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PODCAST · business

Reinventing Nerds

by Joanie Connell

Nerds are increasingly being asked to have it all—technical expertise and people skills. Join engineer-turned-psychologist Joanie Connell as she interviews nerds and people experts to uncover the best communication strategies for technical people. She brings in everyone from big name scientists and computer geeks to everyday working ones as well as other entertaining and insightful people in a quest for the keys to help nerds interact more successfully with people of all types. Asking thoughtful questions of her guests, she affectionately gives self-proclaimed nerds insights into important people strategies in a light-hearted, conversational style.

Publisher-supplied feed metadata · PodParley refreshed Apr 14, 2026 · Source feed

Episodes

  1. Juliette Powell: Designing AI for People

    Joanie interviews Juliette Powell, author, entrepreneur, technologist, and strategist. Juliette’s background is varied and extensive. She is a co-author of the book, The AI Dilemma, and her consulting services focus on global strategy and scenarios related to AI and data, banking, mobile, retail,...

  2. Abby Malchow: Crafting a Career in Big Tech

    Abby Malchow is a Manager of Small Business Partnerships at Amazon. She develops and manages partnerships that help drive success for early-stage entrepreneurs and small businesses through delivering programs and investments that support their continued growth. Abby appeared on Reinventing Nerds...

  3. Franklin Taggart: Humans vs. AI

    In this episode, Joanie interviews Franklin Taggart about his recent book about AI called, Straight from the Bot’s Mouth: A Conversation With ChatGPT About Artificial Intelligence. Franklin created the book using ChatGPT and had the whole project done in less than a week. In this interview,...

  4. Kamales Lardi: Humans, Business, and Technology

    Kamales Lardi is a digital tech expert, business advisor, speaker, teaching fellow, and an author. She recently published a book called The Human Side of Digital Business Transformation. Kamales is globally recognized as an influencer and Thought Leader in Digital Transformation. She has been...

  5. Sarah Tenisi: Supporting Employee Growth

    Sarah Tenisi is the CEO of TenisiTech, an IT Service provider firm. They to help companies build the IT foundation to support their business goals and manage the IT as the business evolves to ensure that the IT continues to be a tool not a hindrance. Sarah also hosts a podcast for people…

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  6. Pat Cullen: Leading Through Growth

    Pat Cullen is the VP of Engineering at Carrot Fertility, the leading global fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits provider for employers and health plans. Pat oversees and directs Carrot’s information security, data, and engineering teams. He has more than a decade of experience as a...

  7. Kristeen Barth: Creating a Healthy Relationship with Work

    Joanie has a conversation with an IT-manager-turned-coach, Kristeen Barth. Kristeen works with people and teams to challenge their current thinking, and she is committed to their growth experience. Kristeen also has a nerdy background. She has worked in IT project and product management as well…

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  8. Joanie Connell Speaks about her Book on Consulting to Technical Leaders

    Highlights: In this unique episode, Joanie presents a short overview of her new book, Consulting to Technical Leaders, Teams, and Organizations: Building Leadership in STEM Environments and responds to audience questions. She differentiates technical leaders and industries from nontechnical…

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  9. Keith Mangold: A Technical Leader’s Dream Job

    Keith Mangold is a Senior Manager of IT Applications at Make-A-Wish Foundation. His passion is finding the right technology for organizations and helping improve their processes through innovative and new ideas. He loves playing with new tech, but his specialty is making the tech work for the...

  10. Fabrice Paracuellos: Supporting People Through Holiday Stress

    Joanie hosts a special holiday episode with Fabrice Paracuellos. Fabrice is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California. He helps individuals, couples, teams, and organizations with emotions, relationships, self-worth, and wellness. In addition, Fabrice has a technical...

  11. Katheryn Baker: Bridging Business and Technical People

    Katheryn Baker is Vice President at Artic Consulting, a consulting firm that provides technology solutions for business and data management. Katheryn is passionate about both technology and business and is skilled in Enterprise Software, Business Strategy, Productivity, Data, and Program...

  12. Steve Hoffman: People Skills for Founders

    Joanie has a conversation with Steve Hoffman, CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators. Steve has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and provided consulting to many of the world’s largest corporations, including...

