JBT Field Notes Podcast

JBT
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Business

FIELD NOTES is a podcast where three friends talk about tech, family, faith, and the messiness of everyday life. Each episode explores the questions we are working through in real time — how to lead well, raise kids, build meaningful careers, stay grounded, and make sense of a world that keeps changing. With honest conversation, humor, and a willingness to admit we are all still figuring it out, Field Notes is part reflection, part hot take, and part invitation to pay closer attention to the life right in front of us.

  1. Oct 23

    Episode 13 - Homelessness: Beyond The Statistics

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 13 HOMELESSNESS: BEYOND THE STATISTICS DATE: October 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between the housing crisis and the dinner table OBSERVATIONS • Homelessness isn’t one story with one cause. Job loss, family instability, health challenges, and high housing costs can each push someone into crisis. • In Mountain View, many unhoused neighbors live in cars or RVs. The people behind the numbers are often longtime members of the community. • A meal can do more than address hunger. Sharing a table, learning someone’s name, and having an ordinary conversation can restore a sense of belonging. • Housing and benefits matter, but getting back on your feet also requires relationships, practical support, and room for individual choice. • The most effective first step may be surprisingly small: show up, listen, and get to know someone. DISCUSSION This week, Jarad, Brandon, and Travis revisit their conversation about housing with someone working on the front lines: John Riemenschnitter, executive director of Hope’s Corner in Mountain View, California. John shares how a proposed church parking program for people living in vehicles met fierce neighborhood opposition—and how that experience eventually led him to years of volunteering. Today, Hope’s Corner serves more than 60,000 meals annually, alongside showers, laundry, bicycle support, and other services shaped by what guests actually need. The conversation challenges familiar assumptions about homelessness. John describes the complicated paths that lead people to lose housing and the obstacles to finding work again, especially in an expensive region. The group wrestles with why substantial public spending doesn’t automatically produce simple solutions, and why even a permanent home may not address every challenge. But the heart of the episode is dignity. John explains how eye contact, remembering a name, or sitting down together without an agenda can change someone’s day. The group also explores the roles of government, nonprofits, faith communities, and volunteers—including Compassion Week, which brings people of different faiths together to serve local organizations. KEY TAKEAWAYS → Don’t reduce people to statistics or stereotypes; every path into homelessness is different. → Losing a job may happen quickly. Rebuilding stability can take far longer. → Food, showers, housing, and benefits help—but relationships and dignity matter too. → More funding alone isn’t a complete answer; coordination, staffing, and individual circumstances shape outcomes. → Community organizations can accomplish more by partnering around complementary strengths. → You don’t need a grand plan to begin. Visit a local nonprofit, bring a friend, and learn firsthand. → Seeing people as neighbors—not problems to solve—is a meaningful place to start. LIGHTNING ROUND The guys and John debate cash versus housing, what they’d change as mayor, donating money versus volunteering time, and one small act anyone could take this week to make their community more compassionate. FOR FURTHER STUDY Who in your community do you routinely pass without really seeing—and what might change if you learned their name? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  2. Oct 15

    Episode 12 - AI & Creativity: Does The Struggle Matter?

