The Chad & Cheese Podcast

Joel and Chad welcome Nathan Labenz, host of The Cognitive Revolution and a self-described full-time student of AI. His agent booked the appearance after a weak first pitch and a better second one.

They start with how he actually works: a separate Mac Mini for agents, a wiki about his life, no unsupervised access to bank and personal email, and a rule that the bots don’t lie about being AI if asked. That setup is the hook for the bigger story.

Nathan walks through the industry as the dog that caught the car—systems that now cheat on tests, rewrite their own logs, and surprise the labs that built them. He argues for pacing the frontier without pretending today’s models are unused. Enterprises, he says, still have a lot of workflow fruit left before they need superhuman agents running for a month.

Work comes next: short-term roles in AI safety orgs (not just researchers—HR, comms, ops), AI-in-the-loop jobs that let teams do more with less, and a hiring market already broken by zero-friction apply. Longer term he talks transformation, a new social contract, and why matching might get better once both sides use agents.

China is the other half. He spent time on the ground this summer because “if we pause, China wins” never sat right. What he saw—and what he didn’t hear—is in the episode, along with advice for kids who may never be smarter than the models.

Joel and Maureen are back, slightly singed from RecFest, to argue about whether the industry is a warm community or a room full of under-resourced people begging an AI agent to reinvent the email alert.

Also on the menu: LinkedIn cosplaying as TikTok, Meta finally peeling the cameras off the glasses Maureen still will not buy.

The job market gets the usual treatment — sturdy headlines, miserable humans, bots applying as nurses for $150 a pop. Then Madonna shows up at 68 in fishnets, and the episode somehow gets weirder.

The two play Who'd Ya' Rather between Spott and HiringCafe and there's quite a bit of disagreement. Imagine that?

Startups, ghost jobs, ageism, and a bad dad joke. The usual dangerous hour.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Episode Overview

00:05 - Introduction to the current job market challenges

02:25 - RecFest Community and Conference Highlights

04:00 - Impact of AI and automation on recruitment processes

04:31 - Perceptions of Conference Attendees: Open and Engaged or Overwhelmed?

08:13 - The Removal of Cameras and Privacy Concerns

10:05 - The rise of new startups in the hiring ecosystem

12:19 - AI Hallucinations and Trust Issues in Technology

15:01 - Challenges faced by Gen Z and Millennials in job applications

17:27 - LinkedIn's New Features and Platform Changes

19:58 - Cultural perceptions of aging and beauty in entertainment

22:32 - Travel Plans and Industry Events

24:27 - Current Economic Indicators and Public Sentiment

25:00 - Madonna's VMAs performance and ageism in media

26:53 - Government Data, Trust, and Economic Confidence

30:09 - The creator economy and opportunities for new entrepreneurs

30:15 - The Impact of Inflation and Job Security on Mental Health

35:04 - The influence of social media and content creation in job search

40:05 - Disruption of traditional hiring models by startups

44:51 - The importance of networking and referrals in employment

49:59 - The future outlook: optimism and challenges in the job market

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

How do just 20 recruiters handle over 150,000 hires and 7 million annual applications? On this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman chat with Shay Johnson, VP of Strategic HR Partnerships at Compass Group, to explore the future of high-volume hiring.

Shay breaks down how the global food service leader modernized its talent pipeline to eliminate candidate drop-off, targeted candidate re-engagement, and a full conversational ATS experience.

Catch this episode to hear how AI interviewing agents, smart bot detection, and candidate coaching are turning tedious administrative tasks into high-value human connections.

What do a big couch, a can of Stella, and four of the biggest personalities in recruitment have in common? They’re all live from RecFest this week, covering the hottest topics in the world of hiring.

Chad, Joel, Mo’, and J.T. are on hand to talk about everything from an HR tech founder facing up to 20 years behind bars to the great iced-latte-in-job-interviews debate sweeping the land.

First up, the crew covers all things RecFest USA live from the Shaker Recruitment Marketing booth, each offering a unique take on the world’s hottest recruitment conference. You may have heard about the recent controversy over an iced latte that made its way into an interview—and then drew criticism from a practitioner. Yeah, that gets covered.

Then it’s news time. The team discusses the recent guilty plea by the former CEO and founder of Joonko, who is looking at as much as 20 years in prison after allegedly ripping off investors to the tune of $27 million.

Next, the gang turns to Harver’s acquisition of Symphony Talent, a move destined to rattle recruitment ad agencies for years to come. Does the future favor the agency? The group weighs in.

Then comes a Chad & Cheese first: a representative from Findem makes a sponsored announcement about the company’s latest product drop, Findem Studio.

To wrap things up, the crew looks at ZoomInfo’s newly launched Talent Autopilot, a sourcing tool the company hopes will shake up the industry by tapping a dataset it calls second to none.It’s a fun wrap-up from Nashville at the end of RecFest’s first big day. Now pass the hot chicken.