  13. Franklin Taggart: Pros and Cons of Working Alone

    Franklin Taggart is the host of the podcast called Your Own Best Company. He coaches and leads a community of people who enjoy working alone. A lot of nerds work alone and it seemed like a good idea to learn more about what kind of support is out there for them. This is also a … Continue reading...

  14. Angelo Ponzi: Strategic Conversations About Marketing

    Joanie has a conversation with Angelo Ponzi, a marketing architect at The Ponzi Group. Angelo has more than 25 years of marketing experience in and outside of companies in industries ranging from semiconductors to financial to restaurants to beverage to ice cream. As a fractional Chief Marketing...

  15. Michael Puldy: Managing Critical Life Circumstances

    Joanie has a deeply personal conversation with Michael Puldy, CEO and Founder of Puldy Resiliency Partners, LLC. Michael has over three decades of technology, information risk management, and operations experience in the aerospace, banking and computer technology sectors, including at IBM. He is...

  16. Vladimir Baranov: The CEO/CTO Relationship

    Vladimir Baranov is the founding CTO of AdvisorEngine, a fintech company that was recently acquired by Franklin Templeton. Vladimir has been building successful technology solutions primarily in the fintech industry for 15 years, and he shares his experience on managing the business/tech divide....

  17. Manish Bhardia: Habits for Healthy Teams

    Joanie has a conversation with Manish Bhardia. Manish is a principal at Think AI, a software development and consulting firm, author of the book Teamwork and Collaboration: How to Select and Use Right Productivity Environment for You and Your Team, and co-host of True Stories in Tech podcast....

  18. Lydia Chiu: The Importance of Communication in Web Design

    Joanie interviews Lydia Chiu, a partner at Jub Jub Interactive. Jub Jub is a web application development company based in Orange County, CA. Lydia has over 15 years of programming and web development experience. She has a deep understanding of content management systems and enterprise application...

  19. Michelle Beauchamp: Leveraging Diversity as a Team Leader

    Joanie has a conversation with Michelle Beauchamp about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the tech world. Michelle is the CEO of The Champ Group, a training and coaching firm that focuses on sales and diversity. One of the reasons Michelle is so special is that she is a very positive…

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  20. Mike Kimball: Key People Factors for Entrepreneurs

    Mike Kimball is an attorney who works on venture capital deals in the tech space. He knows what it takes to create and execute structures and agreements to foster fast growth. He also knows where entrepreneurial leaders fail. Mike has a wealth of experience from working on a nuclear submarine to...

  21. Lynda Roth: Leading Transformational Change

    Joanie has a conversation with Lynda Roth, a consultant who bridges IT expertise with business and lean management. Lynda founded LJR Consulting Services to provide assessment of existing business and IT processes and educate business executives about information technology options and lean...

  22. Paul Johnson: From Rapid Growth to Team Reductions

    Highlights: Joanie has a conversation with Paul Johnson, Partner and Managing Director of Essilen Research. Essilen is a consulting company that helps tech leaders build robust and reliable tech organizations. Paul has over 20 years of experience at Qualcomm, where he worked his way up from a...

  23. Aseem Giri: Managing Technical and Creative Personalities

    Joanie has a conversation with Aseem Giri. Aseem has over twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur, private equity investor, and investment banker. He is also fond of art, serving as an Art Advisor and/or Finance Advisor to art-related businesses, and he hosts his own podcast, called…

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  24. Luis Socconini: Leading Efficient Teams

    Joanie has a conversation with Luis Socconini, the Director of the Lean Six Sigma Institute and master blackbelt in Lean Six Sigma. He is the author of several books on Lean practices and has run over 300 projects in Mexico, the United States, Spain, and South America. He is an engineer by…

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  25. Bob Salomon: Learning Disabilities, Computers, and Communicating

    Joanie has a conversation with Bob Salomon, president of CIO Systems. One of the coolest things about Bob is his willingness to talk about how he’s dealt with dyslexia and ADD and how that actually motivated him to get into tech. Bob also talks about how they “make IT boring” at CIO Systems. They...

  26. David Oates: Managing Coronavirus and Other Crises

    David Oates is a Crisis PR expert with 25 years of experience in the field. He helps organizations repair their brand’s reputation in the press and online. He can handle any Crisis PR situation and train others to do the same. As a U.S. Navy Public Affairs Officer and a corporate PR professional,...

