Wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year! 

We'll be back in 2026!

Stay sharp, stay real: Wishing you a kickass 2026! 

It's a holiday week, so turn off this podcast! 

But if you'd like to tune in all the same, then we're here to say think you. You, the listeners, have been the greatest gift this season as we've made this turn in our format from security to looking more broadly at the human impact of technology. 

You've stuck with us. We've gotten a lot of great messages of support, and we love the direction of the show and love that you love it! 

Happy holidays from BKBT! May your time off be peaceful and energizing for the new year.

Happy Holidays! Our listeners are the greatest gift!

We're off this week, deep into planning and scheduling for next year. Please enjoy this Best Of episode, originally released in October.

Hannah Storey, Advocacy and Policy Advisor at Amnesty International [https://www.amnesty.org/], joins the show to talk about her new brief that reframes Big Tech monopolies as a human rights crisis, not just a market competition problem.

This isn't about consumer choice or antitrust law. It's about how concentrated market power violates fundamental rights—freedom of expression, privacy, and the right to hold views without interference or manipulation.

Can you make a human rights case against Big Tech? Why civil society needed to stop asking these companies to fix themselves and start demanding structural change. What happens when regulation alone won't work because the companies have massive influence over the regulators?

Is Big Tech actually innovating anymore? Or are they just buying up competition and locking down alternatives? Does scale drive progress, or does it strangle it?

What would real accountability look like? Should companies be required to embed human rights due diligence into product development from the beginning?

Are we making the same mistakes with AI? Why is generative AI rolling forward without anyone asking about water usage for data centers, labor exploitation of data labelers, or discriminatory outcomes?

The goal isn't tweaking the current system—it's building a more diverse internet with actual options and less control by fewer companies.

If you've been tracking Big Tech issues in silos—privacy here, misinformation there, market dominance over here—this episode is an attempt to bring those conversations together in one framework.

Mentioned:

Read more about the Amnesty International report and download the full report here: “Breaking Up with Big Tech: a Human Rights-Based Argument for Tackling Big Tech’s Market Power” [https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol30/0226/2025/en/]

Speech AI model helps preserve indigenous languages [https://it-online.co.za/2024/01/22/speech-ai-model-helps-preserve-indigenous-languages]

Empire of AI, [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/] by Karen Hao

Cory Doctorow’s new book, "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It" [https://www.versobooks.com/products/3341-enshittification]

Best Of: Confronting big tech’s abuses as a question of human rights 

2025 was hella weird. The AI revolution is here whether we asked for it or not. This week, George K and George A reflect on the year and what it means for 2026.

At AWS re:Invent, George A watched a machine create a custom fragrance and marketing campaign in real-time from a voice prompt. What does that portend for product prototyping, and scaled manufacturing?

Could voice and natural language finally replacing typing as the primary interface? We're watching the biggest shift in human-computer interaction since the mouse.

Worldwide AI adoption isn't hype anymore—it's happening and doing so unevenly. Some enterprises are getting serious and some are still noodling. The tools are maturing. The question shifted from "if" to "how do we do this responsibly."

There are serious questions to answer. GPU lifecycles. The Magnificent Seven’s circular financing models. The human cost of moving this fast. But that's the work—building technology that serves us instead of the other way around.

The revolution came. Now comes the interesting part: what we actually build with it.

2026 is going to be wild. We remain up to the challenge.

Mentioned:

 * Brookings Institution, “New data show no AI jobs apocalypse—for now” [https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-data-show-no-ai-jobs-apocalypse-for-now/]
 * Discussed in further detail with Ethan Mollick on Your Undivided Attention [https://open.spotify.com/episode/7tVke0Fuo6WSssgJ4eUDQa?si=UXKBrqKyR2acZqVl3UqXwA]
 * Reid Hoffman’s interview with Wispr Flow founder/CEO Tanay Kothari [https://open.spotify.com/episode/7AxM51x61saSou9M1GkYwk?si=h7yIQa3fSrWyT2E4B8jYJQ]
 * More on Coreweave’s financing model at The Verge [https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824661/coreweave-nvidia-debt-gpu-ai-chips-collateral?utm_source=podcast&utm_id=bareknucklesbrasstacks]

Looking ahead to the next year in tech and human impact

What if your biggest career obstacle isn't external—it's the “broken code” running in your own head?