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 12 AI & CREATIVITY: DOES THE STRUGGLE MATTER? DATE: October 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between the blank canvas and the prompt box OBSERVATIONS • Creativity isn’t limited to artists and musicians. It shows up in storytelling, cooking, problem solving, influencing people—and even the occasional well-designed spreadsheet. • AI is dramatically lowering the barriers to creation. People can now make music, images, films, games, and other things that previously required years of technical skill or expensive tools. • But easier creation raises a harder question: if the struggle disappears, do we lose something important in the process? • Great art isn’t just technically impressive. We often connect to the person, experience, vulnerability, and story behind it. • As AI generates more of the options, human creativity may increasingly shift toward taste, judgment, curation, and knowing what is actually worth making. DISCUSSION Jarad, Brandon, and Travis explore what creativity means in an age when almost anyone can suddenly make almost anything. They start with their own creative backgrounds—from music, writing, photography, and drawing to the less obvious creativity required in everyday work. Then they turn to AI: Is a fully AI-generated movie still art? If you prompt AI to create ten logos and choose the best one, who actually created it? And if AI music sounds great but has no human story behind it, does that change how we experience it? Brandon argues that AI could democratize creativity by removing technical barriers and allowing more people to bring their ideas to life. Travis pushes back on the risk of “art without a soul”: an endless flood of technically competent content without the human effort, experience, or struggle that gives art meaning. The guys ultimately find some common ground. AI can be a powerful creative tool—much like CGI, digital photography, or other technologies before it—but the human story still matters. The opportunity may be using AI to expand what we can create without outsourcing the experiences, judgment, resilience, and taste that make creation distinctly ours. KEY TAKEAWAYS → Everyone is creative in some form, even if they don’t think of themselves that way. → AI can remove technical barriers and give more people the ability to turn ideas into something real. → Taste and curation may become increasingly important creative skills when machines can generate endless options. → Struggle has value. Learning, failing, practicing, and improving don’t just produce better work—they change the person doing the work. → AI can improve the execution without replacing the human story behind the creation. → Don’t let easier tools convince you to stop developing difficult skills you genuinely value. LIGHTNING ROUND The guys pick a creative skill they’d instantly master, share creations they’re proud of, debate whether someone can claim authorship when AI does 90% of the work, predict the future value of human-made art—and revisit creative pursuits they’ve let disappear. FOR FURTHER STUDY Ask yourself: Where could AI help you create something you couldn’t before—and where is the struggle itself worth preserving? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  3. Oct 6

    Episode 11 - Can You Actually Change Who You Are?

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 11 CAN YOU ACTUALLY CHANGE WHO YOU ARE? DATE: October 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between self-improvement and accepting yourself OBSERVATIONS • Are our personalities fixed—or can we actually change who we are over time? • All three hosts identify as introverts who have learned to operate as extroverts when life requires it. But is that genuine change or just learning to perform differently? • Self-awareness may start change, but awareness alone isn’t enough. Lasting change requires a compelling reason to stick with it. • Type-A personalities face another challenge: knowing when improvement is healthy and when the constantly moving goalpost becomes perfectionism. • Sometimes growth isn’t changing yourself at all. It’s recognizing that something you once considered a flaw may actually be part of who you are. DISCUSSION This week, Brandon, Jarad, and Travis ask a deceptively difficult question: Which parts of ourselves should we actually try to change? They start with personality. Jarad describes himself as an introvert who is “paid to be an extrovert.” Travis argues we’re born with a starting point but remain malleable, while Brandon distinguishes between changing who you are and learning to perform differently when the situation requires it. That leads to self-awareness and behavior change. Recognizing a problem matters—but so does having a strong enough “why” to sustain change when motivation disappears. Travis talks about making habits easy to start: one page of journaling, 60 seconds of meditation, one small win that makes tomorrow’s win easier. The conversation then turns to perfectionism. Brandon talks about deciding which things deserve an A+ and which can be a B-. Jarad discusses catastrophizing and learning self-compassion. Travis introduces “measuring backwards”—recognizing how far you’ve come instead of only measuring the distance to an ever-moving horizon. KEY TAKEAWAYS → Personality may give us a starting point without determining our destination. → Learning to behave differently doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve changed who you fundamentally are. → Self-awareness starts change; a strong “why” helps sustain it. → Make new habits small enough that starting feels easy—and focus on keeping the chain going. → Not everything deserves an A+. Choosing where to spend limited time and energy matters. → Comparison can show us what’s possible, but constantly measuring ourselves against others can make genuine progress invisible. → Sometimes self-improvement means changing. Sometimes it means accepting yourself. LIGHTNING ROUND The guys get personal: a trait they’d change, a bad habit they’ve accepted, something they’ve failed to change, something they now appreciate about themselves—and what they hope never changes about each other. FOR FURTHER STUDY What are you trying to change because it would genuinely make your life better—and what are you trying to change because you’ve convinced yourself you’re supposed to be different? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  4. Sep 29

