Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler

For more than four decades, Jamie Reynolds has helped shape how millions of people experience live sports.As a longtime ESPN executive producer, Jamie oversaw massive production teams across tennis, basketball and other major sporting events—where hundreds of people, competing creative perspectives and the unpredictability of live television all had to come together in real time.His philosophy on leadership? “90% of my job is ego management.”Jamie joins Jack Myers and Tim Spengler to unpack what years behind the scenes at ESPN taught him about building high-performing teams, managing creative personalities, trusting people to make decisions under pressure and preparing for moments when a sporting event suddenly becomes a news event.He also shares stories from an extraordinary career: the Malice at the Palace, working with Bill Walton, Mike Ditka’s unexpected generosity, secretly adjusting the audio of John and Patrick McEnroe so viewers could tell their voices apart, and the evolution of the US Open into one of the great spectacles in sports.Along the way, Jamie reflects on something increasingly rare in modern media: the power of experiencing an event together, in full, rather than reducing it to an 18-second highlight.Lead Human explores what it takes to lead people—not just manage organizations—and why the greatest competitive advantage may come from unleashing human potential.Subscribe and share the episode with someone who thinks deeply about leadership, storytelling or the future of sports and media.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#Leadership #ESPN #SportsMedia #LiveSports #LeadHuman

What happens when a medication changes not just how much people eat—but how entire industries behave?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler unpack the broader cultural and business impact of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, from shrinking food and beverage consumption to changing consumer habits, restaurant economics, body image, and even expectations for corporate leadership. If millions of people want less food, less alcohol, and less immediate gratification, what happens to the industries built around selling more?The conversation then takes a lighter turn into something surprisingly revealing: hats. Jack and Tim explore how baseball caps have become a kind of real-world emoji—signaling loyalty, geography, taste, aspiration, and cultural identity. From Yankees hats worn by people who don’t follow baseball to Sundance, Knicks, art, and family connections, they ask whether what we wear reflects who we truly are or simply the culture we want to belong to.It’s a distinctly Lead Human conversation about consumption, identity, technology, culture, and the choices—big and small—that shape how we present ourselves to the world.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#LeadHuman #GLP1 #ConsumerTrends #Culture #HumanBehavior00:00 Welcome to Lead Human00:43 Jack & Tim take on the dog days of summer01:48 Is America going through a consumption reset?03:33 GLP-1s are changing more than weight04:33 Are shrinking categories getting CEOs and CMOs fired?05:18 Which food and beverage brands are still winning?05:54 Do GLP-1s expand human potential—or replace discipline?06:35 What happens to restaurants if America loses its appetite?07:33 One in nine adults and the scale of the GLP-1 shift08:25 Could body size become a marker of access and wealth?09:27 Is this a lasting consumption reset or just a trend?09:47 The conversation pivots to hats10:23 What your hat says about who you are11:27 Are hats authentic identity or borrowed cultural credibility?12:21 Why the baseball cap may be the world’s most important accessory13:09 Why people wear Yankees hats without knowing the Yankees13:28 Do hats need “truth in labeling”?14:35 When did wearing a baseball cap backwards become normal?15:19 CEOs, culture, and the backwards hat16:31 Could baseball caps actually be culturally unifying?17:34 Hats as loyalty, memory, creativity, and aspiration18:05 What hat tells the truest story about you?18:45 Outro – share your favorite hat and why it matters

How do the world’s biggest brands build trust with audiences who increasingly listen to creators more than traditional advertising?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler sit down with Joey Maestas, Head of Consumer Creators at Microsoft, to explore the creator economy, brand trust, audience growth, and why the future of marketing depends on stronger human relationships.Joey explains how Microsoft moved creators from the edge of its marketing strategy toward the center, why creator partnerships can outperform traditional paid media, and how his team measures impact beyond likes and views. He shares why the best brand partnerships are long-term relationships, not one-off posts, and how creators can provide valuable feedback on products, messaging, and culture.The conversation also looks back at Joey’s work with Team USA and the Olympics, where he helped athletes and early social creators build audiences long before influencer marketing became standard practice. They also discuss AI-generated creators, the uncertain future of VR, the rise of social commerce, and Joey’s simplest advice for anyone trying to grow an audience: stop overthinking and start posting.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#LeadHuman #CreatorEconomy #InfluencerMarketing #Microsoft #FutureOfMarketing