Rachelle Tanguay joins the show to unpack the difference between consuming self-help content and actually doing the uncomfortable work of rewiring your internal programming.

From advising deputy ministers to coaching professionals across sectors, she's seen what happens when high-performers hit the wall between knowing what to do and actually being able to execute.

This conversation cuts through the dopamine-hit culture of five-minute reels and quick fixes. Rachelle breaks down why most people confuse consuming content with doing the work, how imposter syndrome is not your own voice “chirping in your ear," and why even the most senior leaders need help to see the forest through the trees.

If you've ever wondered why smart people with all the right information still can't break through their own barriers, this episode is for you. No buzzwords, no corporate speak—just an honest look at what it takes to level up when the real bottleneck is you.

Mentioned

https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/71percent-of-us-ceos-experience-imposter-syndrome-new-korn-ferry-research-finds

https://www.mogawdat.com/solve-for-happy

https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

Why leveling up is about fixing your own “broken code” and doing the work

Graeme Rudd spent years taking emerging technology into austere environments and watching it fail.

He assessed over 350 technologies for a Department of Defense lab. The pattern was consistent: engineers solved technical problems brilliantly. Lawyers checked compliance boxes. Leadership approved budgets. And the technology failed because no one was looking at how humans would actually use it.

So he went to law school—not to practice law, but because solving technology problems requires understanding legal systems, human behavior, operational constraints, and business incentives simultaneously.

Now he works on AI governance, and the stakes are higher. "Ship it and patch later" becomes catastrophic when AI sits on top of your data and can manipulate it. You need engineers, lawyers, operators, and the people who'll actually use the system—especially junior employees who spot failure points leadership never sees—in the room together before you deploy.

This conversation is about why single-discipline thinking fails when technology intersects with humans under stress.

Why pre-mortems with your most junior people matter more than post-mortems with experts.

Why the multidisciplinary approach isn't just nice to have—it's the only way to answer the question that matters:

Does it work when a human being needs to operate it under conditions you didn't anticipate?

How Expertise becomes a blind spot in technology development

What happens when you go all in and bet on yourself?

Taylor McClatchie, professional Muay Thai fighter with ONE Championship, joins the show to share how she did just that.

She spent a decade in reproductive science, working in a lab. Then she walked away from it all to turn her pastime into her profession. Went 20-0 as an amateur. Made her pro debut at Madison Square Garden with a head kick knockout. Has competed 65 times—exceptionally rare for a North American woman in combat sports.

This episode isn't about technology. It's about what happens when you stop following the prescribed steps and start building a life around what actually matters to you.

Taylor didn't fall in love with winning. She fell in love with the process. With adding one more piece to training camp—sprints, nutrition coaching, strength work—and never taking them away. With waking up and doing it again.

She talks about needing three types of sparring partners: people worse than you to test new skills, people at your level to compete with, and people better than you just to survive the round. "I never want to be the best person in the room because what am I getting from beating up on the new kids?"

The parallel to our industry is unavoidable. You can't grow if you're always punching down. You need to be uncomfortable. You need rounds where you're just trying to survive.

We spend a lot of time on this show questioning whether technology actually serves human interests. Sometimes the best lessons come from outside our world entirely—from someone willing to abandon the expected path to pursue something real.

Getting Addicted to the Process and Chasing Excellence

Eric Pilkington joins the show to cut through the noise around artificial intelligence and deliver some hard truths about what's actually working—and what's just expensive theater.

AI isn't new; it's been around for 70+ years. The current generative AI boom is democratization, not innovation—and 95% of AI projects are still failing.

Startups with no product, no customers, and no revenue raising $30-100 million. Companies are getting massive funding without a single dollar of revenue.

The real AI leaders aren't the loudest voices on conference stages. They're the ones quietly embedding AI into workflows, building better products, and closing the gap between pilots and actual impact.

