Episodes 179
Avg. Duration 44m
Activity Highly Active
Apple Rating 4.9 (14)
Since Jul 2021
Latest Episode Jun 2026

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Weekly
Format
Episodic
Consistency
48%
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feeds.transistor.fm

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About This Podcast

Austin is building the new tech, cultural, and intellectual stack. The region is a living laboratory to answer a single question: How do you build a global innovation superpower? Host Jason Scharf dissects innovation from the individual to the ecosystem. From the soundstage to the data center to the fab, we decode the mechanics of Austin's innovation ecosystem. As Atoms, Bits, and Intelligence converge, we explore how Hard Tech scale, digital velocity, and creative density collide. This is an audit of the future. We map the physics of the flywheel so builders and investors can navigate the chaos.

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Recent Episodes

Austin: From Counterculture to Culture | Karen Blashek, Austin Home Magazine

Jun 11, 2026 1h 15m

Austin's counterculture is still the ethos. The next chapter is what gets built on top of it. Karen Blashek, the editor-in-chief of Austin Home Magazine, took over a 21-year-old design publication…

Revisited: How Specificity in Vertical AI Rewrites Industries | Nick Tippmann, TipTop VC

May 21, 2026 1h 4m

Updated re-release. A year ago we left one question unresolved. Where do foundational AI models end and where do the applications begin? Nick Tippmann returns in a fresh epilogue.  A year on, the…

What Building in Austin Actually Feels Like Right Now | Will Johnson & Alex Cohen

Apr 29, 2026 1h 11m

This was not the episode we planned. Will Johnson, founder and CEO of Gyde, and Alex Cohen, founder and CEO of Hello Patient, came on to talk about innovation in the business of health. Instead it…

The First Thing Built on the Moon Will Come from Austin | Jason Ballard & Will Hurd, ICON

Apr 23, 2026 1h 12m

ICON has been telling the same story since 2018. Humanity has a construction problem that solving for regulations and supply-demand incentives alone won't fix. We need fundamentally new ways to…

Reinventing School Is Accelerating Austin's Talent Flywheel | Joe Liemandt, Alpha School

Apr 15, 2026 1h 12m

Joe Liemandt built Trilogy, recruited 2,000 Ivy League graduates to Austin, and is now running what he considers the higher-leverage version of the same play, K-12 education. Our host, Jason Scharf,…

We're Living Through the Cyberpunk Era of War | Jim Rebesco, CEO, Striveworks

Mar 24, 2026 51m

Directed energy weapons, autonomous drones, and combat AI agents are not just real. They are deployed.Jim Rebesco, cofounder and CEO of Striveworks, breaks down what's driving this moment, and the…

Innovation Ecosystems Are Inherited | Nait Jones

Mar 18, 2026 1h 2m

The hype that landed on Austin in 2021 was correct and at the same time ahead of the curve. Nait Jones, serial founder and former a16z partner who arrived in Silicon Valley in 2011 at the Web 2…

The Western Canon in the Age of Vibe Coding | Carlos Carvalho, President, University of Austin

Mar 11, 2026 1h 12m

American universities stopped optimizing for students a long time ago. The University of Austin was built as a direct counter to that failure. Carlos Carvalho, its president, brings a statistician's…

Bootstrap vs. VC: Speed Costs Control | Rob Taylor, Silverton Partners

Feb 19, 2026 47m

The decision to bootstrap a business or raise venture capital is not just financial. It is physics. You are choosing which system to operate within, which rules will govern your company, and whose…

Patient Capital in the Age of the $10B Seed | Brian Smith, S3 Ventures

Jan 21, 2026 51m

The current venture market is defined by a dangerous decoupling of capital from reality. While the industry chases $10B seed valuations and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets, Brian Smith and S3…

The Semiconductor Moment for the Mind

Jan 14, 2026 1h 7m

The market is mispricing the human brain. Some Investors view Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) and other neurotech as the next iteration of the medical device, a slightly better stent or a more…

Combat as the Minimum Viable Product | Cix Liv, REK

Dec 10, 2025 1h 3m

Cix Liv challenges the Silicon Valley consensus that humanoid robots belong in the warehouse or the battlefield. By explicitly rejecting the “Terminator” military arbitrage and the “Jetsons” domestic…

Is The Venture Capital Model Broken? | Andrew Romans, 7BC

Dec 03, 2025 51m

The venture capital model of the last two decades, characterized by the "30-minute rule" and the race to a quick IPO, is obsolete. We are witnessing a fundamental decoupling of capital from geography…

Zachary Levi | Can Austin Build an Ark for Human Creativity?

Oct 01, 2025 1h 23m

How do we nurture and protect the most human endeavors of creation and discovery?  Zachary Levi joins us to discuss calling, technology, and a creative Ark in Austin. We move from one’s life mission…

Is Austin a Music Incubator? | Terry Lickona, Austin City Limits

Sep 24, 2025 57m

Austin exports culture the way it exports tech. Terry Lickona, longtime executive producer of Austin City Limits, argues Austin is a music incubator, not the music industry, and that’s a feature. We…

From Wristbands to AI: A New Cancer Playbook | Suzanne Stone, CEO, Livestrong

Sep 09, 2025 1h 3m

How do you go from a cultural icon like the yellow wristbands to building AI products?  Livestrong’s CEO Suzanne Stone argues that the through line is a focus on survivorship, the life you live from…

Did Austin Turn Soda Into Fashion? | Stephen Ellsworth, Co-founder, Poppi

Sep 03, 2025 52m

Poppi is a fashion brand that happens to be soda. Stephen Ellsworth, Co-founder of Poppi, joins us to walk through the operating choices behind turning a vinegar problem into a modern soda badge.…

Autonomy’s Moment Is Now. Austin Is the Autonomy Capital | Jeff Cavins, Outdoorsy Group

Aug 27, 2025 59m

Autonomy’s moment is now as the operating stack goes live across software, hardware, availability, and insurance. Outdoorsy Group CEO Jeff Cavins joins the show to unpack how RoboTaxis integrate with…

Reading the Global Rankings | Austin’s Momentum vs the Incumbents

Aug 20, 2025 41m

Rankings aren’t just a scoreboard. They’re a map. Dealroom’s Yoram Wijngaarde and StartupBlink’s Eli David Rokah join the show to unpack ecosystem momentum, enterprise-value growth, and the…

Can AI Really 2X Output and Break Legacy Business Models? | Dru Armstrong, AffiniPay CEO

Jul 23, 2025 58m

How do 100X engineers, cheap development, and AI-everywhere workflows flip slow-moving industries and legacy business models? AffiniPay CEO Dru Armstrong joins to discuss how vertical fintech and…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Austin Next have?

Austin Next has published 179 episodes since July 2021, covering topics in Business, Management.

Is Austin Next still active?

Austin Next is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 44m.

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