MEDIASCAPE: Insights From Digital Changemakers
Join hosts Joseph Itaya and Anika Jackson as they dive into conversations with leaders and changemakers shaping the future of digital media. Each episode explores the frontier of multimedia, artificial intelligence, marketing, branding, and communication, spotlighting how emerging digital trends and technologies are transforming industries across the globe.
MEDIASCAPE is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. This online master’s program is designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.
Episodes
91 episodes
What If Authentic Travel Content Could Book Your Trip For You?
Travel planning shouldn’t feel like a part-time job. We sit down with Eni and Dianni, the founders of Travel Spoken, to unpack how they’re turning authentic travel stories into bookable, voice-led iti...
From Listicles To Lead Gen: How Modern SEO Actually Works
Search isn’t broken, it’s louder—and that changes how we win. Steven Schneider, founder and CEO of TrioSEO, joins us to break down why Google’s results feel c...
From Clickbait To Copilots: How Media Professionals Thrive With AI
The ground is moving in media, but not the way the headlines scream. We sat down with journalist-turned-AI strategist Pete Pachal to map the real shifts: where models help, where they harm,...
How Curiosity, Identity, And Agentic AI Can Transform Your Career
Reinvention isn’t a single leap; it’s a habit you can practice. That’s the thread running through our conversation with Monica Marquez—military brat, first‑gen grad, Wall Street and Big Tech leader, and now cofounder of Flipwork—who lays out a ...
How A 19-Year-Old Turned One Viral UGC Win Into A Scalable Marketplace
What does it take to turn one scrappy UGC experiment into a creator marketplace serving 200+ brands and 15,000 creators? We sit down with Vidovo cofounder Elijah Khasabo to unpack the scrapes, pivots, and wins b...
From Blue Links To AI Overviews: How Brands Stay Discoverable with Bryan Phelps
The search box looks familiar, but the rules underneath are changing fast. We invited Bryan Phelps, CEO of Big Leap, to unpack what actually moves the needle as AI overviews, LLM assistants, and shifting u...
Be The Signal, Not The Noise: Building Trust In An AI-Drenched Media Landscape with Joshua Altman
A reporter’s instincts, a producer’s toolkit, and a strategist’s vantage point—Joshua Altman brings all three as he walks us through his path from the newsroom to leading as a fractional chief communications officer. We dive into the real work ...
Why Great Design Still Matters When Robots Shop For Us with Nick Cawthon
Booking a movie ticket used to mean opening a browser, clicking through tabs, and hoping checkout didn’t break. Now a voice agent can do it while you grab your coat. We explore what that shift means for design, marketing, and growth: when custo...
Finding Agency With AI In A World That Won’t Slow Down with Andy Sitison
Start with a guitar, pass through psychology, and land inside enterprise cloud and AI—our conversation with Andy Sitison maps a creative life that never had to choose between art and engin...
From Concrete to Clicks: Data-Driven Growth with Build Grow Scale's Matthew Stafford
Growth doesn’t come from another hack; it comes from doing the right work in the right order. We sit down with Matthew Stafford of Build Grow Scale to explore the deceptively simple idea that...
From Idea to Impact: Raj Singh on Building for Solopreneurs with Mozilla
Stop waiting for the “right time.” Raj Singh—longtime builder, repeat founder, and now VP of Product at Mozilla—joins us to unpack how real momentum starts when you ship something imperfect ...
From Fix-and-Flip to AI: How Going Mile-Deep Beats Mile-Wide in the Agent Era with John Long
Want to win premium customers and sleep better at night? We dig into how going an inch wide and a mile deep beats boiling the ocean—especially when you pair focused strategy with agentic AI that does real work. Our guest,
The Power of Superfans: Building Revenue with a Minimal Viable Audience with Ethan Monkhouse
The digital marketing landscape is shifting dramatically, and Ethan Monkhouse is at the forefront of this revolution. As co-founder of Naviro, he's democratizing access to sophisticated marketing strategies that were once the exclusive domain o...
From Amazon to Axon: A Tech Leader's Journey with Trevor Nolan
Trevor Nolan takes us behind the scenes of the digital infrastructure powering our connected world. Drawing from his 11-year career at Amazon and recent transition to Axon, he reveals the complex systems enabling everything from same-day packag...
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Thought Partners: How AI Can Unlock Your Brain's Potential with Brad Moss
What if AI could be more than just a tool—what if it could become your thought companion, helping to extract and refine the ideas already in your head? In this fascinating conversation, Brad Moss, founder of Enhanced AI, reveals how his journey...
How AI is Enhancing, Not Replacing, Human Creativity in Digital Marketing with Jason Brigham
What happens when your career path takes unexpected turns? For Jason Brigham, founder of a successful digital marketing agency, the journey from computer science to hospitality to digital leadership reveals powerful lessons about adaptability i...
Building Brands Across Borders: From Startups to Sustainable Tourism with Patrika Allis Cheston
Discover the fascinating intersection of tech marketing and sustainable travel with Patrika Elise Cheston, founder of a marketing agency focused on guiding startups through various funding stages. Patrika's unconventional career journey—beginni...
Navigating the Between Times: Education in the Age of AI with Ben Tasker
"We're in the between times – not fully in the future, but no longer in the past." These words from Ben Tasker, Dean of AI at a leading university, capture the transformative moment we're experiencing as artificial intelligence reshapes educati...
From Teen Startup to $500 Million Exit: Catherine Connolly's Journey
Catherine Connelly's remarkable journey began at age 15 when she and her siblings created a digital yearbook website to make friends at their new high school. What started as a simple solution to a teenage problem evolved into a social platform...
Truth is Your North Star: Navigating Ethical Marketing in the Digital Age with Eric Layland
From text-based browsers to generative AI, the digital marketing landscape has transformed dramatically since the 1990s. Eric Layland, Chief Executive of the
The Digital Exhaust: Why Your AI Data Matters More Than the Tools with Dan Baird
The technological landscape is shifting beneath our feet, and Dan Baird stands confidently at the intersection of entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence. In this riveting conversation, t...
Breaking the Podcast Monetization Model: A Conversation with Jeffrey Specter
Monetization remains the great unsolved puzzle for most podcasters, with traditional advertising models serving only the top 5% of shows. But what if the problem isn't your audience size, but rather the broken business model itself?
The 1% Rule: Small Changes for Exponential E-Commerce Success with Sabir Semerkant
What if the secret to massive e-commerce growth wasn't a marketing gimmick, but something as simple as improving by just 1% every day? Meet Sabir Semerkant, the accidental marketing geniu...