    Episode 10 - Sept 2026 AI Roundup

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 10 SEPT 2026 AI NEWS ROUNDUP: Progress, Risk & Who Do You Trust? DATE: September 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between the Jetsons and the Matrix OBSERVATIONS • AI is moving extraordinarily fast—and frontier models are publicly raising questions about whether development should slow down. • Even if slowing down is desirable, actually doing it may be much harder. There are business and geopolitcal incentives to keep pushing forward. • AI is increasingly helping build AI. Coding agents can now write substantial amounts of software, assist with research, review their own work, and dramatically increase what small teams can build. • The same capabilities that create enormous productivity gains raise the question: at what point does the human in the loop stop understanding what they’re approving? • As AI assistants gain access to more of our lives, trust may become as important as capability—especially when personal data, financial information, advertising, and recommendations start converging. DISCUSSION In the first edition of a new recurring segment, Brandon, Jarad, and Travis tackle some of the biggest stories and questions in AI. First: should we deliberately slow AI development? The guys debate whether that’s even possible in a competitive global environment, the risks of increasingly autonomous AI agents, and whether incentives complicate warnings coming from the companies building the most powerful models. Next comes recursive self-improvement and AI-assisted development. If AI can help build better AI, and engineers become reviewers rather than writers, does that unlock an unprecedented productivity boom, or eventually leave humans approving systems they no longer fully understand? Finally, they dig into AI, advertising, privacy, and trust. Would you give an AI assistant access to your email? Your finances? Your purchasing history? And if its recommendations are influenced by advertising dollars, can you still trust the answer? As Travis puts it, trust may build gradually as these systems prove themselves—but discovering hidden financial incentives behind recommendations could destroy that trust just as quickly. KEY TAKEAWAYS → The AI race has a coordination problem: slowing down only works if everyone has an incentive to participate. → AI’s upside and downside come from the same thing—rapidly expanding capability. → AI-native workers may operate very differently from today’s workforce, with humans increasingly directing and reviewing work rather than creating every artifact themselves. → Human oversight only works when the human still understands enough to meaningfully oversee the machine. → Trust could become one of the defining competitive advantages in AI. The more access an assistant has to your life, the more important its incentives become. → And yes, apparently the Jetsons and the Simpsons may have predicted our AI future better than expected. LIGHTNING ROUND The guys close with AI clones, AI parenting, AI tutors, entrepreneurial children, smart refrigerators with judgmental personalities—and the important question of which responsibilities we’d happily outsource to machines. FOR FURTHER STUDY As AI becomes more capable, ask yourself: Where do you want AI to make decisions for you, where do you want it merely advising you, and where do you still want a human firmly in control? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  5. Sep 23

    Episode 9 - Money: Old Rules, New Priorities

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 9 Field Notes on Money: Old Rules, New Priorities DATE: September 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between saving for someday and funding Tuesday OBSERVATIONS • Many familiar money rules—keep a six-month emergency fund, pay off the mortgage, save 20%, avoid debt, fund college, leave an inheritance—are useful starting points, but may not fit every person or season of life. • Debt isn’t inherently good or bad. A high-interest credit card and a low-rate mortgage may both be debt, but they can have dramatically different financial consequences. • Money can buy more than stuff. Used intentionally, it can buy back time, create flexibility, fund experiences, and give you the freedom to walk away from something that isn’t working. • Saving everything for retirement assumes we’ll have the health, time, and people we love available to enjoy it later. That’s not guaranteed. DISCUSSION Jarad, Brandon, and Travis revisit some of the financial rules they grew up with and ask which still hold up—and which deserve a rethink. The conversation moves through emergency funds, mortgages, college savings, debt, inheritance, and the discipline of paying yourself first. But the bigger question becomes: What is money actually for? The guys explore a different set of priorities: buying back time before buying more stuff, building a “walkaway fund” that creates freedom and optionality, investing in kids while they can benefit from it, and spending some money during the years when health, time, and family overlap. That leads to Jarad’s proposed new rule: “Fund Tuesday, not just someday.” Financial planning still matters, but so does building a life worth living now. The goal isn’t to abandon saving for the future; it’s to make sure preparing for tomorrow doesn’t prevent you from being present today. KEY TAKEAWAYS → Treat financial rules as principles, not commandments. Your circumstances, priorities, and season of life matter. → Think of money as a tool for optionality. It can create freedom from things you don’t want and freedom to pursue things you do. → Buy back time when it makes sense. Outsourcing, technology, and AI can free up hours for work, family, relationships, and activities you value. → Don’t save every meaningful experience for retirement. There may be a window when you have the right combination of time, health, and money. → Help the next generation when the help can matter most—not necessarily decades later through an inheritance. → Fund Tuesday, not just someday. Prepare responsibly for the future without forgetting to invest in the life you’re living now. FOR FURTHER STUDY Ask yourself: Am I using money only to prepare for some future version of my life—or am I also using it intentionally to create time, freedom, experiences, and impact today? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  6. Sep 14