What can business leaders learn from an astronaut, Everest climber, physician, inventor, and entrepreneur who has spent his life operating at the edge of risk?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler sit down with Dr. Scott Parazynski for a remarkable conversation about fear, preparation, trust, human judgment, teamwork, and what it means to lead when the stakes are as high as they can possibly get.Scott reflects on the experiences that shaped him, from growing up across cultures to flying in space five times, repairing a damaged solar array during one of NASA’s most dangerous spacewalks, climbing Mount Everest, and building new ventures in aviation and innovation. He explains why fear is best addressed through preparation, why great teams are built on trust, and why the people you work with may matter even more than the mission itself.They also explore the future of human-machine collaboration, the enduring importance of empathy and judgment, and why challenge often brings out the very best in teams. It is a wide-ranging and deeply grounded conversation about courage, collaboration, and the human qualities that technology still cannot replace.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.

What does it mean to lead well in a world obsessed with tools, speed, and technological change?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler sit down with Ken Dychtwald, founder of Age Wave, for a far-reaching conversation about integrity, curiosity, longevity, purpose, and the human qualities that matter most as we move deeper into the AI era.Ken reflects on the leaders who shaped him, including Jimmy Carter, and explains why integrity, courage, dependability, and the ability to point people toward a path forward remain the core of real leadership. He shares how his idea of radical curiosity took shape, why human potential first captured his imagination, and why he believes we are spending too much time talking about tools and not enough time talking about the extraordinary capabilities of people.The conversation also explores longevity, aging, dementia, health span, purpose, retirement, communication, relationships, and the lessons Ken would offer his younger self. It is a rich and deeply human discussion about how to live well, lead well, and stay open to possibility across a long life.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.00:00 Why subscribing and sharing matter more than ever00:52 The publishing boom and the discoverability crisis02:15 Why trust matters more than attention06:04 Intro – meet Ken Dychtwald07:04 Why Ken’s work on aging and longevity matters now10:23 Leadership lesson 1: integrity10:42 Jimmy Carter and leading by example12:08 Courage, dependability, and showing people a path forward13:47 How Radical Curiosity got its name16:08 Is deep curiosity learned or innate?17:03 Human potential and the course that changed Ken’s life19:25 Advice for young people in an age of AI and longer lives20:37 Will we have one career or ten?22:23 We are talking too much about tools and not enough about humans25:21 Why business still needs more humanity26:31 Sam Altman, Tim Berners-Lee, and the values of innovation28:33 Caregiving, elder care, and leadership empathy29:30 Longevity, lifespan, and health span31:29 Why defeating Alzheimer’s is the biggest challenge33:09 Jonas Salk, polio, and the future of aging science35:29 The new role models for longer lives37:23 What 76-year-old Ken would tell his younger self39:16 Why failure was a necessary teacher40:40 How to become a better communicator42:34 The central lesson of a well-lived life43:38 Ken on marrying his wife every year45:53 Relationships, integrity, and final takeaways49:25 Outro – share the episode and unleash the human potential

What happens when an industry built on storytelling, star power, and scale suddenly has to reinvent itself from the ground up?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler sit down with Kevin Reilly for a candid conversation about Hollywood’s decline, AI’s rise, creative leadership, and what it really takes to reinvent yourself when the old playbook stops working.Kevin reflects on his journey through some of the biggest chapters in modern entertainment—from FX and Fox to Turner, HBO Max, and now Cartwheel/Cartel—sharing what he learned about leadership, bureaucracy, risk, and why real change almost never starts from the center of the system. He explains why Hollywood is “structurally shrinking,” why so many legacy media companies failed to respond in time, and why the future belongs to organizations that can break down silos between creative, media, data, and commerce.They also dig into career reinvention, mindset, the limits of performative innovation, and why in an AI-powered world, human discernment, taste, and judgment may matter more than ever.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.