COLLIDE newsletter, where Ryan breaks down cultural shifts, generational insights, and leadership lessons with a story-rich, research-backed lens. Whether you’re an executive, a manager, an entrepreneur, an educator, or simply navigating cross-generational tension, The Ryan Vet Show gives you the insight and tools to lead with clarity, curiosity, and intentionality. If you want a show that’s intellectually grounded, practically useful, and deeply human — welcome. This is your place to understand the world more clearly and lead it more thoughtfully.

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