    Episode 8 - Overprotective Parenting?

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 8 Field Notes on Parenting: Are We Raising Kids Who Can’t Function Without Us? DATE: September 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between helicopter parenting and “be home before dark” OBSERVATIONS • Many of us had far more independence as kids than we give our own children today. We rode bikes across town, stayed home alone, got lost, and figured things out without phones or GPS. • Risk and danger aren’t the same thing. Protecting kids from serious danger matters; eliminating every manageable risk may prevent them from developing confidence and judgment. • Kids become capable by doing things. Cooking, chores, navigating the neighborhood, handling money, solving problems, and occasionally failing all build competence. • The world can feel more dangerous because we have 24/7 access to frightening stories, even as many measures of safety and human well-being have improved. DISCUSSION Jarad, Brandon, and Travis ask whether modern parenting has become so focused on safety and convenience that we’re accidentally preventing kids from developing independence. Inspired in part by Lenore Skenazy’s “Free-Range Kids,” the conversation explores the difference between danger and healthy risk—and the idea of letting kids practice “dangerous things carefully.” That might mean learning to use a knife, staying home alone, riding to the park, making lunch, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, or simply figuring something out without a parent immediately stepping in. The guys also wrestle with technology. Screens, social media, AI, and digital education offer incredible opportunities, but removing too much friction can also remove some of the struggle through which learning happens. Ultimately, parenting toward independence means steadily expanding what kids can handle on their own—even when letting go is harder for the parent than the child. KEY TAKEAWAYS → Confidence comes from doing hard things, not avoiding them. → Distinguish between genuine danger and manageable risk. Kids need opportunities to make mistakes and experience consequences when failure is survivable. → Slow down enough to teach. Doing something yourself may be faster today, but teaching your child creates capability tomorrow. → Don’t confuse scary stories with likely outcomes. Constant exposure to news and social media can distort how we perceive risk. → Use technology to expand kids’ capabilities rather than replace the thinking, struggle, and real-world experiences that develop them. → Keep leveling up independence. What are you doing for your child today that they could learn to do themselves? FOR FURTHER STUDY Ask yourself: What is one “independence level-up” I could give my child this month—something slightly outside their comfort zone, but safely within their growing capability? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  7. Sep 8

