Start Here: What Shapes Us, and Where Are We Going

What shapes us? And where are we going? This is the Start Here episode of The Ryan Vet Show, the line in the sand between the essays that built this podcast and the conversations that will define what comes next.

Generational futurist, USA Today bestselling author, and keynote speaker Ryan Vet introduces the next chapter of The Ryan Vet Show, a podcast about generations, culture, leadership, and the forces actually shaping the future. After more than a year of solo essays on generational change and what forms a culture, the show is expanding to include conversations with researchers, founders, reporters, educators, New York Times bestselling authors, and people with remarkable stories to tell. This episode is the bridge.

Ryan walks through why generational labels like Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z so often fail us, why formation matters more than chronological age, and what it actually looks like to lead, parent, work, and build across generations in a culture that increasingly confuses disagreement with danger. He shares his personal origin, from incorporating his first business at fourteen years old to writing AI algorithms on napkins in 2009, long before the current generative AI wave. He sets the ground rules for how the show will handle conversation, curiosity, and disagreement in the next chapter.

He also previews the guests joining year two of The Ryan Vet Show, including NPR global health correspondent and bestselling author Michaeleen Doucleff (Hunt, Gather, Parent and the dopamine kids book), Lenore Skenazy (founder of Free Range Kids and the TED speaker once called America’s worst mom), a third-grade teacher rebuilding play and recess, Facebook’s employee number 57, a digital nomad on his eighth country, an expert on private equity’s role in youth sports, and more.

In this episode:

• Why The Ryan Vet Show is expanding from solo essays to guest conversations in year two
• The label lie, and why Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z shorthand misses what actually forms people
• How formation, not chronological age, shapes a generation
• Ryan’s personal origin, from his first business at fourteen to early work in AI and machine learning starting in 2009
• The disagreement ground rules for the next chapter of the show
• Why curiosity is one of the few real defenses against modern manipulation
• What guests are coming next in year two of The Ryan Vet Show

Referenced in this episode:

• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• COLLIDE Newsletter by Ryan Vet: ryanvet.com/collide

Subscribe to The Ryan Vet Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of the guest era release Monday mornings at 6am ET. The COLLIDE essay podcast continues every Thursday at 7am ET. Join the COLLIDE newsletter at ryanvet.com/collide for the research, reflections, and frameworks behind every episode.

About Ryan Vet

Ryan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold.

Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly Insights

If you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter:
👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What shapes us? That's the question I keep coming back to. What shapes the way we think, the way we work, the way we lead, the way we parent, the way we build companies, vote, worship, create, disagree, communicate, consume, and imagine the future. And maybe the bigger question is this. Where are we going? Not just where is technology going, not just where business is going, not just where politics is going, but where are people going? Because the future doesn't just show up in gadgets and policies, products, or platforms. The future shows up in people first. It shows up in what we value, what we fear, what we normalize, what we reject, what we pass on, and what we decide we no longer want to carry. That's really what this show is about. Welcome to the Ryan Vet Show. The Ryan Vet Show. And whether you've listened from the beginning or this is the very first episode you've ever heard, this is the place to start. Why start here? Well, now you might be asking a fair question. Why is there a start here episode after we've already published a bunch of episodes? And the answer is simple. Up to this point, this show has primarily been essays, monologues, reflections, scripted thoughts on generations, culture, leadership, society, and the future. And many of you have told me like that. Some of you read the essays, some of you listen to them, some of you do both. And we're going to keep doing that. But this show is expanding. This next chapter brings in outside voices, guests, conversations, stories, researchers, authors, founders, creators, leaders, and people who have lived something, built something, studied something, or seen something worth understanding. So this episode is a line in the sand, if you will. Not because everything before this was wrong or incomplete, but because the show is becoming broader. It's still about culture, it's still about generations, it's still about society, it's still about where we're headed. But now, instead of only hearing my thoughts, we're going to bring more people to the table. And I think it matters. I've always been curious about what shapes what's next. That probably started long before I had language for it. I was the kid who was always starting something. I joke about the lemonade stand being my start, but it's not really a joke at all. That lemonade stand eventually turned into a real business. So when I was only 14, I walked down to the courthouse with my dad and incorporated my first business because they wouldn't let a 14-year-old sign the papers. Since then, I've had some successes and I've had plenty of failures, probably more failures than successes, depending on how honest we're being. I've built companies, I've led teams, I've worked across different industries like technology and marketing and healthcare and education, hospitality, software, and even mainstream businesses. I've been in early conversations around machine learning, big data, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, and artificial intelligence back in 2009, 10, and 11, long before AI became the word, everybody slapped on a pitch deck. I've led people older than me, I've managed people younger than me. I've worked professionally in the workplace with people from the silent generation all the way down to Gen Z, and in educational settings, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and even Gen Beta. And somewhere along the way, I started realizing that most of the tension we experience in work and leadership, culture, and society is not just about age. It's about formation. It's about what forms people. It's about what shaped their expectations, what institutions they trusted or distrusted, what technologies they adapted to, what crises they lived through, and what stories they inherited. What promises were made to them as kids, and what promises they watched break. That's where my curiosity about generations really deepened. Not generations as stereotypes, not lazy labels, not boomers are this and millennials are this, Gen Z is ruining everything. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in the deeper question. What forms people? Because once you understand that, you begin to understand why generations collide, why culture shifts, and why the future often feels like it arrives before we're ready for it. One of the big things I push back against for years is something I like to think of as the label eye. The label eye says that once we name a group, we understand that group. Like boomers, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, progressive, conservative, entrepreneur, academic, activist, technologist, traditionalist. The labels may help us begin a conversation, but it's not the real conversation. Labels are simply shortcuts, and shortcuts can be useful, but they can also make us intellectually lazy. They can make us think we understand someone before we've actually listened to them. They can make us dismiss people before we've asked better questions, and they can make us confuse a category with a person. That's part of why the show exists. We're not here to win arguments because no one wins in an argument. We are here to understand what's forming culture. We're here to ask better questions about what's shaping us as human beings. So, moving forward, what should you expect from the Ryan Bet Show? You should expect conversations about culture, society, generations, leadership, technology, work, family, education, media, business, creativity, and of course the future. But more than that, you should expect conversations about the forces underneath all of those things. The forces that are shaping who we actually are, how we work, what we value, how we lead, how we communicate, and how we disagree, and most importantly, where we're headed next because of all of this. Some episodes will still be solo essays and monologues, those will continue. But some episodes moving forward will be interviews with people like New York Times bestselling authors or researchers and reporters, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, lobbyists, founders, creators, innovators, top voices, and someone with something meaningful to say. Some guests may have sold more than a million copies of their books, some may have built companies, some may have studied cultural trends for decades, some may have even founded nonprofits or been the leaders of movements, and some may have shaped policy. Some will even be musicians because I always believe music does more than entertain us. Music tells us what culture is feeling before culture always knows how to say it. And some guests may simply be people with remarkable human stories because not every important voice comes with a title. Sometimes the most meaningful insight comes with someone who has lived through something, or lost something, or built something, or challenged something, or noticed something the rest of us missed. That's the kind of show that this is becoming a place for stories, research, and ideas that help us understand where the world is going. Now for some ground rules. I want to say something clearly at the beginning