 Most companies chase cost savings instead of using AI to drive top-line growth. You can't cut your way to growth. Real business transformation comes from understanding the actual problems you're solving, not from chasing the newest shiny object. The superheroes of AI aren't prognosticating on stages—they're in garages and labs building things that'll matter five years from now.

Mentioned:

MIT Study on failure of AI pilots in business [https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf]

Re-thinking How AI Can Actually Drive Business Value

Hunter Grad, CEO and founder of Ameliogenix [https://ameliogenix.ca/], joins the show to talk about developing mRNA immunotherapies for cardiovascular disease. George K and George A sit down with Hunter to discuss:

 * How a procrastinated university project turned into a biotech startup tackling the leading cause of death worldwide
 * The novel application of mRNA technology to permanently reduce cholesterol levels through targeting proteins within the body rather than viral diseases
 * What it takes to bootstrap a biotech company in Ottawa, not Silicon Valley
 * The brutal realities of fundraising in biotech versus software startups, and why pivoting isn't always an option when lives are on the line
 * Clearing up the myths and misinformation around mRNA technology, from how it actually works to addressing fertility concerns
 * The role of machine learning in accelerating biotech research and drug discovery, and why quality data matters more than flashy AI hype

Hunter breaks down complex immunology concepts into digestible explanations while sharing the raw challenges of being a young founder in a traditionally academic-led industry. This episode explores innovation at the intersection of technology and medicine, the importance of rigorous science over buzzwords, and what it means to swing for the fences on a problem that affects 2 billion people worldwide.

Mentioned:

Using AI, MIT researchers identify a new class of antibiotic candidates [https://news.mit.edu/2023/using-ai-mit-researchers-identify-antibiotic-candidates-1220]

A Biotech Innovation to Treat a Chronic Health Problem Impacting 2 Billion People

Hannah Storey, Advocacy and Policy Advisor at Amnesty International [https://www.amnesty.org], joins the show to talk about her new brief that reframes Big Tech monopolies as a human rights crisis, not just a market competition problem.

This isn't about consumer choice or antitrust law. It's about how concentrated market power violates fundamental rights—freedom of expression, privacy, and the right to hold views without interference or manipulation.

Can you make a human rights case against Big Tech? Why civil society needed to stop asking these companies to fix themselves and start demanding structural change. What happens when regulation alone won't work because the companies have massive influence over the regulators?

Is Big Tech actually innovating anymore? Or are they just buying up competition and locking down alternatives? Does scale drive progress, or does it strangle it?

What would real accountability look like? Should companies be required to embed human rights due diligence into product development from the beginning?

Are we making the same mistakes with AI? Why is generative AI rolling forward without anyone asking about water usage for data centers, labor exploitation of data labelers, or discriminatory outcomes?

The goal isn't tweaking the current system—it's building a more diverse internet with actual options and less control by fewer companies.

If you've been tracking Big Tech issues in silos—privacy here, misinformation there, market dominance over here—this episode is an attempt to bring those conversations together in one framework.

Mentioned:

Read more about the Amnesty International report and download the full report here: “Breaking Up with Big Tech: a Human Rights-Based Argument for Tackling Big Tech’s Market Power” [https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol30/0226/2025/en/]

Speech AI model helps preserve indigenous languages [https://it-online.co.za/2024/01/22/speech-ai-model-helps-preserve-indigenous-languages]

Empire of AI, [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/] by Karen Hao

Cory Doctorow’s new book, "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It" [https://www.versobooks.com/products/3341-enshittification]

Confronting Big Tech’s Abuses as a Question of Human Rights 

Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks is the tech podcast about humans. Hosted by George K and George A, this podcast examines AI, infrastructure, technology adoption, and the broader implications of tech developments through both guest interviews and news commentary.

Our guests bring honest perspectives on what's working, what's broken, and new ways to examine the roles and impacts of technology in our lives.

We challenge conventional tech industry narratives and dig into real-world consequences over hype. Whether you're deeply technical or just trying to understand how technology shapes society, this show will make you think critically about where we're headed and who's getting left behind.