  27. Eric Weiss: Building Products People Love

    Joanie interviews Eric Weiss, founder of Full Cycle Product Development. Eric has led massive development projects worth billions of dollars, including the Sony Playstation 3 and Qualcomm’s $9 Billion patent licensing machine. Eric is a product technology consultant and startup advisor and the...

  28. Brian Jackson: Handling Sales

    A nerd at heart, Brian Jackson is the president and owner of Sandler Training of San Diego, a sales training company. Brian enjoys coaching customer-facing people who are engaged in selling within Software, Technology, Manufacturing, and Professional Services. Prior to owning Sandler, Brian...

  29. Sanjiv Prabhakaran: Culture, Contribution, and Leadership

    Sanjiv Prabhakaran is a senior executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of software development management and technical architecture experience in mobile and web applications for a wide variety of applications and industries. In early 2002, he founded Bytes, Inc. to provide low cost and…

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  30. Sean Ferrel: Growing a People-Oriented Company

    Sean Ferrel founded Managed Solution in 2002. They provide consultative IT services for small-to-medium and enterprise clients. Sean tells his story of literally growing the company from his living room to a flourishing downtown San Diego enterprise. Hint: it starts with, “I was going to be a...

  31. Will Marshall: Improving Your Relationship with Your Lawyer

    Will Marshall is a co-founder and partner of UBM Law Group. He drafts and negotiates commercial contracts, especially SaaS and traditional software licensing agreements and takes care of all sorts of legal things that come up for businesses. He is also especially knowledgeable in issues that come...

  32. Burt De Mill: When Technical People Do Business

    Burt De Mill is the President of BDM Consulting, a San Diego based consulting firm that works with small and medium sized companies who are in the biotechnology tools and clinical diagnostics spaces. Burt helps companies define their products and markets, conduct new market research, and launch...

  33. Adam Cuppy: Building Confidence in your Soft Skills

    Adam Cuppy is the Chief Operating Officer at Zeal, a web and mobile apps development company. He is also an actor. He helps Zeal focus on how process drives success. He says he has “no idea” of what he does. Already, you can tell this is an entertaining episode. Really what he focuses on is …...

  34. Gina Stetsko: Becoming a Compassionate Leader

    Joanie has a conversation with Gina Stetsko, Vice President of Manufacturing at Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Gina has a been a leader in Pharmaceuticals for over 35 years and she’s held other executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry including: Vice...

  35. Meetesh Karia: Advantages of Diverse Teams

    Joanie interviews Meetesh Karia, CTO of The Zebra, the nation’s leading insurance search engine. Meetesh’s interest in computers goes back to childhood. He taught himself several programming languages back in the 80s when he was a kid and played on his dad’s 8086 computer. He studied computer...

  36. Vladimir Baranov: Startup Stressors for CTOs

    Joanie interviews Vladimir Baronov, who is a Founder and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of AdvisorEngine. They build powerful and intuitive technology for financial advisors. Vladimir oversees the company’s software development and technological operations. He has nearly 15 years of…

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  37. Alex Balazs: The Benefits of Inclusive Leadership

    Joanie interviews Alex Balazs, Senior Vice President and Chief Architect at Intuit. Alex shares the story of his transformation from being a quiet engineer to becoming a communicative leader. He also shares his insights on inclusion and describes how he is supportive of women in tech. Being...

  38. Lisa Kaczmarczyk: People Issues in Project Evaluations

    Dr. Lisa Kaczmarczyk is an award-winning computer science researcher, educator and book author. She provides independent evaluation services for academia and the hi-tech industry. These evaluations are used as evidence of project viability to secure funding from grant agencies and investors. Her...

  39. Nihar Bhakta: People Skills for Scientific Collaboration

    Joanie has a conversation with Nihar Bhakta, who is a project team leader at Gossamer Bio. Nihar is a kidney transplant physician by training and has worked in biotech and pharma for about 14 years. Nihar has a very thoughtful approach to collaboration and teamwork and discusses the challenges…

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  40. Joe Molina: People Strategies for Techies and Vets

    Joanie interviews Joseph Molina, the Executive Director and CEO of the Veterans Chamber of Commerce. Joe draws from his experiences in the military, teaching at Cal Poly, being an entrepreneur, writing books, and working with veterans to bring us his lessons learned about the people skills needed...