of this next chapter for the show. I will not agree with every guest personally, nor will you agree with every guest, and every guest will likely not agree with me. That's not an issue with the people I choose. That's part of the point. We live in a time where it's very easy to confuse disagreement with danger. It's easy to assume that if someone says something we don't like, they shouldn't have been invited to have the conversation at all. But I don't think that's how we learn. I really don't think that's how we grow. And I don't think that's how we become wise. One of the leadership stories I've always appreciated is Abraham Lincoln surrounding himself with people who did not simply flatter him or agree with him. Doris Kearns Goodwin famously explored this in Team of Rivals, and the point is powerful. Disagreement, handled well, can sharpen things. That's the spirit I want for the show. Not outrage, not cheap controversy, not debate for the sake of debate, but honest conversations, respectful conversations, curious conversations. There may be an episode where you think, I'm not sure that I agree with that. Good. There may be something that you hear that actually challenges your assumptions. Good. There may be an episode where a guest says something differently than I would have said it. And that's okay too. The goal is not indoctrination. The goal is understanding. The goal is not to tell you what to think, the goal is to help all of us think more clearly. I think good conversations are becoming rare. We have more content than ever, but not always more understanding. We have more opinions than ever, but rarely more wisdom. We have more access to information than any generation before us, but sometimes it feels like we have less patience, less nuance, and less willingness to listen. And that's dangerous. Because if we only listen to people that already sound like us, think like us, vote like us, work like us, or process the world like us, we don't become more informed. We become more insulated. And insulated people are easy to manipulate. Curious people are harder to manipulate. That's why curiosity matters. That's why dignity matters. That's why humility matters, and that's why this show matters to me. Because I don't want this to be a place where we flatten complicated things into easy slogans. I want this to be a place where we slow down long enough to ask, why is this happening? Where did it come from? What shaped this belief? And what are we missing? What might this mean for the future? And how do we lead, live, and respond with more wisdom? Part of what I bring to this conversation is not just research, it's practice. I'm not sitting in a room only reading about these things, although I do spend a lot of time reading, writing, and researching. I've also lived this. I've hired people, fired people, led teams, built companies, lost money, made mistakes, sat in boardrooms, spoken on stages, worked with students, taught in academic settings, served in advisory roles, interviewed leaders, been interviewed myself, and tried to make sense of all the patterns underneath all of it. And the more I study, the more I realize that many of the biggest issues in our culture are not just political or technological, economic, or generational. They're simply human. We are trying so hard to understand ourselves in a world that keeps changing faster than our ability to process it. That's one of the greatest tensions of our time. Technology accelerates, then culture reacts. Institutions strain and families adapt and leaders scramble. Generations each interpret that same moment through a completely different lens. And somewhere inside of all of that, people are trying to figure out who they are, what matters, and where they belong. That's the conversation I want to have. So let me also say what the show is not. This show is not about my hot takes, it's not a show built around outrage, it's not a show where every topic has to fit neatly into a political box. It's not a show where a guest is expected to endorse my worldview or yours, and it's not a show where generations are reduced to caricatures and labels. We're going to talk about hard things, but we're going to try to do so with dignity. We're going to talk about cultural shifts, but we're not going to try to panic every single time something changes. And what I love talking about, we're going to talk about the future. But we're not going to pretend that I or anyone else has a crystal ball. And we're going to talk about generations, but we're going to remember that every generation is made up of actual people, real individual human beings, not just headlines or memes or stereotypes. The other thing I want to say is you don't have to listen to every episode the same way. Some of you may love the solo essays. Some of you may prefer the interviews. Some of you may come just for the authors I interview, or maybe the researchers or the human interest stories. Some of you might just listen only when a topic grabs your attention, and that's totally fine too. My hope is that over time this show becomes a kind of library, if you will. A place that you can return if you want better understanding on what is shaping culture, leadership, generations, and the future. You may not care about every conversation, but I hope every conversation helps someone. And I hope this collection over time helps us all see more clearly. As we begin this next chapter, I genuinely want your feedback. What do you love hearing? What do you want more of? What do you not love so much? That's okay too. I want to hear it. Who should we talk to? What topics should we explore? What questions do you think people are afraid to ask but need to be asking? You can reach out to me directly through my website and drop me a note. And if this show is helpful to you, the best thing you can do right now is simple. Subscribe or follow wherever you're listening, scroll down to the bottom and rate the show, and leave a review if the platform allows it. Share it with someone who's curious about the future or culture or generations or leadership. And of course, as always, please join my newsletter if you want essays and research and reflections that often shape the conversations we're having right here. You can scroll through the existing episodes and listen to whatever grabs your attention. There are already essays on generations, culture, change, and the future of what's waiting for us. And now there are conversations coming with some exciting guests. So that's why this episode exists. Call it a bridge, if you will. From essays to conversations, from my voice to many voices, from scripted reflections to open dialogue. This show is ultimately about asking better questions about what's shaping us. It's about understanding the forces forming who we are and where we're headed. It's about listening well, thinking clearly, and staying curious in a world that keeps trying to make us choose sides before we've even asked enough questions. So I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to the Ryan Vett Show. Until next time, I'm Ryan Vett, Inspire Forward. Thanks for tuning in to the The Ryan Vett Show. Be sure to subscribe, comment, and like this episode. Plus, share it with someone who needs to hear it.