The Acceleration Effect: Michael Nyman on Why Speed, Courage, and Story Still Win

Michael Nyman has spent decades operating at the crossroads of entertainment, media, and culture. He built one of Hollywood's most respected communications businesses inside the traditional holding company world, then set out to do it differently, founding Acceleration Community of Companies, a net…

The Barbell Theory: Christine Cook on Human Curation, Trusted Media, and the Power of Presence

Christine Cook has navigated nearly every major shift in modern media, from early digital days at The New York Times, to to the rise of mobile and social at Flipboard, the scale and speed of CNN, and now Bloomberg Media, where she serves as Chief Commercial Officer overseeing one of the most influe…

The Priceless Purchase: Nili Klenoff on Trust, Choice and Consumer Behavior

As media, commerce and technology converge, Nili Klenoff is helping shape one of the most consequential shifts in modern marketing. She joins Michael Kassan to explore commerce media, AI-powered decision-making, consumer trust, and the challenge of driving innovation at global scale, offering a rar…

Mind the Rails: Bill Wise and Zvika Netter on Reclaiming Control and Transparency in Modern Advertising

Bill Wise and Zvika Netter have spent decades building the invisible machinery that powers modern advertising — and now, with Mediaocean and Innovid under one roof, they’re creating a rare alternative to the industry’s increasingly closed ecosystems. In this candid conversation, the two architects …

Do the Hustle: Don Kurz on Resilience, Reinvention, and Trusting Your Gut

Don Kurz has lived enough lives for three careers - from championship lacrosse fields to Studio 54 dance floors to Wall Street trading desks to the boardrooms of modern advertising - and in this candid conversation with Michael Kassan, he reflects on the chaos, reinvention, and hard-earned instinct…

Between the Lyrics: Genius' Jackie Vignone on Music, Culture, and Connection

Music is no longer just something we listen to... it’s something we interpret, share, and use to make sense of the world around us. In this episode, Michael Kassan sits down with Jackie Vignone, CRO of Genius, to explore how the platform has evolved from a lyrics destination into a powerful meeting…

The Possible Effect: Christian Muche on the Currency of Time ... and Connection

Christian Muche has built his career on a contrarian instinct: when the world pulls back, he builds opportunities that bring people together. From co-founding DMEXCO during the 2008 financial crisis to launching POSSIBLE in the middle of COVID, Christian has consistently bet on one idea: real progr…

The Business of Gratitude with Elery Pfeffer, CEO & Founder, NIFT

What if the most powerful growth strategy isn’t another ad, but a simple “thank you”? Nift Founder and CEO, Elery Pfeffer, joins Michael Kassan to unpack why gratitude may be the most overlooked engine in modern commerce, how AI can create meaningful discovery instead of digital noise, and why the …

Main Screen Energy: Serge Matta, President of Global Ad Sales, LG Ad Solutions on Turning Smart TVs into Command Centers

Serge Matta, President of Global Ad Sales at LG Ad Solutions, is turning the TV from a passive box in the corner into the most valuable real estate in media - an interactive command center where content, data, and commerce meet in real time. In this episode, he joins Michael Kassan to talk candidly…

Neural Ties: Jeremy Fain and Dr. Aaron Andalman on Building Cognitiv and the Science of Predicting Consumer Behavior

Childhood friends turned Cognitiv co-founders, Jeremy Fain and Dr. Aaron Andalman, went from zebrafish brains and ad-tech trenches to rewiring how brands predict human behavior in an AI-saturated marketplace. Together, they draw a sharp line between predictive and generative AI, show what first-par…