  41. John Thornburgh: When Nerds Go to Trial

    Are you looking for free legal advice? Tune in as Joanie interviews John Thornburgh, a patent litigator and principal at Fish & Richardson, about the people skills you need if you go to trial over your technology. Whether you’re suing or being sued, you may end up testifying some day and it’s a...

  42. Jamie Leben: The Joy of Connecting with People

    Joanie has a conversation with Jamie Leben, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the Loveland Makerspace. A self-proclaimed nerd, Jamie has developed from a socially awkward kid to a community builder. He has a strong sales background as well. As a community leader, he exhibits humility,...

  43. Nick Armstrong: Super Skills for Super Leaders

    Joanie interviews Nick Armstrong, a Super Nerd who founded Fort Collins Comic Con. It’s a completely volunteer-run Comic Con that donates all of its proceeds to the local library reading programs. It has burgeoned into a thriving, welcoming community of generous geeks who bring joy to themselves...

  44. Vidya Dinamani: Connecting with Product Managers

    Joanie interviews Vidya Dinamani, founder of Product Rebels. Vidya uses her impressive experience in product management to teach others how to do it. She calls herself a fully qualified nerd, having started her career coding, with a physics degree in her pocket. Vidya is quite articulate and has...

  45. JV Crum III: Conscious Strategies for Entrepreneurs

    Joanie interviews JV Crum III, author of Conscious Millionaire: Grow Your Business by Making a Difference. In nerd speak, JV is a Jedi Master. Not only has he mastered the art of helping entrepreneurs make money, but he also uses the Force for good. JV says you have to get in touch with yourself...

  46. Slava Khristich: Communicating with Global Teams

    Joanie interviews Slava Khristich, CEO of Tateeda. Tateeda provides clients with software development resources in the USA and internationally to extend teams, complete complex projects and solve challenging tasks. Their model provides, among other things, improved communications between…

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  47. Rebecca Johannsen: Acting Emotionally Intelligent

    Joanie Interviews Rebecca Johannsen, a people expert. Rebecca is a corporate trainer who has a Ph.D. in theater. She writes and directs plays and, of course, she’s a skilled actor. She’s taken her knowledge and skills in acting to teach executives soft skills. It’s a really interesting approach…

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  48. Agnieszka Vestal: People Solutions for Telecommuters

    Joanie interviews Agnieszka Vestal, a software engineer at Grasstree Engineering who focuses on embedded software. An MIT graduate with an MBA in her pocket, Agnieszka adds global experience and a business perspective to her programming expertise. She’s also a long-time telecommuter and shares...

  49. Duncan Davidson: Managing an Empathy Wobble

    Joanie interviews Duncan Davidson, CTO In Residence at Microsoft, Berlin. He provides service to and is a liaison between Microsoft and the CTOs at start-up companies that Microsoft supports through the ScaleUp accelerator program at Microsoft for Startups. What’s great about this interview is…

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  50. Mike Nowland: Solutions to your Leadership Problems

    Joanie interviews Mike Nowland, whose purpose in life is to help managers be better, do better, and live better. Joanie met Mike when he was working as the Corporate Training Manager for the Americas at ResMed. Now he’s the president of Enriched Learning and Development, LLC. Mike shares tips for...

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Nerds are increasingly being asked to have it all—technical expertise and people skills. Join engineer-turned-psychologist Joanie Connell as she interviews nerds and people experts to uncover the best communication strategies for technical people. She brings in everyone from big name scientists and computer geeks to everyday working ones as well as other entertaining and insightful people in a quest for the keys to help nerds interact more successfully with people of all types. Asking thoughtful questions of her guests, she affectionately gives self-proclaimed nerds insights into important people strategies in a light-hearted, conversational style.

HOSTED BY

Joanie Connell

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Reinventing Nerds have?

Reinventing Nerds currently has 63 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Reinventing Nerds about?

Nerds are increasingly being asked to have it all—technical expertise and people skills. Join engineer-turned-psychologist Joanie Connell as she interviews nerds and people experts to uncover the best communication strategies for technical people. She brings in everyone from big name scientists and...

How often does Reinventing Nerds release new episodes?

Reinventing Nerds has 63 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Reinventing Nerds?

You can listen to Reinventing Nerds on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Reinventing Nerds?

Reinventing Nerds is created and hosted by Joanie Connell.
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