    Episode 7 - Career Paths

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 7 Field Notes on Careers: Did You Choose Your Job—or Did It Choose You? DATE: September 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between the career plan and planned happenstance OBSERVATIONS • Very few careers unfold according to plan. More often, one opportunity, relationship, skill, or accidental turn leads to the next. • The most durable career assets aren’t necessarily job titles—they’re transferable skills like communication, project management, relationship building, staying calm under pressure, and consistently showing up. • Finding what you don’t want to do can be just as valuable as discovering what you do. Experimentation gives you permission to move toward the things that fit—and away from the things that don’t. • Career, job, identity, and calling aren’t necessarily the same thing. As we get older, the question may shift from “How do I become successful?” to “What do I want to do with everything I’ve learned?” DISCUSSION Jarad, Brandon, and Travis look back at their careers and ask a deceptively simple question: How much of this did we actually plan? From caddying, cooking, car washes, and teenage side hustles to engineering, consulting, finance, startups, Google, and Silicon Valley, the conversation explores the skills picked up along the way—and how seemingly unrelated experiences can eventually form a coherent through-line. The guys discuss the value of choosing a North Star without needing to know the exact destination, “planned happenstance,” experimenting with different roles, knowing what to say no to, and putting yourself in situations where unexpected opportunities can find you. The conversation also turns toward the second half of a career. After decades spent building skills, financial security, and professional credibility, does the definition of success change? Maybe the next chapter isn’t simply about climbing higher. Maybe it’s about aligning your skills, interests, relationships, and resources with something that feels more meaningful. KEY TAKEAWAYS → Don’t obsess over planning the perfect career. Pick a direction, start moving, and recalibrate along the way. → Build transferable skills. The ability to communicate, organize, execute, build relationships, and stay calm travels with you regardless of title or industry. → Experiment aggressively enough to discover both what you’re good at and what actually gives you energy. Those aren’t always the same thing. → Create opportunities for “planned happenstance” by meeting people, trying new things, volunteering, taking on projects, and putting yourself where unexpected opportunities can emerge. → Your career doesn’t have to define your identity. Over time, success may become less about accumulating titles, money, or status and more about using what you’ve built to contribute to something bigger than yourself. FOR FURTHER STUDY Ask yourself: What is my current North Star—and does the work I’m doing today move me closer to it, even if I don’t know exactly where I’ll ultimately end up? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

  8. Sep 1

    Episode 5 - AI August Roundup

    FIELD NOTES // Episode 5 Field Notes August 2026 AI Roundup DATE: August 29, 2026 LOCATION: Somewhere between the hype and the real world OBSERVATIONS • AI is moving beyond answering questions and becoming a tool for learning, building, analyzing, and getting real work done. • Voice AI changes the learning experience from searching for answers to having an ongoing conversation — including the ability to explain complex ideas at whatever level you need. • AI is dramatically lowering the friction between having an idea and actually building something, whether that’s analyzing a massive dataset or turning an idea into a working app in a matter of days. • As AI becomes more capable, questions around privacy, security, regulation, education, and responsible use become harder to separate from the benefits. DISCUSSION Jarad, Brandon, and Travis compare notes on how AI is actually showing up in their lives — from voice assistants, vacation planning, and personalized learning to automated meeting follow-ups, data analysis, and building working software without traditional development teams. The conversation expands into the rapidly changing AI landscape, including acquisitions, agents, financial services, regulatory moats, and what happens when technology dramatically lowers the cost of starting and operating a business. Along the way, the hosts wrestle with the other side of that acceleration: privacy, security, regulation, education, and whether increasingly powerful AI will ultimately be used more for creation or competition. The episode closes closer to home: how do you prepare kids for a future you can’t predict? The answer may have less to do with preparing them for a particular career and more to do with teaching them how to learn, think critically, adapt, and use powerful tools wisely. KEY TAKEAWAYS → AI’s biggest advantage may not be replacing work, but dramatically increasing what one person can accomplish. → The best use of AI isn’t always getting an answer faster; sometimes it’s helping you understand the question better. → The barriers between idea and execution are getting lower — creating opportunities for individuals and small teams that previously required far more time, money, and specialized talent. → More capability also means more responsibility around privacy, security, regulation, and how these tools are used. → Preparing the next generation may be less about teaching specific skills and more about teaching them how to learn, adapt, and think critically. FOR FURTHER STUDY Ask yourself: Where could AI help me do something I couldn’t do before — rather than simply doing something I already do a little faster? WHERE TO FIND US Brandon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brmiddle/ Travis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlzimbelman/ Jarad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/ Jarad’s Writing - www.myoldnotebooks.com END OF NOTES

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About

FIELD NOTES is a podcast where three friends talk about tech, family, faith, and the messiness of everyday life. Each episode explores the questions we are working through in real time — how to lead well, raise kids, build meaningful careers, stay grounded, and make sense of a world that keeps changing. With honest conversation, humor, and a willingness to admit we are all still figuring it out, Field Notes is part reflection, part hot take, and part invitation to pay closer attention to the life right in front of us.

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